Emily to Gremily

Because You Were Home: How Horror Hits When It’s Personal

Emily Hogan

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0:00 | 1:21:21

A pumpkin-iced coffee, a pile of YouTube ghost stories, and one spectacularly botched flirt, perfect ingredients to dig into what actually scares us. We start light and slide into the places fear hides in plain sight: backyards that vanish into darkness, sliding glass doors that turn you into a lit-up target, and the LA myth that won’t die, the Culver City “Entity” lot. From Midwest pillowcase trick-or-treating to Pasadena’s Halloween house, we map how setting trains our nerves, and why certain streets feel like they’re holding their breath after sundown.

Then we get surgical about craft. The original Halloween’s score is more than mood; it’s a metronome that tells your body how to feel. Scream’s opening call telescopes dread into a single line, and The Strangers goes colder with the motive that isn’t one: “Because you were home.” We debate what ages well and what doesn’t, where gore crosses into laziness, and why Final Destination’s cosmic math still hooks. Along the way, we call out killer dolls, Goosebumps nostalgia, and the simple, terrifying act of closing your own blinds.

Threaded through is Michael’s real-time rom-com horror: a text about sore glutes, a whip vs riding crop exchange, a bathtub POV, and a masterclass in missing cues. We talk about confidence as a series of small moves; voice notes, clear asks, and showing up before the moment passes. If fear is universal and comedy isn’t, this conversation lives in the overlap: where craft meets gut instinct, and where a DM is somehow scarier than a masked intruder. Hit play, tell us the line or scene that never leaves your head, and if you laughed or squirmed along the way, subscribe, share, and drop a quick review so more spooky-season diehards can find us.

Coffee, Vibes, and Halloween Setup

SPEAKER_00

Cheers, Jesus Christ, that's fine.

SPEAKER_04

Did you know? I thought that he was doing it like in my mind, I was like, I'm gonna do it perfect this time.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Yeah, that was like our what fifth tiers attempt. All right. Michael is back. Welcome back, Michael.

SPEAKER_04

Hello.

SPEAKER_01

Um, and uh we are drinking um a pumpkin spiced iced coffee because he doesn't like to drink alcohol, so I'm being respectful of that, even though I don't like doing this sober.

SPEAKER_04

So uh you could have I mean I would have been okay.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I know, but I also didn't want to be like rowdy and you're mellow.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, gotcha, gotcha. So I mean that's kind of our the course of our conversations in general.

SPEAKER_01

I know, but you know, I figure I'd tone it down. Also, it's like 11 o'clock in the morning.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_01

Not that I haven't drank at 11 o'clock in the morning, but you know, I was trying to be responsible.

SPEAKER_04

You would feel like I'm drinking at 11 o'clock in the morning, and you don't you rather not that be true.

SPEAKER_01

But it sounds like no, it's true. I'll do it like all the time, but you know, I just I didn't know if you were gonna come, you know, how you were gonna come in, and it's early in the morning, so I was like, you know what? I'll just yeah, let it be.

SPEAKER_04

Um Halloween's gonna be on a Friday this month. That's cool. Is it um and uh those scary stories we were listening to these Halloween scary stories on YouTube in the first one or second one he mentioned it was a Friday, so we were uh trick-or-treating like a little more later than normal. I was seeing that and I was like, uh, I don't think that would matter because the curfew is is still the curfew.

SPEAKER_01

But well, I mean, like if kids have school the next morning, you know, kid parents are gonna keep them, you know, tell them, hey, you gotta come in because you gotta go to bed at a normal time because you have to get up early in the morning for school.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, you know what? Like, there probably is more of a cushion, and like a curfew is like kind of a guideline, not like like like it doesn't strike me as like misdemeanor or something. Like past Halloween curfew at some point.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think it was more of a curfew, like a parent's curfew than a town curfew.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But I will I'll post the link to the YouTube stories that you sent me. It was these three stories about Halloween,

YouTube Scary Stories and Curfew Talk

SPEAKER_01

like scary stories. The first and the third one, I was kind of like, huh. The second one I did not like. It that one gave me the creeps, especially because yesterday you and I were FaceTiming about this episode, which by the way, we haven't even said this episode's gonna be about Halloween, scary. Yeah, we should probably tell you Halloween, scary movies, all that jazz. Fall fall, yeah, the you know, the spooky season. I guess I told you guys last week that October hits and it's gonna be all about spookies. So he sent me these stories. I listened to them today, but last night on FaceTime, we were going over our notes for today, and I don't live on a ground floor, but I heard a tapping on my window, and I turned around and I was like, that wasn't a tapping, like it had to have been like something. I miss misheard it. But he was like, Do you want me to come over? And I was like, No, no, I don't, but thank you. I mean, it was nighttime, but I was like, I don't think it was it what obviously wasn't a person. No one could no one's has a ladder to you know my window. I don't think.

SPEAKER_04

Like as soon as you say, Oh, I'm scared, uh, you hear this knocking on the door, it's me. Which is like, well, it was me the whole time scaring you. Yeah, for real though. Uh was that? Oh, okay. I got it now. Because that would make the second story of that YouTube thing scary, because that clown happened on the glass.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, climbed up the ladder to the glass and scared the shit out of the girl.

SPEAKER_04

We spoiled it. We spoiled it. It's fine.

SPEAKER_01

Whatever. All right, but so yeah, we did episode drink. You have some catching up to do. You said you had text messages you needed needed to discuss with me.

SPEAKER_04

I thought we could have fun with this because um it's ongoing and it's like just going on now. Right. It's like recent.

SPEAKER_01

Just um not like your past Gremlin stories.

SPEAKER_04

Correct. It's like uh yeah, it's a current Gremlin story. Something

The Clown on the Glass Story

SPEAKER_04

well, I don't know why I said current Gremlin story. Um, it's not a gremlin story yet.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_04

Probably will be eventually.

SPEAKER_00

We'll give it a week.

SPEAKER_04

Sure, yeah. Um uh it's girl, I met her at the comedy club in Santa Monica, and um we were uh cordial, you know. Hey, how are you, you know, because we performed in some shows and some practices and um but when oh it was when I think I gave her a ride home one night because we had a jam there and I gave her a ride home and I already had her number because we're on the same because we're on the improv group, so we have a group chat. Um oh yeah. And it was like it was like a week after I last saw her, and it was the text I sent you uh last week.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04

It was her basic it was just it was out of nowhere, and it was um saying, Hey, um, do you remember when in our last warm-up you were talking about when someone's glutes are sore, you can use your elbow to massage it out. I'm probably gonna hit up my masseuse right now. Ha ha ha. So I'm reading the text from her. I'm like, you're texting me to tell me how I mentioned a week ago how you can uh uh massage your glute when it's sore. I think and you're letting me know finish you're letting

Michael’s Texts, Glutes, and Missed Signals

SPEAKER_04

me know you're gonna seek out your masseuse. Like it's okay, it's just cool.

SPEAKER_01

I think she was wanting you to be the masseuse.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Because I wouldn't just text someone be like, oh, hey, remember that thing you said a while back? I'm gonna do that. Like, no, if I'm gonna text somebody that, I'm gonna be wait for them to be like, Well, I'll come over and massage that for you.

SPEAKER_04

See, I think I figured it out, but five days too late.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04

I did a lot of analyzing.

SPEAKER_00

And by that time, she already had someone else do it for her.

SPEAKER_04

You think so? Yes. Uh no, I think she's waiting on me. I think she's patient. I think I'm the one. Anyways, um, just kidding.

SPEAKER_01

Um but um what did I um Okay, so it took you five days to respond to her?

SPEAKER_04

No, no, no. I was joking about that. Um, well, it didn't take me five days to respond. It probably did take me five days to figure it out. Okay. But um uh yeah, but um we're it's uh we went to a movie Monday night.

SPEAKER_01

Um as like a friend date or as like a date date?

SPEAKER_04

Um this was post glute text. Right.

SPEAKER_01

So um like who asked who to the movie? You said, Hey, do you want to go see the move this movie on Monday?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And she was like, Yeah, sure. Or she was just like, eh, okay. Um she was like Or was she like, I'll have to check my schedule? And then it worked out.

SPEAKER_04

Uh what is that? Is what she said at first, because because I said the movie. She's like, what is that? And she she goes, Oh, I just looked it up uh three hours, wow. Um I'm down.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. And okay, so you go to the movies Monday night. Yeah. What happened after the movies?

SPEAKER_04

Um, I just uh give a ride home.

SPEAKER_01

And that was it.

SPEAKER_04

Just give a ride home, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um this is such a lackluster story. I thought I was gonna get like better information. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04

I'm looking at your disappointment. You said something, and then I replied, yeah, I see your head just drop. Um well, no. Um, and we were at the Marina Dine In.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I love that one. Yeah. That's like my favorite movie theater.

SPEAKER_04

And you know, it's at the clients you can recline seats and sit back, and yeah, and um it was an enjoyable time.

SPEAKER_01

I don't I don't know if Did you guys keep the armrest down the entire time? It was up. Okay.

SPEAKER_04

Um I put cuddle in. I put it up early on because I was looking for something. But wink wink. I really was though, so I think it actually did work. No, I really was looking for something, so it went up. Come on, but then it stayed up, and then boom, there we were. And yeah, I think yeah, there's leaning leaned more more so my way than the other way.

SPEAKER_01

But was she like cuddled into you?

SPEAKER_04

No.

SPEAKER_01

Um did you curl into her a little bit, or were you just like stiff in your chair the whole time?

SPEAKER_04

Um a little bit of You were stiff.

SPEAKER_01

You were stiff, I know you were.

SPEAKER_04

Um, anyways, so we but when I'm not done yet, and so we were texting the next day.

SPEAKER_00

And um after you just dropped her off at home.

SPEAKER_04

Um what did you want me to do?

SPEAKER_01

Did you want me to try to like I did she give you any sick? I feel like she gave you some signals that she wanted you to kiss her, and you're just like, okay, good night.

SPEAKER_04

I feel like when we were in got in the parking lot into the car, I ri Yeah, I recall her glancing at me, and it's like she leaned it, like she really wanted me to see the way her contact.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and you're just like looking at her like side-eyed.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I had a hat on, so if I go in, I don't want to stab her.

SPEAKER_01

You know the hats are removable.

SPEAKER_04

I know, I know. That was lame, that was stupid. Um that was for me to have the audacity to do that to you. I I I should know better than that. But hey, Emily. Um we were texting the next day because she was asking me about my Halloween costume, and I was like, Well, and I'm a fan of the Indianapolis Colts, and they have a quarterback who's playing well. His name is Danny Jones, and the joke in the media is Indiana Jones. And so I was like, I'm gonna go as Indiana Jones, I'm gonna wear my Colts jersey of Danny Jones and a Indiana Jones hat. And then I was like, but I don't have a whip. And I asked her if she had a whip, and um she's like, I do have a whip, and she put like a like a cute like the winky face? It it it no, it was a face with glasses, like the dorky face. Oh, okay. I guess maybe it's her way of saying I'm innocent. I don't know. Um uh we're really analyzing it, anyways. Um we maybe just me. Um and then I was like, oh, if you have a whip, um that would be great because I don't want people to think I'm not Indiana Jones in my Halloween costume. I really want to look the part, so I need to get proper rehearsal. Are you good with it? And then she was like, Um, I'm okay with it, but I prefer a crop, which is like another. And then I Googled crop because I thought I meant I prefer a crop, and I thought, you know, I was thinking like wheat or corn crop, like what you weirdo, you know, and help us, baby Jesus. Yeah, and um, I saw what it was, and I was like, oh, I think she's hitting on me. You think at this point, it was I'm glad that it became clear to you, you know, like the glutes, oh my butt, oh like I need a massage because of that. I just thought, you know, you know, it's a muscle, it's a massage, deep tissue. And then with this, I thought maybe she just wants to help me with my Halloween costume, like a good friend would do. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01

If a girl texts you that she needs her butt massaged, she has sex toys basically, and goes out on a date with you to the movies. You what you think that she's just like, oh good friend.

SPEAKER_04

And um I replied, Oh, I thought a crop was just farming. I'm I'm learning new stuff every day.

Movie Night, Non-Move, and Advice

SPEAKER_04

And she's like, uh riding crops are for horses and bad boys.

SPEAKER_00

And um did that clue you in somewhere?

SPEAKER_04

Then I was starting to think, well, I told her I'm a fan of the Colts, so maybe she's making that that I've just I'm fucking with you at this point.

SPEAKER_06

I owe.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, of course, yeah. Um, yeah. Then I was like starting to get some confidence. And um, so the next day I'm leaving my improv class, and me and my friend get some food, and I send her a video of all the food I'm eating. Just how are you? Whatever, just whatever, just being cute. And then she sends a video. It's her point of view with her feet up in her bathtub, and uh it's just that, and um um and then you didn't know what to do. I'm with my brain exploded, and then I was like, huh, you know what? That's pretty low of her because she knows I would have only a stand-in shower, and she's mocking my income. She's mocking my uh, you know, she's mocking me saying, ha ha, I have a full bathtub and you don't, you little you little jack, little third class passenger, you know.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my god. I um okay, so how have you left it with her? That was Wednesday. Did something happen Thursday? And has anything happened today yet?

SPEAKER_04

So the bathtub pic video was, excuse me, the bathtub video was Tuesday night.

SPEAKER_01

It wasn't even a picture, it was a video.

SPEAKER_04

Video was Tuesday night. Um, and then I texted something like, Oh, I almost wrecked, I almost veered into the wrong lane or something. She was like, Oh no, be careful. And I thought that was nice of her to look out for me. And um we texted a little bit yesterday, just here and there about the the Red Sox, and um we yeah, so I texted her last night a picture of a shirt. I was like, look, I just got this shirt. Do you know what it means? And she knew what it meant. It was like a it was a reference to the Red Sox. So that's where we're at now.

SPEAKER_00

Um I feel like if you don't make a move soon, she's gonna move on.

SPEAKER_04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Well because I would have already. This is insane.

SPEAKER_04

I texted her uh last night if she needed uh like a ride from work. And she texted that she had already gotten home uh uh on her bike or something that uh no, it's okay. Uh-huh. So I don't know. Oh no, don't give me that look.

SPEAKER_01

Unless someone else gave her a ride home because they were willing to make a move.

SPEAKER_04

Well, that's that part of it.

SPEAKER_01

I feel like I need to take your phone from you and text her for you because come on.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I'm not very good with it, but I can try. A crop is more my style. Um, and then I was like, Yeah, and then she says, Yeah, riding crops are for horses and naughty boys, and she wrote like that purple demon face.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um, she she's flirting with you. Uh I'm just gonna call spade.

SPEAKER_04

I collect costume pieces. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Is that what you said or she said? No, she did.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. I don't know, man. I got worried.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I mean, it's so funny. I sit here and I'm like, yeah, right. You think I would say that? It's like, and but with er everything I've told you, I don't think there's anything too dumb I could do, you know, because you think and you're correct that I don't that I don't get the you know, this seems to be a theme with you because I feel like I've had this conversation with you before. Yeah, where for yeah, for people, uh this isn't an isolated incident. This is probably um a conversation with Emily that she probably already knows where it's gonna go. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I I just feel like you need to uh stop being so insecure and gain some confidence and uh just make a move. You don't take rides from guys and go out to the movies with them if you're not hoping to get something else out of it. She could do something else with her time. She's giving you her time.

SPEAKER_04

This yeah, I need to talk back to you right now. Um because normally I just get quiet and this is a yeah, I need to do my job.

Flirty Whips, Crops, and Bathtub Video

SPEAKER_04

Oh wow, damn it. I I did uh yeah, I didn't want to damn it. This is what I get. Now I wish I didn't. Because if we weren't I think it's uh you know what, Emily? It's like the uncomfortability, the pain, the um brutal awkwardness of just going in and it like putting yourself out there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But she's already put herself out there. It's not like you're sending out signals to someone who you don't know if she's gonna be receptive or not. She's already made like several moves. She's kind of probably thinking now, like, well, okay, maybe he's not interested in me. So she's gonna think you're not interested in her and you just see her as a friend, so she's gonna be like, okay, well she already made the first move.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So you just kinda need to, even if it's just little baby steps, reciprocate it. Even if it's just flirty text messages. Or you could send voice notes so she, you know, she can't revisit them. Because she she keeps it, you'll know. Oh it'll say keep.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So you could send a voice note and then have it disappear after two minutes. That way she can't go back and reread the text if you're worried about it.

SPEAKER_04

Uh she sent me a picture of her at the bar last night and she was making a sad face because her team had lost. Yeah, I don't know. What's that?

SPEAKER_00

Translate. She's just trying to start a conversation with you. She's literally just trying to interact with you, and you're over here like, huh. She's sad. I don't know what to do. All right, anyway, so like, dude.

SPEAKER_04

Emily, she uh she told me the other day it was like, hey, how are you, Michael? Translate. I'm just joking, it didn't happen.

SPEAKER_00

She's just trying to start conversations with you.

SPEAKER_04

She's trying to communicate, Michael.

SPEAKER_00

She's trying to have a conversation and communicate, and you're just here like looking at the birds.

SPEAKER_04

Dud. Like a firework, if you light it, it doesn't explode. Yeah. She, yeah. I could be a dud in that sense. Like a firework, you light it, it doesn't explode. Or it just goes, yeah. Or like she like does that to my back. I'm like, ugh, don't. What are you doing? That's weird. Yeah. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Anyways, it's okay. It's um, no, it's not. Uh next.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. All right. Well, that's that. All right. Um, so yeah, we were gonna talk about Halloween and scary movies and all that. So we were gonna start with talking about Halloween growing up because you I feel like you and I have very different like experiences growing up because I grew up here in Los Angeles, Southern California, but you grew up in Indiana, so you have like the cold weather and it feels like more classic Halloween-esque. So I was gonna ask you about that. Like, what was that like?

SPEAKER_04

Um, Halloween for me, growing up in the Midwest uh suburbs is probably exactly how you would picture it. Um you know, um like the Wonder Years, uh uh home improvement, um, some other standard Midwest uh sitcoms, kind of like when you see them trick-or-treating, you know, they go out trigger treating with their parents and then they come home and they get their candy checked sometimes by their parents and there's certain houses.

SPEAKER_01

Oh yeah, like I don't like I remember like my mom kind of being like wary of like poison, but wasn't there like a big thing about like people putting like razor blades or like needles or like some like scary shit in candy?

SPEAKER_04

I always wondered if those stories were like is that just like made up by parents or planted stories to get kids to not go into their candy before they got home. But yeah, uh growing up for me there's always a story that a kid got in he was going trick-or-treating, and this is weird, and he got an apple. This is a weird thing for trick-or-treating. He got an apple, and in between one house and the other, he bit to the apple and it had a razor in it.

SPEAKER_01

See, that makes no sense because what kid would bite into the apple and not the candy?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it may yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01

And also, like um, most kids if they got that apple, they would have been like, this sucks, and like thrown it.

SPEAKER_04

Yes, and just the apple in itself, like if there's a razor in it, it means someone which is which is just an I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

Maybe we shouldn't give people ideas.

SPEAKER_04

It's just an awful it's an awful evil it's an awful evil thing to do. Well, you put this razor inside of an apple. I hope someone bites into it. Right. That's evil. Um, I don't believe that. Uh, but yeah,

Confidence, Voice Notes, and Next Steps

SPEAKER_04

it it was kind of a thing like don't don't eat your candy uh until it's checked until you get home and your parents check it or whatever.

SPEAKER_06

Right.

SPEAKER_04

You lay it all out and uh we we use the pillowcases. Uh I really wish I wish I mean and I do wish, and we'll unpack that later, like the like the want for like a dramatic story or a pattern or a thing that you're a part of that you can associate with. I wish I could tell you that, yeah, growing up, uh, there was this house in my neighborhood that has this story, but I just don't have that.

SPEAKER_05

Right.

SPEAKER_04

You know, but probably the funniest trick-or-treating story I can think of. Um, I was in a neighborhood, I was the Grim Reaper that night, and I and it was getting pretty late, and I was by myself and I was in a neighborhood. I was uh crossing a street, and there was this girl across the street who went to my school, and she lived in that neighborhood, and I was going over to you know, maybe say hi to her because you know I'm wearing a Halloween costume, so I feel secure, you know.

SPEAKER_00

Like, she won't know it's me. I could say hello.

SPEAKER_01

How old are you in this story?

SPEAKER_04

12, 13. Okay. And I'm crossing the street, and there's a headlight uh to my left, and it's a car that's just uh uh smartly going slow through the neighborhood. And there's a headlight there, and so like I can see the headlights going across the street, and beyond the headlights, out of the darkness, my brother just pops out and just scares the shit out of me and just plows over me. He just plows over me and uh I get ran over by him. And like the first thing that I got hit with was his knee hitting my knee. So he just he knocked me over, hit my knee. It hurt so bad. And so I went from saying, Hi, hi, like, you know, her name was Kristen. Like, hey Kristen, how are you? It's Michael, hi, and I'm I'm crossing. I don't know why I'm doing my high. I I like I picture my voice, yeah. I picture my voice being high, and sound like a weasel too. And so, like, I go from you know, uh trying to sound cool and going across the street with confidence to talk to her, like, hey, how are you? to this like screaming in agony, and my voice was probably cracking.

SPEAKER_00

I'm just thinking maybe that's where your confidence shattered at that moment, and now these all these years later, you're like, I can't talk to her.

SPEAKER_04

Shattered along with my knee. Yeah. No, I just went from being confident to like just screaming off to screaming my ass off to my brother

Childhood Halloweens: Midwest vs LA

SPEAKER_04

for hurting me and embarrassing me. And I remember seeing her like come on, oh what, oh my god, and she just kind of walked away. Like, what? Like, almost like that was weird. It looked painful. What's going on? I don't care enough though to talk to you. I'm walking away.

SPEAKER_00

I'm gonna go get more candy.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, fucking what an asshole.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, thank God you didn't end up.

SPEAKER_04

No, the funniest part, Emily, is my brother just ran off after that.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, he didn't even help you out.

SPEAKER_04

So, from her perspective, this Michael is dressed as a Grim Reaper. He's walking across to talk to me, and he gets ran over by just some random kid who is like a couple years older than me, and he just runs off. Matt wasn't even trick-or-treating.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, he came out specifically for a while.

SPEAKER_04

He wasn't even in a costume, he wasn't even in a costume, and it was like not far, it wasn't that close to her house. So that's looking back on it.

SPEAKER_00

He was following you to to do this to you. He wanted to scare you and hurt me.

SPEAKER_04

Like he knocked me over, like it wasn't even like a haha scared you. It was like haha hurt you, right?

SPEAKER_05

Like and then tootles.

SPEAKER_04

I was limping. Like it's hard for a 13. Oh, well, like, yeah, like the one thing I like about a nature is it's hard for a kid to get hurt when they fall down. Like the way you know, you see kids always falling down. You're like, how is your back not broken from that fall?

SPEAKER_00

But it's just because they're so loose.

SPEAKER_04

Yes, you know, it's why a drunk driver, you know, yeah, they usually survive the car accident because they're because they're not resisting, yeah. Yeah, they're flimsy, anyways. Um, so that was a Halloween story growing up, right? Um, and real quick, when I was going to school in Kentucky, me and my girlfriend at the time, we went to uh to Georgetown College in Kentucky. We went to an uh haunted field. It was like out, it was cool. It was like outside at night.

SPEAKER_01

And um was it like an event or it was just known as a haunted field?

SPEAKER_04

It was uh it i i it was during Halloween season, yeah. Like it was like like uh like a haunted house set up, but it was outside, and you went uh uh through the woods and everything, and I got scared pretty bad one time, and bam, she's to my left, and I knocked her over, and she fell down and like like into a tree. Like she fell down a hill and like like like a tree.

SPEAKER_00

You did to her what your brother did to you. Oh, yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_04

Projected, except that was on purpose what he did. This was an accident, and um a tree uh broke her fall. Like it was like that falling down a hill and bam, uh, land into a tree. She was fine, she was a really strong volleyball player, so she was uh like she was sturdy enough, it's okay, a durable enough to take that impact. Yeah, too strong.

SPEAKER_00

So it's okay that you went at her full force with your football-esque body.

SPEAKER_04

It was just more okay because of her strength. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my god. All right. Um, yeah, I don't have any stories like that. The only thing I could think of like growing up, because like we were talking about earlier before we started filming, was like, you know, here in Southern California, it'll start to get a little chilly, but that's only really because the night, you know, starts earlier. But there was a story, so because I grew up in Culver City, I was I had to Google it because I remember the story as a kid, and I wasn't 100% sure if I was correct, but I am. So when I was growing up, like I lived in two different places. One is the place I call home, but there was this other place that was in Culver City near downtown Culver.

SPEAKER_04

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01

Um, so down the street there was this vacant lot, and we always used to wonder, like, what is that lot? And you pass by and it's creepy and it's overgrown and blah, blah, blah. So someone finally told us, Oh, that's the entity lot. And we were like, Well, what the fuck's the entity lot? So I remember hearing

The Culver City “Entity” Lot

SPEAKER_01

about it, and I was at this point probably like 14.

SPEAKER_06

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So, you know, I was like aware of things, so yeah, I Googled it, and then it was this movie that came out like in the 80s, and it was based on this story from the 70s.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And what had happened, so this woman who was being attacked by like poltergeists in her home, and it got to the point where she had like people come in like from like a paranormal facility and they checked out the house. Anyway, the house was condemned, it was torn down, and now it's just this empty lot. So then I looked it up and I wrote it down here because I wasn't going to remember it word for word, and it says the Doris Bither case, also known as the Entity Haunting, was a 1974 investigation into alleged. Paranormal phenomena in Culver City, California, experienced by a woman named Doris Bither. The case inspired Frank de Felita's 1978 book, The Entity, which was made into a 1982 film of the same name starring Barbara Hershey. Bither alleged she was attacked and raped by one or several invisible entities. More benign manifestations recounted by Bither included luminous, transparent human shapes and poltergeist events. So yeah. So that was like an empty lot that I grew up down the street from. And I was like, ew. And so that was like my scary story from when I was a kid.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's terrifying.

SPEAKER_01

A little bit. And if you look at the lot, it's like super overgrown. Like there's a big ass fence around it. It's on a really beautiful street, and it's just like this random ass lot that there's nothing on, and nobody will. I don't know if anyone's willing to sell it, but no one's built anything on it.

SPEAKER_04

And still? And where is this again?

SPEAKER_01

Culver City. I don't want to say the street.

SPEAKER_04

You're gonna well, okay, you can tell me later.

SPEAKER_01

I'll tell you later.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, that's insane. Um there's actually a lot of haunted um scary horror genre things that really took place in LA. Uh whether it's something with uh a a supernatural um with like an implication of uh supernatural presence or like a real murder. Um very heavy throughout LA.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um I mean there's a lot of history here.

SPEAKER_04

Um in a lot of movies shot here, well, of course, but in the horror genre um as well, uh movies like Halloween that I had no idea growing up were shot in LA.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

I had no idea that that uh Mike Myers, uh the Mike Myers house in Pasadena and the neighborhood where all the killing went down, the first Halloween was right there in West Hollywood off of Orange Grove. In fact, in the movie Halloween, it's it's referred to as Orange Grove. But um I didn't know that till like a few years back, and me and my friend went there to that neighborhood, Halloween was, and it is like go entering into like uh another world. Like you're on sunset and you go, I don't know the street, but you're in that area, and then you just go into that side street and you go up, and it's like it feels like I enter like a Midwest neighborhood, like like the trees just get thicker. Yeah, it's really cool. Yeah, um Halloween. We talked about this. Uh, that's like well, the movie, the the 1978 movie Halloween, that's like a celebration. It's not a movie that I watch, or and you mention it too, that really was like I'm terrified.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, like I'm probably gonna like bump some people right now. Like the original like the OG, like the Halloween's or like the nightmare in Elm Street's The Exorcist, those movies, they're not scary to me. Like, I've watched them just because like they're classics, yeah, but I don't find them scary.

SPEAKER_04

It was scary at the time.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Because it was new, like I'm sure in like you know, 30 years, the movies

LA Horror Landmarks and Halloween’s Power

SPEAKER_01

that are coming out right now that were like, ooh, they're you know, people are gonna be like that sucks, you know.

SPEAKER_04

It's interesting. Um this director was talking and he said something that I was like, damn, I I never thought about this. And he was like, um, being scared, like how you scare people is the same way like across the world. Um and and how it's written, how it's directed. It's what's the word? Uh universal. Uh comedy and drama across different cultures is not that, but fear is right. Um that was really cool to me. I was like hearing that, I was like, huh, that's true. And then I was thinking, why is that?

SPEAKER_01

Because it's like more of a primal response.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. You know, or comedy is like subjective.

SPEAKER_04

It's fear is very survival based. Well, you have to have it, you have to have the fear bone in your body because otherwise you wouldn't be programmed to survive, but not like everybody can have the same sense of humor because that's right. Maybe not survival-based.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, yeah, and each culture has their own thing that they think is like hysterical, you know. Like if you go to like the UK, they're very like dry. Whereas, you know, and then other places that it's more like slapstick, and you know, like some people look at our, you know, comedy movies or shows and they're like, that's boring or that's lame, you know. But yeah, if you watch a scary movie, no matter where it's from, you're like, ooh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

That's interesting. Um so we both have a mutual agreement on a top scary movie.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_04

Strangers.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_04

Why? And like the fact it frightened you when I heard that, I was like, oh good. Because I know not much does. So oh good, was it? I mean, oh good, like it's something we can uh sink our teeth into as far as like like like why is it scary? Why and I haven't asked you, what is it that did it for you that uh so many other films won't?

SPEAKER_01

So I think it was so I just I told you or Saturday that I was re-watching it because I wanted to just like quote unquote research. Really, I just wanted to watch the movie. Um with a boyfriend who had already who had already He had already seen it and he didn't think it was that scary. And if he did, he was masking it and whatever. Okay, annoying.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I know what you mean.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, like come on, man. Yeah, get together.

SPEAKER_04

Um, but it's like don't be there if you're not gonna Well, no, I want I didn't want to watch it by myself.

SPEAKER_00

So okay.

SPEAKER_04

Never mind.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it was it was at night in the dark, and I'm like, I don't want to watch this by myself.

SPEAKER_01

So I don't I think it was the last like I remember I watched it like when it came out, and I think when I looked it up, I think it said it came out in like 2008.

SPEAKER_06

Eight or nine, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um, so I remember seeing it then, but it was that line at the end of the movie where she asked, like, why are

What Makes Fear Universal

SPEAKER_01

you doing this to us? And there was no other reason other than because you were home. Like, I'm home. Like, what if that happens to me? Like, it's just like there was no rhyme or reason for it. It's not like they were after these people, it was uh just because, and that's just like chilling, you know.

SPEAKER_04

It's chilling when you don't know the motivation.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, the motivation was just because they wanted to and it because it was fun.

SPEAKER_04

The intent is unknown.

SPEAKER_01

So that's what like freaked me out. But I told you I had a story for when I saw the movie and I that scared I think that maybe that's what m started to scare me more was this. So I didn't see it in theaters, but like, you know, back in the day when we used to rent movies from Blockbuster, we rented the movie, I was at my nana's house, and we had we watched the movie scary, blah, blah, blah. But we had this rule in the house where whoever was the last to go to bed had to lock up the house. So I was always the last one to go to bed. So I always locked up the house. I locked the front door, did the deadbolt and whatnot, but she had this really large sliding glass window that led out into the driveway. So I went to it and went to go like move the blinds so I could make sure it was locked and make sure that big stick was in the other side of the window. So if it was unlocked, no one could open it. But I had this thought, like right when I went to push the blinds, I was like, what

Why The Strangers Still Terrifies

SPEAKER_01

if somebody stood like standing in the driveway staring at me? And it's and I stopped and I was like, oh my God.

SPEAKER_04

And so I was like, they can see you, you can't see them kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01

No, I just thought there was gonna be someone literally just standing right there. So I scared myself, and then it took me a few minutes to be like, There's no one there, like you're just freaking out for no reason because you just saw this movie. You're fine. So I moved the blinds really quickly, and there was no one there, but I made sure everything was locked, and then I went to bed and I was just like laying there and I was like, but what if there was someone standing there? And then I was like, I had a big window in my room, and I was like, What if there's someone outside that window? I just started to like spiral in my head where I thought there was gonna be someone outside a window if I opened the curtains or the blinds, and I ended up just like scaring the fuck out of myself. That was my story. So you associated so that was the first year, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Uh the first time you saw a stranger was that day.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Oh god.

SPEAKER_01

And we watched it at night, you know, it was around Halloween time because I wanted to watch a scary movie around Halloween.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah. And then, you know, all the weirdos come out around Halloween anyway. So I was just like, but that is a possibility. They do, though, you know, all the extra, you know, people who think it's like they want to reenact they feel safer coming out.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Um, I that makes me miss kind of like the Midwest uh suburbs growing up because like in so many of those neighborhoods, your backyard is someone else's backyard. So if I'm looking at my backyard, it's it's not only my backyard, but then it goes into someone else's backyard and the back of the house of their house. In the back of their house, but it's behind everything. Right. So it it it it like um it's not well lit.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so that's like a scary movie.

SPEAKER_04

Really dark at night. And so, you know, like uh take the uh stranger, for example, when you look into the backyard through that sliding glass door they had, it's yeah, uh that was very much like any.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, someone could be like standing right there.

SPEAKER_04

They could be, yeah. The yeah, the I think that's what it is when you're in the back of your outside your house or looking out a window in the backyard at night, there can be someone standing ten feet away in the middle of your yard who could see you in your window, you know, washing your dishes.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

That that's a scary thought.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Even like nowadays, because like in my kitchen, you can like I have like a window, and I usually like to keep it like somewhat open. Yeah. Maybe I shouldn't say this one here. But you know, you can see there's like this one particular house that I can see from my kitchen. And I always think like, you know, I look out there occasionally, but like if I'm washing dish dishes, or like I always love to cook, so I'm cooking, you know, every other day. I'm like, maybe I should close the blinds because what if someone's watching me? Not that I'm that interesting to watch, but you know, you never know. So then I end up closing it because I think about it to myself, like, what if someone's like watching me? I don't know. I scare myself.

SPEAKER_04

Then what if that person's still watching me and they see me close the blinds? So then they're like, oh, he's he's afraid.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

He's afraid I I should go in.

SPEAKER_01

No, don't say that. Oh, what's wrong with you?

SPEAKER_04

Oh. Am I scaring you? Yes. Yes. Um I wrote down uh Halloween, or so my favorite scary movies. And yeah, when I say Halloween, it's my favorite scary movie that like the same way um a Christmas story, you know, the movie A Christmas Story is just something you have on during Christmas because it's festive.

SPEAKER_01

Um it puts you in the mood.

SPEAKER_04

In the case of Halloween, the soundtrack is so you know what? I was thinking about the power of a soundtrack because I was watching Halloween 2 on Peacock, and like it's just like it's just like all the other uh Halloween sequels, like the quality just got shitty and reduced and watered down. Um I I I was watching it and the soundtrack was not like the same as the original, it was like a different version. I I I I don't know if it was copyright stuff or whatever.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, maybe it's like some weird licensing thing that ran out.

SPEAKER_04

Yes. The point being, I'm watching it and I'm not watching a Halloween movie.

SPEAKER_01

It's oh it's like took you out of the space of Halloween.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, so when you really do see Halloween, Mike Myers, it's just another mass killer uh uh slasher film, but that soundtrack affected people in a certain way. Yeah, really was good, and I think perhaps a time period, and plus uh uh Jamie Lee Curtis ended up having a career. Yeah, so there's that as well. Um moving on from that. Uh Scream.

SPEAKER_01

That was on my list.

SPEAKER_04

That's on your list? Okay. Um Ring.

SPEAKER_01

That one that movie scared me when I was little. But now I've re-watched it as an adult. It I didn't think it was that scary. But I when I was a kid, I remember I I had to go like sleep in like my parents' room because I guess.

SPEAKER_04

Well, special effects from when uh you were 10 are just not don't appear the same now.

SPEAKER_01

No, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Unfortunately, and it just kind of makes it like, oh, like like that looked badass in 03.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, like yeah, like when I you know, when I was 10 too, I couldn't really differ differentiate,

Backyards, Windows, and Night Dread

SPEAKER_01

you know.

SPEAKER_04

You're probably not as picky about that anyways. You're not as yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Like I was just like, that's scary. But now I've watched it and I'm like, okay, like it's creepy.

SPEAKER_04

We're not nitpick. Yeah, we're not. I guess you get older, you just become more of a nitpicky douchebag.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I'm just like, well, that's not that's not real. That could never happen.

SPEAKER_04

Find what's wrong with things because you know right interesting. Um uh The Ring, okay. Uh The Grudge.

SPEAKER_01

That one I was like meh as a kid too. Okay. And as an adult, I'm even more meh.

SPEAKER_04

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um I just I guess I never really got into the story.

SPEAKER_04

Uh uh backpaddling to the ring. That that was one of the top five things that disturbed me as far as like my brain was not ready to take in the image of the girl in the closet when the mom was like, help me. I saw her face. And it cuts to the and it had that music in the ring that was like, yeah. There was like a scratching, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it just made you uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_04

I'm sure it sounds a lot worse than what than how I just did it. You should put that in like I'm gonna direct my own horror film, Emily, and you watch it and and you see these scary sounds. That was Michael going um grudge. I thought that girl scared the fuck out of me, the one who was crawling and she made the noise. Uh The Others with Nicole Kidman?

SPEAKER_01

I didn't like that one.

SPEAKER_04

I thought it was stylish.

SPEAKER_01

Um, I guess I can appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04

Like it like at least the intent?

SPEAKER_01

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Because it wasn't a gore porn, it was um Yeah, it was just like I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

I was just kind of like I watched- Did you predict it?

SPEAKER_04

Did you you predicted that they're the ghost the whole time? Yeah. Well, I didn't, okay.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah, that one was just kind of like whatever for me.

SPEAKER_04

Um Well, I just watched I guess I'm not good at predicting because I just watched Psycho and I thought like like the mom was a killer the whole time.

SPEAKER_00

Wait, the one from like the 60s?

SPEAKER_04

1960, yeah. I just watched it recently. I loved it. But like you haven't I wasn't, I did not know that you had no spoilers this whole time. I didn't. I I remember hearing about the Bates Motel and Norman Bates. Um, but no, I'm watching Psycho and I'm like, oh, this sweet kid has his scary mom.

SPEAKER_01

How did you live your entire life without spoilers?

SPEAKER_04

I mean, is it is this a bad thing? I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you did get mad at me last week because you were wanting to talk about or you wanted to see weapons, and I was like, oh yeah, I know what happened at the end. You're like, you're such a dork. Why do you know that? Yeah, dork, yeah. Well, because I didn't look it up. I saw it on TikTok because I live on TikTok and it was fed to me, and then I was like, uh, whatever. I'm not gonna tell you. No, you didn't. I appreciate it. I still might work.

SPEAKER_04

See that one. Um, so the others, okay. Um, Event Horizon, we Yeah, we talked about that.

SPEAKER_01

I can't remember if I've seen it. I need to you said it was on Peacock?

SPEAKER_04

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, I'll watch it and see because it I looked at the cast and like the pictures of it, like the like ones they put up for like billboards or whatever. It looked familiar, but I told you if I'd seen it, it was a long time ago, and it had to have been on TV because I don't remember being like sucked into it. Okay. So I think I just need to like watch it to see if like anything clicks.

SPEAKER_04

I found it terrifying when I watched it.

SPEAKER_01

Then I'll have to watch that.

SPEAKER_04

Um Damien, the devil's son.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, um Rosemary's Baby. Is that the same? Is that Damien?

SPEAKER_04

This one I'm thinking of is like the 1970s.

Soundtracks that Make Horror Work

SPEAKER_04

And it's like like the uh church music whenever you light something on fire, like the deuce, Dobby Deuce. Um what was your list? Did you have one?

SPEAKER_01

Okay, I had Scream because I love Scream.

SPEAKER_04

Um I want to stop on that Scream. That might be because I want to talk about because not there's like great lines and moments that expose our fear um in some more than others, and it's always interesting, like why. Like, for example, that was so original in Scream. Uh like your name. He asked your name. Uh, why do you want to know my name? Because I want to know who I'm looking at.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. That's very um uh yeah, that's very like strangers, where it's just like, yeah, you know, where you we're like, oh my god, someone's watching me.

SPEAKER_04

So it's like, yeah, he's been watching me this whole time, and that's very it's a very scary way of finding out and it getting revealed to the audience. Yeah. I I recall my dad hearing that line, like a trailer or something, and be like, oh my god. Like, yeah, all people hear that and they're affected.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

So screams is solid. Yeah, I think that's like it starts off with a phone call, which I think is so bold. Like, like the opening black, like, like, like, like the fade in is the phone call.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And it's the one scene with Drew Barrymore, which is kind of cool. Like, she just did that.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I also, I mean, not that I saw it when it first came out because I was like a baby, but I was reading about it and it they said that they wanted to like confuse the audience, so they put Drew Barrymore at the front of all of their posters and their like the billing credits and this and that, and then they killed her off first, so that way the audience was like, Wait, what the hell? We thought she was the main character. That and then it you know flipped around and you got to see what it actually was. But I thought that was pretty cool marketing techniques, you know. Ones I read about because I was a child. I took me a long time to even be able to watch that movie because my mom was so strict about what I could or couldn't watch. Yeah, it was so annoying. She was yes, like she was strict about everything. That's why I grew up and became this.

SPEAKER_04

Got it.

SPEAKER_01

Um, okay. I put the final destination movies.

SPEAKER_04

I never saw those.

SPEAKER_01

What?

SPEAKER_04

None of them.

SPEAKER_01

None?

SPEAKER_04

I just isn't it like um I can't tell you now because weird shit happens that's like a pattern, like.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so okay, I'll just give you like a very quick premises, and then I think it's on premises. Premises. Yes. Whatever. I'll give you a quick

Scream’s Opening and Smart Marketing

SPEAKER_01

synopsis of it. And I think they're on HBO Max, I think. Okay. I'll look it up. But at least you have to see the first one. The first, second are amazing, the third one's good. Don't watch the fourth one. The fifth one's a surprising one.

SPEAKER_04

How many of them?

SPEAKER_01

There's six. And the sixth one just came out, and I was like, we have to go see that in the theaters. It was good.

SPEAKER_06

Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so the synopsis of basically all the movies is like the main characters, it's like usually like a group of like, let's say, six survive some disaster. So the first one, the first movie was they this entire high school class was gonna go, or like their French class was gonna go to Paris. Someone, one of the main characters has a premonition that the plane is gonna explode, uh like after takeoff. So he freaks out, people get off the plane because he's flipping out, and some people get scared, some people get kicked off the plane. So these six people stay like on at the airport, they plane takes off and it explodes. They were supposed to die in that disaster, and they didn't, so they fucked up death's plan. So now death is coming after each one of them. So and that's the pattern.

SPEAKER_03

That's a that's a cool premise.

SPEAKER_01

See?

SPEAKER_03

That's original.

SPEAKER_01

And you've lived your entire life without spoilers, so that's all I'm gonna say. See? See? So yeah, you have to watch. I mean, yeah, you have to watch it.

SPEAKER_04

How about signs?

SPEAKER_01

I didn't think that was scary either.

SPEAKER_04

This is rough.

SPEAKER_01

Sorry. I mean, like, she just leaves her little water bottles everywhere, and then that's the key to getting rid of the aliens. Like, come on. She's just a messy child.

SPEAKER_04

More to it than that.

SPEAKER_01

She just leaves her water bottles everywhere.

SPEAKER_00

Like, I'm a all these kids do that. I used to do that all the time.

SPEAKER_04

It was um I like how I'm I'm talking like this is like a lecture that I have prepped, but I'm pulling this out of my ass as I go. Yeah. It's just like he thought his life was going this way, and it turns out it all led to that one moment where things his dying wife said, and things that are seen as signs inconveniences actually helped them all survive.

SPEAKER_02

That was not worthy of this. That was not worthy of this movement to this movie. You saw the face I made that like a disappointment.

SPEAKER_01

I just I didn't think it was that great of a movie. And then like the reveal of the alien. My head's down that I know that Joaquin Phoenix is like, oh my god. I don't know. I just I maybe I just thought it was cheesy. Okay, what about the it movies? Did okay. I'm uh I've seen the original, which was like made for TV movies. I didn't think those were scary. Sorry.

SPEAKER_04

The original, I've seen some of it.

SPEAKER_01

Don't bother.

SPEAKER_04

Like the sorry, like it's real long. Um that clown kind of has like a he kind of has he kind of has like a smoker's voice.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and it's um Tim Curry, I think, who plays him. Anyway, but I'm talking about the new ones. Have you seen those?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, the first one was 2017.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um I think they were both pre-pandemic.

SPEAKER_04

Yes. Yeah. Uh I've seen some of the second one.

SPEAKER_01

You gotta see the whole thing.

SPEAKER_04

I saw all the first one. No, I thought it was terrifying. It was really good.

SPEAKER_01

The second one's good too.

SPEAKER_04

Um, the second one, that opening scene.

Final Destination Pitch and Signs Debate

SPEAKER_04

That me Yeah, it's not uh what messes me, you know. Um I'll tell you what messes me up. Um, unfair fights. Unfair. Like be a man, a one-on-one. Uh don't get too excessive. Like if you win and everybody goes home. That's like a code. It's honor. Um when it's violated in that manner. It it just yeah, I I get like emotional with I really hate that shit.

SPEAKER_01

Just skip the opening scene. Well, the rest of it's kind of an unfair fight too, because they're fighting a clown.

SPEAKER_04

Well, yeah, and the guy that yeah, and the guy that even yeah, yeah, the clown. Um uh okay. I will put then I'll give you it two. I'll skip through that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, just skip past the first, like, I don't know, 10-ish minutes.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um, let's see, what else?

SPEAKER_04

Um horror movies that we hated?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

I have a list there when we go.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you go first.

SPEAKER_04

Um, not the original saw, because that was cool how they did that.

SPEAKER_01

But every single one of them.

SPEAKER_04

When they get carried away with the gore porn shit where it's like you're putting how painful and brutal can we make something from a creative standpoint that overrides our creativity from a story telling storytelling standpoint. That's it's lazy, it's kind of like a Rob Zombie shit. Like in some of his movies, there's some it's just like excessively brutal to points like uh tasteless. Yeah. Um, so that aspect, like like the one saw where the guy was in like the rack and his arm is broken, leg broken, leg broken, arm broken. Uh yeah. Oh, one at a time.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so off of that, what about the hostile movies? Same. You're not into that. Same. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

My my same approach. My psycho, my psycho ex was into those. The one, you know. Um, she liked hostile. And actually, those Halloween horror stories on YouTube, I discovered through her. She would use those a little bit.

SPEAKER_00

I'm glad she left you with something.

SPEAKER_04

She would use those as like her white noise to like sleep peacefully. Like she'd fall asleep to haunted horror stories.

SPEAKER_01

She sounds like a peach.

SPEAKER_04

Peach.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

So peachy. So light and peachy and freshy. And she's hugging the trees. Anyways. Yeah. Oh, she's hugging the dead trees. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

She's doing something of the trees.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. Um, so so Saw, don't like? Okay. Um Amityville horror.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. The new ones or the Any of them.

SPEAKER_04

They all let me down. Um the story in itself is pretty interesting.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, be because it's based off of true events, quote unquote, that's what kind of makes it like a little more chilling.

SPEAKER_04

But uh that goes into kind of what we might talk about, which is like our want.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

We want, like, okay, I want it to be engaging and good because in my mind this really happens. So I want them to capture it. So don't give me a reason to like like cringe. But uh, because I want to support you guys. It really is that. You know what I mean? Like, I like like help me help you. Like, I want you to scare me.

SPEAKER_05

Right.

SPEAKER_04

You know, I I want this experience to happen, you know, or like, you know, I want you to ask me out if I send you a text about a glute massage or you know.

SPEAKER_01

That would be nice. Things like, you know, for example.

unknown

Go.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. All right. I'm kind of with you with the gore for the sake of gore. I was telling you about this the other day. I did not like the terrifier movies. I had to turn the I've seen that. I saw the first two, like, I don't know, a while back. Anyway, I because we were on this horror kick, we wanted to he we put on another scary movie, and that was the movie that he chose because

IT, Unfair Fights, and Boundaries

SPEAKER_01

I got to choose the changers. And he ended up on his phone, and I ended up just turning it off because I was like, I'm bored. There's no plot line. And if there was a big one.

SPEAKER_04

I didn't care.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, he was just like, at the end, like I looked over and I was like, he's playing a game on his phone. I'm like, you didn't even watch, you're not watching the movie that we picked or that you picked, so I'm turning it off because you're not invested, and I really don't want to watch this. And he was like, okay. Like he didn't care. He wasn't like, no way. He was just like, all right, whatever. It was just like, if there was a plot, I didn't catch it. If there was a plot, there was nothing going on. It was just like this guy who like, you know, clowns are kind of creepy. They're not like my biggest fear.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But you know, so if if I saw one dress like that coming at me, I'd be afraid. But it just, I was just standing outside your window.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Shut up.

SPEAKER_01

But yeah, I was it would creep me out. Oh, okay. Here. I had this question. I don't know if I put it on the thing. Um, what's a movie that is not a horror movie, but should be?

SPEAKER_04

You put it on there. Did I? Okay. Yeah. Any live action puppet movie from the 80s. Those are fucking movies.

SPEAKER_03

You don't like puppets?

SPEAKER_04

I don't know. Uh no, I like them, but when it's um I'm talking about uh in per perhaps we can Um I'm talking about perhaps we can post a picture little video for context, but um because it might be a little outdated for some of you kids. Uh Garbage Pale Kids was like a I think a it was like a series of movies in the 80s and they or show I I I I I don't know. Like it might have been kind of before me too, but it was called Garbage Pale Kids and they had these baseball cards and and they had these movies, but the movies were like live action. It wasn't it wasn't cartoons, so it was uh actual like they used puppets. And these puppets were just fucking terrifying.

SPEAKER_01

But okay, but like you're not scared of like you know, Sesame Street or the Muppets. No, okay um uh this movie was not Was it meant for kids?

SPEAKER_04

It wasn't meant to be no, it is, which is the point. Like, like like it's not meant to be a horror film, which makes it kind of frightening.

SPEAKER_01

Right. They were just creepy ass looking puppets, yeah. Um uh I wish I could describe it better, but I'll have to I'll look it up and then I'll put it on Instagram stories.

SPEAKER_04

Those old live action puppet films can be creepy to me. Um, Edward Scissorhands had some moments that scared me for sure as a kid. That's kind of a creepy um but looking back on it, I think it's good it's scared me because I mean, like it it was like it's Tim Burton, it's like uh stylistically fear-induced. Yeah. Um I thought it was cool how it scared me because it was really creative, but like the music, and when when she went up the first time in the dark castle and she's on the second floor, she sees him in the corner, and he's making these noises with his hands. He's walking toward her and his blank face. I remember being pretty uh I remember being kind of scared by that. And the burbs.

Gore vs Story: Saw, Hostel, Terrifier

SPEAKER_04

The burbs with Tom Hanks.

SPEAKER_00

I don't think I've ever seen that.

SPEAKER_04

Oh uh, 1988. He lives in the suburbs, and he's married to uh Carrie Fisher, and he's just a guy who who lives in the suburbs, and he he thinks there's something going on in in the neighborhood with these new neighbors.

SPEAKER_05

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

Um, so they start to uh conspire to figure out what's going on with these neighbors. It's really good, actually. It's like very underrated.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

The burbs. How about you?

SPEAKER_01

Okay, I kind of it's because I saw it on a clip of it on TikTok, of course. Um and it was more of like I think my personal fears right now. Uh cheaper by the dozen, because I can't imagine being around that many kids at one time.

SPEAKER_04

I didn't see it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it was like forever ago. It came out like when I was a kid, but it was about like these parents who had 12 kids. Who the hell wants 12 kids?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That sounds terrible. Ugh. And I would hate to grow up in that family.

SPEAKER_04

Like it's not a horror film? What is it?

SPEAKER_01

Like a like a family fun film.

SPEAKER_04

12 kids. I'm like, that's not a scary film. What is it?

SPEAKER_01

It's it was a family fun film, but I was just like that.

SPEAKER_04

12?

SPEAKER_01

12 yeah, that's why it's called Cheaper by the Dozen.

SPEAKER_04

And she has them? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Like she had Yeah, they had like biologically 12 children. I mean, the the oldest kid he was played by Tom Welling. He was so cute. Um, so I enjoyed the movie for that reason when I was a kid, but yeah, that sounds terrible. Sounds like a horror movie.

SPEAKER_04

Do you know the age gap?

SPEAKER_01

Like I think well, the oldest one I think was like, I don't know, like a senior in high school, let's say. Okay. And then the youngest was like I don't know, two. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

That's they they space them out.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but they I mean there was 12 of them. Like, okay, young Hilary Duff was one of the kids. So it's like it sounds like forever ago.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Uh 18 years in a row, like being pregnant most of the time.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that sounds like a horror.

SPEAKER_04

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's all I had.

SPEAKER_04

Got it, yeah. Yeah. Um, if I did answer um if you could be in a horror film.

SPEAKER_01

Oh yeah, yeah. What kind of m horror movie, scary movie would you want to be in?

SPEAKER_04

Um yeah, this is exciting. Um, I would want to be like in a one that's like poorly written and it's so bad it's good because we really are trying to be scared and we're trying to scare the audience and do this, but we're failing so bad at it that you start to enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01

Um Do you have like an example?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, um, me and my girlfriend at the time, we were watching, it was a couple years ago. It was some streaming platform, some like Tubi. Yeah, like it's one of those. Uh it was called Dark Windows. Dark Windows. It was basically in I Know What You Did last summer, but now modern times, and it was four teenagers, uh like the acting's very weak, of course. Um, and their friend had died in a drunk driving accident, and so the movie starts that their friend's already dead, and they're at the funeral, like, oh, and sad, and the dad shows up who's a bad actor, and he's just he's trying to be psycho looking, like, where was she? Like, what happened to my journey? You know, and so people start getting killed throughout, and there's these jump scares that are so cliche, Emily. There's like nine separate takes where they're in the house where you just see a shadow walking across in the background. It's just so like, oh, there it is. It's like that there it goes. It's just like you can almost see the people making the movie, and they're like, every five minutes, okay, uh, like nothing scary has happened yet. Let's do it. Um, so it turns out the father of the dead daughter finds out that it was them. Uh uh they're the reason his daughter is dead because he the killer. So he's the killer. And um how it's revealed, he just comes into the house out of nowhere and proceeds to beat the shit out of this girl for about two minutes straight with his bare knuckles, like punches landing. Like, yeah, it's like it's tasteless.

SPEAKER_00

And then you just said you hate those movies.

SPEAKER_04

Um, no, no, no. Like it's enjoyably bad.

SPEAKER_00

Like it's and that's the movie

Non-Horror That Feels Horrific

SPEAKER_00

you want to be in?

SPEAKER_04

I would want to because I know the joy that guy brought to me because he was so bad. Like he he made me laugh so hard, and then I'm not done. And then he gets them all in a room, and the guy of the group, he's the party guy.

SPEAKER_00

The jock.

SPEAKER_04

Uh, how he no, he's more the like the skater emo.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

Um, but he he he's the fun one of the group, and they're all just bad. Um, the fucking puts a plastic sack around his head, so it's like this like a plastic sack over his head, and he's got a bottle of vodka doing the whole you killed my daughter, so now I drown you in alcohol. Fucking pours alcohol up to his head and just drowns him in front of his friends as they're just screaming. And the third girl, he just uh breaks her neck viciously. Yeah, it's bad. I'll I'll show you.

SPEAKER_01

So, who do you want to be in this movie? Where are you where are you casting yourself? No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00

Do you guys want to be the guy who is drowned in vodka or do you want to be the killer?

SPEAKER_04

Oh, yeah. I didn't think about that one. Um, I wouldn't want to be in that one. Um I I would want to be in something as bad as that.

SPEAKER_06

Right.

SPEAKER_04

But how bad is something I would like to kind of veer? I would want to have creative control, but there's nothing.

SPEAKER_01

So you want to be the director?

SPEAKER_04

Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

Um who would I be in a horror film?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

One of two things. One is I would be the character who you use me to highlight how strong and powerful the killer is.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. So early in the- Like he took that guy down, he can take us all down.

SPEAKER_04

Exactly. Uh early on in the movie, you establish me as the jock in the strong one. I do something, whatever, and then um I encounter the mass killer early on, and he manhandles me. So it makes you think, oh shit, we we gotta. So there's that. Two is I would just be the killer.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, just a mass all this repressed anger.

SPEAKER_04

Like I wouldn't get any FaceTime, but whatever. It's a it's a check.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

I would have great mannerisms though, you know, and turn my head to the side. Which is every well, that's all you can do if you're an actor in a mask, is like, what can I do that's creative? Oh, I'll turn my head to the side.

SPEAKER_01

And you have to have like a distinctive walk.

SPEAKER_04

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

I think my walk is pretty obvious, and it's not it's not scary looking.

SPEAKER_01

You'd have to change it up a little bit.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Oh so do you would you survive your scary movie?

SPEAKER_04

No.

SPEAKER_01

They kill you at the end?

SPEAKER_04

Uh be probably I'd be one of the first ones.

SPEAKER_01

I think I'd be like, Did you ever see um Cabin in the Woods?

SPEAKER_04

No.

SPEAKER_01

Crap, I don't want to give it away then. Um dang it.

SPEAKER_04

I'm familiar with it.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Um, so it's uh okay, I'm trying to explain it to you without like giving it away because I want you to watch it. So it's like kind of following, like they have like the scary movie like tropes. So like they have, you know, like the whore, they have the jock, they have the nerd, they have the party guy slash stoner, and then they have the virgin final girl. So those are like the tropes of the movie. Yeah. So you'd be like, you'd want to be like the jock guy who's like he was and he was played by Chris Hemsworth,

Killer Dolls, Goosebumps, and Slappy

SPEAKER_01

just to make you feel better.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah, we're the same. Yeah. Um, I would have no, yeah. I mean, in that category, I would either be the jock. Um if it's a Chris type, I probably wouldn't. I probably would not be in that category, so I'd probably so they probably put a mask on me. Okay. How funny that you're on uh him? Oh, put a mask on him. God. Um I wrote something else down. Um I would also like to be in a movie where it's a killer doll.

SPEAKER_01

No, I don't like it. I get fired though.

SPEAKER_04

I get fired because in each of those scenes I would just kick the shit out of the doll. My way of saying this is so stupid.

SPEAKER_01

I don't like the all I have to do is kick it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Hey, I'm with you though. Um, if I watch Child's Play.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, Chucky doesn't bother me because they think they're dumb. I'm talking about Annabelle.

SPEAKER_04

You're not helping. Sorry. See, like I thought we had a for like for a second there, I thought we had our first mind meld. Yeah, I'm with you on the doll. I'm like, no, no, no, I'm not scared of Chucky.

SPEAKER_01

I'm not scared of Chucky. Chucky and his bride. What is your name?

SPEAKER_04

Chucky and his bride. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I don't think they're scary. I was talking more about like Annabelle, or you know what scared me when I was a kid was um those it was uh blah blah blah blah can't talk. The Goosebumps movies. Did you ever see those? They might have been like when I was a kid, so it might be like when you're at Be Will. Yeah, you're in for a scare. I don't yeah, maybe. But there was this one, not all of them. I'm talking about one specific one. It was called it was like Slappy the Dummy. That one, I did not look him up right now.

SPEAKER_04

Slappy the dummy?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I didn't like him. That specific episode I did not like. Oh, and I don't like doll.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, there oh, yep, yep. That's exactly what I thought.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, oh god. I didn't like him.

SPEAKER_04

That bothers me.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, he's scary. Um and he had like this creepy voice, and he went, ha ha ha ha ha ha.

SPEAKER_04

And when he laughed, it was like uh I find it more scary than the Chucky face because uh uh Chucky ha has expressions like eyes, grimace.

SPEAKER_01

He's like a little person.

SPEAKER_04

Like the nose curls up, but with with these dummies, when it's like talking, it's just the same blank face.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

He was scary, and like a I'd also like to be in a period piece, like a sleepy hollow Tim Burton type. I would I I just think uh it'd be fun to like it's the makeup and the period piece and the accents, I think it'd be fun. The costumes and costumes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So you are a costume collector.

SPEAKER_04

I did tell her that, yeah. She said it, not me. As a kid, uh I had uh a club. Well, it was just me and one or two other people. It was always ongoing with people getting fired and rehired, but it was generally the same three people. Um, it was called the Supernatural Club, and it was just based on these movies I would see like the Monster Squad, whereas it was kids who formed their own club to uh fight ghosts or fight

Roles We’d Play in a Horror Movie

SPEAKER_04

monsters.

SPEAKER_01

In this case, like a Scooby-Doo gang?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah. Um a little a little more serious than that, but um a little more professional. Um, but it never got off the ground. Like, like we never got the financial backing.

SPEAKER_00

It's really professional, but we never did it at all.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it's really professional, except um all we did hiring people, except all we did was plan with no execution, yeah, no tree house. Really, okay, really all our meetings was us designing our headquarters, which would be the treehouse.

SPEAKER_00

How old were you?

SPEAKER_04

Oh, fourth grade.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

20. That's what I was waiting for. You're gonna be like, oh, like 20, 21, 22.

SPEAKER_04

But I was just Emily, I was just starved to be like a ghost detective. Like, I thought I found things that were cool. Like I would like spell words backwards and be like, huh, that's interesting. Like mummy spelled backward is like uh yum yum? Yum mum. Like, yum, he's hungry, he's eating something. Like it was so like yeah, like it it in my mind is like a smoking gun. Like, you know, you might as well give me a pipe. Like Sherlock Michael, like, hmm, oh, my partner in the supernatural club.

SPEAKER_00

My uh is he as cool as you?

unknown

No.

SPEAKER_04

Uh no way. I think he made shit up. Uh his name is Vaughn Hayes. And well, I'm calling him stupid, but I'm the one who believed his stories because I was gullible, but I wanted to believe it.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

His uh first ghost story was and they were pretty lazy. Looking back, I think he just pulled it out of his ass right then and there to get me to join the ghost club because he's saying he he was talking about ghosts in his neighborhood, and he said, Michael, I was outside one night and I was uh I guess he was just taking his dog for a walk or whatever. He was outside at night and he sees a lot like a like a like a ghostly figure on the sidewalk, and he shined it with a flashlight and it went away. Then he took the flashlight off and it went back. Put the flashlight on, went away. Flashlight off, it's there. And I'm thinking, like, oh man. And then he tells me another story. He's he's he's he's got a walk. It was such a lazy ghost story, too, right? Yeah, I believed it. And then he tells me another story that he was dancing in his room in front of a wall, and the shadow was dancing as he was, because that's what shadows do. And he had headphones on and like a walkman. Like, I don't know why they have that visual. And he says, when he stopped dancing.

SPEAKER_00

I feel like I know where this is going. Did the shadow keep dancing?

SPEAKER_02

So those were the two ghost stories you told me. And you I was like, where do I sign up?

SPEAKER_04

Where are these horrible, these horrible ghosts hurting these people, you know?

SPEAKER_00

Um, but you believe anything when you're 20.

SPEAKER_04

My my ghost hunting career was short.

SPEAKER_01

No, short-lived.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

I really wanted that fucking treehouse. It was gonna have like a trapdoor. It's gonna have like two crowds neck. It was gonna I don't know. I didn't get that far.

SPEAKER_00

It sounds like a trapdoor and they just go down hitting all the branches.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, well, why would you have that? Good point. Yeah, these are not developed ideas. Uh, don't uh don't hire me to design buildings. No, I just go above the budget, just dude. No, no, I could talk all day about like if I we all have fun with like if you won the Powerball, mine is a home, and I would tell a home. How how creative. A home. I'm not done though.

The Supernatural Club and Ghost “Evidence”

SPEAKER_04

A home, and I would tell, I would tell the builders make like five secret passages, but don't tell me where they're at.

SPEAKER_00

Like the oh, you want to find yeah, like you want a maze in your own home that you don't know about?

SPEAKER_04

What if they screw with me and just take the money, but don't ever make shit. You haven't found it yet?

unknown

Hmm.

SPEAKER_04

I'm on to them. I'm on to it if it's ever you actually I would figure that. Oh, okay, fine. I'll know where they're at. It would be fun for other people to have to find it though.

SPEAKER_01

It sounds like a place to, you know, be a killer and lure people to your house.

SPEAKER_04

Yep. Pull on the statue arm. Oh, pull the book out.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_04

Um, here's my massage table. Do some deep tissue on the glutes.

SPEAKER_01

But no one's ever in the massage table because you never invite them over.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Okay, so that's pretty much the episode. We dissected as many horror movies as we could, and then I have homework to watch Event Horizon, you have homework to watch Final Destination and Cabin in the Woods.

SPEAKER_04

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01

I'll text you, don't worry.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, I was gonna write it down.

SPEAKER_01

No, I'll send it to you. All right, so where can people find you?

SPEAKER_04

Um Mikey the Hoodie on Instagram. And uh the past six months you could have found me performing improv at Westside Comedy Theater in Hollywood. I'm not an improv team right now. Um, I don't know why I did that.

SPEAKER_01

Basically, he's looking. So if you have an improv team that you want him on, hit him up, Mikey the Huddy on Instagram.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Was that good? Yeah, that's a good tie-in. All right, cool. Yay. Okay, and you can find myself and the podcast on Instagram and TikTok, Emily to Gremlate Pod on both. You can also watch this episode and all past episodes on YouTube, Emily to Gremlate Pod on YouTube. If you have, we didn't do any gremlin stories, gremlin guidance, gremlin gossip today. We just kind of kept it. I mean, I guess your beginning was a little gremlin story-ish. I guess we'll check back later and see how that helps it end.

SPEAKER_04

If I ever like make a move, I might have stories, but it but it's hard to have.

SPEAKER_01

But we're thinking he's probably not gonna make a move, even though I keep telling him to.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, you can't really have stories if you don't make a move. So I'm not even, yeah. I need to create yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Basically check back later. But if you have your own Gremlin Gremlin story, if you need Gremlin guidance, or if you have Gremlin gossip, you can email myself and the podcast, Emily to Gremladepod at gmail.com, and make sure to like, follow, share, subscribe, rate five stars, do all the things, and yeah.

SPEAKER_04

You don't like the movies like a whore genre? I say it like like like a girl version, like I say it like like a mean way, like uh whore, like you dumb whore.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, you say like whore. Yeah, I can't horror.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I don't know the difference. What is it? Whore like what it sounds the same.

SPEAKER_00

Horror. Whore we'll do this later.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. I'm be I'm I'm not I'm not like trying to be like, oh, let me be cute. No, I really am being genuine.

SPEAKER_01

That was so just in case anyone was worried he was calling anyone or myself a whore. Today he wasn't. He was trying to say horror.

SPEAKER_04

No, today I was not.

SPEAKER_01

Today he wasn't. Check back next time and he might be saying the word whore. Thank you for coming. Thanks for sharing your um insights with us.

SPEAKER_04

There's a lot of fun shit, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

All right, let's cheers out.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, cheers.

SPEAKER_01

Cheers. Bye. Thank you. Cheers.