The Feinics Gate Podcast - Issue 171 - Reality Got Weird So Horror Got Better

0:05 Ladies, now it's Showtime. Let's show them we can rise from Ash Jane Lavender. And. Scarlet Phoenix power, so can the. River. Rise.

0:19 They tried to ban us with one like the flower. They didn't know we had a Phoenix's.

0:32 Power Phoenix. Power, What's up everybody? It's your girl, Jade Phoenix. I'm back. How you doing? And I got a full house today. I got both of my crew with me and it's amazing. And coming back from a 2. Was it 2 weeks hiatus? I would say about two weeks. We have lavender, I think. That's cool, yeah. When I was bored. I want all the viewers to know that I'm clean waving, you know? Like doing the little, the little, the little small like. The Princess Princess Bride wave.

1:09 Much better. Visual Princess Bride wave. OK. And then if you can't tell, if you can't tell, Crimson's here too.

1:22 What's up, buddy? How's it going, everyone? I'm doing good. I'm doing good. How are you? Yeah, I'm OK. I mean, you know, it's the week is weakened. That is true. A week says week. It it it is officially. I can't leave the house without sunblock Weather. The sun is amazing. The sun wants to kill me. It wants to. Hurt me. That tells me that it's great weather. For you, for me, for you. You. You tan. I do not. You see, I live in that like almost like self flagellation kind of experience where I love that sun, but the sun doesn't love me.

2:15 That's abuse. It is that's so I'm so excited to be outside and I will do anything to be outside in this type of weather. However, my poor skin doesn't always love it and no matter how much sunblock I put on, I still get sunburned. I I even got a little sunburned a couple of weeks ago so. How? Do we get that? I do, but I I love it. OK, I can't help it. Prime. Example And this, this is how this is how the Phoenix nation will know how pale your girl Jade is. I'm translucent. I got a minor sunburn already driving home from New Jersey on Monday morning.

3:06 I was in my car. I was in my car and I got a sucker. Stoned through. Dude that. That's hilarious. What the fuck? I get out and my shoulders are like, I'm like, ow, why does my skin hurt on my shoulders? I look in the mirror, my shoulders are red. I'm like, I was in my car. I wasn't even out in the direct sunlight. What the? Fuck. It's not even it's not even full on summer. No, it's. Not so funny that you say that because I was talking to Ralph and he was like, it's just skip spring. Nothing happened in the middle.

3:51 It just went from like 40° and 90 and I can't do it. No, on top of on top of that. I was like sitting there like, and I'm the weirdo who's like, please bring it on. Give me that son. I don't care. Well, actually, you know, I mentally care because like the environment, but. I do love. More weather and it makes me feel just a little bit better, especially with how the week's been weak. Yeah. And then on top of everything else, like it's an El Nino year. Like and I'm sorry anytime I hear the El Nino, all I can think of back is to the Chris Farley skit of of him being dressed in like a mariachi kind of like hoochie shirt and just going.

4:42 I, I am a Nino that is Spanish for the Nino and I can't I can. I'm sorry that lives in my brain. I will never not think of or hear that exact fucking sound bite in my head whenever someone goes, oh, it's an El Nino year. It's going to be really hot out the Nino. I can't sorry. I will not apologize. RIP Chris fucking Farley. We love Chris Farley in this fucking house. Yep, like prime example, I had to run around today outside in the real world. I put on sunscreen and I am very fucking glad that I did because Diginan did not and he already got darker.

5:30 I'm looking at him. I'm like, I hate you, how dare you be able to tan. I did not get it must be nice. I did not get the Italian side of those jeans, so here we are. No, it looks. Like it's more Irish than that so. I am. I am definitely. Irish, the big thing Crimson is there's also black Irish. So some Irish people, 10 tan. And for example, my brother, he's like that. Like he goes in the sun. Like, my mom calls him Brown Bonnet because he gets like, yeah, because like, like the old ice cream treat, because he gets like, so tan and like everyone else in my family and tan, I'm the only one who can.

6:28 And it was so sad. And the only time I could tan was when I lived in Florida. But that was because my body was, like, getting used to Florida weather. Because at that point, I've been, I've been there like almost two years. Yeah, but you built up a skin tolerance. Exactly. So instead of my skin just like getting red and going back to white, it got like slightly less pale. So I have a little bit of that now, but I keep wondering like maybe maybe if the spicy cough did not happen, I would have been able to say that.

7:06 Spicy cough. I'm telling you. I like that. The, the, yeah, the spicy cough, you know, kind of. I already like we're talking about your girl is so translucent she's gotten an actual sunburn from a full moon. Yes, I remember. That I remember that. I think you were you mentioning that? Yep. It it, it everybody's like, no, you didn't. No, I actually did. And it was and. It. It, it, it, it has happened. Everybody's like how I'm like, I don't fucking know. But it did. So a lot of people think it was Windburn, I think.

7:42 It was both. Either way, my skin burned and I was uncomfortable. And fuck all of you who know how who have melanin. I have none. I like everybody goes Oh well do do you freckle? No I don't. I actually literally don't freckle either, which is a blessing and a curse because I think freckles would look really cute. I don't freckle well, like I don't get them on my face. I get them all over every other part of my body. I don't. I used to get freckles on my face as a kid. I don't anymore. Right. It's like I, I have some of them like really light ones if you look like really, really close, but like I don't really freckle on my face.

8:25 It's literally all over. It's mainly on my legs and arms. And there's this very funny story. Well I literally got a really bad sunburn maybe like a few years ago and now perpetually that one side of my leg has like 1,000,000 freckles and like the other side has nothing. That's fine, no? People will like point it out and be like what happened there and I'm like. Do you notice? Do you notice? How do you notice how Crimson is staying curiously silent? Because Crimson has melanin.

9:01 Crimson and Diane. Crimson can turn a very lovely brown. Listen. Listen. Listen. OK, Navi. I got no comment. Yeah, yeah, because you're in your head, you're going, yeah, I'm going to look hot, going to be all brown and shit. And we all going to be jealous of you. Yes, very much so. Very much the jealousy of. This very Jelly. Very Jelly of the tan skin. Very Jelly of the tan skin. But honestly, you know what, Phoenix Nation, if you want you, if you're not already following us on our social media, you should be.

9:46 Because how about we do a little experimentation and we post pictures of how we look in May versus pictures of how we look in August? That'll be hilarious because like, let's just be realistic, me and Jade will look exactly the same, I might be slightly less white, and then you'll just have Crimson. Tan. Just looking straight Puerto Rican. Yes. Well, would you? I could. Would you? Oh, I could. Would you look Puerto Rican or would you look Portuguese? Oh no, I can. I can definitely. If I if I, I'll say this if I shave my entire beard.

10:32 Don't you dare. And maybe leave a little bit on the chin. Just a little bit. Yes, I could definitely look Puerto Rican. Nah. I'm good. Don't do that, your glorious beard. Never. You do not sacrifice it just to prove a point. Oh no, of course not. No, but I'm just saying I could. The. Problem is, I'd be petty enough to do such a thing. You know what? Valid. Absolutely valid. I am very much a petty being and I will find ways to be petty, especially in crazy whirlwind situations that one cannot control.

11:14 I do not. If it were me. I would do it. Listen, I'm not going to sit here and say that you should or that you shouldn't. I'm just going to sit here and say I wish you well because I can't. I have tried for years to tan even like everybody goes, oh, does this fake tan work on you? No, it doesn't. And everybody's like how I'm like because I don't look natural. Yes, that's what I tell people all the time, 'cause they're like, oh, why don't you put like a sun drop or whatever that stuff is called? And I'm like, because then I literally look like a crayon.

11:57 Yeah, it doesn't look normal. It does not look normal. My skin. Is so. Colored on me thank you it my skin is so pale that even if I got the lightest setting of a self tan or or a spray tan I'd still look weird. I think people forget that like our like not even just to ourselves, we look weird, but it's like, I feel like naturally people's bodies, like all of our features are inherently made to like complement each other. So when you're somebody that naturally does not can, it's just like, it's almost like it throws off the entire equilibrium of what you look like, right, If you try to do something.

12:44 God like if imagine if I ever was able to find something that would actually make my skin look a beautiful tan, all of you would lose your fucking minds. Of the window. All of you would just. Be I would be. I don't know why I feel like it would just it, it would just it, it just wouldn't fit. I don't know why. No, I'm just like what the fuck? You literally it honestly and and this is if I ever tried to tan it would look like I was doing blackface. Oh my God. It would. It would even if I get the wrong concealer that is just a shade too dark on my skin.

13:24 I look crazy it. Was like, you know, like in the early 2000s when we, when everyone was wearing like concealer that was like 5 shades, not their shade. Not me, I didn't do that. I was a goth child in the early 2000s and I went paler like I found foundation that made me look white like talk. So no, not me, but you know, if you guys aren't following us on all of our social medias, why not? We have so much fun shit that goes there. Plenty of interviews that have been that have been going out on our YouTube and on our Instagrams.

14:03 Announcements on where the Phoenix gates going to be next and amazing news in Phoenix gate. Plethora I guess would be the right word. Yeah, I'm going to go with Plethora. Walmart. Is we now have a Shopify where you can go and buy Phoenix Gate merch, Phoenix Gate custom creations and on top of that we have a pre release going on right now for the new Magic the Gathering Marvel heroes that's dropping at the end of June. Yeah, we do. And we're gonna have The Hobbit the, the, the new one coming out after that, The Hobbit after that.

14:42 So yeah. And oh, did I mention that I also have the new Pokémon 'cause I do. So you guys should go check out my Shopify. I'm gonna put it in all the link trees on all of our socials. So if you're not following us, that's your loss. Shop ND and also to our local Queen folks and Jersey folks for Crimson. Shop Local. Yes. Yep. Don't give money to Bezos, give it to me. Exactly. I feel much better giving money to literally anybody but Jeff Bezos. For real. For real. That man is a horror show in so many ways.

15:24 In so many ways. But it's funny that you mention the nightmare that is Jeff Bezos, because what are we talking about tonight, kids? We're talking about horror. And the Renaissance, that is what the horror genre has become in the past few years. Oh hell yeah 'cause I feel like there's no way to compare the films that have been coming out and receiving critical acclaim and not say there's been some form of horror renaissance. I mean honestly horror is really clawing its way into a new golden age. Like this isn't an old masked guy with a knife era by itself or not, just torture porn shock waves.

16:09 I mean this is a haunted carnival with every sub genre that's mutating at the same time and I. Think it's fucking amazing? It is it. Is and the other thing a lot of people don't realize what the horror genre does the best is that it adapts faster than any other genre. I would agree with that because a lot of horror does come from social commentary and I feel like if folks are going to sit there. And be like, there's nothing political about horror. Yes, it is. I would have to tell you to sit and rotate.

16:49 Is nearly all horrors political to an extent, especially modern horror. Oh yeah. That's what allows it to adapt so quickly and so effectively, no matter what sub genre of horror you're in. Honestly, horror is like the raccoon of cinema. If you got a tiny budget, it survives. If you have a weird idea, it'll eat it. You know, like social anxiety builds a nest in it. It is literally the raccoon of cinema. Like it could do almost anything. The only limit that we have is what the the crowds will actually physically be able to handle.

17:34 Even then, there are so many independent horror publishers, whether it just be like there are specific horror short film festivals that have been running for years and years and years where you can really run more of that experimental stuff. So even beyond that, I think you think about YouTube horror, for example, and the the fact that we've had three to four directors make like high grossing movies, like huge recoups on investment and they all came from YouTube, which was an independent creation station is wild.

18:18 What? What do you think Crimson, like they horror, metabolizes cultural fear faster than any superhero movable movie can do I think personally. I think really it kind of comes down because because that's the thing. I'm actually very big into horror films. Yeah, you are My, my, my genre of horror films is I, I, I like zombie movies. That's just me. Yeah, especially if it's a good one. But besides that. So you're a pandemic trauma whore when it? Comes to yeah, when it comes to when it comes to like specific, I guess you could call like sub genres to horror films, right?

19:10 We we usually see different waves come in of the subject of specific subgenres. Like, for instance, at least as far as I can remember, the some of the past films within the past, what let's say what like 2-3 years prior, we were seeing a lot more gore and horror than anything else, especially with the with the with at the time was the last recent Terror Fire film that was released. Which I mean, for those of you who don't know, Terror Fire has more than just three films too as well. Like that's that's been a series of films that just progressively keeps out doing itself in terms of the gore aspect before, Yeah.

20:08 And honestly, hell, you can even throw you could, I mean, with the with the, with the way the film is structured, you can even say it's even, I mean, it could even affect your psychological thing. I'm not even going to lie, I remember a couple people being very traumatized by at least the first couple of Terror Fire films. Because they don't hold back. They actually do pretty well, no? They do not. Heck, I think even the third film, the actor of Art himself, and I'm not going to say or mention what specific scene, but some people out there, if you're interested in seeing, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

20:56 It's during one of the scenes where it was a couple and typical shit like in most horror films, like, oh, they're going to kill off the couple and stuff like that. And you know, in typical cliche fashion that he does. But it it was the way he did it to one of them that really the guy who's who's that who's the actor of, of art is a dude. David Howard. Yes, the guys would be be very much queasy when they see the certain thing happening because you know it's bad. When even the actor himself had to take a step back and take a break because he was even he was getting a bit queasy from just doing it.

21:51 Vomit. I think he did. He did. I, I think. Or he almost, Yeah. Yeah, he did. He did. He was that bad. He was. Able to do it I think. If I remember reading about this correctly, I think he was able to do the scene once. Got it perfect. And then he couldn't do anymore. Got it perfect and had to stop filming for the rest of the day because he could not psychologically continue for the rest of the day. I believe that's what I. Read. That's how bad that scene was and I'm I'm not going to lie to you, I personally have refused to watch the terror fire movies for several reasons, one of them being I am AI hate clowns.

22:39 I hate them like Nope. Now add in a murderous fucking mind clown. I'm good, thank you. Don't don't come near me. Don't come near me. And it's funny because like horror evolves almost immediately in so many ways. Like it has so many, so many avenues. Like you have economic anxiety, political tension, loneliness, pandemic trauma, as I mentioned earlier, because like, you know, zombie movies or anything that has like a pathogen shit, the loss of identity, social media paranoia, you know, and the list can go on and on.

23:23 But like honestly, like the elevated. Horror. Boom. I want to call it is because the impact of horror movies has become undeniable where we went from campy, silly, kitschy shit in like the 80s to legitimate like fucking freaky ass shit in the 90s back to we were kind of making fun of stuff in the early 2000s, but it was still had some legitimate good ones that were hidden away some gems in the early 2000s and then. The. Yes. And then, as you got, you know, to where we are now, you have movies like Hereditary, Midsummer.

24:04 Get. Get out. You know the witch. I'm indifferent on that one actually. Really. Hereditary. I love hereditary. I, and this might be bold for me to say, I'd give it like a fucking two out of five. That's fair. Not buying hereditary like I I it just there so much stuff that was completely unexplained. Well, that's the whole point at all. That's the whole point. But that's the thing, it's no, I did that and I understand having the mystery aspect of it, but it's just it, I don't know. There's I feel like there was too much that was unexplained.

24:54 Like I understand having a level of that, but it's like there's like too much like they they left, I feel like they left out too much and it's just like why the fuck? Like what? What? Like when I finished watching that film I left it going like what the fuck did I just watch? That's actually not an unpopular opinion like I've heard a lot of people like, not even just like friends of mine, but people who like for a living do short form content about horror films. A lot of people do feel that way.

25:25 I think it's a very niche type of horror, but I think everyone can agree that Toni Collette should have been nominated for an Oscar. For that role. Because she was so fan. I'm not saying as a mother, Oh no. That's what I'm saying. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, everything about it is really great. But also, like, it totally makes sense that you feel that way because you're not the only one that feels that way. Like, for me, I liked the mystery of it because that wasn't the focus because for me, the focus was more about a family disintegrating than the actual, like, paranormal stuff going on.

26:03 But I also know that that's also something that people didn't like. They were like, it's focusing too much on the family and not enough on the drivers that are leading this family to collapse, right? You want to know what I found? You want to know what I found? Yeah. You know what I found? Like that gives that good level of like in talking about hereditary and talking about like kind of having that good middle ground between the mystery and you explain the story a little bit sinister. Yeah. You ever watched that film before?

26:41 It's a good one. I feel like I have but I'm not mentally picturing it right now. So sinister. So let me stop me if you know from explaining any further. Well, I could probably explain just for the people out there who haven't watched it, but Minister is pretty much about a, it's a movie on a family who moved into a house and they, the previous family that used to own it were killed. Who killed the family? Nobody knows this and that I got to, I got to Fast forward a little bit. The current family that lives there found stuff within the attic of the house and the dad was essentially like playing through old like and we're talking about like old film like like the ones that you usually see like at the old movie theaters, like type of machines and stuff like for recording 8mm film.

27:45 Yes, thank you because I forgot the name of it. But and he starts playing through it and he starts noticing, you know, some of the family videos and stuff like that. And then it's shifts completely a whole 1/8 of those like just being really dark and you start seeing the families more than one day. They end up he ends up finding out that were killed at that house by a spirit actually might not even be a spirit. They then specified who, no what what it actually is in the second film. So you're. Telling me detailed on it.

28:25 You're telling me that sinister, in a way took Amityville Horror and Poltergeist, made a baby and said here you go. I wouldn't even say Poltergeist because he actually does show up. And the creepy part about it, I don't know. It's not even like, well, yeah, well, there is some scary parts. Like there's there's the typical jump scares in most horror films and scary films and all that. But it's also very eerie because a lot of times when that I don't even know what to really call it. I don't know, you know, I'm just going to call it an anomaly of some kind.

29:07 But it is whenever he's on screen that is almost like a sense in a sense, a gateway for him to escape or come into the mortal realm. Like the ring?

29:22 In a way, yeah. And what's really fucking eerie about it is that if anybody even pauses the film on him and they even look away for two seconds, he looks at them and then goes back into the same position that he was paused in, which is the most creepiest shit. Oh yeah, that actually sounds really interesting. It would definitely be something up my alley. Like I've heard of it, but I've never seen it. But from what you're saying, I feel like I really love it because I I love true crime and I love like, paranormal horror.

29:54 Like I'm a big supernatural horror fan. Like, I mean, some of my favorites are like The Conjuring movies, Insidious, I love all that stuff. So this would definitely be one that I would find. But this is a prime example. I want to say this is also based on AII could be wrong. I I might have to double check on it. I'm not too sure if it's based on a quote UN quote true story or not, but even then. So when they say that, they'll probably stretch the truth a bit in these types of stories. But but yeah.

30:25 No it but this proves that horror like just talking about this one movie alone proves that horror can be artistic, psychological, award worthy, deeply personal and prestige cinema all at the same time. Where before these movies were treated like The Dirty basement genre. You know, like you, but they. Like. Like, oh, you've watched that? OK, what's wrong with you? Like? What? What? Why? Why? Like, are you emotionally disturbed? Are you like a serial color? Do I need to worry about you like? Are you going to like?

31:05 Everyone should worry about me. Right. But like, because of this, it like stopped being that and, and it literally turned around the genre, turned around, donned a full fucking makeover and walked into the Film Festival wearing their funeral veil and expensive boots and literally said, hi, I'm here now. OK. Thank you. Like, dude. Yeah, it did. Eclipse. Yeah. The podcast Kitty agrees. Eclipse. Agrees. But like this is what it's. Cool, he does. He does. This is what's cool though. But older horror like obviously like we're going back to you could even bring up the the Universal horror movie monster movie boom of the 1930s you.

31:48 Love universal monster movies? Yeah, like older horror is often punished bad behavior. Like, OK, you did something wrong, now this person comes and it's like, you know, kind of shit. But modern horror, Modern horror asks you what if your body betrays you, IE zombies being possessed, stuff like that. What if technology knows you better than you know yourself? Any type of modern horror movies that involve like computers, AI, social media, all that stuff. We've had a couple of those. We do. I would say one of my favorite parts of horror besides like full horror because that's a whole thing on its own and I really love the resurgence of full horror.

32:34 Like I recently went to go see Hokum and I can't grimace phrases even more. Like the first thing I said to Ralph after we came out was this is what that, oh gosh, what the director of weapons thought he did with his first movie. But Don Rice, you're a. Monster, I don't disagree. With you, besides the point, I think one of the big things with horror now that I find really intriguing is there. I love the whole feminine rage sub genre. Jennifer's. Body. Jennifer's Body. But I also love the idea of what if your villain is not the villain?

33:16 Or what if you as the protagonist, are the villain in the horror movie? You might not think you are, but you are. For real. For real. And I really love that mind fuck. And that's why I've been really, really like, just really trying to go see obsession. You know who started? That trend I wanted directed by Curry Baker. You don't want to start. I I would say that that particular genre and don't don't kill me if I'm wrong, but I think saw started that the saw. Movies. I disagree. The Saw movies, I think, were what put that particular.

33:59 Sub. That particular sub genre where you are not the hero of the story, the the hero is not the hero. You're fucked up. You're fucked up. Yeah. You know I. Think, I think it's one of those things too, where it's also one of those ones where people don't end up surviving a lot. Exactly. Like. They'll. Just narrowly escape, but they're scarred for the rest of their life. I don't disagree, and that's kind of why I want to say that Saw, really, because there were movies that came before that where it's like, OK, this is a revenge story.

34:36 This is because you did something wrong and this is the consequences that have visited upon you. Like you could say that even the Jason movies are all about that. You know Jason the Poor. Story 100. Percent. Oh, yeah. Like we could go as far back as as as as Nightmare. You know, we like Elm Street, Nightmare on Elm Street with Freddy Krueger because like, you know, he did these things because they did these things, but he was doing things terrible first. The genre has evolved. I would say that Saw put it on the map where neither person is the hero here.

35:11 Nobody is is blameless in this movie. You don't have the innocent bystander in any of these movies that just happens to die because that I that's. Just my I'm just side eyeing this. Basically, but I mean like, dude, that's just my, but this is my personal opinion. And that's kind of why I think that indie horror is basically carrying the entire genre right now. Because like big studios doing what they do is great, whatever, you know, like M Night Shyamalan, whatever with the twist horror and all that fucking shit that they did, alien horror, all that, all this stuff, yes, we need that.

35:46 We love that. But indie creators are the necromancers that are reviving true weirdness and horror, and I am living for it. I 100% agree and I actually sing this praise to everyone like as a big film buff and I people sometimes like you know poo poo me on this opinion. I understand that A 24 has also made some really cringy like movies. Here's the deal, though. A 24 really was the first independent studio that said, hey, we have some budget to get your indie movies into movie theaters. Let's make it happen.

36:28 People can tell me that like, some of those decisions were cringy. Some of those movies were not good. But I think that's. In. Any case right? But without a 24 I feel like there would be no Hindi horror scene the way there is now. There would be no Hindi teen drama films even like things like Lady Bird. People forget that was all a 24. Bloomhouse Productions also did that and I believe they were around before a 24. Yes, the reason I don't say Blumhouse is just because a 24 really plucked a lot of.

37:09 True grassroots. Indie directors, because while Blumhouse is great, they've kind of strayed away from that while a 24 continues to make that this central pinnacle of everything they do. That's not saying they might change, but they've been holding really true to that they've been. Going. Back. For it, they've been going back, Blumhouse has been going back. And also honorable mention is Neon. Yes, Neon, thank you for bringing that one up. Neon they're giving audiences stranger and riskier fucking stories like how they get approved.

37:51 In a lot of ways, it's just like what you know, I mean, And streaming definitely I think helped horror like. Oh, a million percent. Yeah, audiences can now gamble on like the weird horror movie when they can't sleep because they have insomnia at like 1:00 in the fucking morning and then get sucked into something and then be like afraid of every single shadow. Yeah, I just ended up numbing myself to films now. Yeah, no, agreed. I mean. Honestly, I can literally see someone's head get torn off and then just sleep soundly at night.

38:30 Oh. Fuck yeah dude. Like but horror I think honestly became the midnight goblin king of screaming. It really did because they even have like so many separate channels on streaming. They have a whole subscription service that you could go to for horror for streaming and you can watch like literally anything on these fucking things. It's great. Like even the fucking real chotsky kitschy, campy bullshit that you're like, why did this? Why was this made? You can watch.

39:07 I love that type of horror though. I love, I feel like a huge part of horror too is just the kitschy horror comedy of it all. Because I also feel that horror in and of itself, even when you're talking really serious horror, is that it's heart can't be. And I love things that can kind of balance those two things. Like Get Out, despite being a really heavy story, there's a lot of humor in it and a lot of count in it. Fun horror. Is great. I love fun. Horror. Because we can go super fucking crazy bleak with horror, but fun horror.

39:44 It always gets me because like, dude, it's campy. It's got practical effects, which a lot of things moved away from with computer CGI and now AI. Some of like a lot of these movies stay true to the practical effects artists and I fucking live for it because these are the ones that also usually have the most absurd fucking gore. Oh hell yeah. The more practical you are in your film visuals, the more invested I will be. Like this is something that people know about me. Like one of my favorite things about movies are practical effects.

40:21 I could go beep on it for like hours. So especially horror movies that don't let go of that prospect are so near and dear to my heart. And when I see newer horror films that still use those practical aspects and the makeup and the prosthetics, that's how you automatically draw me in as a viewer. Agree, especially in just like this era of like inauthenticity, it's so nice when you see like even when I recently saw hokum, like there's a lot of like really interesting visuals in that movie because it's a folk horror movie at its very core, but specifically an Irish folk horror.

41:08 So the very creepy visuals they had were all, you could tell, practical effects, makeup, and it just made the film feel so much more elevated and so much more real. And then in turn, made it scarier and isolating and more resonating as an audience member. Yeah. Oh, you want to know something funny too? It's funny that you mentioned about effects and stuff like that when it came to the I mean, they still do it now, but they've used a little bit some other. I don't think they I think they might have used a small bit of like green screen and CGI, but hair fire when they first started, all of their effects that they use were all cosmetic stuff.

41:53 And a lot of it too was also like props. Like they did some really good. Like obviously if you keep the camera on the props long enough, like you'll tell like, Oh yeah, it doesn't really look at like it like that. But like it's, it's the when it comes to films such in horror films, if you don't keep the camera on the check for so long, because then again, who is going to watch a film in slow motion like that right where you just see the thing frame by frame, you can see every micro detail on it.

42:32 Right. When you're filming something fast, like any fast scenes, people are not going to immediately look at, Oh yeah, look how poor detail that that that dead body is. Like, no. But I think the way that some of the earlier terror fire films and the current too, but they've only they've only upscaled and improved since then. But the earlier films, especially when it was back when it was still an indie film at the time, they use a lot of props and cosmetic effects. So good to the point where it's like it just looks so realistic.

43:13 So I have a question so. Realistic. I have a question for you both. Would you say with the films that have been coming out? Lately. That we are entering another practical effects era. I would like to say so, yes. I would say no. OK, Defend. We I would say not not practical effects. Well, we could say in terms of of of Iron Lung that film, yes, but not, not not a lot of films. If we're talking more indie, possibly yes, but honestly I would say we're going to be going more into an era of psychological horror.

44:02 OK. More than anything. Would you say that because this is more psychologically a horror genre that we're heading into, like this is what we're going to see more of? Would you say that horror fans are more emotionally resilient than the normal moviegoer?

44:26 The normal moviegoer, yeah, I would say. Yes, but also I find there's a very interesting connection and they've done a lot of studies on this for people who actually like as someone who has anxiety and depression, like diagnosable, like previously diagnosed and take medication for. They've actually said that people who have disorders such as depression, anxiety, BPD, they're more drawn to horror films, which I find to be very interesting because normally people would look at us and be like, you shouldn't be someone that can handle this.

45:05 Fuck your life, Bing bang. We totally can, like I can at least say for me and maybe like if I'm going to like almost like terrifies myself a little. I think it's because the fears are so like almost like minimal compared to like what my anxiety can like bake up in its head. That's true. But also because horror films have taken such a route that are so based in people's psychology, I'm able to connect with them more. So then I feel more engaged as a viewer. So then I care more about what's happening.

45:45 So like, I love the OG. Like, don't get me wrong, I love the OG slashers. I love a good slasher. I really enjoy that. But exactly, I love creature features. But the reason that I love things like Pearl, for example, is the slasher, but it's more about the psychology of Pearl. And that's what I find really interesting and really compelling about modern horror is you don't just get someone swinging an axe anymore. You get oh this person is swinging an axe and obviously the bad guy in this story but also like too fucked up.

46:22 Yeah, like prime example, Crimson and I, we've watched the, what was it, Black Phone. I love that. Movie. So we watched Brad. Watch, We didn't just watch, we watched black foam, but we just finished watching recent because it just came onto Netflix, which was Black phone 2. I haven't seen that one yet. It's cool. It's on Netflix right now. It's. Good. It is an excellent continuation of the first one and I love this for this series because they brought back the same actors. Yes, I know Mason Canes came back.

46:59 I know Ethan Hawke came back. I also know they made sure that Joe Hill, the original author who Jade and I got to meet a New York Comic Con a human being of the original short story from his short story collection 20th Century Ghost on to help with the creative direction for where the grammar would go next, which I was. It was so good it gave and and what I like the most about this one is the first black phone gave us paranormal but also psychological and gore. There was gore, not as much, but a decent amount, you know, considering it gave us all three, you know, and it it definitely gave us like, you know, the jump scare and all the stuff that you expect and it is definitely I would call it definitely it could fall in a slasher.

47:52 The second one, without giving too much away because you have not seen it yet, is definitely. Definitely falls under paranormal. I would say it's a lot more paranormal, a lot more slasher, definitely a lot more gore. I feel like that makes sense though because of where the characters ages are, which I think is really cool because he's like a little kid in the first movie and he's like what, like 1617? 17. Technically in the film. So for the next one for Black Bone 2, I think that's kind of fun because I have seen freebies of it and I love that they like aged up the genre along with the actors because based on the time period that it takes place, that would be like flasher summer camp like kind of vibes.

48:40 Well, yeah, because that's the kind of mood that Mason Chains would be in, right? So I think that was a really cool transition. Yeah, no, I agree because like we mentioned the universal monster boom of the 30s and then you had the psychological horror wave of the 60s and 70s. So obviously Black Phone is going to the the first one is going to fall since it's in like 1976 or 78, I believe this happened. Obviously we're going to do the psychological horror, but then you have the slasher explosion of the 80s, you know, so obviously this movie takes place in the 80s.

49:13 We're getting more slasher. And I love that they are actually paying attention and following and doing that as well as still giving us an actual original fucking story that does not sit there and be like, oh, it's just like this, you know, like I'm fucking I'm here for it. I loved it. And you know, then of course I'm mad at Crimson because Crimson got me to freaking jump while we were watching the film. And I looked at I was. Like and it wasn't, and it wasn't even like and it was just in the beginning.

49:48 It wasn't even a scary part, but he still managed to freak me out. Exactly. And I was like, I hate you. I hate you so much. I literally just nudged the cat. I was like, you see? My favorite thing about watching horror movies with my partner is like he, he doesn't dislike them at all. He does enjoy them, but he's like a scaredy cat compared to me. So it's really fun when we go see certain things because like I love that. He said. Like one of his favorite things about me is whenever there's a jump scare in the movie theater, people jump and I sit there and like, giggle to myself.

50:24 Yeah. Because he'll be jumping and I'll be like, laughing. Yeah, I do that too. It's just so I think that's something that horror isn't like people forget about horror. I think horror is just so fun. At its core. It's a fun genre where there's so much to do, there's so many interesting avenues you can go down. He. Jumped out a window. It's a great film experience. Like I feel like every time I've seen a horror movie I've had a great experience with an audience because people get really invested in horror because of that psychological pull in a way that they don't in other films.

51:06 In my personal opinion because I do go to the movies a lot so I feel like I get more out of that audience than say when I go see a ROM com or lavender is definitely. Arsenophile Lavender is definitely arsenophile like. Do you want to mention Hold on before before we continue, because I want to mention this back when we were talking about the whole psychological horror. The reason why I also want to add on to why I feel like it's also shifting more towards the psychological horror it it, it is starting from just the fact that the way Iron Lung was and also some of the future and some of the future films and the direction that they're planning on taking this, like for prime fucking example, the the newer Resident Evil film that's going to be releasing later on this year.

52:02 They're not going. They're not going down. Why don't like it? It's not, I kind of feel like it's insulting the franchise, but we could talk about that because honestly, we are mostly focusing on movies tonight, but we are forgetting like in a insane freaking genre that honestly I think rebirthed Tara in a lot of ways. And that's the video games. And I want to talk about. I want to give the video, I want to give video games their full hour. So can we not talk about what is most likely going to piss off a lot of the Resident Evil fandom?

52:43 Well, it's just a brief thing. It's just mostly because of the direction that the director or whoever was in charge of that their, their thought process is like they're trying to do a different take on it. Yeah, I First off for people don't already fucking know, I'm a huge fucking Resident Evil fan. Yeah, you are. Am I happy with this? Fuck no. Am I willing to give it a try? Yes. But if it's fucking flops, I'm going to be very pissed. You see? My problem, Crimson, is even less about what they're doing with Resident Evil, and admittedly more that I think Zach Krager is the most overrated director on the face of the planet.

53:29 And I know I'm pissing people off by saying this. Like he's a good guy. Like don't get me wrong, Like he has a great story. He's done a lot of great things he's told. He's one of the few people that is totally self-made. And I tell people this all the time about him. I think he's too 43 movies away from making a really great movie. I just think the problem is the movie he has made in my opinion. Like I hated Barbarian mainly because I felt it missed the entire point of its whole like atmosphere it built and then to me it was like oh this is really interesting and then the ending fucking sucks.

54:07 And I felt the same way about Weapons. I was like, it builds an interesting atmosphere. But he's, in my opinion, not good at follow through. So I think Resident Evil is not the move for him. I think he should be still working on some more independent stories because I remember after I saw Weapons, didn't like it. But I said to Ralph, you know, I don't think he's a bad director. I just think he's so for whatever reason, people like puff him up so much and I'm like, he's not that good yet. We've talked about this.

54:41 He takes a little. Bit more under his belt.

54:45 We have talked about this. More under his belt. Yeah, no, I agree. We have but but but Lavender has mentioned this before when we have talked about other like things because we did talk about weapons in the past, like on a pre on a couple of our old podcasts. If you guys want to go check it out, definitely scroll back. It's a, you know, we talked, we gave a full review, I believe, of that movie. Yeah, we did. We did. We did a. Whole honest review of weapons. And you did mention you said that last time, yeah.

55:16 So I think Resident Evil is not his move. I think you should have done some more unique, interesting stories, really honed his craft, and then did Resident Evil. But that's just my opinion and I'm not saying it can't be good, but it's not something I'm rushing to see. It's of course, but my thing too is also it doesn't there there, which is why I mentioned about the psychological horror is that there he's making the direction he's going with when it comes to the Resident Evil film. It's very much more gravitating towards the psychological, more paranormal horror than anything else, which for me it just like I'm looking at it a little bit.

56:04 Well, paranormal might be a stretch, but it's it's still more of that like mysterious factor to it more than a hey, this is a fucking pandemic like like horror film rather than it's just like, you know, essentially it does not have the blood of Resident Evil coursing through it. Like you can tell it just has the name, which at that point that that's, that's no pun intended. That's just a carcass because that's that's, that's has no life to it.

56:47 You need to, you need to, we need to. He needs to be able to breathe life into this film if he wants to succeed. Which? I hope he will. I'm not. Listen, I'm keeping my. Opinions. I still give it a try. Yeah, I'm keeping, I don't want to say hope alive for this one. I'm not saying hope. I'm going to keep my opinions open. Is that better? I'm going to keep my opinion. I'm not going to go in thinking that it's like, OK, I'm going to give it. I'm going to give it a fair shot. And if it sucks, I'm going to.

57:23 If it sucks, I'm going to fucking eviscerate it, I think. That's but now I'm talking since we we finished. Yeah, since we finished. This is since we're on the subject of Resident Evil. Anyway, we could talk about we could talk about that since it kind of segues into the whole video game genre and horror, how it pretty much and I would say fuck what what would be like a prime example of like the grandfather of horror games. There's only a few that I can even think of, which is like the whole Resident Evil franchise.

58:03 We can even throw in like, what House of the Dead, House of the Dead we get. We get to start from arcades. Let's start from arcades, yeah? But I want to dedicate. An entire. I want to get dedicated. I want to give horror video games the credit that they are due and give them their whole hour. That's what they deserve. Horror video games are actually for a long time. We're better than the entire horror movie genre. Yeah. So I definitely feel like they deserve their own episode, and I fully think that the Phoenix Nation will agree with me.

58:41 But I want to ask what your closing thoughts are on the horror renaissance that we are seeing in film?

58:52 Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I really love how horror continues to evolve. It continues to one up itself. I think the fact that we've brought in so much more international horror films to a scale thanks to studios like Neon with Parasite, and I feel international horror is just so intrinsically interesting and also deserves its own episode, especially Japanese horror. But I just love that horror continues to take leaps. It continues to be creative, it continues to try new things, even if I don't love it.

59:33 I was Zach Prager, I may not love his movies, but he always try something new and I don't think any other genre really has that ability. And that's why I continue tuning in. It's why I even go back to old horror genre film. I just watched It Follows for the first time and I was really impressed with it. It's just I feel timeless but also timely in the stories that it tells. And I'm only seeing good things here on out. Like, I'm very excited to eventually see Curry Baker's new film. Obsession and I'm very excited to see what else is going to be coming out this year, especially thanks to shutters films like Dolly now coming to theaters.

1:00:20 Hey. Yeah. Crimson. I mean, my, some of my final thoughts, I guess just in the whole as horror films as a whole, I mean how there there's there's always going to be different some stars that kind of stick out or a little bit become a little bit more of a fan. Favorite, of course. In terms of just overall or genre, I, I would say for new people, for me, for new people out there who are interested in ever just diving into the horror genre, I think anything as, as far as you know, starting off with something simple.

1:01:16 You can start with like paranormal stuff and then kind of segue into like more gritty stuff like either terrify or anything like that. And then see what kind of genre kind of appeases to your, your, I guess needs as what's what you consider like kind of your favorite in terms of overall me, I I think the way the direction that horror is going, I think it's not bad. There's a lot of interesting horror films coming out. So as far as what I could even say would be the future of horror films, like what's what would be, you know, what's to expect for the future?

1:01:57 I can't even tell. Just we would have to see as as the the year goes on and I'll kind of give my thoughts on it. I agree and I agree with both of the things that you said. For me personally, I'm more excited to stretch the limits of what the human psyche can handle. I guess is the is the right word. I definitely am looking forward to a lot of the stuff that is coming down the pipeline, like obviously the next Evil Dead, you know, I want to see Holcomb. As Lavender mentioned, there's a lot of stuff that will be coming out.

1:02:37 Obviously we're going to get a nice little boom around fall because we always get the good stuff around fall. We don't really get summer release horror which that you know, unless it's like not really a horror, but it kind of is kind of thing. So I'm just happy that I can get the campy, kitschy crap movies at the same time as I can get these beautifully done films that test the limits of the human mind and how dark the human spirit can actually get the raccoon of cinema. And I will stand by that quote forever.

1:03:16 So that's my final thought on it. And honestly, as always, Phoenix nation, if you have any thoughts, please reach out on our social media, on our YouTube, on our Tik toks, our I Instagram hell, leave us comments through Spotify if you're listening to this episode and let us know what you think. We love a great discussion. So let us know what you think about anything we said about the in this episode and we would love to hear from you. So on that note, everybody say bye.

1:03:51 Bye bye. Bye Reborn. In fire ice from vain which? Is blood in my face? Darkness cannot hold me. Change Phoenix or never change.