Binary System Podcast – Watch Party #20 – In the Mouth of Madness

It’s time yet again to Social Distance the heck out of this epidemic and watch a movie together while still staying in three different states: North Carolina, Florida, and California. Next up for the Tri-State Watch Party, we went with another one of our favorites, In the Mouth of Madness.

The Netflix Watch Party app ended up being a little complicated, so we just set a time to hit “play” and then chatted through instant messenger. Click the jump to read some highlights from the conversation.

The Players: Elizabeth, Hannah, and Kathryn. Nathan had a Grateful Dead stream he was watching, and we weren’t sure how much Mom and Dad wanted to see this particular movie, so it’s a Sisters Watch Party this time.

Kathryn
Ready to play whenever!

Elizabeth
Ready here too

Hannah
Yep

Kathryn
Playing!

Elizabeth
Oh I almost forgot the intro music I LOVE IT

Kathryn
I can’t put into words why I like this movie so much, I just do.

They’re obviously printing a bunch of copies of this poster in this intro. Suppose there are still copies of it floating around?

Elizabeth
Waaant

Hannah
It has all of the fucking weird and scary and it attempts to explain almost none of it

ooooooh

There he is

Kathryn
This dude played the devil in the TV show Brimstone

Hannah
So handsome

Not that dude obviously haha

Kathryn
Sam Neill himself

Elizabeth
I’M SORRY ABOUT THE BALLS!!!!!

Hannah
The lighting/camera work in these bits especially is really fun

Kathryn
“ME NEITHER!”

Hannah
NOT THE CARPENTERS

(I just lost my drink while I was sitting down the whole time)

Elizabeth
hahaha I forgot everybody sings along

Kathryn
God that look of wondering follower by utter despair

Hannah
He can .almost. do Jack Nicholson

Kathryn
SUBLIMINAL HORROR IS ALWAYS THE WORST HORROR.

Hannah
YIPE

goosebumps

Elizabeth
Oh hey David Warner, totally forgot he was in this

Hannah
I love this as an alternate-reality sequel to A Christmas Carol

Elizabeth
Ooooooo

Kathryn
Not sure why you would let David Warner to be alone with a violent patient, but okay…

Hannah
heh

Elizabeth
All the stuff on his face really reminiscent of the end of Event Horizon….

Hannah
eesh yeah well they went full Hellraiser there

Kathryn
So John Carpenter did ALL of the music for this?

Elizabeth
Sounds like it

Halloween costume his blue jammies with black crosses all over it

Hannah
OH DUDE

how have I never thought of that before?

Elizabeth
Hee

Kathryn
I would love to do that and then see which random people would “get” it.

Took me ages to actually hear what they’re saying in this scene

Elizabeth
watching him slowly come across the street….

Hannah
Almost wish he would’ve showed that from inside the cafe the whole time

Elizabeth
same

Weird ADR there, but I forgot about the eyes

Kathryn
How do you not meet demand for ADVANCE orders?

Hannah
heh, good point

Sip your booze, Sammo

fucccckkking Chuck, of course

Elizabeth
One of my favorite Heston roles

😀

Kathryn
Wonder if anyone got his gun yet?

Hannah
heh

Elizabeth
Heh

Hannah
Her lips say, “You read books” but her lips and shoulder pads say, “GUESS WHAT DECADE THIS IS”

Elizabeth
hahahah

Hannah
I think I always missed that they actually mention Stephen King

Elizabeth
I was just thinking that “Is this a veiled reference to Stephen King oh wait they just brought him up”

Hannah
It is fun to me that Sam Neill starts off as a borderline unlikeable character. That seems like a good storytelling choice

Elizabeth
Yes, not a Mary Sue by any means

“it’s cute, put it in the press kit” is a great line.

Hannah
ew, Sam, stop it, put your arm down

Elizabeth
Kick im in the balls lady.

Hannah
That really does make me physically uncomfortable and I would pay money to have Sam Neill 6 inches from my face

Elizabeth
Agreed

Hannah
I wonder if this is another case of Sam actually trying an American accent and just getting to muted kiwi

Elizabeth
Sounds like it, it’s not jarring whatever it is

Hannah
It’s not, but it’s not 100 percent American, either

Kathryn
BE-ah

Hannah
Chechov’s face rub

Luke Crane would’ve licked it

Elizabeth
Right?

Yaaaa chills up my arms

AND AGAIN

Hannah
nope nope nope

Kathryn
God, even knowing that jump scare is coming…

Elizabeth
I forgot about it

😀

I remember seeing this and thinking he wasn’t really a smoker, do we know that?

Hannah
Y’know, I had that thought, too

Details like this make me think this was based on a book

Kathryn
This is neat because he COULD just be having a manic episode here for all we know

Elizabeth
I love that dismissive “…cute.”

Kathryn
Him singing America the Beautiful here is just perfect

Hannah
haha yes

why…is there a horn…in the glove box

NEVAH NEVAH NEVAH…throw chips at a drivah

Kathryn
This shot of the lighted cab in the darkness…

Is it…a bicycle horn?

Elizabeth
hee

Don’t YOU have a bicycle horn in your glove compartment?

Hannah
I’m a bell in the glove box woman

Elizabeth

Kathryn

Hannah
And here Styles summarizes the premise

Elizabeth
Yep

Kathryn
Heeeere we go…

Elizabeth
That sound when he’s lit in red ..

Hannah
Oh man, I was headed to Mom and Dad’s the other night and there was this like 7 year old girl walking in the middle of the road

If it had been nighttime…eesh

nope

nope nope nope

Elizabeth
aaaaaa

YIPE

Hannah
The sound cue is unfair but so effective

Elizabeth
“He was okay?” Not even close.

Kathryn
WHY DON’T YOU MAKE TRENT DRIVE, STILES?

Elizabeth
Man it is HIS TURN TO DRIVE

Jinx!

Kathryn
Jinx!

Hannah
hahah

I love this shot

and then blammo, daytime

Elizabeth
Man alive, the lightning in the clouds UNDER them

Hannah
yes!

Kathryn
“You drive.” A LITTLE LATE FOR THAT.

Elizabeth
SERIOUSLY

Hannah
I love how “covered bridge” is shorthand for New England

Elizabeth
Worse things to be known for, for sure

We need to do a road trip where we visit filming locations like this

Hannah
Man can wear a pair of jeans with boots, lemme tell ya

Elizabeth
Boy howdy

Hannah
nice focus pull there

Elizabeth
Has the car just seen some things or was it always that crappy?

Kathryn
Almost a jump scare

Hannah
heh not sure

Kathryn
“I’ve read about it. And so have you.” She just has zero patience.

Hannah
Changing paintings is a thing that gets me every time

Kathryn
Me too! So effective.

Elizabeth
Me too!

Hannah
nope

Elizabeth
NOPE

Hannah
Yeah I don’t think he’s trying to change his accent

Elizabeth
“The view was from the East.” Love that bit.

Hannah
yes!

Kathryn
Real honest to God church there.

Hannah
is it?

Kathryn
Outside Toronto

Hannah
jesus

Kathryn
I think it’s possibly shuttered now

Hannah
Makes you wonder what they thought about being the setting for this

Elizabeth
Road trip

Hannah
Toronto filming locations would be an .awesome. road trip

Kathryn
You’ve all seen The Seventh Sign, right?

Hannah
Jurgen Prochnow is Germany’s Morgan Freeman

Elizabeth
Dogs springing into action at once like that I just love.

Hannah
Loooong time ago

Elizabeth
Seventh Sign, with Demi Moore?

Kathryn
Yep, Jurgen Prochnow is fantastic in that.

Elizabeth
She’s disguising an accent too isn’t she?

Kathryn
“Well FUCK THAT.”

Hannah
I’m not sure if she’s disguising an accent or just not…that…great…?

Elizabeth
Heh, yeah her delivery is off

Kathryn
Little of column a, little of column b.

Elizabeth
NO WAY SHE’S HOLDING HIS PEEN

Hannah
I NEVER SAW THAT BEFORE

Wait, it’s not his left hand?

Elizabeth
ME NEITHER

Hahaha it COULD be his hand.

Hannah
hahaha

YOU SEE WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE, ELIZABETH

Elizabeth
I think the painter was veeeeeeery clever

I DID NOT WANT TO SEE HIS PEEN

Hannah
haha HELL NO

Kathryn
This actress is amazing, so sweet and UTTERLY menacing

Elizabeth
Very!

Hannah
yes!

Elizabeth
Michelob product placement, sort of

Hannah
The accents are all over the place in this, heh

Elizabeth
Today is MOMMYS DAY

Yipe!

I love the pieces of plot all over the place, like the town really was based on a whole bunch of books and it’s not important what part of the story you’re in

Hannah
heh yes, good point

Kathryn
Pretty sure that upside down cross isn’t part of the actual church.

Elizabeth
Nooo I imagine not

Kathryn
She sniffed whatever was on the wall. At least she didn’t lick it.

Elizabeth
I WAS JUST THINKING THAT

Hannah
audible jump scares all over the shop

Kathryn
Lordy, Nathan’s taken up writing on an old typewriter and that sound is going to CREEP ME OUT NOW.

Elizabeth
I love em, I don’t care, I’ll take a jump scare in any medium

Hannah
“I always thought I was making this up” is pretty creepy

Elizabeth
Everybody since Lovecraft has done Lovecraft better.

Hannah
haha

Kathryn
He built the best sandbox for everyone else to play in

Hannah
And then got his racist ass dead

Elizabeth
Pity he was such a raging racist

Hannah
haha

Elizabeth
jinx

😀

Kathryn
He lived a miserable life and then died, the end.

Hannah
WFF had a quote from him about how he knew Hitler was silly but “gosh darn it, I like the lad”

Kathryn
Ugh

Elizabeth
Truth

That he’d say that I mean, not that Hitler was a likable lad

Kathryn
The “I’m losing me!” Is probably her worst delivery.

Elizabeth
Yeah, agreed.

Hannah
Somehow her being off from the get-go helps with the turning into a monster stuff, I think

Kathryn
The church wasn’t in the painting before, was it?

Hannah
I don’t think so

Elizabeth
I don’t…think so?

Hannah
Mrs Pickman as a feature on Disney World’s Haunted House

Haunted MANSION dammit

Elizabeth
Heh, 1980s animatronics for sure

Kathryn
God that horn-blatting music sting gets me EVERY time.

Hannah
yep!

Elizabeth
The whipping tentacles under the dooooor!

No no dude get back in the car

“I have to he wrote me this way” is another great line

Hannah
yes

hahaha

That punch back

Elizabeth
hee

Moves like this make me want to learn to hotwire a car juuuuuuuust in case

Hannah
not as easy these days

Kathryn
That little pout just before she swallows the keys is probably her best delivery.

Hannah
This bit always freaked me out

Elizabeth
aaaaaaaa do not like body horror

Hannah
Driving away from somewhere and winding up right back there is true nightmare stuff

nooooo thank you

I SAID NO THANK YOU

Elizabeth
hahaha

Hannah
I love John Carpenter getting the most out of multiple takes with his extras and stunt driver

Elizabeth
Hee

I like that the idea of “just drive through all of them” was so well subverted with her showing up in the middle of them

Kathryn
Huh, was this movie pre-airbags?

Looking that up

Elizabeth
Google says airbags are 1970s

Hannah
prrroooobably? I remember when seatbelt mandates weren’t a thing

Elizabeth
beat ya!

Hannah
And yet no safety matches

Kathryn
Heh.

Hannah
Safety matches are bad for Hollywood

Somebody do a mashup of this and Fleabag please

Elizabeth
eeeeeee

Kathryn
Nooooo, not sexy…

Hannah
haha, no

Bad flex, Sam. Baaaaad flex

Elizabeth
I love that idea of a cumulative effect, that the old books were so popular, the new one will push it over the edge.

“I think therefor you are.”

Hannah
Cartesian Horror

Elizabeth
THAT LOOKS LIKE EVENT HORIZON

Hannah
I WAS JUST GONNA SAY THAT

Kathryn
Looks very HR Geiger too.

Hannah
Her reading the narration here is a very cool thing

Elizabeth
Very

And the fact you don’t see what she’s saying but he does, nice

Kathryn
I’m sure people have pieced together as much as they can of the words on the ripped paper.

Yeesh

Elizabeth
I swear Supernatural has used that same spot for the Crossroads Demon.

Hannah
You just know some of these shots have been framed in such a way to eliminate a Circle K

Elizabeth
Right?

Kathryn
Heh. Robot Monster.

Hannah
haha that mirror motion

Elizabeth
So flinchy

Hannah
heh that dude has been a surfer in everything

or he looks like the dude who has

Elizabeth
I was just looking at his name in the X-ray. Never heard of him but damn he looks familiar.

Kathryn
X-ray?

Elizabeth
Hover over the top of the screen, you get a prompt to see who’s in the movie

In Prime anyway.

Kathryn
Heeeere we go…

Elizabeth
One of my favorite scenes!

Hannah
SAME!

Kathryn
What is she TALKING about with the bodies?

Elizabeth
Yipe!!

Love that, every time.

Kathryn
Sam Neill just THROWS himself into that scream.

Hannah
yes!

Screaming is HARD to do

Elizabeth
Creeped me out so much the first time I saw it, I loved it

Kathryn
I always had this idea that that alley scene might have originally led to something more.

Elizabeth
The microadjustments he keeps doing, so effective

Hannah
“I know I sent you off alone” eep

Elizabeth
Any time a story makes the narrator unreliable like that…

Hannah
yuuuup

Kathryn
MONTHS AGO

Elizabeth
“The book’s been in the store for seven weeks..”

“The movie comes out next month…”

Hannah
The way this story just oozes back in on itself

Elizabeth
Yes!

Hannah
Man there’s a jump scare coming up that I thought was at the beginning

haha, “…there’s a movie.”

Don’t ever turn off your recorder. The best things get said when you say goodbye

Kathryn
That reminds me of the story 1308

2408

1408 damnit

Hannah
heh 1408

Elizabeth
Hee, I’ve told jada that a couple times, you always get gold after they think they’re done talking

Kathryn
He really sells the terror here

Elizabeth
yes he does!

I love the condition of the door

And the hallway

Hannah
yessss

haha the same thing he does when he steps in triceratops shit

…that one, that was the one I was thinking of

Elizabeth
HHAHAHAH the jump scare gets me EVERY TIME

Kathryn
Haaa

Even knowing it’s coming

Elizabeth
This ending for crying out loud

Hannah
snort-laugh

fucking awesome

Elizabeth
It’s been WAY TOO LONG since I watched that

Kathryn
Now I’m gonna soak in this theme song.

Hannah
The ending swelling into this fucking badass guitar music

Elizabeth
yes!!

Hannah
More horror movies should leave you feeling unsettled but also TRIUMPHANT at the end

Elizabeth
Yes that’s the perfect way to put it! You get done feeling like you accomplished something!

Kathryn
Look up John Carpenter’s Lost Themes album. GREAT music on there.

The “no animals were harmed” disclaimer in the credits is followed by “Human interaction was monitored by the Inter Planetary Psychiatric Association. The body count was high, the casualties are heavy.”

Elizabeth
I NEVER NOTICED THAT BRAVO CREDIT GUYS

Kathryn
MAN I love that music.

Hannah
haha awesome

I didn’t stand up during that whole movie

(granted, merciful run time)

Kathryn
Me neither!

Now I’m gonna have nightmares tonight. WORTH IT.

Elizabeth
If this ever makes it to Netflix UK I hope like hell the Flixwatcher Pod covers it

Super high engagement score

Kathryn
High rewatchability.

Hannah
I was just thinking I would become a Best Pick patron if when they get done with Oscars winners you could just pay them to discuss ANY FILM

Elizabeth
Yes!

Hannah
I just .reluctantly. turned on the lights

Elizabeth
I’ve only just now turned on the little desk light by the computer, the rest of the place is pitch black 

Kathryn
Pretty bright here, and Nathan’s got The Grateful Dead playing upstairs. But looking out the window and seeing a car drive by in the dark gave me a chill FOR NO REASON.

Hannah
Heh, that movie came out in 1994 (of course, ’cause y’all saw it in college). So points deducted for the 80s-ness… or we’re just being way too generous about the early 90s

 

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