EPISODE 122 - Death Spa: LIVE!

[GiveMeYourBaby 102]

Why haven't the Sklars been on yet? It's not like it would be hard to get them over to the Earwolf studios. Is there a bad twin movie they can be guests for?

[GiveMeYourBaby 102]

Good on Jason for calling out the loud whistler and then not letting him ask a question. If you're a whistler at a concert, comedy show, or whatever, just know that everyone in the crowd is thinking about you the same way that everyone in this crowd responded to that dude. You are the worst, and you should be kicked the fuck out.

 

 

It's not like he whistled at an inappropriate time or did it constantly through the whole show. Everyone else was cheering and clapping. Why do you guys hate whistling so much?

[RyanSz 3140]

Clapping and cheering are a different animal because those are expected for a live event like this. Whistling is an attention seeking action which distracts from the discussion that the hosts are having and he was doing it quite a bit. Jason has called out girls who cheer at inappropriate times in many of the live episodes before, or the ones who go WWWHHOOOO at random intervals because it can distract people. It also didn't help that the guy was kinda swarmy about being the whistler.

[EllenM 943]

Why haven't the Sklars been on yet? It's not like it would be hard to get them over to the Earwolf studios. Is there a bad twin movie they can be guests for?

I've never seen it, but is "Twins" with Arnold and Danny Devito a good-bad movie? They could go two for two with that combo after Junior.

 

Otherwise, maybe the movie "Stuck on You" with Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear playing conjoined twins?

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Every October for the past few years I basically do a marathon of nothing but horror movies. As of right now I've watched 115 and I can say this was nowhere near the worst. Amazon Prime really has some shitty horror movies available for free, so bad that they wouldn't even be good for the show (Crazy Murder, Under the Skin, and Stage Fright, come to mind). This was actually crazy good in the same vein as Sleepaway Camp.

I think I'm gonna fight you about Under the Skin. It wasn't perfect but I loved it and there were a couple of parts that genuinely freaked me out!

[Cameron H. 23786]

Wow--okay, I finally had a chance to listen to the episode and I can see why it might make some people want to go back in watch it. They did a great job and it was a million times more interesting than actually watching the movie.

 

My biggest question is: "Why does the movie hate so much," more specifically, women and the institution of marriage?

 

It was covered extensively in the episode. but why is Michael such a shit to his wife? When he is talking to the paranormal investigator, not only does he get overly defensive about his alleged infidelity, but he seemingly blames his wife for her depression and resulting suicide: "After she lost the baby, I couldn't reason with her." Oh really, you unsympathetic shithead? You couldn't reason with her? Do you think that maybe her fragile state of mind might be a result of her carrying a child to term only to lose that child (Which is an intrapartum death, not a "miscarriage") and her ability to walk in one fell swoop? Not everyone has the ability to just bounce back from a tragedy like that and just go back to having aquafrolics with their best friend in the gym's pool. Maybe instead of trying to "reason" with your wife, you just be there for her during a really difficult time. Perhaps suggest professional counseling instead of shoving a limp asparagus into her mouth-- something I can only assume he must have done based on his track record for dealing with women coping with traumatic injuries...

 

But Michael isn't the only character with a hate on for his wife. The male detective, who we find out is also married, not only tries to hook up with someone at the Mardi Gras party ("This place ought to be lousy with good-looking bimbos."), but when he learns that Michael's wife burnt to death, can't resist adding, "I've got to tell my wife to start smoking in bed." What the fuck movie? I can only guess the writer was going through some serious shit when he wrote this movie.

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

It's not like he whistled at an inappropriate time or did it constantly through the whole show. Everyone else was cheering and clapping. Why do you guys hate whistling so much?

 

Actually, he did do it...a lot. It was really pathetic. I don't really want to give this douche any more attention than he has already gotten, but I just listened to the episode this morning--after reading the forum posts--and was waiting for it. Not only does he do it at the beginning (fine, whatever), but he then does it again a little bit later while Paul is speaking--I believe this is when Jason calls him out on it. He then does it a couple of more times, he stupidly admits to it, and then afterward, does it AGAIN!

 

Are people really that starved for attention? "Hey bro, you hear that whistling? That was me! D'urrrr!"

 

 

People just need to learn what it means to be a good audience member.

[RyanSz 3140]

I think I'm gonna fight you about Under the Skin. It wasn't perfect but I loved it and there were a couple of parts that genuinely freaked me out!

To me it was just an even more boring version of the last half of Lucy, which is a shame because the book it's loosely based on is actually pretty well received and the character actually had multiple dimensions to her and reasons why she was doing the things she was. I will admit though the whole toddler scene did make me uncomfortable since it was like the splinter scene in Zombi 2 where it went on for so long.

[EllenM 943]

Wow--okay, I finally had a chance to listen to the episode and I can see why it might make some people want to go back in watch it. They did a great job and it was a million times more interesting than actually watching the movie.

 

My biggest question is: "Why does the movie hate so much," more specifically, women and the institution of marriage?

 

It was covered extensively in the episode. but why is Michael such a shit to his wife. When he is talking to the paranormal investigator, not only does he get overly defensive about his alleged infidelity, but he seemingly blames his wife for her depression and resulting suicide: "After she lost the baby, I couldn't reason with her." Oh really, you unsympathetic shithead? You couldn't reason with her? Do you think that maybe her fragile state of mind might be a result of her carrying a child to term only to lose that child (Which is an intrapartum death, not a "miscarriage") and her ability to walk in one fell swoop? Not everyone has the ability to just bounce back from a tragedy like that and just go back to having aquafrolics with their best friend in the gym's pool. Maybe instead of trying to "reason" with your wife you just be there for her during a really difficult time? Perhaps suggest professional counseling instead of shoving a limp asparagus into her mouth, something I can only assume he must have done based on his track record for dealing with women coping with traumatic injuries...

 

But Michael isn't the only character with a hate on for his wife. The male detective, who we find out is also married, not only tries to hook up with someone at the Mardi Gras party ("This place ought to be lousy with good-looking bimbos."), but when he learns that Michael's wife burnt to death, can't resist adding, "I've got to tell my wife to start smoking in bed." What the fuck movie? I can only guess the writer was going through some serious shit when he wrote this movie.

 

Michael is legitimately a sociopath I think. He says Catherine was upset without justification. If you're ever in a scenario where you have to defend yourself and you use without justification, then you're done. Pack it up because you're wrong.

 

Also, if we're to believe David, Catherine never wanted the baby in the first place. So Catherine's being upset about being in a wheelchair due to a intrapartum complications can be completely justified. She didn't want the baby in the first place, just Michael. She may see everything Michael has done in spite of their love. Maybe she didn't want the baby because she believed she was enough for him? Then after she became disabled, she sees Michael going to the gym all the time. David more than likely told her the goings-on at the gym and all of Michael's affairs.

 

She was COMPLETELY justified in being depressed and potentially angry. Angry enough to commit paranormal murder? Definitely.

 

That's also why I made the cop the dinosaur in my Theodore Rex comparison.

[Cameron H. 23786]

What I found odd about this movie is how it forced this red herring down our throats, like so much health spa sushi, only to reveal at the end that the red herring was actually just the herring. From the beginning, the movie goes to great pains to set David up as the bad guy: he confesses to never liking Michael (what's not to like?), he blames Michael for his sister's untimely death, and he freely admits that, not only is he the only person with the skills to make a computer *sigh* shoot acid, but he is the only person capable of covering those tracks. Every time the finger is pointed squarely in David's direction, it goes to great pains to prove this isn't the case, until, in the end, it turns out to be...David.

 

And to answer the question as whether the murders are supernatural or technological, I'd guess it's a little bit of both. In my opinion, as Catherine's twin, David provides a conduit to the corporeal realm. She's a ghost and can do ghostly things, but since she wasn't proficient with them in life, she doesn't have any of his skills with computers. When bonded with her brother, she gains his technological know-how to use against Michael. Apart, they can do some stuff, but together they become another beast all together--like a more fucked up version of the Wonder Twins.

 

 

If you ask me, this whole movie is a technophobic's ghost story. To the writer of this movie, computers, gyms, and ghosts all seem to be of the same echelon of things to be considered terrifying, which is to say, the writer is obviously scared to death of things he knows nothing about. This is a guy* who thinks automated exercise machines would provide the best workout, ghosts can be killed with a revolver, and computers with a program that's freezing can be fixed with a screwdriver.

 

And speaking of screwdrivers...does that scene ever have a payoff? David shows up saying Michael sent him, he threatens Laura, and leaves. Later, Michael says he never sent David there. Considering everything that's going on, and that David is still the prime suspect and all the murders seem to be computer based, shouldn't he be a little bit concerned? I honestly thought Catherine was somehow "in" the computer system, and David was somehow networking his home computer to the Health Spa so she could get at him at home. But, no. In the end, as it ever was, his home remains a sanctuary for all his beloved Southwestern-style vests--the only things he loves, and the only things he ever will love.

 

*I'm not fact checking whether the writer was a man or not. I'm comfortable with my assertion.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

To me it was just an even more boring version of the last half of Lucy, which is a shame because the book it's loosely based on is actually pretty well received and the character actually had multiple dimensions to her and reasons why she was doing the things she was. I will admit though the whole toddler scene did make me uncomfortable since it was like the splinter scene in Zombi 2 where it went on for so long.

Yes I will agree with you that a lot of things went on for way longer than they should have, but in some cases, like the beach scene, that actually heightened the experience for me. I think they wanted us to feel as uncomfortable as possible and boy did I ever. I still get an incredibly sad feeling in my soul whenever I think about that. It was intense.

 

It definitely wasn't what I was expecting it to be and I do find it funny that around the same time we got two movies where ScarJo had to be as emotionless as possible for a bulk of the film lol.

[EllenM 943]

...his home remains a sanctuary for all his beloved Southwestern-style vests--the only things he loves, and the only things he ever will love.

Two things about the set up of the gym/spa:

 

When they take the cops for a tour of the place, the panning shot reveals that the gym has no ceiling. They couldn't be bothered to build a ceiling or properly frame the shot.

 

Can we please talk about how in his office he has cattle skulls on the walls, instead of vests? He just loves that western motif guys.

[Molly L. 99]

Hmmm another thing I've noticed: inappropriate sushi is close to becoming a theme in HDTGM movies -- first sushi robot in Runaway and now health spa sushi....was this a thing in the 80s/early 90s?

[RyanSz 3140]

Hmmm another thing I've noticed: inappropriate sushi is close to becoming a theme in HDTGM movies -- first sushi robot in Runaway and now health spa sushi....was this a thing in the 80s/early 90s?

Don't forget skin sushi in Crank 2.

[babyoilbandit 81]

Yet another instance of Chekhov's blender. If you see someone fucking around with a blender in the first act it's going to kill someone in the third act.

[TracyComeau 4]

I haven't finished listening to the podcast, but I had to add this in before I forget.

 

A search of the web denies any fear of twins by respectible sites. However, some places on the web states that the fear of twins is aptly named Geminiphobia. This would be the fear that June was referring to when she was saying that they were playing on our fears. The fear of identical (or monozygotic) twins is Duomaieusiophobia (good luck pronouncing that, Paul). This would not be the fear June was talking about, as obviously, they are different genders and therefore not coming from the same zygote. Unless the brother was born a female and was a transgendered person who went through the complete sex reassignment surgery... that would be a weird twist on this movie, especially if June is right and he continues to dress as his sister sometimes.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

I haven't finished listening to the podcast, but I had to add this in before I forget.

 

A search of the web denies any fear of twins by respectible sites. However, some places on the web states that the fear of twins is aptly named Geminiphobia. This would be the fear that June was referring to when she was saying that they were playing on our fears. The fear of identical (or monozygotic) twins is Duomaieusiophobia (good luck pronouncing that, Paul). This would not be the fear June was talking about, as obviously, they are different genders and therefore not coming from the same zygote. Unless the brother was born a female and was a transgendered person who went through the complete sex reassignment surgery... that would be a weird twist on this movie, especially if June is right and he continues to dress as his sister sometimes.

That would be some crazy Sleepaway Camp shit if it seriously turned out all along that David was born a woman but the family wanted a girl and a boy so they forced him to go through years of confusion.

[dd1zzle 8]

I have several problems with the accurate representation of the chlorine in this movie.

First, I used to work as a lifeguard, and whenever we worked with the chlorine, we'd have to use mask, because if you breathed a large amount of fumes you could have major brain damage. The lead actress who got blinded in the movie, would of also been brain dead if she was exposed to the amount of chlorine she was.

 

Secondly swimming pools would not have chlorine in a gas form. They use tablets because it's easier to store, move and are less dangerous to work with. Most chlorine gas is super dangerous and would require high credentials in order to obtain it, so where did the gas come from? No gym owner, computer scientist, or lawyer could be able to obtain it legally.

[drunkpeter 3]

I think that that VHS/Beta comment is very plainly a comment about incompatibility. Remember that when the argument between the two video formats raged in the early-to-mid 80's, most people were so new to home video that the very fact it existed was akin to a miracle. Few people, other than real cinephiles, were all that concerned with the issue of quality.

 

He's not insulting her at all. He is saying to her, in essence, "I'm not going to bother trying to pick up on you, simply becasue I can already tell that wer are not compatible, in the way that Beta and VHS are incompatible."

 

He's comparing their incompatibility - wether it's due to his homosexuality or otherwise - to the incompatibility between similar varieties of home video technolgy.

[EllenM 943]

That would be some crazy Sleepaway Camp shit if it seriously turned out all along that David was born a woman but the family wanted a girl and a boy so they forced him to go through years of confusion.

Not to bring the party down but I got another Canadian case of this, where twins boys were born and one had a botched circumcision so the parents, on medical advice, raised him as a girl. He never identified as female and transitioned back to male at 15. It's really tragic.

 

http://en.wikipedia....ki/David_Reimer

[RyanSz 3140]

I don't know if anyone mentioned this but do you think they featured all of the vests/Native American decor as a sort of Shining grab to make viewers think that there might be a supernatural element due to Indian burial grounds? For a second in the beginning I was wondering if all of those decorations would lead to something along those lines, but nope just random shit in order to be random.

[NutRumpus 23]

Just like Paul this entire movie bothered me, but a couple things really stuck out:

 

1. Nearish the end there was a scene with two people working on an electric junction box (I think it was the lawyer and the girl he was conspiring with? Honestly, I zoned out so much during this movie). The guy gets zapped by electricity, holds his wrist up to his hear to make sure his watch is still working, and then ties his watch to something in the junction box. But the camera gives us a close up of this and he's wearing a digital Casio calculator watch. Why would he need to hear that to make sure it's working? You can literally see the seconds tick by in number format. It's not like a watch with hands where if you don't have a second hand it may be hard to see the other two hands move. In fact, I own one of these watches myself and they don't even make sounds as the seconds tick by! The only thing I can think of is that when the movie was written in 1983 digital watches weren't as common, so it was probably written into the script that he checks the watch. It was just never taken out, even with the character wearing that digital watch.

 

2. During one of the final scenes between Michael and Catherine/David in the NASA control room (while Laura is being cooked on that tanning bed) there's a set of dialogue that goes like this:

 

Michael: "Let her go first."

Catherine/David: "Don't give me ultimatums!"

Michael: "If you kill her, you'll never have me!"

 

The dialogue in that order doesn't make sense. Michael's first line isn't really the ultimatum, but his second line is. I'm thinking here that maybe there was another Catherine/David line where the ultimatum line would normally have gone, but maybe they couldn't get a good take of it or the line just fell flat. So they just replaced it with the current line and said "Fuck it."

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Not to bring the party down but I got another Canadian case of this, where twins boys were born and one had a botched circumcision so the parents, on medical advice, raised him as a girl. He never identified as female and transitioned back to male at 15. It's really tragic.

 

http://en.wikipedia....ki/David_Reimer

I remember that because they actually turned it into a case on Law & Order SVU and of course I had to know everything about the reality of it. I still can't believe that happened.

[joshg 207]

That's what I had said earlier, and it seems like one of those things that just stayed in the script from the time it was written to several years later when it actually got made. Paul made the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray comparison, but in that case, I don't think either of them had caught on enough yet when Blu-Ray (popularized by the makers of Beta!) won that war to where THAT would make sense if it were in a film today, as the window for that being culturally relevant was very, very, very small. For some reason though, people remember the shit out of Beta...

 

 

You guys are underestimating the simply brilliant script. That line was oh-so-subtle foreshadowing. By 1988 they knew that Beta had met its demise, therefore Beta guy was predicting his own untimely death. Chelsea Field was VHS, and she survived until the end of the film.

 

At least that's the explanation if the writers had predicted the fate of the two video formats in 1983 and decided to keep the line long after the line proved prescient yet outdated at the same time.

[AnthonyPizarro 2]

So with the whole Beta, VHS line. I think he just meant that they weren't compatible. Right? Like you cant play beta on a vhs tape deck...maybe?