Hello everyone and welcome to the pod and the pendulum.

We are the show that covers all the horror movie franchises one movie and one episode at a time.

And we are in November and we're back on our bullshit as we are done with the special episodes for a little while and it's back to franchise town.

And you know it's good because like we have a banger of a movie today.

We have like what I would call like maybe a five star movie with no 20/22/2020 twos, 22/20/2020 twos, Prey, the 5th movie in the standalone Predator series and the 7th movie including the AV pills AV pee movies.

Oh my God, this is what happens.

With like what?

I don't have notes in front of me.

This is why.

So anyway, I'm your host Mike Snooney and I am not on pills.

I will emphasize that I am not alone and I think my Co host will be doing some heavy lifting today.

Up first from the Spectre Cinema Club as well as the Tainted Love podcast.

A man who dropped like 20 plus episodes on an unsuspecting world in the month of October.

The hardest working man in podcast business.

Mr.

Devon Taylor.

Devon, how are we?

Hello.

Hello.

Yeah, I'm recovered from our little October extravaganza.

I was a little hungover by the end of like, like just being like drunk off of slasher movies between doing the Friday and Nightmare movies.

It was a good time, you know, since I wasn't here to cover those franchises on this podcast at the time.

So I was glad I was able to catch up and fill in all my blind spots.

It was a good time, but having a good time here in Predator Land timed out really perfectly with like November.

You know this even even though this has nothing to do, like I've been trying to talk about how November movies, you just know it when you see it.

And some movies just feel like a November movie.

Pray feels like a November movie.

I don't know if I'm just.

I get that.

Like it just, I don't know, it has a, it has like a, a brisk November vibe to it, like something about the nature about it all.

So this feels like a November movie.

I feel like someone out there is now going to get really upset and say it's because there's like, Native Americans and that's the focus and Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving is evil and now we're going to get cancelled.

Someone will take it that way because, you know, but, well, yeah.

Nothing to do with because that's my thing.

Like when I've been making my list about November movies, I'm not just looking for Thanksgiving movies.

Like November is as a whole like that.

Like not quite a Christmas movie, but it's after, but still autumnal.

Yeah.

You know, after October, like November is a very specific just like kind of vibe and it's just like it's an eye test type of vibe.

And this is just feels snug here in November.

I feel like when you watch Pray you can feel like how cool it is outside.

It feels like a brisk weather even you know, it's if it had a temperature, it would be like in the mid 50s.

I would say it is weird like November 1st I woke up, took the dogs for like their walk outside in the cemetery and like walking around.

I'm like it just feels like cooler out and that it just feels a little grayer than it did in October.

There's something about like that shift from the 31st to the 1st where it's not quite winter, but like the calicon days of the of fall, like the really nice fun days seem like they're going to be fewer and further in between.

But who is not left behind and who's still a lot of fun is our other Co host.

You know him from Bloody Disgusting and Manor Vellum as well as other places.

He's the host of the former Movies for Life podcast and the upcoming Holy Terrors podcast.

Mr.

Brian Kiper.

Brian, how are we?

Hello, glad to be here.

And hey, get to talk about my favorite Predator movie today.

So I'm excited about that, yeah.

Brian has a November voice.

Yeah, see, like, like you, You have the voice of a very cozy cardigan.

So I try NN vibes.

All right, sounds good.

Brian Requiem is in two weeks.

I'm not sure if you were aware.

OK.

Yeah, excellent.

Well, let's start then with you, Brian.

Let's get right into our initial thoughts today and let's start with you and tell us the, I guess like you've kind of, we've already like LED with the lead there and that this is your favorite Predator movie.

So tell us about your initial impressions and how it came to be.

Well, I remember this getting buzz because this went directly to Hulu.

We didn't get a theatrical release of this movie initially, which is interesting.

I think it's probably has to do with the lack of success of the previous film, the pandemic, and, you know, lots of factors that occurred in the meantime between the Predator and Prey.

So it's interesting to me because this movie I'd seen Predators, as we discussed before, I had seen the original and that's really it.

I think I might have seen AVP, but I don't remember either of them at all.

As Mike, as you like to say, has anyone really seen AVP Requiem because it's so dark, right.

But I find the Predator movies are, you know, I I enjoy them, but they they don't hit me like they do a lot of people, But this one really did.

I think this one just really had a just hit all the right notes for me.

It doesn't overplay the hand with the monster itself.

It really allows the characters to breathe and to be something.

And it's gorgeous.

It looks large.

It looks like it's.

I mean, obviously it's an intimate film and not without a huge cast, but they're out there on these real locations, wide open plains, real sky, those forests.

Everything just feels very lush and real and large.

And I love that in a movie nowadays because it seems like so many movies feel that are low budget in particular feel very confined to me.

And this one is not.

And I, I, I think that there's just so much that I like about this character.

I think Amber Mid Thunder is exceptional and there's just so much that I find exciting and cool about this movie.

Yeah, I would agree with that.

This is a really fun one.

How about yourself, Devon?

This is also my favorite Predator movie.

I'm right here with Brian.

I know I said it a few episodes ago as well.

And this movie, yeah, cuz kind of similar, like I was never nostalgic about the predator franchise.

I didn't really start getting into it and or like really getting into until Prey came out.

I think I was caught up by the time or actually I think by the time the Predator came out, I might have been caught up.

But we the predator series when Prey came out.

So back in 2022.

And luckily I was one of the lucky few that did get to see it on the big screen because that was my first Beyond Fest.

So I got to see it at Beyond Fest.

The cast and crew was there.

Garrett actually did it back-to-back cuz they showed the Comanche version at the theater as well.

So Garrett that night actually watched it back-to-back, first in Comanche, then again in English.

So, you know, I'm very sentimental about this film, but also just it being a such a strong entry point in the franchise.

Like cuz we look at the rest of the sequels, they're not all that great.

Like yeah, they've there's certain ones that have fun to be had.

But like this, like every time I go back to it, I was reminded cuz I rewatched this after watching Badlands last night and Badlands super fun.

But it's, it's, it's more, it's a more of a crowd pleaser.

So I rewatched this afterwards.

I was like, Oh yeah, this is like a movie movie.

Like we spent a good amount of time doing non predator stuff in this movie, you know, like this is like its own movie.

Like it fully has like, you know, a Naru with her journey and character art and you know, and this is the first sequel with themes again since the first one, you know, you know, as we kind of talk about, you know, how hunting is integrated into colonization and things like that.

So this movie just has a little more extra effort than some of the other sequels do behind them.

But I also like the stripped down this of it.

Like, I don't know why we haven't gotten more period peace predator movies, you know, like it was kind of crazy that this was the first one to be like a an actual period piece because like now it's like, yeah, we could totally drop a predator into so many different time periods and scenarios and locations and such.

So it was fun for that aspect, getting to see the predator text scaled back a little bit and it get back to the roots of, you know, it being about like a hunter, what it means to be a hunter and you know, and to have these certain, you know, like what are true useful skills that you have?

Like compared to just I got, you know, the predator has all this different tech and guns and things.

So I like the scaled backness of it all.

Amber mid Thunder is a revelation.

I'm still like I'm pissed off she hasn't gotten like, I mean, she's gotten work since this, but like I thought she was going to be like a breakout star, like because like I think the way that she commands this movie is brilliant.

I think she's the best character in the franchise, like by far.

In my opinion, yeah.

I meant to ask you both, which version do you tend to gravitate towards when you rewatch it?

The English language version or the Comanche dubbed version?

I've watched them both ways twice each.

Last night I rewatched in English just because I was in bed and I was playing NCAA Football on my PSP while I was watching.

So I did watch in English last night.

But I have seen the Comanche version a couple different times and they're both fantastic.

You know, like the Comanche version definitely immerses you a little bit more and the two different versions will be an interesting conversation point for Badlands.

I won't be on the episode over here because I'm covering on Inspector Cinema Club.

But as far as the language thing, I think it's fascinating that we'll we'll talk obviously the language stuff with this one.

But yeah, so I've seen it both ways.

I I think they're pretty much equal.

That's right.

I honestly have only watched the English version.

I've seen it twice now.

So I watched it the other day and I, I went ahead and watched the English language version element.

But yeah, I, I, it's, I am curious.

I'd be interested to watch it in the Comanche dub as well.

But one of the questions I had about that is it, is it, is it just a dub?

Yes.

So their so their mouths are still speaking.

Yep.

Yes, OK.

So it's it's kind of odd because they they got more money to do it after the fact.

I see.

I see.

Which is why I chose the English version because I, I, I thought that might be tough for me.

Just where I was yesterday.

It was.

Yeah.

I was tired and I wanted to make sure I was.

You did the.

Comanche version for the first time last night.

We because our family movie, like my daughter and I started to watch it.

I put it on to rewatch it and she came in pretty like a few minutes into the movie and she was into it.

And then we just kept watching and my wife joined us for like the last like, say like hour or so.

And we all like they were like this movie's great.

Like Ana asked about a dozen times, like what awards is this movie won?

Like this movie deserves to win a ton of awards.

Like she was she was really into it, which is great.

So I think I was going to see Badlands later today and I think I might go with her after school tomorrow, just like, let's get out of the house and go catch the new one together.

If this movie got an award, I think it's reviving the entire Predator franchise because because I I would.

I think most people had probably written Predator off by the time this came out, and for this movie to garner the kind of attention and praise it got was pretty great.

It has no right being as good as it is given the last really like 5 movies before it starting with Predator 2.

Although I think Predator 2 is a lot of fun to watch it.

I think Predator 2 is like much, much better than people remember it, but it's including myself by the way.

I remember like Predator 2, what a piece of garbage.

And then re watching it be like actually this is pretty fun.

But everything after that from the two AVP movies or the first ones watchable.

Like it's a fun, campy little movie, but it's not great.

It should be much better.

And then the Predators and the Predator are, you know, if they are what they are, the fact that this is as good as it is is kind of amazing.

But even leaving that aside, this is a just a great movie.

I don't know if it's the best in my franchise ranking, but I also don't know how much of that is Arnold's nostalgia seeping through into my rankings too, because I do love that first film so much.

So part if if it's not my number one in the series, like it's a really close second.

Like it's a very close second.

And.

That's understandable, I think.

I think a lot of people have, I mean, I'm, I know I'm in the minority as someone who grew up in the 80s and kind of things that predator is OK, you know, I mean, you know, that's where I, I much prefer, you know, Terminator and other Arnold vehicles of the period.

So that's just me though.

I.

Understand.

I mean, he made so many fun movies in the 80s through the early 90s that like it is kind of hard to just kind of pick one of them.

I think during like COVID, I went through like an Arnold rewatch and did about like 10 of his movies over the course of a weekend.

And at that point, I just ate 5 lbs of raw meat and punched my way through a brick wall.

But it's like, God, he's so much fun to watch at that time.

Well, let's talk a little bit about this movie coming together.

Go briefly into the background.

I just have a few notes here and then we'll dive right into our movie discussion.

The first note I had was the fact that this is a Disney movie.

Like the Predator Movies Now belong to the Mouse House, which is such a bizarre thing to think that underneath that umbrella we have both the Xenomorph and the Predator.

That is kind of crazy.

And where is the Mickey and Minnie and Donald slash Predator crossover that we desperately need?

Make it happen.

Come on.

Like, I'm sure it would be terrible, but I'm sure I would pay $20 to go see that in the theater.

But December 2017, Disney announces they're purchasing 21st Century Fox, although it does take until March of 2019 for the deal to be finalized.

And without getting into all, like, the court shenanigans.

And basically it came down to Disney's initial bid was like 50 million, Comcast weighted with 60 something million.

Disney's final bin was like 70.

And at that point, Comcast tapped out.

And there was obviously like antitrust lawsuits filed.

Stockholders are like, eh, are we undervaluing this?

Fox agreed to basically take their news division that is not part of the sale.

So that's its own separate thing.

Would have been nice if like Disney bought that and then just shuttered Fox News on day one.

But you know, that's not the world we live in.

But all of the IP, that whole Fox catalog, including like hard R sci-fi horror branches like Alien and Predator, they're now under the Disney umbrella.

Now.

It's not unusual for Disney related items to not be PG.

Like Brian, you mentioned growing up in the 80s, I remember like it was touch.

So pictures.

I think it was part of like this.

Touchstone was fantastic because this was live action, mostly Disney stuff, but it was made for grown-ups.

I mean, most of it was PG13, but you get a lot of romantic comedies.

I think the first one was Splash.

It was the first Touchstone movie.

And I used to love Touchstone.

And then they had Hollywood pictures.

They owned Miramax for a while.

And so you technically Pulp Fiction was released by Disney in that sense, you know, I mean, so there's there's lots of those interesting under the umbrella of Disney.

There was a lot of stuff and I loved, I love Touchstone.

Did Disney own Because I know Dimension was the wing under Miramax where they basically release all the genre films like that.

It's like the these Halloween films for example, they're all Dimension like Hellraiser fell under that umbrella.

Did Disney own Dimension at one point or is that completely?

Fun.

Off, OK.

Technically speaking, I mean, it was, I mean it was a, it was like distribution, the deals had them, you know, Miramax had its own, was able to do its own thing.

But yeah, technically speaking, it all fell under the Disney umbrella.

I don't think Disney owned Dimension when like Rob Zombie was doing the Halloween movies, which is a shame because like.

Because there was a there was the divorce from Disney, but that happened.

Early 2000s.

Yeah, yeah, that's what I want to say.

I can't remember all of the INS and outs of that, but yeah.

But you know, it's kind of interesting.

It comes full circle because, you know, Hellraiser is now under Disney.

Yeah, because true, you're right through through 20 through 20th Century Studios.

So, and you know, 20th Century Studios is more or less the way it's being run now is more or less like Touchstone except R rated movies instead of PTA 13 rated movies.

I think one of the big losses from the merger is like I know Disney as a company.

They don't do a lot of repertoire screenings, like they don't necessarily license out their movies for one.

And duns like around the holiday season or hey, if there's an anniversary of like Diehard, we should like bring it to these like small indie theaters.

They're pretty against that.

And that's one of the things that like there's been kind of lost in the merger, which is a real shame.

Like, that's kind of a real bummer for that to.

Yeah.

So I mean that we were getting a lot of physical media releases of 20th Century Fox movies for a while, like 70s stuff.

And but then after the merger, you know, that kind of ended unfortunately.

And so some of those movies are just hard to find now.

And it's too bad because they had had a very rich legacy of, you know, you know, the catalog of 20th Century Fox films is extensive.

Part of that, and that's what this is all these mergers are about.

Like you see all that.

I think right now Paramount and HBO are in talks, which is really given everything going on at Paramount and giving everything that's happened with Warner Brothers is really like a horrifying thought.

Like because it's all about consolidating everything to streaming services.

And the only it's not even, I said the only people that wins their streaming services, like really they suck at it too.

They're all losing money.

So like nobody really wins when this happens.

Like it sucks for everybody.

Well, I mean, lose the identity of the various studios, you know, because like Warner Brothers was always a little bit rogue, which was great.

I mean, he got stuff that was really original and political and hard hitting.

You know, think about like Dirty Harry in the 70s and stuff like that.

And then Disney obviously was directed towards children.

And then Universal had its own sort of attitude and focus, and so you're kind of losing all that when they're all conglomerating into one thing.

I was just to say it's a, it's all fascinating cuz it's like, on one hand like yes, like hear what Brian saying, like, you know, each studio kind of having its own identity.

But to tease a little bit for the Badlands episode, I think it's cool the more that these companies do merge and we're able to play together as far as these, you know, certain franchises and properties and things of the way that they have been.

I mean, this whole year kind of going about the because, yeah, they've been handling both franchises, the Alien and the Predator franchise now.

So, you know, we get we get small wins here and there, you know, amongst the corporate conglomeration conspiracies and things of that nature.

So we get a little bit of that.

But, you know, it's, it's so crazy that, you know, they had all that stuff kind of happening in the 80s, but then, you know, similar stuff going on around the time of this film.

Because like when this came out, this was the the you know, with the Fox and Disney murders and kind of them experimenting a little bit of them.

Kind of like, I feel like that's why they were able to do something kind of fresh and unique because they're like, OK, we can like, let's do, you know, we can, you know, we're going to test the waters.

You know, the expectations for the Predator franchise are low as it is.

So like as we, you know, go forward in this merger and like, you know, let's let's you know, test, test things out a little bit and they were able to kind of do something a little bit more singular with this.

Technically they could do Alien versus Predator versus Wookies and.

That was, yeah, that was my next question was like, and I'm not even being facetious when I say this, but like when, what year do you put the over under at where you see like a merger like Star Wars and Marvel and like either the Predator or Alien franchise like in some sort of mashup.

Because if you, I don't know if you guys have, did you either of you guys watch Alien Earth?

I had 4 episodes in and then I tapped out on it.

I should just probably.

Premise of alien Earth and the fact that, like, Waylon Newtonian is like obsessed with getting all these different alien subspecies from across the Galaxy.

Oh, there's easy ways to do some little Star Wars Easter eggs with that.

Easy.

I think they did something in one of the in one of the later Star Wars films where there's like a xenomorph skull or something somewhere.

In Predator like in Predator.

Two.

Yeah.

There's the Xenomorph skull and I think there's a little a little bit of that in Predators as well.

Sure.

That was like the first begin.

It's like they've always been under Fox.

And you know, that was like the first kind of shot across the bow.

I would say from, you know, Predators is like the Bee movie, a alien.

It's still a prestige film.

And then there's there's no prestige Predator.

This is the closest I think you're going to come to like a prestige film this.

Is the prestige predator.

Movie.

I would agree with that.

The moving on like final price was like $72 billion, which is insane.

And then like let's just put everything on streaming and it just gets worse and worse.

Post the Predator plans like what happened?

How did this come together?

The director of this like Dan Tracenberg who was the his debut film was 10 Cloverfield Lane, which I haven't revisited since seeing it in the theaters, but I remember really liking it.

He didn't even envision this as a Predator film at first.

He just wanted to tell the story of a young warrior that had to prove themselves to their peers.

And he pitched the idea in 2016 as the Predator was being developed to long time Predator producer John Davis, and he suggested this would be a great fit for a Predator entry in.

Berg referred back to his childhood thinking of like when he was in 3rd grade riding in a carpool with a bunch of 6th graders to on taking a carpool trip to a karate tournament they were all going to compete in.

And he had not seen Arnold's Predator, but the other kids had.

They kind of told him the whole plot of the movie.

And he says he was fascinated by the idea of the character of Billy facing off against the Predator.

And like, he had created this whole back story in his head.

So he remembered that from his childhood, and that's where this idea kind of sprung from.

And he also thought it was really important that this doesn't touch Shane Black's The Predator in any way, shape or the form as that was being developed and filming.

And he was developing this idea, which I think either is him being very nice after the fact and saying, oh, we didn't want to do anything that followed up on that because they were filming it, not because it's not a very good movie or it was just very fortuitous that he had an original idea.

It was fast tracked and headed into Predat production by December 2019.

COVID grinds things to a halt.

In February 2020, Trackeberg talked about wanting to feature the Comanche tribe.

In his words, he said it was a protagonist that we never get to see on screen.

So the underdog experiences 1 outside the movie and inside the movie.

Native Americans, and Comanche in particular, have so often been relegated to playing the sidekick or the villain, never the hero.

Yeah, I would say that I think our experience growing up watching Native Americans on screen is like, they're never get to be the feature point in the story unless of the baddies, right?

The only exception that I had was that I can remember was when Dances with Wolves came out.

Sure, that's about it.

Yeah.

I mean, I think that, you know, is really great to be able to, you know, like again, you're able to do something when you're given the keys to this big franchise as they get lots of eyes on it, you know.

So I think that is really cool that Trachtenberg was able to kind of see his opportunity and then be like, OK, let me go ahead.

And, you know, like give shine, you know, pay, pay respects, like you said, like to to characters that are usually kind of relegated to the the sidekick role.

Looking at you, The Lone Ranger.

Yeah.

Let's say that this movie is an apology for that in a way.

Apparently one of the apparently one of the producers confirmed that Sonny Lannum's character is a reincarnation of Tabe.

If we kind of go with this retroactive, them playing with the timeline kind of stuff.

So if that's the case of if that makes sense, if Trachtenberg, you know, that was his first response to watching the first one.

I was like, oh, what if Billy was the main character instead?

That, that makes a lot of sense.

So that's fun.

That's a really cool idea, except now he's O for two against the Predator, so he's taking those L's.

That is, that's actually, I mean, hey, if that's the way it was slated to happen, I suppose.

Yeah.

So just like that is a very cool idea and it's something I think was like the first draft of the script or one of the drafts had it and then it was cut.

Producer on this Jane Meyers, like she is a member of the Comanche tribe as well and talked about how like to her, how important it was for this to like pay homage and be respectful.

So she's actually on set like she has binders full of information on the tribe and how they could be historically accurate right down to the clothing.

She says the original idea was they were going to film the whole thing in the Comanche language, but then decided for American audiences who tend to not want to read subtitles, that might hurt the film's chances commercially.

But they did get the funding to go back and then do the dub edit of In Comanche.

And she would say, like, to her, that is like the definitive version of the film to watch.

But yeah, which is really, really cool.

So they cast.

She was she was actually there at the Beyond Fest premiere.

And Trachtenberg wanted her to speak for like, the whole introduction pretty much.

He was like, like, I loved, you know, doing everything.

But like, there would be no movie without Jane.

Like she was so instrumental in this film.

And he talks about, you know, the way that she like, kind of gives the the film its soul in a way.

And he let her like have the the whole stage during the Beyond Fest premiere.

He seems like an easy guy to root for.

Like I read a bunch of interviews with him preparing for this episode and the guy just seems very like talented but humble, if that makes sense.

And it just seems like a very easy do to kind of root for casting the film Amber Mid Thunder, she's cast in the lead as the Rue, her father, David Mid Thunder.

He was an actor and a stunt performer.

He actually still works to this day.

He's been in a number of titles, including Bone Tomahawk I think is one of the titles that they had listed.

The Borrowers is another horror title, so couple genre offerings there at the very least.

Her mother, Angelique Mid Thunder, she's a casting director on shows including Reservation Dogs, which I believe was like a Apple TV hit show.

Dakota Beavers is cast as Tabby.

I mean, that's the thing I think he's done.

Like looking at his credits like he's.

Oh no, that was his debut.

Yeah.

Like he he was a total unknown that they end up finding for it.

This is like to your point Devon, like this is another person you think would have like hopefully has a lot more opportunities.

I really thought both of them were going to like come out of this and be like, like, like these are like some like young people like like no, no shade to Sophie Turner, but the fact that Amber Mid Thunder didn't get considered to be the new Lara Croft going forward, Like, come on, like come on.

She is right there.

The proof is in the pudding right here.

Yeah, I I would agree.

Like she was, I guess, especially with like the last rewatch of this, like she's so good.

Like you can see just action star written all over her.

I know she was just a Novocaine with Jack Quaid.

I haven't seen that, but it looked a lot of like a lot of fun.

That I thought that movie was a lot of fun.

It's silly, but it's.

Yeah, I thought it was a lot of fun.

Yeah, but it's more of a, it looks like much more of a Jack Quaid vehicle than an amber Thunder foot vehicle mid Thunder vehicles.

Amber Mid Thunder is also in the upcoming Carrie the Mike Flanagan series.

OK.

Yeah, she's not Carrie.

She's one of the others, but OK, Yeah, she's in that.

Is that a movie or is that going to be ATV show?

It's a series.

It's going to be, yeah, it's on Prime, I think.

How many speeches?

Like what's the over under of the amount of like fucking speeches?

You know, I gotta say with there, there was much less monologuing in the the the fall of the House of Usher than there was in in that mess.

So.

OK, just that guy likes to write dialogue.

It's just just.

All I'm going to say is that the.

TV is.

You know, yes, but I mean like there's, there's that, but then there's like taking it to extremes.

You want to found this on your Predator series bingo card.

Mike Flanagan catching random strays.

Yeah, and I like Mike fine.

Again, you know, I've nothing for, you know, I do like a lot of his work.

But guy you know needs a hug like men will create a episode hug me horror series rather than go to therapy I think would be the meme and therapy is cheaper anyway.

Moving on.

The film is also, as God intended, the Predators once again played by a man in a suit.

Dane de Ligro was chosen for the part in part because he had a slimmer, more athletic builds.

Like I think Trickenberg said he didn't want that like WWE big bulky look.

He wanted someone that looked younger, a little bit sleeker.

I mean, I find that statement funny because like, I mean, I saw Delia grow in person.

Big guy, like this is like, this is still a big guy.

So it's like he he kind of went more of the approach of like this predator is more of a basketball player versus the other ones or football players or wrestlers, I guess if you're good.

But like this is still like big guy.

He's like 6-8.

Like he's like, muscular.

What if we hire Adrian Brody to play the Predator like that would have been?

We.

Haven't had a nerdy predator yet.

We haven't had a, we haven't had a nerdy Oucha yet.

Or like a more like kind of wily predator.

I'm waiting for that predator.

Right.

Well.

Do you think there is like a version of the the species that like like we were watching this and we were like talking like to the weaponry they have against like these like native people and like these other species like they're so far like technologically advanced.

It's like you hear about these like deer hunters that go out and like with AR20 sixes to hunt an armor piercing rifles to hunt deer.

And it's like, are these like predators like the low ones on the totem pole, like they're the not so great hunters.

And that's why, like mankind that gets especially at this point in history is like not considered like a super hard task.

Like, what are you going to do, throw a stick at me?

Like here you go.

And these other predators are on other worlds where it's like Godzilla planet, and that's who they're hunting.

I mean, you know, I think it's like it's like, I mean, obviously one this is like, you know, set, you know, centuries before, you know the other one.

So like the the technology is obviously so different, but you obviously see they still have spaceships though too.

So it's like, I feel like they the, the, the weaponry in this one is, I don't know if it's meant to be like a lower like rank or anything.

I think it's more of like, like you said, like they're still trying to be like somewhat like on the level of humans, like, you know, because obviously like, like you said, humans use guns and stuff to hunt deers.

We could use bombs if we wanted to, but like, we're not gonna do that.

I don't get bombs illegal though.

Like you can go to a gun.

I'm.

Just saying buy in I'm saying relatively right.

None of this is legal either in this prey movie, but you know, just saying it as far as like in relativity, like I feel like he's like OK, like we could have more advanced weapon read.

I'm not them.

I'm.

Getting the sense that Devon is a possession is 9/10 of the law person.

Like I have this rocket launcher so therefore it's OK.

No, I'm just saying that we could be hunting deer with more like more advanced means than we have than just like a typical rifle is what I'm saying.

We could if if we wanted to, but we don't.

Well, this makes me think, are there like scientists, predators that build all this technology?

Of course there are.

And there's like accountant predators and, you know, the lab coats, the the, and then then like the industrial workers and they all work to send these guys out into the universe and kill things to.

Bring predators work off a profit margin like are they do you have that designer that is like and the accountant who are like, hey, we need to like make the weaponry.

Like what parts are we going to use?

Like we need to be at 30 points margin.

And you know, then you have are all the ships brand new?

Do you have used car salesman predators Like what it's going to take to this is a super fancy rocket.

It was only driven by an older woman predator on Sundays to church and you know, you can take it across the Galaxy.

Like do we have that in this?

I want to see that.

I want like a day-to-day I do.

I do.

I, I want that, you know, because like the aliens, they're, they're kind of like insects, you know, they, they don't have, they're, they're a colony and they do all that.

But the predators are, I don't know, they seem like.

They're advanced, is just.

Not structure.

There's just not as many of them to have that expansive.

Of of.

Roles, I think they're like like fairly like secluded.

They're they're like, they're like wolves, you know, like there's no counting wolves in the in the pack or anything.

I know just enough people to still function, but somebody is making the tech though.

Like there is somebody with a with a lab coat.

There's a youcho with a lab coat on somewhere.

I want to stuff.

I want to see a remake like the Baskin ran the the Baskin Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

I want to see that remade with a predator that wants to be like Herbie the dentist.

Like I want to be a dentist.

Like I don't want to go hunting like that is what I want.

If we got that, that would be our Christmas movie that year.

Like someone talented, please make that happen.

Like a predator that wants to be a dentist and not go hunting.

OK, I've gotten a soft track so let's bring it back in.

Prior to filming Tracenberg Mid, Tracenberg Mid Thunder, Beavers and Myers took part in a peace pipe ceremony with a local Indigenous person tribe in order to bless the filming of it.

June 2021.

This is starts filming mostly in Calgary, AB, very much where like the film The Revenant was filmed with DiCaprio and it's filmed in the lands of the Stony Dakota First Nation throughout September of that year.

Shot by Jeff Cooter.

I'm sorry.

Shot by Jeff Cutter, and he shoots in an anamorphic, which I just bring up because I think we'll talk about that when we talk about the film and yeah, how?

The the location makes sense, though, because there's also because the revenant all about fur trapping.

Yeah, fur trappers.

In this point, there you go that.

Actually makes a lot of sense.

Great point.

Much like the first film, the first entry like the cast does undergo a month of like physical training and fight choreography before filming commences.

Mid Thunder does like a lot of work on axe throwing in order to prepare for the role.

The like I mentioned the original plan was shoot it all in Comanche but they decided against that because it might make it less commercially appealing and VFX were handled by Amalgamated Dynamics.

They had worked on the Predator as well as both AVP movies.

Little bit kind of stunning that this is the case that they're back on because one of the drawbacks of the the Predators, the effects of that are awful.

Like they're really, really bad compared to I think a couple things here and there don't look great, but for the most part, this looks much, much better VFX wise.

All right.

Really quickly, why did this go to Hulu instead of going to theaters?

Well, the original idea where they were marketing the film was they weren't able to let audiences know that it was a Predator movie.

Deadline leak.

The news would be the 5th entry with Tracenburg directing.

He's been tapped to do this and Tracenburg's response on Twitter was like, this was meant to be a surprise.

Been working on this for almost 4 years and I am very sad what we had in store for how you could discover this movie would no longer happen.

It's a bummer, but also yay.

So yeah, they just wanted to drop this in theaters and not let people know you're seeing a Predator film.

I'm trying I need to think what else has done something like that, like something stuff jumps out but my mind is.

No one, well, no one's had the guts to fully do it yet because they were gonna do it with the the Blair Witch in 2017.

That's the one.

Like up through, up through festivals.

It was just the forest or the woods, Yeah, like all the way up through the the thing.

And then they did like a thing at at a festival where they did like the grand unveiling.

And then they're like, ha ha, gotcha.

So it's like nobody's had the guts to truly do it yet, which I don't know why, because it's like, obviously it's only, it only affects the opening weekend, which I mean, I know, I guess that's why studios prioritize that because like after that everyone, the words can get out and everyone will know.

So like, I don't know.

Just like, I don't know why it's we still haven't gotten a true to Form 1 where a studio says, you know what, yeah, let's do drop a surprise, you know, like kind of movie.

I'd like to see it.

That wouldn't be that would be great.

And I think like word of mouth that then the days of like Psycho or long past, like to your point, Devon, where you had like cardboard cutouts of Alfred Hitchcock, like pointing to his watch, saying nobody is admitted into this movie once it begins, like once the credits hit, you're out.

You have to wait.

And then also imploring people in print ads to not reveal what happens in the movie.

Like audiences are like great.

All it takes is like 1 like lights, camera Jackson to be like, this is a predator movie.

Like the day it drops a big ah, you fucking clown for that to be spoiled.

You know what I mean?

I mean, yeah, but I mean, it's like that's already what studios are risking when they release a non IP movie.

It's like you're already doing that.

So like, you know, it's fine.

Like, and then and then it's gonna surge when people realize, oh, hey, it's a Predator movie.

And then you get that second and third week bump that everyone is looking for, you know, So I don't know, I'm hoping we'll I'm sure we'll see it at some point.

I mean, I guess, oh, I mean, I guess split kind of is true.

The only is really the only movie to like, truly do it is to be like ha ha ha ha because no one was thinking about like a break.

War the.

Slightest, you know, that was such a great moment in theaters.

That's not wrong, that's true.

That's a good point.

This isn't really the same exactly but I think a lot of people went into like From Dusk Till Dawn or initially thinking it was a Tarantino Pulp Fiction esque gangster movie and then halfway through the vampires were sprung.

But I don't remember seeing advertising for that, so I don't know if if that was spoiled in the advertising or not.

I know I saw that in theaters.

And, you know, maybe it's the Mandela Effect, but I seem to remember it being like knowing going in it was going to be a vampire movie.

And I don't know why.

And it wasn't like I was on like plugged in online and knew that.

But I just seemed to remember like there's something gave it away.

Maybe I just saw it a couple weeks after it came out.

And by that point with the word being out like the marketing changed on it, I don't know.

Sure, I'd have to take a look at the trailer.

I have the disc so I'd probably look at the trailer, but I can't remember if it was in the advertising or not.

I remember I remember being mad at Terminator 2 because they revealed in the trailers that Arnold was the good Terminator and that pissed me off because there's nothing in the movie that indicates that until you know, till.

That moment.

So, yeah.

And so I that I, that's one of the things that I was that I remember about that, but that's off subject again.

Devon, to your point, like about, yeah, the studios are all about that opening weekend and how films do like that's like the make or break.

But then you look at things, I remember like Scream was like never the number one movie, but it just never dropped.

Like it was always like 10% drop, 5% drop, 10% bump.

And it did that for like 3 months.

And then even this year, like Sinners like it was less of a big deal that it opened to 50 million.

It was a much bigger deal that like the next weekend it had like maybe a 1% drop.

Like if it even had that, it might have even increased.

Like it was like, whoa, like people really want to see that was like when people really knew like this thing is is going to be like a a juggernaut.

I bet Evil Dead Rise, I bet that movie could have pulled it off because, like, no one was talking about Evil Dead because nobody watched Ash versus Evil Dead.

So it's like people already kind of weren't thinking about it as much.

I bet.

I bet they could have did it like just been like, yeah, oh, look, these kids trapped in their apartment and their mom's going crazy and then be like, it's because she's a dead eye, you know?

And they could have done it.

That's a great point.

Well, Disney says they want to put this on streaming rather than theaters because like they've now acquired Hulu.

Hulu is like not only like the spot where all like the television shows are like Fox and ABC and others would get dumped, but also, you know, they're cranking out movies there and putting up like R rated content.

So Disney has the idea like we can differentiate between Hulu and Disney Plus and put this R rated horror movie science fiction film there, which is funny because a overseas Disney Plus just put it all in one app anyway.

And that's kind of what they do now.

Like if you have Disney.

Plus now.

Yeah, that's the plan.

The.

Hulu on its own is going away, but there might have been another motive.

Prior to the merger, Fox had a deal with HBO Mac saying that platform would get first rights to all of the films Fox Studios released in theaters.

So films like West Side Story, Free Guy, Nightmare Alley, which was one of the things I purchased on the Criterion sale, blast.

Or November movie.

Everyone please watch Nightmare Alley this month.

I will watch it this month.

All of those went to HBO Max before going to Disney.

That deal was still in place even after the merger, so Disney may have had made the choice.

Like if we release this in theaters, it's gonna help the streaming Sir, our competitor streaming service out after because this was still that weird time and people aren't necessarily jumping in line to go back to theaters, right?

Yeah, I call.

I called 2021 and 2022 like lost years.

Yeah, it was like it wasn't until 2023 that people were like, really?

OK, these are fully back in theaters.

Everyone's going to the theaters again.

Like 20/21/22 were such odd times for movies and a lot of movies kind of got lost in that shuffle because they just didn't know what the the kind of future of things because like, you know, some people were watching so many stuff, so much stuff during lockdown things.

That's when the conversation started telling me have been like, is theater experience dead?

Of course it's not.

It's never going to be dead.

But, you know, that's like when these like conversations were like getting like, really like kind of serious of being like, OK, what are studios are looking to do?

OK, what's the alternative?

Like, you know, like, how long do we release something in theaters before we put it on the streaming?

That's all changed now since this time.

So yeah, 20/21/22 were very odd years for figuring things out.

Luckily, you know, they realized their mistake and they they're like Romulus going to theaters, Badlands going to theaters.

Like dead rise, they made sure.

Yeah, they made sure, yeah, Evil Dead Rise going to theaters.

Yeah, So they made sure people have learned from the mistake of this movie, but still upsetting.

I know for the next week or two they're doing.

AMC is doing a double feature of Prey and Badlands, so if you you do want to see Pray in the theaters, you might still have an opportunity to do.

That I do that I know that like 2021 was the year that Warner Brothers did both.

Like they released their movies in theaters, but then also they released them same day and date on HBO Max and they lost Christopher Nolan because of it, who then went on to do Oppenheimer, which makes, you know, almost 400 million wins all the awards.

Yeah, poor tenant.

Good movie.

I still haven't seen tenant that's like the what I haven't seen.

Yet yeah, so but that remember that being like a funky, funky ear to me.

I don't get not releasing things in theaters making like at least some money that way.

And then now you're going to be the exclusive streaming home for however long.

Like that just makes so much more sense than let's spend $50 million a $100 million.

I mean, some of these Amazon and Netflix movies, like, they spend like close to $200 million on them.

There's only so many subscriptions you can sell, you know?

To make no money in theaters just seems foolish to me.

I think Frankenstein probably would have been a pretty good yeah money maker, at least for a couple weekends for Netflix.

And I'm like, feel personally attacked that, yeah, Netflix did not release that movie wide because the closest theater to me is like an hour and a half away.

And I'm like, I don't know.

If I was gonna ask, like, what's the furthest you would?

Art house theater too.

I mean I was had.

The best to go to, yeah.

Yeah, I know.

But it was like a I'll I'll drive 45 minutes.

Yeah, I like I, I, I drive that far to see the new Cronenberg releases.

They tend to be at this one theater that's about 45 minutes away.

But I saw the last two that way.

But I I was like, man, I would love to see Frankenstein on a big screen with great sound and alasno.

I drive to the Brattle Theater in Cambridge a lot and they are like a there are 200 seat, but it's like old school, kind of like auditorium seating.

And it's not like the best picture and sound, but they have the best programming.

And I probably on a good day, it's 45 minutes with no traffic, but it's routinely over an hour, hour and 20 to get there.

But I love that theaters and it's in Harvard Square, so you can kind of walk around and do other things and record shop and eat food and.

Yeah.

Well, Long story short film makes its debut itself San Diego Comic Con in late July, gets rave reviews August 5th, it's released on Hulu and it shatters like streaming records for that service.

Like think of the time like someone posted if everybody who watched Prey opening weekend saw it in the theater, it would have made $250 million, which obviously wasn't going to happen.

But it fair to say like it would have been a hit if it was released in theaters.

Fans love it, critics love it.

It's got a 94% of Rotten Tomatoes and it does get nominated for six Emmy Awards and it wins for outstanding sound editing in ATV movie for so it does.

It's an award-winning film, but there's been plans for follow-ups, although we haven't gotten them yet.

We'll see if that continues.

Like, Predator is a funky franchise in that none of the films seem to be directly.

There might be Easter eggs here and there, but like, you can kind of drop in on any of them and you're OK.

Yeah, and you can watch them in any order, which is fun, but since they kind of bounce around, I mean, this one does have an Easter egg.

And if you guys haven't watched a killer of killers yet, that one's got an Easter egg for prey as well.

So, you know, they're not completely unrelated, but they pick and choose their moments.

But I mean, I mean, yeah, I would have.

I would still love to get some sort of follow up to this story specifically.

Yeah, just because you like the characters so much and the performances so much.

I mean, you know, same with like, I want Dutch back.

I want Arnold's coming back one more time.

There's rumors about that becoming reality.

Yeah, there's been rumors of that since 1990.

For a long time I know, but but I thought something is like sounds like it's killer killer.

Does open up at least one very possible aspect for that, since that's animated.

Well, and it looks like Badlands is a hit, like Badlands is going to make almost like 50% more than it was projected to.

It's opening weekend and it's oh, that's good.

It's a ham.

So maybe like.

For like Thursday and Friday it made like 13 million.

So yeah, that's what I think I'm.

Already on track.

Almost 16 and it's looking it's going to be like 35 to 38.

So there'll be more in in.

It's like looks like it's in good hands.

It looks like this is going to be Dan Trachtenberg.

It's like baby to play with.

And he's going to have like an opportunity to make at least one more of these films.

And we'll see.

Like does he pick up where one of these two left off or?

See now they should trade.

They should trade now.

Trachtenberg should go make an Alien movie and Fetti Alvarez should make a Predator movie.

They should go.

I want Fetti Alvarez to make his own stuff.

I I also want that too.

And I do also want that.

Or come out with like, you know, I'm just because he is like, to your point, Devon, a very handsome man.

He just switches gears and he's like a beauty channel influencer.

And it's just like grooming tips for men by Fede Alvarez.

Like I would actually probably.

He could do it, He could do it.

He definitely subscribe.

Well, Speaking of beauty tips, let's talk about a beautiful movie.

Let's talk about prey.

I've said a lot.

So, gentlemen, where do you want to begin?

I think it's important to start with Nadu, our protagonist here, because despite what this franchise, you know, even with the title, they named it Prey.

This is not called Predator.

Like they won't think that was like I'm a reminder of like, hey, obviously as franchises go on, you get attached to the the the villain and like, you know, the, you know, the face character of the franchise.

But I feel like it was kind of a pointed choice.

Even with the title back.

Now we are focusing on a character for this movie.

And I think now to being such a fascinating character, you know, like she is, you know, going against the traditional norms of her tribe and everything.

And what I love about the movie is the movie is not about her being capable of stuff.

It's like, no, she's super capable already.

That's not the issue.

The issue is it's all the mental aspect of it and her kind of learning, going through that mental and character development versus it's like, no, she's already she's been living in these woods like this her entire life.

Of course she already has these skills that you know, like, and the fact that she has like, you know, the skills of like, Oh no, like they wanted her to be trained in medicine and she does know that and she knows that.

But then she's like, I can also hunt and track and things like that as well.

So just the the setup of her character, again, how much time we spend with her before we really get anything Predator related.

Like, it's a good 30 minutes of the movie where we are, you know, going setting up the connection of Nadu with her brother Tabe and her place in the tribe and setting all that up.

It's a good 3035 minutes before we really get any predator action going.

So Nadu is such a phenomenal character and a very welcome addition.

And it was so silly.

You know, of course the neckbeards were, oh, how can a teenage girl take on a predator, blah, blah, blah.

And it's like, don't you realize that's also like on the point of the predator franchise, like people over, you know, like overcoming the the sheer difference and skills and strength and all those things.

Like that's what it's about.

This franchise has always been an underdog franchise, with the exception of the first movie.

Like the first movie is the only one where it's like, Oh no, it's these tippy top, you know, buff of the buffest, you know, people gang taken down a peg.

But so it was, it was always such a like, very silly, you know, people on the Internet issue of, you know, Oh my goodness.

What like this girl, take her on the Predator.

There's just no way.

It's it's it's silly.

So yeah, like, but whether she's a gal or not, I just love this character of like, you know, just everything that she kind of stands for.

And that's when it comes to great storytelling.

I mean, that's one of the things that we kind of latch onto is just as human beings is rooting for the underdog, right?

Seeing the person who I mean, think of something mythical like Star Wars or something like that, the Ewoks defeating the empire.

I mean that was one of the things, you know, the primitive it was originally Wookies, you know, people with with Spears and things fighting and beating the thing that has all the technological advancement.

So that is here, but in a much more grounded and I think interesting way.

And I just love all of the detail that went into this movie to the depth of character shines through with, you know, like you were talking about the authenticity of all the costumes and the just the way of life and everything about this movie just feels so real and grounded.

And on top of that, it's just gorgeous.

And I think that's one of the all those things taken together is what just really makes this movie sing for me.

Yeah, it's funny.

Like Devon, you had mentioned like the neckbeards and their complaints and how like this is not an Arnold character.

But you could go back and look at that first movie Predator and Mctiernan is making a critique of like what we would then call like American exceptional.

Exactly this idea that like, no, you have all of these like giant like muscle bound dudes going in all guns a blazing.

And you see, like, the ridiculousness of how they, like, mow down that little outpost and how, like, despite all of that Braun, they get taken out so easily by, you know, what we would call like, kind of guerrilla warfare, like hiding in the jungle.

Like we're offering critique that like might doesn't always make right and the other.

It's like you're just telling on yourself that you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the material at hand just because you hate women.

Instead, just say that.

It makes it a lot easier if you just say that well.

And even Dutch, when he sort of abandoned, he's able to get the upper hand not until he kind of abandons all of that and, you know, he covers himself with the mud and he's able to sort of reattach to the earth.

And, you know, that's when he's able to have some kind of, you know, ability against this thing.

So I.

Don't know.

I thought that was.

I always thought that was a stupid argument online too and it just really annoyed me when I saw a psychic.

I think it was maximum points.

Yeah, I think it was Max Landis.

Like he did a video essay like a few years before this and like he's the one.

That started the Mary Sue stuff.

Yeah, he sucks.

I mean, that's like the second biggest mistake John Landis ever made was like having.

I unfortunately met him and I like, I unfortunately met him and I'm like, I still regret that I didn't like just like punch him in the face like just because like I was just like, Oh my God, I hate you so much.

But but she's not though, like she's she's, she's not a Mary Sue in that like she just gets thrown into a situation like all of a sudden knows things.

It's like, no, she's been practicing these things, she's been training these things and she has been doing it for these specific purposes.

So it's like, it's not that she just all of a sudden has like, you know, new knowledge.

So even by his definition, she wouldn't even apply here.

You know, like, I remember the first time watching, watching her do her like little forest parkour where she's like kicking off the trees while she's running.

She's like sliding on the ground.

I was like, oh shit, she's got moves.

I was like, she's for real out here.

Like I was like, and like, even just like seeing like the little details like that and her character that got me excited to be like, Oh, no, like, you know, there's a lot of thought like, you know, kind of put into and in tandem with the performance that amid Thunder on, you know, the the physicality that she gives this film as well.

And I think she's also embodies, I mean, in a more traditional sense, I guess the, the final girl, you know, what we really like in a, in a final girl in a slasher film, for example, is, you know, she's resourceful, she's inventive, she's observant where others are not.

She is noticing a this footprint over here, this, this that even even before the predator shows up, you know, waiting for the hawk to circle back instead of having to cross the river, you know, to go and get it.

All of these things I think are set up.

So there's there's something there too, though She's it's not a it's not a final girl slasher kind of movie.

There's some of those aspects that, you know, we are as horror fans, I think latch on to, you know, in our favorite characters like that as well.

It's, I think what's to your, you know, kind of like tapping onto that, what sets her apart from the other members of her tribism?

Just that she's very observant, but she's very resourceful.

Like you see throughout the film how she's able to use the environment around her to her own advantage.

Whether you know that it's the even though she's not the one to kill the lion in the first act of the film, it's her plan that enables her tabby later on to like go and like finish the kill.

It's her when her and tabby are tied to the tree.

She's observed how others have like gotten out of this trap and she's able to improve on that idea through her own intelligence and resourcefulness.

And then that final fight, like using the environment around her with like the quicksand she had fallen into before to kind of lay a trap for the Predator and at the very least piss it off enough.

Or it's like, now it's going to make a mistake.

Like, she plays a lot of defense and then picks her spots in order to kind of become more aggressive.

Well, well, I love how from the beginning she is pointing out how silly it is to, you know, put people in boxes the way that they do in this in this tribe is OK.

Like if you're a hunter, you hunt and like, that's your thing.

You lead with action, you lead with impulse, blah, blah, blah.

But you should still know basic like plant medicine as she does.

Like that's what she points out like whenever they're out and she like helps homie that they're trying to bring back and she's like, wait, why don't you know this?

Actually, you know, like you should be trained in both these things, you know, So like she's calling out the silliness that you know, they are just trying to be like, Oh no, there's no use for your type of hunting in this.

It's like, no, she just uses, like you said, a different type of hunting, but it is still within her character growth that like she does have to learn when it is time to not play defense and to take action.

You know, like that's kind of the whole thing that Tabe is trying to teach her, you know, throughout their relationship.

He's like, he's like, I believe in you.

I already know you can do these things.

You just need to learn that, you know, so she does still have an art to be had, you know, within, you know what her in trusting her abilities.

Yeah.

And I like that he yeah, no, go ahead, Brian.

I like that he early in the film, he instead of just saying like you would hear in a lot of other movies, oh, just go back, just go back to the village or whatever.

He's like, no, she's a good tracker.

You can you can be with us.

But, you know, so I I liked that element too, that it's not just.

So in that situation.

Yeah, it's not just sending her away.

But really, you know, I recognize that you have these gifts too.

But you know, you got to work with us here.

There's an element like that sibling element is really on display here and that he's able to, like, encourage her but also, like, push her buttons a little bit in a way that, Oh, yeah, he feels is like, in to protect her so she doesn't get in over her head.

And then he confronts her after the lion is killed.

He's like, we didn't kill the lion, I killed the lion.

Like, letting her know, like, you're not quite there yet in a way that's only going to push her further.

I do think it's like it's the last shots of the film, you know, I think they're very, I mean, they're very intentional in that you have Nauru confronting Aruka, but also Chief Kahitu with the Predator head and saying, hey, this is our neck.

She's not even waiting for the mantle to be passed to her now.

Like she's assumed it, which you can't blame her.

And aside from the Chief, like every other person in that shot that surrounds her is a woman.

And it ends with, like, her and this young girl looking at one another, like showing, like there is, you know, like the dynamics that have been at play before this.

Like, that's not going to be the case any longer.

And I think that was very intentional and really well done without being, like, hyper obvious.

I did have one question on my rewatch of this.

I was wondering, like, the predator is not even concerned with her or the tribe for the first like, 20 minutes.

He's in the film.

Like, he's hunting snake.

He's hunting wolf.

Like he doesn't necessarily see them as worthy of like, his attention.

It's not until Naru is insistent that there is something out there and that she goes back out to look for it that they really fall on her.

It's Radar and you could say it's her going off on her own that gets everybody else killed in this.

Movie.

So it's interesting when you look at again, each individual predator across the movies and what they're there for.

We'll again here in a few episodes, we'll get a little bit more into the Yatra culture on kind of what they're what they're doing and things like that.

This one is kind of different from some of them because I know in like Predators, that's like a like, I feel like that's like they're like training course.

What was like kind of going on because they were like on like alien territory that felt like kind of like a training course type deal.

This one, this guy is here by complete accident.

He he like, because we see that now that he sees, thinks it's a shooting star, a Thunderbird, but it's actually him like crash landing a ship.

So this guy's here like straight up by accident.

So he's, I don't think he's here like specifically like hunting for any humans in particular.

He's just like kind of bidding his time a little bit.

So yeah, he, it's not like he was like sent here specifically like, oh, I need to, you know, find who is the top person.

I'm killing that person.

He's just like, oh, well, I mean, this is the only person that's like kind of causing me some inconvenience right now.

So until you know, the until the fur trappers just piss him off.

Like they're not on his radar either.

He's just like, you guys are some chumps.

I don't like you.

Yeah.

And like, that's the only reason he goes after them either.

So like this one.

So this predator, he's not like on a on an active hunting trip, I think he just has to go into hunting mode.

It's.

Almost like he's doing Recon if nothing, you know, it's like, might as well find out what's going on in this place and report back or whatever.

This is the first one where it's not.

The Predator is not the only monster in this movie.

You can say like it's not the only threat.

Like there's obviously there's the predator, but there's also this idea that like the fur traders are in some ways even more dangerous than the predator A because like there's so many of them and be like they're a lot more monstrous, like in their behavior and their actions.

Like they're out and out like evil.

And then there's just like the natural danger of the environment, whether it be like the weather, whether it be the terrain, or whether it be like the wildlife that they have to live amongst that just is going to make the world more dangerous.

Like it's funny, this is something like when I meet with clients and we talk about anxiety and we talk about what causes it.

The example I use a lot is like years and years ago when you would step out of your Hut or your cave, you would be faced by like a man eating tiger and like the world was a much more dangerous place than it is now.

But we're so our DNA and our brains are hardwired to look for danger when things are just uncomfortable.

Naru and Tabby and that tribe like they actually live in a dangerous world, like their fight or flight mode is always going to be activated.

Yeah.

No, truly.

I mean, again, like when you try to think of like tying in why the title for this is different than some of the other ones of being prey of again, it's all about like the outlook, like you said, like, you know, like, yes, there is on like the food chain.

There is always like something actively hunting something else.

But then also like, you know, at the end of the day, you got to remember you're also prey to something else out there, you know, like kind of looking at it.

So I don't know.

Yeah, there's there's a lot about this movie about the vigil attention to vigilance and like things like that.

And and again, not her knowing, being aware of her situations, but then also knowing when it it makes more sense to do something versus not because, you know, Tabe, as cool of a guy as he is, gets himself killed because he's doing a little too much whenever that kind of comes about.

So it's like, you know, it is again, like, hey, like knowing your place on the chain, like you know, at certain points and like, you know, playing, like you said, picking your spots a little bit more.

I do, I do love how this hunter, he, he slowly works his way up before he even starts killing the humans, right.

I like, I like a person too, you know, skins the snake and then he takes on the wolf and then he takes on the bear and they all right now let's, I mean, now that I'm warmed up, you know, cuz again, he wasn't planning on being out here hunting, so he had to, to warm up for a minute.

So I like how he like literally took himself up the chain before then He's like, all right now these humans are fucked.

I like that she observes that they're the predator will only go after something it perceives as a threat because if they're helpless or if they're tied up or something like that, there's no sport in that.

It's like it's not it wouldn't be ethical or something.

And I think that's a really cool element of this.

I know it's not new to this particular film, but there there is something to that.

So for example, when the brother just besides I'm going to make myself aggressive so that I can save my sister is pretty powerful.

Yeah.

And so I, so I'm, I, yeah, I don't know what to add to that, but I like.

That it's also how Naru gets like the big bearded trapper killed, like in how she's able to set that trap and let like it sees that he has been given a gun and that gun makes him a threat right away.

And that's a really cool another.

It took a very cool moment like even though he doesn't know it's not loaded and Beardo doesn't know it's not loaded, but she's able to like again, intelligently use the environment and what's at her disposal to her her benefit.

It's great.

Yeah.

Yeah, she, yeah, she she's able to kind of use that.

And because this version of the Predator 2 is often like called like the feral version.

So I like that, you know, the kind of attention to it.

Like you said, like even though even, you know, no matter how savage or anything this creature is that they do still like kind of have their like codes, you know, to kind of lean back on, which is fascinating to like kind of keep that continuity.

Because again, like this is, you know, continuity wise, this is the earliest, you know, that we have seen.

So it's like, oh, this is like kind of always been ingrained in them that like, you know, they've endured centuries of like, hey, like, you know, we only go after, you know, if it's not a threat, it's not fair.

Like, you know, no matter, you know, like kind of how pissed off they are even.

And part of that thing that that it's takes place what, 250 years before, before the encounter with Dutch and you know, and the Predator, but I love that the technology is not as advanced for the Predator is actually using a projectile, for example, is I think a great touch that the helmet is different that it's instead of some advanced alloy.

It's like, it's like bone.

I mean, that stuff is just cool.

And it's like it's really makes the, oh, they really thought this through.

Like there is A and that's one of the things I really like about the Predators is they feel more realistic because so many alien movies either all the aliens look exactly the same and that's never been the case in Predator.

They all kind of have their own variations.

I like that there is, you know, advancements in the technology over time for them, that it's not just like a monolith of things.

It's real variation.

And I think that's it's makes it think like, OK, they really thought about this species, even though we only know so much about them.

There's feels like there's a lot of depth that we haven't that hasn't been explored.

That's really interesting.

What that also does and what sets that Predator apart from other kind of horror movie characters is like, the Predator itself is not a villain.

You know, it's not a Michael Myers, it's not a Jason Voorhees.

It's killing indiscriminately for no other reason except that it wants to kill.

That it is just higher up in the food chain than mankind is.

Is the argument you can make that it's like if.

Except the Uber predator and the predator.

That guy was a Dick.

OK.

Well.

That super giant one that was just terrorized in the neighborhood, That guy was just a Dick.

Right.

I think the argument if you want to make one for that is like the tack at the end of the film with the tacked on ending is that like, well, it was trying to prevent like in weapon that could kill its kind from getting into others hands.

But I think you're right.

Like that is just like an asshole of a predator.

But for the most part they're just hunters.

Like they're just like and if you're going to argue they're villains and you have to like look at our own relationship with hunting and I think is what you have to do.

And that sets it apart.

There's a little bit more, there's a little more depth there than there is with other movie monsters.

But at the same time, I think one of the real appeals of this series.

So we've said a few times, like you can just drop in on any of these movies and watch it in any order and you're fine.

It's not so bogged down and lore that like it becomes a research task in order to enjoy the movie.

Well, and I like that the movie too is like interrogating, like you said, like when you kind of have to look inward with your own relationship with food and things of that nature.

Like how there's like the distinction when Nadu is like disgusted at what she sees the trappers doing because she's like, she's like, you guys aren't even at least like killing them and taking the fur and the meat to like survive.

She'd be like basically she's like, I understand that she's like, you guys are just skinning them and then leaving them.

Like that's disrespectful, you know?

So it's like even, you know, so there is like some sort of like have interrogation on like, OK, like if you're going to be hunting for a reason for why, like is it just for the trophies or is it because you're doing it out of survival and you're at least, you know, like, you know, taking the components and using them to kind of go go forward rather than just the trophy aspect or the aspect of fur trapping.

I also love that the predator hates the bear traps.

He's like, that's some bitch shit.

Even though the Predators go around using an Predators use an invisibility cloak, but they don't like a hidden bear trap in the grass.

For some reason.

That bear trap, like really pisses him off, Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And meanwhile it has like they have like guns and it takes about 5 minutes to reload it.

And it's like I have a, a little device, I'll press a button, five of these things will pop out and all of a sudden like we've amputated a leg, like.

Right.

There's some great gore in that as well.

Some really cool looking effects there for that as well, Brian.

Yeah.

Can we talk about the effects in general?

Yeah, go.

Ahead.

Let's do that first.

Absolutely.

How are you here cuz cuz I think 1 aspect that is interesting in them going straight to streaming versus the theatrical.

Cuz I'm I'm pulling up my notes from 2022 from whenever I went and saw it.

And cuz I do remember on the big screen, the effects don't look as tight like this almost feels like you can see them within mind that this is a straight to streaming and how they kind of approach the effects because this has a, this has like a sixty $68 million budget, but just still like pretty sizable.

But compared to some of the other ones, like you can tell, you know, like where they decided to like kind of put that money a little bit.

So some of the effects I don't love in this one, not as much CGI as the Predator, but there's still a few moments where I can see I'm like, you could have done practically if you wanted to, but.

Arrow through the Falcon or the hawk is one of them where that that doesn't look good.

I mean, I thought there was like some, I think the most egregious one for me is because it's like it's a cool moment that's kind of ruined a little bit by the CGI after he kills the bear and he's holding the bear above and it's like the bloods like falling on the invisible predator.

I'm like this would have been so much cooler if he wasn't invisible and just did a physical predator with physical blood.

Like you could emerge.

You could have still had the CGI bear because like, it's a bear, but like, yeah, they could have merged it with like practical blood falling on the Predator.

I was like this is a weird chop ruined.

There are two things that CGI does really poorly.

One of them is blood.

The other one.

Is fire and fire?

Yep.

Yeah, those are the things that I just like.

I can't stand it.

It still hasn't caught up.

Yeah, it still hasn't caught up to that.

I would say like having a man in the suit really helps things out like it does.

Make like I always will say like things that are like tactile, like things you can feel, you know, reach out and touch are always going to like appear better.

Like your brain is just going to make that connection that like the effects to me that stood out as like, OK, this brings me out of it a little bit.

You know, I mentioned the bird getting shot with the arrow and also like the lion wasn't necessarily, that's a bit of a clunker for me as well, but the effects with the actual predator to me worked like and then the practical effects of like the gore of the trappers like that worked pretty well for me as well.

There were some shots that I was surprised because to me wolves never look good in CGI either.

And Frankenstein, as much as I liked that movie, GD TS Frankenstein, the wolves look wrong to me in that movie.

So here I was actually really surprised because there were some shots where I was, it looked like a real wolf to me.

There were others where I could some movements like when it was being injured, where it didn't, where you could tell that it was CGI.

But I'm not, I'm not sure if they had a real wolf on set or not for some of those shots because it looked really good to me.

So that that was a surprise, you know, especially considering I think wolves just never look right to me.

Most animals to me, they just move strangely.

They did have a real dog, sorry, is played by a real dog.

So I, you know, like we left that out.

Of a Coco A.

Very good boy.

Coco.

Yeah, Coco is actually a a girl dog, but they made the character a boy.

I don't know why.

Why do they?

It's like they do that with babies and movies too.

They always change the gender randomly.

It.

Would have been too far for the neck Burt beards like not only is this team we can't Harold taking down a.

Predator but a girl dog?

What?

No, this is ridiculous.

So I don't like that.

Like I was fine with a teen girl, but a girl dog?

Fuck that.

But but for real though like honestly all time horror dog performance like genre dog.

Performance really good.

Doing some really great stuff.

Apparently the dog like trained so well that they just started putting her in more scenes and was like, hey, like, let's see if we and then like, like she wasn't meant to be in like that final action scene, but like she was just out there being a star and everything.

And unlike unlike the Dick goat from the witch, apparently Coco great to work with.

Everybody loved Coco.

She just had so much energy.

So I love seeing a fun doggo performance and just like again, like having like a really great bond with Nadu as well and like, you know, kind of, you know, being her companion in a way, but not her feels like AD and D character, you know, like a like a Ranger out there with her animal companion and all of her nature.

Skills like that, like that, Brian, you mentioned like early on we were talking about like our initial thoughts, like part of why you love this movie is like how this movie looks and I wanted to talk about that.

I wanted to I wanted to talk.

You mentioned, I think specifically like when you think of how a lot of the movies under Disney's umbrella get made currently where you not only have like non practical sets and it's all green screen, but you have like superhero movies where your performers like aren't even wearing the suits anymore.

They're wearing the motion cap dots.

And then that's all getting CGI on, which feels like such a, I don't know, that just makes me hate them that much more.

Yeah.

Can we talk about just the aesthetic of this film and how gorgeous it is?

Well, I love that you can just see the sky.

Yeah.

And it's that's one of the things that I turning this on yesterday again.

And just like the sky is so huge in the clouds that everything is real and the sunlight, you know, and golden hour shots, it's just beautiful.

And that landscape and just capturing that, you know, while it's while it's there.

I mean, it is a wonderful thing and hopefully it's there for a long time to come too.

But you know, who knows?

But it's just everything feels so tactile just about the landscape and I, I love that, you know, there were there were certain things that like when she falls that that sort of made me think of other movies, not in a bad way, but in like a this is a notion that cinema is large and has encompassed a lot of things.

Like when she falls into the quicksand, I like immediately started thinking of the movie Come and see the Russian war film.

That's like one of the most depressing movies ever made.

But there's a sequence in that where he's just crawling through the quicksand and that felt so like that and you'd know that.

But she's actually in this stuff and it's real.

It's not on a set and it was probably cold and miserable and but boy does it get the point across of what they're.

Going to do.

Yeah, and, you know, she's so she's so like, you know, she could be so defeated.

And then she just, you know, she has, like I said, inventive.

You know, she's created that rope that she's braided together to put on tour tomahawk and she throws it into the and she fails a couple of times until she finally gets it.

You know, and I I like that in a character.

It's like it's like it made me think of why I like Indiana Jones, you know, and Raiders in particulars, because he screws up all the time.

He's not a perfect hero.

He's not anything that you know, and and Nauru's kind of the same way.

She's figuring it out along the way because you don't know everything you know, and you when you're put into a situation like this, you don't know how you're going to deal with it until you're there and you have to figure it out in the moment.

And I think that is so beautifully done.

And the way it's just just obviously you can tell when animals and things like that are CGI, but that's so much of it is in a real place makes such a different.

Rewatching that scene, I was obviously 1A great use of the setting, like you said, like, you know, a very tactile scene, but it's also it's some of mid thunders.

Like again, like, you know, we look at her performance like and when she's performing just by herself, not with any characters or animals or anything.

And you like see like how like calm and collected she is.

She is literally neck deep and she is still not freaking out yet after she has missed, you know, her acts like you said like 4 different times she's missed and you know, and she's still not like freaking out yet because she's like, I know what I need to do.

I just got to be able to do it, you know?

And like be all locked in.

And so it's a, it's a really great performance of just like her eyes and her face.

So you can like see all the emotions and like like you said, you can see her working in her brain of like, you know, what she needs to do and like the different scenarios and going through the wrong turn series.

You guys know of my affinity for the woods?

I don't know, I think the woods might be my favorite like film setting because there's just something about the blush greenness.

It looks good on camera.

But then I'm also a sucker for people walking through, you know, and breaking sticks under their feet and stuff like that and the use of trees and cover and things like that.

And it also just highlights, again, like Comanche, people chose to live amongst this, you know, this, you know, setting.

And it's not for the faint of hearts.

So, you know, it also just like kind of adds of being like, Oh yeah, she has to be a bad ass to be able to like live in this because that's what she does every day.

You know, it's just a a different predator now that she's looking out for.

So.

Right.

Great use of the location.

It looks really great.

Yeah.

Big big fan of the the locale for this.

Yeah, I think one of the things I think is great is like, to your point, at the end of the movie, they're not necessarily out of the woods quite yet.

She is killed probably the harshest thing she will ever come across.

But like the environment they're in still hasn't changed at all.

Like there's still plenty out there that all it takes is 1 bad day or one slip and it could kill you.

Sure.

Well, and I think about, you know, I live in the Pacific Northwest.

I've lived here my whole life.

And so a lot of this environment felt very familiar, even though that this is in the northern Great Plains.

There's a lot of, you know, similarities of topography and things like that and and wildlife.

We don't have rattlesnakes, but we do have bears.

We do have Cougars.

We have and when, when there is a a Mountain Lion spotted somewhere out here in a residential area, it's like lockdown.

It's scary.

It doesn't happen very often because they don't wander out.

They don't like people obviously, but they but if but they're also they're pretty aggressive.

They're not, they're not like bears.

Well, where they'll just stay away.

We get a lot.

Of they could be pretty aggressive, yeah, we get a lot of we get.

A lot of Kyle we what in our yard where I used had that in our yard.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Where I used to live, just honestly half a mile from where I am now, we would, we had a lot of property on it at the time and, and it was, some of it was like county property.

And at night we could hear the howls and barks and it was a whole massive pack of coyotes.

Every once in a great while we'll have a bear like I've got a picture my neighbor took.

The black bear had escaped and like in front of our house, like literally in front of our driveway, there's just this giant black bear like walking up the street and I'm like that a is really cool, but also BA little bit.

That's also the day my wife is like why don't you go cook on the grill while I just update your life insurance.

Like literally a thing that happened.

No, I coyotes surprised around here.

Rampant in Lai was like, why are there so many coyotes out here?

Surprisingly rampant.

Like even in the neighborhoods and stuff, Yeah.

Surprisingly, a lot of people would get hurt by deer around.

No, because they just run into your car.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, my, my wife, you know, several years ago, I mean, she was driving on the freeway and she hit a deer and it was, you know.

It's yeah, it'll mess up your car.

Like I've remember driving once and a deer ran out on a Route 95, got hit in about 70 miles an hour and flew about 10 feet in the air and then like landed on another car.

Like, by the grace of whatever, I was a lane over and was safe.

But jeez, that would have been awful.

So what they have the the sequence with the cougar in this is just like, I really feel that because if we spot one in a tree, I mean, they'll get animal control out there, they'll give it a dart and they'll move it into the mountains again, have it wake up with a headache.

But it's freaky.

Those are they are really aggressive.

They're really, they're really powerful animals.

And we don't necessarily have Grizzlies, but we have a lot of black bears and stuff around here too.

So it's just like, and apparently I've never seen one, but we have like Wolverines, which are really.

Huge accurate around.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, exactly.

But they're like really, really vicious.

They they and Badgers they they're, they're really aggressive.

But so just without having the advantage, I suppose, of a wooden structure surrounding me, there could be some pretty dangerous stuff around.

So really, you really get a sense of that sort of imminent danger through the course of the movie, you know, in contrast to how beautiful it.

Is and.

I think that's really a.

Cutter Cutter's cinematography and shooting in scope like it is gorgeous.

Like I know the current film is called Badlands, which I don't think is.

I don't think that's accidental because I and I haven't seen it yet, but I know the look of prey.

It's hard not to think of like Terrence Malick's Badlands and how that film looks when you watch this, that that would have been like an influence on just like the visual aesthetic of this film.

It's just very clear.

Everything's wide.

I love how you know movies these days.

Why are you all afraid of wide shots?

Nobody likes wide shots anymore.

Everything is a fucking conversation up in somebody's face.

And like, I love how expansive the scope is for this.

Also on the subject of animals, I love this little tidbit of one of Jay Meyer's early notes of from reading the script goes, where are all the horses now?

I know of horses in this in the script, there's no horses.

How are we going to do a horse movie, a movie about Comanche people without the horses?

And so like, even adding that into the the culture and Toby gets to include his horse during his little set piece and everything, which is really fun.

Yeah, you know.

Just yeah, like using again, like, you know, because it makes sense.

You know, they're up in the Appalachians.

Of course they'd, you know, that would also be instrumental.

So you know, doing that and having real horses too, not not fake ones for the.

What you were just saying there about like, why are all these conversations like that is like a very real choice that like studios have made, like they understand all of these movies that do go straight to streaming.

There is this thought that like if you're watching it at home, you're just going to be on your phone and you're going to miss so much of what's going on.

So it's a real.

The famous person is too far away and you can't see what they look like here, like everything is close up, some mid shots.

And everything is insane actually dialogue over and over and over again.

Like that's a real.

And it's like I would argue the reason why I'm on my phone is because you're just going to give me the same information 8 times so I'm bored.

Like you're already caught up.

Like I don't need to.

Every now and then I've watched there's a movie on Criteria from Kurosawa Cloud that came out last year.

It's kind of a new neo noir and I was drifting off to sleep watching it because the first hour is like a lot of set up, but it was like a it was, I'm watching it pretty late, but like when it kicks into gear, you're like, yeah, I'm in.

And they don't have to over explain everything like it asks you to keep up.

And anyway, just wanted to say I recommend Cloud.

Yeah, I had someone else recommend that to me too.

Solid.

Where would you like to see these characters?

Assuming that Trachtenberg gets to like do something else with them?

Because it does drop the Easter egg that Naru gets the pistol we see in Predator 2, which means at some point she loses it.

Where do you want to see these characters go next?

Well again, have you guys watched Killer of Killers yet?

I have to finish it.

I have one more segment to go.

OK, well then I will abstain from answering that question.

All right, to not spoil things for you, but watch all the way through Killer of Killers and you get somewhat of an answer as to what goes out.

This at the end, cuz at the end of this movie we see a fleet of Yaocha ships coming to Earth and it's it's not looking and that's at the end of this movie.

But Killer of Killers, if you watch all the way through, you'll kind of get an answer as to what's going on.

So to not spoil that for anybody yet, I will abstain.

From your.

Question but curious to see what you guys will think.

Yeah.

Well, I, you know, I think that the subtext of this movie is pretty clear that it's about ultimately the colonialization of this land and the displacement of the people.

And the predator is what is just that it has literal, you know, fur trappers and, you know, the the real situation that occurred as part of that is makes it clear.

But then the that the predator is also a metaphor for the entire westward expansion, I think.

And so I think that it has something to do.

It would have something to do with that idea of the just the total displacement, you know, an annihilation of, of these, of many of these people.

And so it's, I guess that's what I see.

I know that's a really dark answer for a fun movie, but I, I think it's probably what I would think would happen.

Let's So what she'd put up one hell of a fight, though.

Let's give it that.

Let's call it there folk.

I think we got it.

I think we kind of nailed it.

So that's a, you know, a fun note to end on Brian.

I I would say like the you're welcome.

You're.

Welcome.

You know, someone had to bring up, you know, the colonialism and the patriarch.

Hey, we have to.

The textbooks won't tell you that.

Yeah.

Well, Devon, what's coming up with the Spectre Cinema Club now that you guys have basically dropped about a year's worth of episodes over the span of a month here?

You're taking no days off though it seems like, right?

So you know, just back-to-back to a regular schedule and once a week it is funny like I like this past week.

I like kept waking up and being like, did I watch something in my behind?

Do I have something to edit?

And then I was like, Oh, no, I'm good.

It's all it's all done.

So I haven't still some flashbacks here and there.

But in honor of Predator Badlands, which we are doing an episode on our theme is on the hunt.

So movies that involve some sort of hunt in that some fashion by accident program Punishment Park for the beginning of the month.

And Peter Watkins just passed away recently the day before Halloween.

So that was kind of crazy.

So we have an episode on Punishment Park.

We'll have an episode on Badlands as well as a battle Royale and Assassination Nation.

Excellent.

So I'll be, I'll be back over here for AVP.

Requiem maybe.

What does Requiem even mean?

I'm not sure.

Not sure.

We'll find out if it actually is for the thing to do with the movie.

Brian, how about yourself?

What's coming up?

Well, I've I kept myself pretty busy over Bloody Disgusting over October and I pitched a couple new things for November.

So should have something coming out by the time this comes out.

We should.

It'll probably be coming out soon on Frankenstein, the Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein and some of the Easter eggs from previous Frankenstein movies that are in it that are a lot of fun.

And then another piece that'll come later in the month on Night of the Demon.

So yeah, so that's coming up.

And I wrote a piece for Manor for the holiday season about what a Grinch I am.

So that'll be fun.

OK, for.

People to read, I hope.

What a Grinch you are.

I am indeed.

Excellent.

So yeah.

And yeah, with the Holy Terrors, we're ran into a little bit of technical trouble.

Oh boy.

It's I promise it's coming out.

I promise it's going to happen.

We have several episodes in the can.

We just need to we're we're going to try and get things out there pretty quick here, hopefully by the by the start of the year.

So if if anyone's been waiting for it, and I hope you have, we promise it's on its way.

Well, we just did The Exorcist at the drive in the day after Halloween.

They did a double feature of John Carpenter's Halloween and The Exorcist, and it was.

Really like a fun way to watch both of those movies for us folks.

You can find us at POD on the pendulum.com, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, everywhere you get your podcast.

Make sure that you're leaving us a five star rating and write a few words for a review.

Make sure you're hitting that subscribe button so you get our new episodes right away on Spotify.

You can comment on all the episodes individually, which a few folks have done recently.

We've done some nice feedback, especially on our Summer of George series.

So that was really nice.

I was kind of nervous heading into that franchise deep dive, and we've got some nice encouragement.

We appreciate that.

If you really like what we do, I would strongly recommend becoming a patron by going to patreon.com/pod and The Pendulum, where we have a ton of bonus episodes up.

Fingers crossed that we get this done in time, but I'm setting Thanksgiving as the goal to drop our Back to the Future deep dive in to commemorate its 40th anniversary this year.

And then we'll get to parts two and three shortly thereafter to do that franchise.

But Thanksgiving is the goal.

We just got to find a day to record at this point, but I think that will be a very fun episode that will in no way go off the rails as we bring decades worth of nostalgia and silly gooseness to it.

And you can find me at Mike Chump Change on Instagram and Letterbox and back to Mike Snooney and over on Blue Sky.

I guess I was very difficult to find with my Halloween name.

It was very odd name.

So I'm back to my bullshit there.

Follow the show at pod and pendulum on Blue sky and Instagram.

We've been like way more active on Instagram lately, dropping clips and tidbits and fun little Nuggets there.

So we hope you do that.

And yeah, that's it for now.

Like we have, you know, we're doing the franchise a little bit out of order for no other reason that like why the hell not?

So we have Alien versus Predator and Alien versus Predator, Predator Requiem coming up and then we'll follow that with killer killers, Badlands and a ranking episode.

And then my God, like Predator, this is series will never end.

We are just a predator podcast now after that Psycho, the Omen and then creep.

So we have like 3 like Mike psycho.

We got to talk, Brian, you and I, about how we're going to cover that and plan, plan some Nuggets for that because that's not intimidating at all.

Like not a.

No, not at all.

Not at all.

All right, that's it listeners, we hope you're having a great week.

Take care.

And we will be back next week with Alien versus Predator.

Perhaps the movie.

I can't think of a movie with more hype.

That was a bigger let down.

But what can you do?

Take care folks.

Story for my dating life.

Lot of hype they have to let down.

Oh, this is wrong.

Alien Alien.

Versus Predator, not very like Alien versus Predator is not that bad.

Like I, I've rewatched it.

I, we did a, we did a commentary track on it last year.

It was the last time I read this.

I was like.

You know.

It's just.

You know, it had higher expectations, but we'll talk about.

The only, the only expectations it didn't meet is that Sanaa Lathan did not kiss the predator.

They didn't kiss.

They were supposed to.

Kiss, third film of the trilogy.

No, they were totally actually like if you go back like they did actually a thing to go.

Paul WS Anderson goes Huh, What got it?

What if?