Episode: 376 • Duration: 01:02:15
In Dread, the characters decide to study how dread can impact a human life – much like the same type of dread Ryne had when contemplating whether this adaptation from Clive Barker’s original short story would be any good. However, we were pleasantly surprised by this 2009 torture porn-adjacent film that actually has a unique interpretation of grief. We talk about the bleakness, the stark high-contrast lighting, and the overall crux of the characters’ thesis.
We’re also drinking Sam Adams’ new Apple Spice Ale!
Come back all Halloween season for more Bobbing for Barker!
Hit that play button above to listen in.
Transcript – Bobbing for Barker (6) DREAD (auto-generated)
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0:00
This September, hear the rattling of chains, see the master of illusions, experience the cabal of monsters, the purveyor of pain comes to Blood and Black Rum podcast this Halloween season with Clive Barker’s filmography in Thobbing for Barker.
0:22
Welcome back to the Blood and Black Rum Podcast.
I’m Ryan from coldsplotation.com and I’m joined with my Co host Martin.
How’s it going?
That was my Halloween costume of a scary redneck person or like kind of like Tucker and Dale versus evil sort of thing.
0:42
Y’all come back now.
It might not have seemed that way.
So that’s why it needed the prefacing.
It’s not a not a great actor, but in any event, welcome back to our bobbing for Barker.
I do a pretty good Fred Gwynn.
Yeah, you do.
0:58
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, Yeah, you could, you could you could have started it off with the with the Fred Gwynn.
We’ll save that for next time.
Don’t don’t ruin it right now.
We’ll do it.
Do it for next episode.
Because I, I’ve happily been, you know, I love my role as Andy Richter to your Conan.
1:13
Yeah, but you know, Yeah, well, bobbing for Barker continues.
We’re on episode 6 of the series as we dive into cried Barker movies, whether he’s touched them in any way or in this case, in this movie, barely tangentially connected to the film, We’re doing them.
1:35
We’re doing.
And, and, you know, if you’ve ever looked at Clyde Barker’s filmography, you probably have seen that in general.
There’s a, there’s not that many, you know, definitely not that many that Clyde Barker has himself directed.
There’s a few that he, you know, wrote and then there’s a lot that have been based on stuff that he wrote, but he has not really been a major part of the, the, the creation of the film.
1:58
In this case, that that’s what happened with this movie.
He is listed as a producer on this 2009 film that we’re going to do today.
And but I think that’s about it.
And to preface this by saying, first and foremost, the one thing that I do know about this movie, and I didn’t hadn’t really seen it or anything before this.
2:17
I do know that it was part of the After Dark Film Festival, the like an After Dark original.
And I only know that because, like when I was in high school, my parents got me like for Christmas, like a whole stack of the After Dark Film Festival movies on DVD.
2:38
And like, you’ll like these.
Look at this.
And so for a little while, I followed like the After Dark films.
And so I do remember this one being released with alongside those.
But other than that, I had no idea about it.
We’re talking about 2009’s Dread, not the other dread that we have done previously, right?
3:00
We’ve done both.
Yeah, we’ve done both, but but the one called just simply called Dread I.
AM 0.
That’s true.
This one, this one is the actual Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.
I’m not just doing.
Karl Urban.
I’m, I mean, I mean, I’m just doing Sylvester Stallone.
3:17
I got to do Karl Urban too.
Mama’s not the law.
There you go.
Very nice, very nice, I.
Wish you know what we should just do that.
Yeah, you’d rather do that.
Yeah, no way.
This one is the spelled correctly dread for for going that route, the DREAD.
3:38
Dread.
Well, you know what?
Maybe the That’s because you know, this is by good, honest English folks.
And that’s right, Fred.
Is a silly American creation?
Sure, sure could be.
No, it’s not.
It’s British.
But dread?
3:56
What do you know about dread?
Either the feeling or the movie.
Whatever God damn thing.
Never heard of it.
Never.
Seen post before it.
Never.
Listen, we’re just going through all all the troves of films that you’re you could dig out of a Walmart DVD.
4:16
Bin, very true.
This is, yeah, this is another one of those direct to video affairs for sure.
Was it really been getting?
I do not believe so unless like I said, like it hit the festival circuit with like the After Dark Film Festival, but but as a traditional theatrical release, No, I don’t.
4:34
I don’t believe this one got one.
Yeah, This is this is this movie is not probably not very well known.
I’m going to guess it is kind of on the the outskirts of a lot of films that released around this time period.
Although as we’ll talk about, it does sit very nicely in that late 2000s era torture porn aesthetic and, you know, just a very 2000s esque film and in the way that it feels.
5:04
But yeah, this one probably has not been widely seen.
It is directed by Anthony de Blasi, who is not like a household name, but has had some recent output specifically, which is is kind of weird.
And I actually would not mind doing this at some point.
5:21
He in 2014, he directed this film called Last Shift, which is set in like a a Mortuary, or I’m sorry, in like a police station kind of Mortuary where this dead body seems to be kind of flitting around this police station, which is kind of a cool movie.
5:37
And it reminds a lot of if you remember when we did the autopsy of Jane Doe are kind of a similar premise to the autopsy of Jane Doe, which I found to be not that bad of a movie.
And then weirdly enough, he did this thing where he basically did a shot for shot remake of his own film, kind of like, you know, funny game style.
5:59
And it’s called Mallam.
And I have not seen that one, but he he released that one in 2023.
And I think a lot of people found that that one was actually worse than his the original film that he directed.
So that’s about all I know about Anthony de Blasio, though.
Just kind of interesting that he also had that like, successful film released with The Last Shift, which is the probably the only thing that other people might know of him, to be honest with you.
6:28
But yeah.
What do you know about the the feeling of dread?
Do you get it often?
Do you, you know, kind of, yeah.
Well, somebody who needs meds, yeah, it’s great.
You know it well.
6:44
We got that existential crisis, you know, going on 24/7 since puberty.
It’s great, you know, And I feel like doesn’t get enough credit for high blood pressure like Salt does, you know?
Yeah, Great.
7:03
Yeah.
Kind of going into it like, OK like this cool idea, like dread.
OK, simple to the point.
What you know, obviously there’s going to be treaded the film and Dread 2 is a great word because it’s not just you’re frightened.
7:23
You know you’re scared.
You know something dreadful.
And the feeling of dread is like, you’re so overcome by your fears and emotions, like, like you’re paralyzed.
Right.
I think probably the, the feeling of dread that people know most is also known as the Sunday Scary’s.
7:45
That feeling of Oh my God, the weekend’s ending.
What the fuck did I do this weekend?
And now I’m going back to work again, uh.
Oh, the Bills lost again.
Or the Yankees crap in the bed again.
I got.
8:01
Good.
News for you, You wasted your Sunday prepping, you know, inviting your friends over to your house.
For you too, you know, throw your shoe at the TV.
Well, you know what, though, you know, you can say all you want about, you know, feeling scared about impending death or, you know, destruction, annihilation, whatever, but it does not compare to the the Sunday scary’s I’m sorry.
8:25
It’s that is a level of dread that only certain people know.
And when you take a look at your children who are, you know, growing up and will soon be entering the workforce, I think you you feel for them knowing the dread that they’re about to experience that they’ve never had before.
8:40
And that’s what this movie’s about.
It’s about the Sunday scary’s of a man who’s not worked for a while and how has to go to work on his first Monday back in a while.
So yeah, that that’s probably the more compelling version of you.
Know that’d be like a good like anthology of films yeah like office work stories like this this zoom call and never and you know the we’re.
9:06
Going to make our own film of dread and it’s just office suspense stories of yeah.
What does Carol mean by what she the note left in the fridge about a Co worker’s tuna sandwich?
9:21
That’s right.
It’s it’s, it’s Gary’s daily 130 shit in the bathroom.
Have to avoid stuff like that.
That is the real dread here.
This film does not compare to anything like that.
You know, I’m not a good socialist because I would never like, it took me until like year 9:00 to be able to like crap at work and everyone would make fun of me because they’re like, if I’m going to poop, man, I’m going to get paid to poop.
9:51
I show up early to work.
So like poop, you know?
Clock in poops immediately.
Like, yeah, like, yeah, your lunch break.
And it’s like, what are you doing?
That’s right.
Yeah.
I’m not shitting out of my lunch.
It’s my lunch.
I don’t get paid for lunch, you know.
Yeah, you got to, you got to hold it in, you got to, you got to try as hard as possible to not let that thing slip out so you can get get paid for it.
10:14
That’s right.
Well, anyway, we’ll talk about dread in a second here.
But you know, actually the, the film dread, not the not the feeling of dread that we all harness in our souls.
But let’s talk about the beer that we have on the show today.
10:29
This is actually, this is a good, this is a good actual example.
This is one that I was dreading because I was afraid of it.
I was scared of what this beer might entail.
So what did you grab for us today?
Well, it’s false, so new Sam Adams varieties out.
10:52
Sure.
And there’s a new beer in there.
I feel like there’s two, but I don’t know if we’ve had the the hell of slogger.
It doesn’t say new on it like the one that we’ve got today is like a large disclaimer on the top of it.
11:10
It says no, you know, shouting at you.
No, you would need to try this, but this one doesn’t.
Yeah, I feel like if they, I mean, I’m sure they have done the hell of Slogger at some point.
But yeah, I feel like it’s probably been a long the time gone.
So it’s, you know, brought it back.
But since you do like, you know, like because Saranac does that every now and then when they bring something back, or like with the Dark Topra Fest, they put it on and it’s back, baby, you’ve been waiting, you know, 15 goddamn years.
11:36
So yeah, got the new fall pack, It’s got your Oktoberfest, it’s got your Jacko as your Hellas Logger, and the new one is a Apple Spice Ale, which is the one that intrigued me the most, not just because of the lovely picnic flannel for a can.
11:57
True.
Nice at all?
Because an apple spicy ale makes me think, oh, potpourri, you know, cinnamon, coriander, it’s true, you know, big pies and.
You know, nice, nice apple spice pie.
12:16
You know, you know nice mid season in of you know of autumn, you know when you’re getting the cold starting to roll in and the leaves are falling like you know your heart is sick.
It’s true.
And like you, I was cured like very.
12:33
I wasn’t dreading it, but I was I was like it’s either going to be good or it’s going to be bad.
There’s not going to be an in between on it because like, the apple could be artificial, it could be too medicinal, you know?
12:49
We’ve certainly seen that before recently with the the Cherry Bomb, yeah.
And it’s branded as an ale brewed with cinnamon, marjoram and other natural flavors.
I don’t even know what I know.
Marjoram is like a spice.
I don’t.
Yeah, look, I looked it up.
13:07
Sweet, delicate, woodsy, Piney is what it says.
Yeah, that’s it.
I didn’t notice that.
It’s like margarine.
Like, I don’t know if I’ve ever really seen a beer proclaim that it has margarine in it.
So yeah, it’s not.
I don’t even know what the hell it’s used for.
13:24
Like if it’s like, you know, putting pies or whatever, maybe, I don’t know, It’s a spice that’s not on my spice rack.
Yeah, it’s not bad.
It’s not overwhelmingly great.
13:41
It’s so bad.
It’s like a slightly above average, you know, you get, you get the high pitched voice, you know.
That’s when you’re really like trying to sell it to yourself.
You’re like.
I like it.
I like it.
13:57
It is appley.
It’s not like robustly candy, sugary apple.
Yeah, like a Bush apple and or Keystone apple.
It’s you know, like a nice like mild apple, but it’s there and it’s got the spices.
14:18
It’s bit the spices are the big thing.
Like you definitely get the the cinnamon.
It makes you like I said, like it makes me feel like potpourri, like, you know, from the 90s.
The body, like for an ale, like it’s calling it an ale is very generous because it’s very mild body like it didn’t say what kind of ale, just a spiced ale.
14:44
So this is a blonde.
Is it like, you know, we don’t know.
I think if you had like a stronger bodied beer, like, you know, go with it, I think it would make it much better and more memorable because but because it’s so, you know, light and kind of there like it’s kind of like you have it and you’re on.
15:07
That’s good.
That’s good.
Would I get it again?
No.
Just move on, you know, Right.
Yeah, not bad.
Yeah, I mean, I like it too.
Like I think it’s fine.
Like like you said, I’m not a huge fan of it.
I’d, I certainly would not seek it out again.
15:23
Or, you know, I don’t think it’s a candidate for them to be releasing individually like some of the other ones that they do.
It’s definitely not going to take over their fall style beers.
It’s not going to supplant an Oktoberfest for me.
I think that it is an interesting sort of trial for them in trying to do something a little bit different and I appreciate that.
15:48
I like to that they didn’t just go the straight apple route like a lot of breweries seem to be doing now where they just kind of, like you said, make a sort of candied apple or, you know, a very obviously fake apple flavour to it, almost like a Jolly Rancher type apple flavour.
16:04
I like that they didn’t do that.
I appreciate that.
And I think that this is A at least an experiment.
I’m not a huge fan of spice flavours to begin with.
That’s the one of the reasons why I don’t like anything like pumpkin spice.
I don’t really like pumpkin beers.
I’m not a huge fan of cinnamon in any regard.
16:22
You know, it doesn’t, it just doesn’t, I don’t know.
Yeah.
It just doesn’t do do much for me.
So I’m not like the.
You don’t like you don’t like Apple Jacks?
I do like Apple Jacks.
I’m not saying I don’t like all cinnamon.
I I definitely prefer when the cinnamon is not the primary flavor in it.
16:40
Like, like if it’s too cinnamony, that’s really where I step out and I’m like, no, no, no thank you anymore.
I think that this is a, you know, it has a nice spice flavor to it that does tend to take over.
I think that it does kind of take over the apple flavor a little bit too much.
16:59
I wish I did get a little bit more of just that appleiness to it because I think that a lot of the spice is just kind of there.
It does have a somewhat apple pie like flavor to it.
One thing that kind of bothers me is that it does have a sort of bitter, adjuncty taste towards the end that I don’t really care for.
17:18
The other thing that I found interesting, and as I was drinking this, it came out more and more, is that this does feel almost like a rendition of their winter ale, sort of the same spice flavours, spice characteristics, which I think is interesting because it’s going to kind of be a nice lead in from the fall to the winter packs into the winter ale.
17:41
I would be surprised too though, if this lasts into where it really should be sitting is like a Thanksgiving type beer.
We tend to find that these fall packs that don’t even make it to Thanksgiving.
By the time Thanksgiving’s around, you’re getting the, you’re definitely already getting all those winter packs, you know, the Christmasy type packs and stuff like that.
18:02
So I would be surprised if the apple spice is even around for Thanksgiving, which I think it would be kind of a unique thing to present at your Thanksgiving dinner.
It’s like here here’s our sort of like the dessert beer to go along with our apple pie, something like that.
18:18
I think it’s that’s a cool dynamic.
The beer itself, I think it’s OK.
I’m not the greatest candidate to remark on it because again, this is just not my type of flavour profile, but I think it’s OK.
It’s it’s certainly an interesting thing and what I want it in my next fall pack.
18:35
I’m going to say probably not.
But if it if it took the Jack the place of Jacko, then OK.
But other than that, like I don’t think I want to see it back again.
I don’t know if that is that harsh.
I don’t know, but it’s a good experiment.
18:51
I I’m glad that I tried it.
I probably wouldn’t go back is what I’m saying.
So all right, let’s talk about dread.
The dread.
The dread.
Did dread.
Did you dread this movie?
Did you did you experience dread while watching it?
19:07
No, no, that’s good.
That’s good.
That’s good.
I think I think that’s good.
I think that says something so.
Like the poster?
OK, yeah, the the little Yeah.
Are you talking about the one that has like the spelling out of dread and the girl like cowering in the corner sort of thing?
You know, it’s very torture porn.
19:23
Ask conjures the saw quite a bit.
But in grayscale, but it looks it still.
Looks good.
Do you do you think it ruins some of the surprise of the movie?
Kind of gives things away, especially considering that most of the movie is not even dedicated to this part of the plot line.
19:43
It takes a really long time to get to that point.
No, but.
Because like, I think you see the movie once you’ve seen it.
So it’s.
True.
Are you going to return?
I don’t know you.
Know, I don’t think people are going to be like, oh, don’t look at the poster because, you know, I think, you know, I do think it looks cool.
20:01
I like it, you know, it’s nifty.
Yeah, I think so.
Let’s start this off by saying this is again based off of a Clyde Barker short story, which I believe was in the Books of Blood, which is a running theme throughout the entirety of the Bobbing for Barker series.
20:28
Book two, Book two.
OK, you even have the book.
Nice.
I don’t have the book.
Well, no, I meant I mean like you have reference to the book the librarian over there I was.
Reading the synopsis.
With the Dewey Decimal System finding it, Yeah.
20:43
So it’s based off of that story.
Short story Dread again.
This is one of those ones where it’s like, I don’t remember if I read it or not.
I have no idea.
So I can’t really comment.
By the way, you have not been inclined any fucking favours.
20:59
This no series where you’re like I read the book of Blood didn’t even stick in my brain.
Like I said, I read it like 20 years ago.
It’s no Stephen King’s mountain of dog shit.
21:16
Yeah, I mean, I’ve read it like 20 years ago.
So it’s I’ve there’s, there’s hundreds of books in between.
So I I don’t necessarily remember everything that I read all the time, but yeah, don’t remember it at all.
So I cannot comment on how close this movie is to Clyde Barker’s original idea.
21:34
However, the overall encompassing plot does seem very Barker esque in the way that it explores the psychological ideas and in like kind of involves a serial killer or as you know, a person who gets too obsessed with those ideas.
21:51
I think that does feel very Barker esque, whether this is sort of contemporary contemporarized or not.
I don’t I would assume so.
It seems like it because again, the books of Blood released in the 80s since this movie’s, you know, you know, 40 years past that.
22:09
So no, sorry, not 4030.
Jump in the gun there a little bit.
Almost closer to the 40 part than the 30.
Yeah.
So I I think that it definitely takes a lot from it.
The director, Anthony de Blasio, also writes the script for this, you know, pulling from Clyde Barker.
22:27
And as we said before, in the beginning, he did produce the movie.
Again, I don’t know what that means in terms of how much hands on, you know, he had with the film.
My guess is probably very little he actually had to do with it.
It’s kind of just there for the credits.
22:44
So anyways, I think like the the idea behind this story is actually quite interesting in the fact that first and foremost, the the the IT centers around these college students who are writing a thesis on apparently the idea behind dread.
23:02
And I think this is kind of where the film doesn’t really understand its own premise that well.
Like the idea of, of this thesis for a, a, a person in film school is kind of a weird idea.
I, I don’t really know where they actually were meant to take the thesis.
23:22
The idea is that they’re just interviewing a bunch of people, students, presumably people that they’ve gotten in from like just post Flyers who share their experiences of dread in their their, their most profound fears based on something in their life that caused it.
23:38
And the thesis is apparently present those dread like I is that what you’re understanding as well?
Like it was, you know, there’s just a culmination of cuts of people giving their their own feelings of dread.
Yeah, I mean, it’s, well, it starts off with, you know, our two main characters, you know, are, you know, Stephen, you know, at like a bar or whatever and him meets a friend, somebody outside named Quaid, are Robert Smith and James Wood slash Dennis Leary.
24:13
Look, alikes bumming a cig, which kids, if you don’t know, back in the day, people used to smoke these things with cigarettes.
And, you know, the bum one meant like, hey, can I go, you know, So it used to be a good nice favor too, you know, because back then cigarettes are cheap.
24:34
There weren’t taxes on them.
Yeah.
So, you know, it’s fine.
Great information.
Yeah.
But they’re having this discussion and, you know, talking and Stevens telling Quaid that, like, I, you know, I live a boring life.
Nothing happens.
24:50
Quaid’s that guy who’s like, got to chase the beast, you know, is it, what’s your tread?
What’s got to chase the beast?
Feel the tread.
And you’re like, he’s selling hair.
He’s a heroin.
25:06
Right.
Yeah.
I mean that would be this.
Story is an allegory for heroin addiction.
I get you.
But no, like, you know, and it’s got that like, kind of stupid.
Like, no, I no, I’m not going no, this is stupid.
25:22
OK, got me like, you know, like, you know, like, which is funny because Quid’s not even charming and the film makes him like both of these guys, Steven and Quaid aren’t charming or really charismatic at all.
They’re like the especially Quaid, like that asshole in college.
25:41
That’s like, you know.
Right.
You know, and I think like the the biggest problem for me at least with the idea is that Quaid doesn’t really sell it that well.
And I don’t really know like it becomes this over and encompassing thing where Quaid gets irrationally angry anytime Stevens like, Oh yeah, our film project for school.
26:04
It’s a.
School project.
It’s not just a school project.
You know, and like, right then and there, you think like the main character, Steven, and who they pull in an editor, Cheryl.
Do you think they take a step back and be like, oh, now whoa, someone’s taking this a little bit too seriously?
26:22
What at the same time though, like this is where I was message messaging you because it’s like, this is where it’s funny because like like as we’re now in our damn near 40s, it’s been almost 20 years since we were in college.
It’s like, I do remember as like a youth being very fired up about every fucking thing in life.
26:41
And, you know, going to war and everything is deep and meaningful and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And so like, the pretentiousness of like, you know, of it all being like, we need to discover the truth.
It’s like, yeah, I can see that.
26:57
Because it’s like, that’s the naivety of youth, of being like, you know, my thesis is going to be exhausting, you know?
Ground breaking and the fact and the fact that it’s simple.
To like, it’s literally just interviews.
Like they’re not doing something like, you know, great, like, you know, work.
27:15
No, Yeah, that’s it’s.
Literally just sit down interviews and it’s like why?
And it’s like, that’s the truth.
ISIS, this is the.
Truth.
I did find that I thought that was hilarious because it’s like, yeah, that’s not ground breaking at all.
And and yeah, you’re right.
If if the film had kind of basically come summarized it later on and been like the, the you know, the professor was like, the fuck is this?
27:37
Like, you know, it would have been different.
But no, he they get an A minus on their thesis and it’s like, what thesis?
They didn’t The the the idea behind a thesis is that you come to a thesis, you have a conclusion in it.
What is your conclusion?
You have none.
It’s just like, yes, throughout life, people experience bad things and tragedies and they can sometimes cause dread in the layer of life and they dread those things and like, yeah, OK, that’s great.
28:03
That’s no, we don’t need no one needs to sit down and psychologically analyze that.
It’s already been analyzed many times.
You know it’s.
It’s the rawness of like you know of it’s, it’s like the real world concept of like, it’s just the pure.
Rawness of Yeah, that’s what.
28:19
That’s what makes it because it, you know, because it’s so basic.
It’s, it is, you know, Yeah.
It’s subversive man like.
The the the the professor was found it so simple, he said.
You know what?
That’s so simple.
It’s amazing.
28:36
Cheryl must have fixed it, like, like with Star Wars, Cheryl must have fixed it in editing.
Because, you know, Star Wars is a fucking mess and unwatchable until, you know, And then when they edited it, it’s like, Oh my God, it’s a masterpiece.
Like maybe that’s what happened.
There’s like a lot.
28:51
Of like, you know, like.
There was some massive conclusion that we did not get to see that was a part of the editing process that really elevated it from just a series of random interviews to something more.
And, and Neil, I’m fine with the the concept because I think, like you said, at the end of the day, it is really just a concept to, to really open up the film to talking about the idea behind dread and to kind of give the audience a window into some of these admittedly kind of horrible stories that the film presents, ones that are based in a, a reality that does seem pretty, pretty terrible.
29:32
You know, like, so the the film mentions a lot of different people and they interview a lot of different people.
But the ones that it really keeps coming back to is this guy who experienced like a really bad ear infection that left him deaf for a while.
And eventually he was able to hear again.
29:50
But the dread that’s that reside resides in him is that that could always reoccur at some point.
He could lose his hearing again and he knows what that’s like.
So the dread of that kind of can sometimes creep up on him.
And you know, for another example, Steven, who shares his own story, you know, his his brother was in a car accident.
30:11
So there’s always that lingering feeling that it could have been you and that you could get in a car accident at any time.
And one of my problems with this sometimes is that like, those are two very different things, right?
Stevens is like a general fear of death that most people have.
30:28
Like most people have at some point thought, what if I got in a car accident there, It was a near death experience.
Or like if that car hadn’t braked, I might have gone through the windshield, something like that.
That’s not really the same as what some of these other stories are like.
If he wasn’t his brother’s 65 Mustang, absolutely.
30:45
He’s going through the.
Fucking yeah.
Like that’s a little, his story is a little bit.
And I don’t want to say this like, you know, especially for people listening who have had near death experiences or something, something like that, but his is like in a completely different realm from some of these other people’s.
And it’s way less serious than some of these other people’s traumas that they’ve gone through.
31:04
But the idea behind that is, is actually quite interesting.
And I think that the film does present those in a sort of meaningful way.
It’s a little bit slow in the beginning.
I think it takes a little while to really kick off.
And part of that is just because we have to endure, I would say, some, some unnecessary like relationship things that go on.
31:25
Likes apparently Stephen with his nice little emo haircut that he’s got going on is, is a ladies man.
He’s getting it from all ends.
You know, he’s got like, a love triangle going on here.
Deservedly.
Wow.
Sorry, Jackson Rathbone, if you’re listening, you’re a handsome man in 2009.
31:43
OK, Froglodyte, it’s but it’s well, but.
Sorry, go ahead.
Yeah, I was just going to say, but it is a little bit like unnecessary for us to see like, oh, you know, like there’s Cheryl over there who’s got, you know, he’s got a relationship with and he really likes.
31:59
And then there’s this other girl, Abby, who has, you know, a a birthmark of like a a full about half body birthmark that covers her from head to toe.
And she also loves Steven.
And the film spends a lot of time on this relationship that I feel like is really unnecessary.
32:18
And Zoe Deschanel, it’s true.
I don’t know if you got the same feeling, but I think that it’s kind of squanders some of its time.
Like it feels just a little bit long winded in the way that it leads up into the ideas about dread that it starts to finally push through at the maybe halfway mark or even a little bit further.
32:37
I think if the film was more focused on instead of showing these like, blips of like every like, you know, like we’re doing all these interviews that are, you know, aren’t as interesting and, you know, tied.
Like it makes sense for the film to give us like, you know, a back story on Steven and Abby and, you know, and Cheryl because like they’re, you know, tied and the habit tied to this, you know, to the film thesis.
33:03
Fine.
I think it works fine.
And I think it’s a really cool idea too.
Like Quaid, you know, he’s chasing the beast because we find out that, you know, his family was murdered by an axe man.
He just came, you know, to town one day and walked into the house and murdered them.
33:23
And he’s having nightmares and visions.
We see him popping, you know, pill, you know, pills, which is cool because at the same I mean like which is nice because again, I mean cool.
It is a like nice point because you can be like, especially by the end, like was any of that real or was he always like just psychotic, you know?
33:42
Right.
Yeah, You know, I mean, he does have a sink full of pills there.
At one point.
He’s dumping out like 16 different bottles of pills into his into his sink there.
So well, like it’s a cool idea.
I think what if they more focused on like specific incidences of like dread with people because of how the film goes on later at the very end, you know, tail end of the film and they go would have, you know, made more impactful because I don’t think you needed like 12 minutes like that at the film has like dedicated to all right, pull this person in, pull this person in.
34:19
My my fear is I want to eat a pepperoni and I didn’t like it because I got heartburn and now I’m scared.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I, I do think like so far, like the idea is pretty cool.
34:36
Like, I was curious, like, where the film’s going to go because it’s like, you know, especially with Clive Barker and what that I’ve experienced so far.
Like, when are the fucking magic whale demons popping up, you know?
34:52
Yeah.
The Dread Demons.
You know, with vaginas and penises on left and right, you know.
So, yeah, yeah.
I mean, I think unfortunately, the film kind of goes in the most obvious direction that it can go in, in that it, you know, really starts to cement the idea that, hey, there’s something wrong with Quaid from the very beginning.
35:14
And then as the film progresses, it just becomes more clearer and more clearer.
Yeah, there’s definitely something wrong with Quaid.
Like, yeah, no, he’s definitely, definitely got something going on.
And it kind of shows this idea of like how the his own dread of this event that happened to him where his parents were murdered with it by an axe murderer, kind of Silent Night, Deadly Night style, where just a random guy comes in and just, you know, chops him up and leaves him for dead.
35:42
It has really affected him.
And so he lives with this constant fear of dread of the same thing happening to himself.
And so that is kind of a nice counterpoint to everyone else’s who you have, Steven, which understandably, Quaid keeps questioning him.
35:58
Like, well, yeah, but what about your dread?
What about your dread of death?
So he was like, I don’t really think about it all that much.
Like, to be honest with you, you know, like, yeah, of course everyone understands death’s going to occur at some point.
And yeah, maybe it’s going to be in an accident or we can’t really control it.
But like, I feel like his Steven specifically as a protagonist is a poor example of the idea of dread because they couldn’t, they should have given it a little bit more pizzazz, something that would really have elevated it and say like, yeah, OK, that’s different than just everyone’s like, routine fear of accidents around the corner.
36:32
Or, you know, make it hidden, like, you know, sure, he’s like, you know, buried his trauma and he doesn’t want to deal with it.
So like it would I think that would have been like the better part because like that if it’s him like constantly being like, no, no fighting against that trauma.
36:47
And at the end where like shit happens, it becomes much more impactful than, you know, just.
I think really interesting too is the the fact that like a lot of these characters, it almost seems like they they don’t actually have this dread.
37:05
Like in like talking about it is what’s more conjuring up the dread than anything else.
It’s like, yeah, recurring fears of this trauma that they’ve experienced and having to discuss it multiple times, it was actually causing more dread and more dread.
37:20
And that’s something that Abby deals with is like, you know, discussing her actual dread of people, how people perceive her and see her with her, her birthmark.
Her discussing it is actually probably worse creates a bigger spectacle than her just, you know, dealing with it, who it because at the beginning of the film, it actually doesn’t really seem like she’s that all that affected by it.
37:46
And then as if kind of film goes on and they sort of have these interviews about her and then she becomes more and more affected by it until eventually she takes a scrub brush to her, you know, like a scrubby daddy and scrub tries to scrub off her, her earth mark with some bleach, which I don’t think that would ever work.
38:03
I don’t and and steel wool.
Yeah, no, no, yeah.
Say that did give me like.
The heebie jeebies.
Yeah, it’s like a cabin fever type thing.
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen cabin fever, but there’s a moment where she has the flesh eating necrotic virus and her skin’s peeling off and she goes to shave her legs and her whole leg shaves off, which is very similarly fashioned to what happens in dread here.
38:31
But yeah, that’s that is a nice scene of the you know, the scrubby says scrub brush and pouring bleach on it and very torture porn esque.
Nobody in the college is like hey what the fuck?
Smells like campus over here.
38:46
Well, and funnily enough, that’s my my wife is remarking as well.
She’s like this college dorm has a bathtub.
Yeah.
I don’t know about you.
I don’t.
We never had bathtubs in our college dorms.
Had no like full on, you know, tub and shower doohickey that we had.
39:06
I went to AI, went to a state school.
OK, we didn’t have a fucking.
Tub that’s right.
That’s what I’m saying.
I’ve never really seen a a college that does have one, but.
But yeah, anyways, the first two years of college, I don’t know about your guys’s bathrooms in the war zone.
39:22
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
Shit and blood and cum and piss everywhere.
It’s like so much so that they had to say please stop flushing your cum filled tissue rags down down the the toilet because it stops them up and we keep getting a gluey.
39:39
Message I could only shit and shout her when I went home for, you know, a break.
Yeah, just just so.
But back to the the the the dread part.
So when we finally get down to it and we kind of get to this inevitable area where Quaid is like a madman and this is a psychopath and he.
40:02
Eventually starts to use everyone’s or at least the people closest to him.
He starts to use their dread to kind of reenact it basically it almost to face it that he calls it the beast, right?
And it’s sort of sort of like facing your dread by literally making them go through it.
40:20
What do you think about that?
What do you think about that?
That I guess you would call it a, an experiment, a, you know, an unethical experiment.
We’ll we’ll say in the terms of what they’re doing for their thesis.
What do you think about him like in in the idea of him like forcing people to actually go through their dread in order to confront?
40:42
It I think that’s a good idea.
I mean, it’s obviously, you know, 8 being saw another, you know.
Type.
Of like films, I think.
I do think that’s good because, again, Quaid’s been traumatized like he’s is, you know, has his own Fred in fear.
41:00
We see him, you know, struggling with it throughout the entire film with his nightmares and visions at the strip club of, you know, boobies being thought horrible CGI.
But I think it’s a good idea.
That’s why I think if the film spent more time on a few people and with their interviews and what ’cause them for Dry, we could have had much more time dedicated to him doing it out.
41:30
Right.
Yeah.
To make it, you know, a much more fun and impactful viewing because we only get to see him do you know, with the three main focuses and, you know, it’s kind of hit like not hit or miss, but I like it.
41:48
I wish it was more because it’s he’s got like that jigsaw morality to him of like, you know, I’m like, oh, you know, you’re afraid that you can’t hear anything.
Gunshot, boom, boom, you know, blows his ear comes out and no, I let that one go.
42:05
Like, kind of see that, you know, they think if they learn more too, into trying to show whether or not if he is actually somebody who suffered from his, you know, supposed tragedy of, you know, his parents being murdered by a bum that just comes in and uses an axe to kill him.
42:26
Or if it was all bullshit because he’s, you know, had always had a psychological break.
And that would have been better too, you know, to kind of give you more of a better understanding of what the hell is going on.
But yeah, I do, like I said, I do like it because I think it’s like, like, you know.
42:45
I agree with you.
I think that like the the idea that if we had just just gotten rid of this idea of like, well, is he or isn’t he psychotic?
Like it, it seems like it’s so unnecessary because it becomes like an inevitable element of the movie instead of dealing with all of that and sort of the 1st 45 minutes or so being very slow to get into the actual crux of the matter.
43:08
They probably should have just done that from the beginning and sort of had a much more encompassing element of like look at everybody’s dread and sort of made, almost made it like a saw but with dread, right?
Instead of instead of your, your own actions that have made these consequences, it’s more like, well, here’s your, it’s sort of like a even more macabre version of that where like the it’s confronting this dread is, is actually going to be your demise no matter what.
43:35
So the, the, the thesis is actually a foregone conclusion, right?
Like, yeah, of course, if you confront the dread that makes you go through it all, it’s not going to be any better for you.
Like you’re, I don’t know if you’re going to get better from it.
43:51
You’re going to experience it all again, but I don’t know if you’re going to get better from it.
Which I think, I think that that’s fine.
Like he’s not.
It’s like a morality, but at the same time it’s not about him, like, you know, trying to make you have like a come to Jesus and lie.
44:06
Yes, you were bitching about you.
You know, your toe hurting too much.
Well, I’m going to cut your whole fucking on body apart.
See, you know, unless you get this key out of, you know, your heel and time because like, he’s a sadist and he enjoys it and he gets a high and like, you know, he’s like, you know, turned on by the actual punishment and fear that he’s inflicting on them, but dread.
44:34
Right.
Yeah.
So I think that idea comes back to like, and I again, I don’t think his thesis makes sense, but at the same time, it doesn’t have to because he’s psychotic and it doesn’t have to.
And the whole thing actually kind of works out pretty well because it comes back to him saying like, I vicariously was living your dread to get over my dread.
44:55
You know, basically it’s like, it’s kind of like what what it ends up being.
And so it doesn’t need to make a lot of sense because at the end of the day, it is not a rational way to deal with dread.
You know, in the film kind of acknowledges that like it’s not it doesn’t necessarily help you, but it certainly helped him to do that.
45:13
So I think it makes sense and it does end up working to its credit.
And like you said, I don’t know if I would call this movie fun, entertaining.
Sure.
This is probably one of those movies that a lot of people call like says like it’s it’s unyielding.
45:31
It’s sort of like a very feel bad movie.
It kind of has a very grim outlook to it and in generally is sort of just makes you feel a little dirty, unclean because of the way that it kind of presents this very almost, you don’t like you said, sadistic version of it that that ends with a on a downer.
45:54
No, really.
I mean, it’s not like it ends with a everybody’s happily happy ever after and you get to go home and like, yeah, you confronted your dread and you’re good now.
It certainly has a a downer ending.
And a lot of people complain about this type of thing where they’re like, wow, I don’t really want to be made to feel bad by a movie, right?
46:14
Like I don’t want the I don’t want it at the end of the day.
I don’t want it to be so like disturbing and upsetting that like that’s the way it ends.
I don’t I don’t agree with that.
I think that it is a nice way, not nice.
It is a an interesting way to speak to your audience in that like, yeah, you’re not always going to feel good at the end of the day about what just happened, what what you just watched a sadistic person do.
46:38
And I think dread has that where it leaves you with sort of a impending sense of dread at the end of the film that like, wow, you’ve just watched a lot of bad things happen to these protagonists and it’s probably not going to end up stopping at the end of the movie.
Like it’s just going to keep continuing on.
46:54
What do you think about that?
Did you like the sort of downer ending that it leaves you on?
Yeah, I I’m, it’s, I’m fine with the context always matters.
Like, you know, I’m not looking for a specific ending.
I’m looking for one that fits.
47:10
And I think, you know, the way the film was going, there wasn’t going to be like, no, just this in any sense.
So like, yeah, it’s, it’s a fine ending.
It’s again very solid, like with like you know, especially with the first one, like Jigsaw be like came over and he’s shutting.
47:31
You know, Carriel wasn’t like the dark then you you know, but it works and it’s you know, because it’s like the way like if like things happen and him not getting killed.
47:49
What the hell is his name?
What?
Stephen Quaid Quaid.
Quaid not dying at the end and like when the guy was walking around the axe, who’s the deaf one?
Like I knew coming up like he’s going to put the axe in Steven and it happened and, you know, it’s joyful and fun and because at the same time, like, you know, he did let him go when his thing happened and dropped him off.
48:20
Like so like maybe it isn’t just like he’s going around like, you know, killing people and then like it turns into this spectacle and then it’s like, all right, you know, like he is upping his, you know, scampi shit these more.
48:36
Do you know, sure, you know, much more deviance.
And so I I no, I think it’s fine.
You know how I mean?
Like how would you want it to end?
No, no, Yeah, no.
I’m.
Like like the cops come in and shoot like arrest them or shoot quaid dad like.
You know, yeah, I think, I mean, I’m fine too.
48:56
I like, I like the ending.
I like the downer ending.
I didn’t like her having to eat the fucking maggot ridden steak.
Granted, steak being what it costs today compared to that and like, you know, like you, if it was say, you’d have.
To eat it, you can’t waste.
It you know, that fucking thing is like a, you know, 48 oz tomahawk.
49:14
Yeah, it’s a huge state.
Yeah, that thing was a bit huge.
Yeah, it’s a it’s a little.
It was grotesque, but I like it.
One thing I think that the film has that is very 2000s is this very contrasty color scheme lighting element that I will say I did not really care for that much.
49:44
The way that the lighting is in the very overblown whites that end up leaving a lot of people in shadow on purpose.
You know, one of the things that the film uses quite a lot of is a particular lighting, like from below that leaves Quaid’s eyes completely black.
50:07
Like so you can only see like the top of his forehead and then his mouth moving, but you can’t see his eyes in the sort of black and some.
And I think it’s a little bit of a like, yeah.
Does it have thematically make sense and give like a feeling?
Yes.
50:23
Is it absolutely ugly?
Yes, like I did.
I think that the film has like this almost very like off putting filter to it.
Yeah, yeah, it’s it’s similar to how I felt about Book of Blood, but maybe I don’t I don’t think this one is quite as bad as Book of Blood, which had like the a very like bland and, you know, overwhelming over I.
50:50
Didn’t even mean midnight meat train.
No, because midnight meat train, I mean definitely had like that aesthetic.
It was like a very washed out aesthetic on purpose, and I didn’t mind that one as much because it did have some artistic style.
Book of Blood, I felt like was like, you know, kind of really stretching it for even having artistic style at all.
51:10
I’m sorry, totally forgot we did Book of Blood.
You completely forgot about it already.
It was so good.
It was so good.
You forgot.
Yeah, I feel like this, like this one definitely is not that bad, but I don’t think that it looks particularly good.
51:27
And I do think, I mean, I think it’s a product of its time as well.
I don’t think you would ever see a film really shot like this anymore.
I think it’s a product of a 2000s torture porn aesthetic, which if we are being fair, this movie does at least attempt to sort of distance itself a bit or give it its own flair that you might not see in a soft film like this.
51:48
Not it’s not completely like green like a saw movie was at this time.
So I I will give it props for that.
It does have a, a particular style.
I just don’t really care for it.
In my opinion, difficult to look at, But what do you think about the 2000s soundtrack?
52:10
Like, I feel like there’s like Silversun Pickups and everything in this feel like the, like the, the, you know, the very 2000s alt alternative rock soundtrack that it’s got going on.
It’s just random shit strewn about like nothing’s happening.
52:30
No sound, no sound for like 1st 20 minutes and yeah, we’re going to the strip club.
I was right by the way.
It is Silversun Pickups, and so is it really?
52:46
Yeah, it is.
Yeah, it is from.
The soundtrack, That’s awesome.
Yeah, yeah, that is the one song is I was right.
But yeah, like the the soundtrack is made me cringe a little bit, which means that you know you’re you’re dead set in the the mid 2000s era when you’re when you’re cringing from the soundtrack that it’s got.
53:06
I was like.
What’s what’s the music sound but sounds like whispering and just the, you know, decimals on that Pet Wawa pedal.
Right.
Yeah.
53:22
Crank 2. 11 Yeah.
I had to laugh about some of the some of the soundtrack.
I was like, wow, this is very, very 2000.
Yeah.
What else?
What else did we talk about?
Effects.
53:38
The effects, yeah.
Yeah, it does use practical effects for the most part.
Besides like you said, those CGI laden slashes that occur on the women in the in the strip club.
I think the effects are pretty good.
53:56
Like you said, that like the practical effect of the bathtub scene is quite good.
The film makes a lot of use of not actually showing all that much with which I think is to its benefit.
The X slashings and stuff got like a nice half to them.
54:14
Physicality.
And I think like you were mentioning, when he does blow that guy’s eardrums out by shooting the gun right by his ear, it’s a pretty cool little addition to the film.
Like, like squeamishness.
Yeah, because you got the effect of like, you know, him firing it and then like, you know, yeah, it’s going like POV in here and like the and then like the bloodshot kind.
54:37
Of yeah.
It’s like, it’s like it’s really quick when he does it.
So it’s like what just happened?
Like you don’t know, Like dude, shoot him.
Did he you know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You can’t really.
Yeah, you don’t necessarily can’t tell.
Did he shoot him in the ear or did he shoot like past his ear?
54:54
And that is hard to see.
But yeah, I think it’s pretty effective, especially the way that it plays out.
It’s just it has a very nice like physicality to it that that seems like it would be painful.
It works well.
55:11
So I wear, you know, headphones and earmuffs when you’re shooting.
That’s right.
That’s right.
Blow your eardrums right now.
Yeah, I like the I like the practical effects.
I’m glad that they did stick mostly with that looks looks pretty good.
55:29
All right, So, oh, go ahead, go ahead.
I was going to say I did like some of like the stylistic choices, like when they’re showing anytime when they’re showing, like the man who is, you know, the supposed, you know, killer, you know, Quaid’s parents, like when they had like the axe dragon, they had like a real close up of like, you know, the axe like hitting like the, you know.
55:55
Thumping against the stairs, Yeah.
Like, like, you know, that was, you know, real cool and like a good, like a stylistic choice.
Yeah, All right, so let’s give Dread a rating.
So on a scale of zero to 10 big boobied artworks that are interspersed throughout Quaid’s apartment building.
56:18
Yeah, I’m glad I I was thinking the same thing. 1 I loved.
Yeah, he plays a painter.
Yeah, he’s.
Yeah, because like that whole bit, like all I was thinking of was fucking.
I mean, not another teen movie of like, you know, when he’s drawing like, you know, Jane, like Jamie and he’s drawing like her parents and like just like big boob figures, you know, like.
56:47
They are, yeah.
It’s kind of the same ideas.
Like at least at least the artwork is good, though.
I mean, it’s pretty good.
He does a pretty good job.
She’s just sitting down there and she’s like, they’re in like a dungeon.
Prank.
Yeah, yeah, it’s fine with it, yeah.
This is fine.
57:04
This is fine.
We’re OK.
This is great.
I, I, I just had to laugh because it was, you know, like every single he’s got a type for sure.
You know, every single every single one of the paintings is the same like type of, you know, big chested woman.
57:22
Given the six out of 10, I don’t think it’s a bad film.
I think it’s like, you know, pretty confident, pretty like it’s got some really good ideas.
I just think because it like, you know, the budget and some of the writing and, you know, casting choices, like it’s not as effective as it could be, but it’s I do think it’s really you, you know, cool and unique idea because I like, but I do appreciate and like the fact that it’s not like at the end of this film with all this shit that’s happening, I was like who it was the monster in the swamp here, you know, that like, you know, was polluting the mind of the people at the college.
58:05
You know, it’s, it’s different and I I, you know, it’s like a low budget saw and I think it works.
I don’t think it’s like perfect or great, you know, great by any means, but I think what it tries to do, I think it does, you know, well enough.
58:24
I’d say check it out.
I don’t expect anyone to walk away with it being, you know, odd and loving it.
But I think like again, but it it isn’t interesting enough of a film.
Yeah, yeah, I would agree.
58:41
I’m going to give it a six out of 10 as well.
I don’t think it’s a terrible movie.
I think that, you know, especially considering a couple of things that it has going for it in that it’s from 2009, you know, direct to video release, not very well known.
58:57
You might come away thinking immediately and judging a book by its cover by saying like, no, it’s not going to be that good.
However, I, I mean, I think that it is a fair film, especially for a low budget fit offering like this.
It’s it’s really not, you know, it’s not poorly done by any means.
59:12
It definitely has a competency and in direction and in writing that is a little bit smarter than your average fare for horror films.
I think that, you know, banking off of the Clyde Barker idea about dread, I think is is probably in the film’s best interests.
It does kind of what I feel like contemporize that a little bit by, you know, sort of putting it into a future state and kind of sees the its characters in a different way.
59:39
I like the idea that it it collects these various, you know, unique experiences of dread.
And I feel like that could have been expanded upon as we talked about, you know, kind of giving a few more characters for Quaid to work off of that would have because I think that the ideas are there.
1:00:01
It’s just that the film does not make much use of those and and sort of waste some of its time spending it developing characters that are kind of extraneous and not that necessary to the film.
So I if it had done that, I think it would have been an even better movie.
But it it does work pretty well on its own.
1:00:18
And again, it I think that the the idea of it is interesting, kind of doing its own torture porn aesthetic thing, which kind of sets its us itself apart from those other movies that are basically just like this literally saw.
It’s literally saw, but just like something different, different, different guy, you know, different area, but it’s literally saw.
1:00:38
This is not that.
And it does try to do something a bit different with it and imagining itself in Clyde Barker’s world, but also, you know, incorporating that body horror torture porn element.
So I think it’s it’s worth at least one watch.
See what you think.
It’s definitely sort of surprising that it’s it ends up being better than you probably expect it to be.
1:01:00
So all right, what’s our episode on Dread?
Another one down for bobbing for Barker.
Yeah.
Next week we will be going back again to classic Barker from the 80s.
1:01:16
You know, we kind of been doing that, switching on and off between newer and older films that he’s worked on.
So you’ll want to stick around for that.
And we got a few more weeks left, I think a few more until we get to Halloween.
It’s going fast though.
It’s going fast.
So you’ll definitely want to stick around and subscribe to us on pretty much any podcast app you can think of because you don’t want to see what happens in bobbing for Barker.
1:01:40
You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, whatever you use, I’m sure we’re on it.
Subscribe, leave us a nice review.
We’re on Facebook and Blue Sky.
You can search for us on their bottom like Run podcast.
You can also write to us at [email protected].
Let us know what you like, but you don’t like, what movies you want us to watch, Take that into consideration.
1:01:56
You can also find us on Patreon where you can donate to us.
Anything you donate goes back towards beer, so we appreciate that in advance.
Again, thank you for listening to our episode on Dread.
Go back through and listen to all the rest of the bobbing for Barker if you haven’t yet.
Hope you’re having a great Halloween season and until next time, take care.
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