Pick Up & Deliver 795: Spooky Movie Roundup '25, part 2
Welcome to Pickup and Deliver, the podcast where I pick up my audio recorder as I step out, as I step out of the store and deliver an episode to you while I walk home. I'm Brendan Riley. 
Well greetings listener. It's a chilly but lovely day here in suburban Chicago. Temperatures in the low twenties Fahrenheit, which is relatively nice if you've got a hat on and gloves and a nice jacket, which I am doing all of those things. So I'm happy to be talking to you here as I walk home from my errands. And today I am going to be talking to you about the second half of the creepy movies that I watched in October. That's right. This is Creepy movie Round-Up part two or Spooky Movie Round-Up twenty twenty five part two. 
All right, we left off on the sixteenth of October, so now we're on the seventeenth of October. I watched two horror movies on that day. The first one is called PG: Psycho Goreman. This definitely qualifies as the weirdest movie I watched in the whole spooky season. Psycho Goreman is a horror comedy that is made in the vein of, like, old Troma movies. If you've ever seen a trauma movie, it feels like one of those. The idea is a terrifying, evil presence from the future was buried on Earth, and two annoying kids resurrect him by accident. And because they're the ones who resurrect him, they get control of him. Then a whole bunch of futuristic evil villains show up to try to kill him, and he kills them. There's a variety of weird murdering going on as well as attempted space. Conquest is is a weird movie. Uh, it is done with all practical effects, a very low budget, and the practical effects feel a lot like they were purchased from the same place that makes the costumes for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is what the villain costumes feel like. They tend to have a kind of rubbery look to them, but they're also super strange. But then they also have an extreme level of gore that reminds me of Gwar. So sort of like if Gwar made a comedy horror movie, uh, psycho Goreman is weird. It's really weird. Uh, there is funny. I think it's funnier than some of the other movies, like Freaks of Nature was fine. Psycho Goreman is more memorable. It's worth watching if. If what I've said tantalizes you if you like. Oh, that sounds well, that sounds interesting. At least it's interesting. At least I can't say it was good, but it was interesting. 
Next up we have When a Stranger Calls. This is a nineteen seventy nine horror movie that has the… it's sort of built around the idea of like, the call is coming from inside the house. It's a really strange movie in that it really is built around the opening scene and the closing scene, which are together about twenty minutes, twenty five minutes, but the filmmakers needed to fill ninety minutes. So they came up with another hour of stuff that doesn't feel relevant or interesting at all. So it's compelling because it's so weird and the beginning and the end are great, but I literally had trouble staying awake for the middle. I found it super boring. The most interesting thing about it is Carol Kane is in the movie. She plays the babysitter who gets the phone call from inside the house. And it's interesting to see her as a young woman sort of performing these terrified. She's a scream queen type character in the movie. It feels like as something in nineteen seventy nine, it's built around sort of rising fears around the nuclear family. It feels like it's in sort of conversation with the same movies that Stranger Things is thinking about feels. I mean, it's nineteen seventy nine, so it feels very early eighties because it's pretty close to the early eighties. But New York is a kind of trash heap. And, um, it's it's an interesting movie, but like I said, the middle is really boring. So that's when a stranger calls. Can't say I recommend. 
Next up we have the twenty sixteen movie A Cure for Wellness. This is a really fascinating, grotesque body horror movie that takes place at a rejuvenation clinic where wealthy people go in and they never come out. It's kind of the gimmick or the idea of it. The premise sort of turns on the idea of these medicinal waters that are really good for you. And the main character is this sort of really aggressive, up and coming financial whiz kid who's looking to get a promotion that has financial whiz kid company, but he can't because the boss has gone missing. So they send him to this clinic to get the boss to bring the boss back. Uh, and then everything at the clinic is weird. The main character is played by Nicholas Hoult. No, it's not Nicholas Hoult. It's a guy who looks kind of like Nicholas Hoult. He's another guy who you've seen in stuff. He's got sort of the same, a same physical, a similar physical demeanour. He's thinner than Hoult, but, uh, same similar guy. It's creepy and very moody and really gothic in its horror style, and I liked it quite a bit because of that. Uh, Jason Isaacs is in it, playing a delightfully malevolent guy in charge of the sanatorium, and the. It was shot by Gore Verbinski, the same guy who shot the ring. And it shows like it feels very moody. The guy likes a green light filter. The whole thing feels a little bit green like the ring did. And it works. It's super creepy. It's creepy. I wouldn't say super creepy, but very much creepy. Not scary. That's a cure for wellness twenty sixteen. 
Next up, we have Evil Dead Rise. I've always been a fan of the Evil Dead films. I saw the first couple when I was in high school, and I returned to them regularly. I watched the Evil Dead reboot when that came out and enjoyed that quite a bit. I have not seen ash versus the Evil Dead TV show, so I don't I can't really comment on that, but Evil Dead Rise is another movie in the same genre. The idea of like, The Evil Dead get out because someone reads the Necronomicon. In this case, I did find it a little annoying. A little spoiler here. You can skip ahead a minute if you don't want to hear it. The main character who finds the Necronomicon finds the book, but then finds records like LPs recorded by these priests who read the book out loud. And you know, all the trouble then comes after that. It's sort of like in the second Evil Dead movie, where they find a reel to reel tape player. This one is LPs that were recorded and saved along with the stash of stuff, including the Necronomicon. The thing is, there's recordings one through seven. And of course, in recording two, they actually read the book. So if you play it, the book is then read aloud and evil stuff happens. But the part that's so frustrating is by record seven, they're like, oh man, we never should have read the book. Oh, that was a bad choice. You know, be careful not to ever read the book or whatever. So, okay, put yourself in their shoes. You're trying to make this record for posterity to save people from whatever's happening. Wouldn't you destroy the other six records so that there's not a recording of you reading the book? Or at best, on record seven. Right. Listen to this one. First. Cross out the numbers on the other one and say, make that record number one so people can hear what happened before they play the other records and cause the trouble. It's really dumb. From a world building standpoint, that they did it that way at least. I mean, what would have been ideal is that maybe if they made a warning record and then, you know, you could have a narrative trope where that record like falls down a crack or something. And so the the person doesn't find it till later after they've played the, the more dangerous record or just record number one is missing. There's all sorts of stuff you could do to make it make sense, but oh well. And of course it's records because the main character is a DJ, so they have a turntable and so they listen to the record on the turntable. It's a good it's a good one. If you like The Evil Dead, it fits. 
Next up we have The Babysitter twenty seventeen. This is a horror comedy movie where there's a sort of teen who's a little bit stunted in his emotional development compared to his peers, and his parents still make him get a babysitter when they're going out of town. Although I think like a fifteen year old, I wouldn't leave a fifteen year old home alone. I would require someone to stay with them. If we can't have family, then yeah, hire a babysitter. But of course, the babysitter is played by Samara Weaving and presented in sort of conventionally heterosexual hot way as the hot babysitter. And this fifteen year old really enjoys spending time with her, and she's really cool and stuff. And then it turns out that she's evil. I don't want to say much more than that, because it's a comedy and I don't want to give away the twist. You get that she's evil from the trailer, so I'm not doing too much here, but she's evil, and there's a delightful twist of a variety of different things, but it is all built around this action comedy and these sort of evil high schoolers. And that way it reminds me a little of brick in terms of the high schoolers. Except for the main character, all the other high schoolers are particularly egregious and villainous. And so I think that's pretty fun. That's the babysitter from twenty seventeen. 
On the twenty second of October, I watched The Mortuary Collection from twenty nineteen. This is an anthology movie about a where the wraparound story is a woman applying to be a assistant undertaker at a mortuary, and she's given a tour by this guy who is super creepy old mortician and is telling her these stories about different people who've died and the horrible things that happened to them. As it goes on. There appears to be a sort of supernatural element to the whole story, and the wraparound story starts to have a kind of moralistic, moralistic event as it goes on. It's sort of like tales from the crypt. The guy telling the story is a appropriately creepy old Clancy Brown. And, you know, any movie with Clancy Brown. And it's good. So that is the mortuary collection, a perfectly fine evening watch. Not one I'd go really out of my way to watch, but well worth it if you have it on a streaming service for free, which I did. 
My wife and I watched Death Becomes Her nineteen ninety two, which is a movie I had not seen. I've read about it quite a bit. In fact, I read about it recently in something, thinking about body image and plastic surgery and Death Becomes Her as a sort of early film. So I think about that. Oh, I remember what it was. It was Karina Longworth's. You must remember this. Brian De Palma was the director of Death Becomes Her. Maybe. Or I think it was that or she was. The episode was about the romance, like romantic horror or romantic thrillers in the nineties. And it was in there. I don't remember exactly why, but I got to learn about a lot about that movie. It was pretty good. Uh, it is a great critique of body image issues in Hollywood, none of which have gone away. Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn do a great job chewing the scenery. Bruce Willis plays a delightful nebbishy fop, which is not his usual role. Later, though, at the time I think it was probably reasonable for him to play, and, uh, it's a delight. Yeah, if you haven't seen Death Becomes Her, you definitely should. Um, I enjoyed that a lot. 
Next up, another movie I really enjoyed, Sissy from twenty twenty two. Uh, this is not playing on gender politics. It is a woman named Cecilia who, when she was a kid, went by sissy until she was bullied by somebody who teased her using the the name sissy as an insult. There was a falling out and a dramatic turn. And now this woman is a twenty something lifestyle influencer who says like meditative stuff and she gets invited to the bachelorette party or the hen weekend. This takes place in Australia of one of the women she was friends with when she was a kid, and the other woman who is was her bully when she was a kid is also there, and it's an intense thriller after that which turns delightfully grotesque, that sissy. I like that one a lot. Well worth watching. Pretty gross though. 
Next up we have House of the Long Shadows. This is a movie that has a lot of big name British horror stars. You got Peter Cushing, you got Vincent Price, you got Christopher Lee, all in the same movie, as well as a couple other luminaries. Uh, it's a sort of macabre gothic comedy or gothic horror movie with a little bit of comedy about a guy who's just trying to get a book written at this mansion and all these scary people show up. It was not very good, but it was an amusing use of my hour and a half. I enjoyed it, I didn't fall asleep, didn't even feel like I was going to. So House of the Long Shadows. Yeah that's fine. 
Uh, then we had Rubber from twenty ten. I did not like rubber at all. I was hoping I would. This is exactly the kind of movie I would like. The premise is, it's an evil tire that murders people. You would think I'd like it. I did not like it. It's got a kind of meta voice that is usually the sort of thing I would enjoy. I didn't enjoy the way it worked here. The murders I didn't find particularly compelling or interesting. I thought it was really boring. I am disappointed that I didn't like it because I it felt right up my alley. Like last year. You'll remember I watched I Bought a vampire motorcycle and I loved it. I thought this was going to be that and it wasn't. So somewhere in the Venn diagram between I bought a vampire motorcycle and slacks is where I thought rubber would be, and it was not. I did not enjoy it, so no recommend for me on rubber. 
Next I watched Ernest Scared Stupid. I'd never seen this Jim Varney film with the his classic character Ernest. It's a Halloween movie. It's cute. I think Jim Varney is a very funny comedian. This is a movie you made for children, so it's got childish humor in it, but I think it was well made. Childish humor that was funny and enjoyable. It was pretty dumb, certainly, but it's literally called Ernest Scared Stupid. The all the characters who aren't Ernest are dumb in different ways and sometimes annoying, but ultimately I had a good time watching it. If I could recommend a pairing, there is a podcast that I enjoy called Free with Ads and they watched Ernest Scared Stupid this year. I would recommend listening to their episode after you watched the movie. Um, keep in mind though, they are a very adult podcast in terms of lots of swearing, lots of sex jokes, vulgar language. So heads up if that's a thing for you. 
Uh, next up, we got The Cursed. This is a twenty twenty one film in the cursed. The characters. Uh, it is a wealthy family who lives on land. It's a British family who lives on land in Wales. And they murder some Romani people and get cursed. And all the things that you might expect to happen after that happens, happen. So it's not too surprising from that perspective, but it is well made and thoughtful. I enjoyed the movie, but I'm a little tired of that trope, so no need to I would I would put it in the middle. 
Now, Mandy, I watched Mandy from twenty eighteen. That was what I thought it was going to be. It was an absolutely wild action movie starring Nicolas Cage as a lumberjack whose wife gets kidnapped and murdered, and he seeks out for revenge. And boy howdy, does he get it. Uh, this movie's Really grim, but very funny also. It's a little weird, but within the realm of interesting. Weird as far as I'm concerned, versus less interesting that we might find in other movies. So that is Mandy twenty eighteen really grotesque? Worth a watch if you like a really grotesque horror movie that's really trippy. 
Also, uh, finally I watched Out of Darkness twenty twenty two. This is. I watched this on Halloween. Out of darkness is a simply the story is it's a horror movie about cavemen. So the main characters are primitive people in the prehistoric time. They're looking for shelter and food, and they are hunted by a terrifying monster. It was pretty good. Um. Not great. There were parts of it I really disliked, but all in all, it was pretty good. Definitely worth watching. Very well shot. Uh, worth looking to if the plot summary sounded interesting to you. That is Out of Darkness twenty twenty two. 
Well, that, my friends, brings me to the end of my walk home. And brings me to the end of this podcast. I'd like to say thank you for joining me today. It was a pleasure talking with you about spooky movies. If you'd like to talk to me, you can head over to BoardGameGeek Guild 3269 and post there where other members of the Guild, other listeners of the podcast can participate in a conversation with you. If you'd like to talk to me directly, you can email me brendan@rattleboxgames.com or send me a message on BoardGameGeek. Wombat929 is my username there. 
I want to say thank you for listening and for joining me on my walk today. I hope that your next walk is as pleasant as mine was. Bye bye. 
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