S1E7 - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: WTF is Grandpa?

Hey y'all, we are back with a few episodes that have been sitting in the archive. We're getting ready to start recording new episodes, but we wanted to get these out there. These were also a bit of an experiment with new styles and new equipment, so there may be some glitches along the way, but we appreciate you joining us and hope you enjoy them. Welcome back to Coolidge After Dark, the premier podcast of the Coolidge Corner area. I'm R.C. Beiler.

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah! And I'm Jenn Evans.

Jesus Christ. We just got back from seeing the midnight showing of the 1974 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, directed by Tobe Hooper and written by Hooper and Kim Henkel.

Cinematography by Daniel Pearl, because I feel like that deserves a mention.

Does it?

Yep.

Well, all right. You know what? We'll come back to some other things then.

Yes, we will.

I— so I went in thinking I had seen this film before. I was wrong. I'd seen clips of it. What I've seen in the past is the 2004 remake. Some of the shots are iconic, particularly the shot where the one girl, Pam, runs out of the house and gets pulled back in by Leatherface. That's like one of the iconic shots of the film that's constantly referenced. But I would say in many ways, as I was watching this, that this is a film that obviously revolutionary for the time, but it's a series of things that are stronger concepts than they are executions. To me, most of the cinematography was okay. Some things were good. Most of it was okay. Acting, most of it was okay. Some things were good. Special effects, etc., etc. Like kind of like all of it was like concepts that the 2004 film would later go on and like enhance significantly.

Okay.

To what I think a better degree.

Was the story the same?

More or less.

Okay.

The structure was very different. That's the main thing. I would say that it is a stronger film overall though.

So I went in pretty blind. I mean, I knew that there was a chainsaw in Texas and it was like one of those slasher movies where people run around. Our new favorite person, Mark Anastasio, program director of Coolidge Movie Midnights, got up and with his full battle-clad jacket chest said, This is one of the greats. And I said, oh, okay, Mark. I'm scared now. This is going to be scary. This is going to be a slasher. This is going to be the blueprint for all horror movies going forward. Okay, Mark. It's one of the greats. Sure thing.

Are you saying you disagree with Mark?

This was so much wilder than I anticipated.

Yeah. We'll get into this when we get into more about the plot. But I will say that in a way I did not expect, this movie was 0 to 100 in some cases.

Yes. That's a great way to say it.

Like some parts were kind of meandering. And then boom, suddenly massacre begins.

Like starting up a chainsaw.

So yeah, let's just go over some statistics. It's everyone's favorite segment, Jenn guesses numbers. What do you estimate the budget for this film was? I will let you know that Wikipedia did not know. They gave a range. I will also say that the box office, the way that it is currently being calculated for this film, is from 1974 to now.

Okay. Was this a major release?

I'm not 100% certain. I believe it was a full theatrical nationwide. I don't think it was a limited run or anything.

This wasn't an arthouse— I don't believe so. I'm going to guess the budget for this was $3.75. One tank of gas.

$375?

$3.75.

Oh.

Gas was cheaper in the '70s, but this was about a tank of gas for the fucking van. That is it. Everyone else worked on volunteer. All right.

What about the box office?

The box office.

From 1974 to 2024, technically, is what the estimate was.

We paid like $40 to see this movie tonight.

So did like 100 other people.

Sure. A lot of money. Zeros upon zeros upon zeros. A billion dollars. The profit, the ROI on this was crazy.

The budget was slightly more than $3.75. The box office was slightly less than $1 billion.

Well, we got there.

The budget was estimated between $80,000 to $140,000.

Okay.

The box office as of 2024 was $30.9 million, which was lower than I expected.

Yes, that's a big number still. Yes.

Well, no, it's lower than I would expect though, given that it's been 50 years of this film being out and it being well-known within the genre.

Yes. I mean, this is— one of the top of the genre.

This leads me to think that slashers, not that I've delved deep into their budgeting, but that they're just not as money-making as I would think.

Well, was this one of the first horror movies ever made?

This was 3 years before Halloween came out. Okay.

Certainly not one of the— Psycho in 1960?

Yeah, 1960 sounds about right.

That's what Mark said today.

No, definitely not one of the first because there was Psycho and The Birds, Rear Window, a lot of different stuff.

Different kinds. Was this one of the first This is— Psycho was a slasher though, right?

Psycho is like the proto—

I've never seen it.

Yeah, I will say the same as that. I have not as well. But it is— but it's very different from the kind of stalking slasher that we see in what I think of as a slasher. I would have said started with Halloween. I did not realize— and I knew, I think Black Christmas came out before that. I did not know The Texas Chainsaw Massacre predated Halloween. That was a surprise to me.

Oh, okay. Hmm.

And it is crazy for me to think that those movies— because we will be going to see Halloween at the end of this month.

On Halloween.

For your first time going.

Yep.

And it is crazy to me to think, God, listen, I don't want to disparage anyone in this film. John Carpenter must just be such a dramatically better director. Just because that movie, 3 years later, is so dramatically different on all fronts.

So not all movies from the '70s feel like that because—

No, no. Well, I think Star Wars—

Or not all horror movies.

I was going to say, you've never seen Star Wars.

I was going to say, well, Star Wars came out in '77. I've seen a bit of Star Wars. It felt similar.

So the other stat that I want to have you take a guess at is what do you think the Rotten Tomatoes score is? So keep in mind, Rotten Tomatoes includes modern reviews and not just the reviews at the time. I will just give you a spoiler that reviews at the time—

Were bad.

Were middling. Yeah.

Yeah. I feel like this came out and people were like, excuse me, what? And now people see it in a different light. Like it's a cult classic. Right.

At the time, this would have probably been considered one of the most violent films that existed. It has also one of the best and most iconic lines. I want to get a copy of the poster. It's got Leatherface with a chainsaw and it just says, who will be left and what will be left of them?

Wow.

Really solid line that I've always appreciated. What do you estimate Rotten Tomatoes?

I forget the scoring on Rotten Tomatoes. Is it 5?

It's a percentage, 0 to 100.

Oh, right. Oh, right. Okay. I'm going to guess this has 30%.

84.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

People like this movie.

Yeah, yeah. Well, again, that's why I said that I wanted to make sure I was clear that it includes modern reviews of it as well.

Okay.

It's not just the reviews. If we were just taking the reviews at the time, it probably would have been closer to like 50.

Was it supposed to be funny or was that just the theater we were in tonight?

I thought that a few times as well.

Granted, God bless the person when they first showed the first chainsaw that went— And the whole theater laughed. Did you catch that?

The first scene where, um, parts of this movie just— the brother Franklin, fucking Franklin, I forget what happened, but basically he fell down a hill. And like, that's the thing is like when you take that as it is, that is a serious thing. That is a terrible thing that's happening to someone who can't control their situation, is falling down a hill. But the way they did it, cinematography and the acting in it didn't sell it as such. It felt like it was more comedic. Maybe that was intentional. There is the possibility that that was to get your guard down. It's trying to take advantage of you. You know it's going to be a scary movie.

Yes.

Some of these things felt—

Some of it was funny because it was bad acting, like when Franklin and the sister were just fucking screaming at each other. I was like, I really hope me and Matt have never looked like that in public.

I will say Franklin gave me very strong MTV's Film Star Randall Malone vibes.

Oh my God.

From my favorite horror movie, Don't Look in the Cellar.

Randall Malone would have played a very good Franklin.

Yeah.

Because Franklin was goddamn insufferable.

I— okay, wait, wait. All right. So we'll get a little bit of the plot with this.

Also, they call him an invalid in the beginning of the movie.

They did.

The Star Trek text.

I'm sure that's— I'm sorry though. What?

The Star Trek text.

Star Wars does the text.

Oh, sorry. Whatever. One of those, the yellow text that floats up.

Everybody get in the comments. Call this out.

Call this nerd what he is.

Me?

Yes.

But you call you out for being wrong. Oh, it was not— that was probably the parlance at the time kind of thing.

It was, I know, but I was like, oh, he's gonna be like—

well, I wasn't sure at first if he had like a mental handicap.

That's what I thought.

I don't think so.

I don't like—

in the first couple moments, no, I thought he was just a whiny bitch. Yeah, yeah, but the first couple moments of the film, I wasn't sure if that's what they were gonna be playing it as.

But late, like, as you get to know him, you're like, oh no, He's just like a sour bitch.

He also really got dragged. They did kind of abandon him, but he definitely got dragged into this trip that I don't— he was also, he kept having the reaction of like about there's no AC in the car and it's so hot out.

It's hot.

If I was in the '70s and there was no AC in the car and they made me drive through Texas, I absolutely would just—

we would have kicked you out of the car.

I would have been so terrible to travel with back then. It is only through the power of modern convenience that I am acceptable to hang out with.

So Franklin would have been a better character with AC?

I think we all would have I think all of those characters would have been. Also, they let that hitchhiker in the car for far too long.

Oh my God, they really just—

Let's start from the beginning.

Okay.

We get introduced to the characters. It's 5 college-age kids coming to check because a local graveyard has been desecrated and they want to make sure it wasn't—

Yeah, they're checking on Grandpappy to make sure he wasn't dug up.

Yeah. Listen, you saw the freaking meat sculpture that was made and put in the front of the cemetery.

Yeah.

They end up heading out of town. They pick up a hitchhiker. want to try and find— the hitchhiker's insane, and they decide they want— they stop for gas, there's no gas, so they're kind of killing time. They decide they want to go to their old family farm house. Yeah, like apparently their family used to live in the area but doesn't anymore. Well, Franklin said his dad owns it still.

And did you catch the girl said, I stayed in this room when I was 8?

Yeah, but I didn't get the feeling— like, I had doubts he still owned it.

And he knew where the creek was. Oh God, no, no one. Yeah.

But like the way he said, my dad owns it, I was like, no, he doesn't. Yeah, you feel like it's because your family used to own it that you have like the right. Because the guy was like, "You don't want to go on other people's properties." I was like, "Yeah, someone else might live there now." Sure, and they'll shoot you.

Sure.

No, that would have been the better option actually for what happened.

Franklin they sold the the stone house. That's what it was.

Franklin was like, "We own it, I promise." So yeah, and then two of the friends decide they want to go off to the swimming hole, which is all dried up, so there's no swimming hole to be had. True. But they find out that a local, like the the next-door house has gas. The first sign, like, I'm going into this knowing—

Was that a generator?

There was a generator, yeah.

Was that the generator they heard?

That was making noise, yeah.

Okay, so that's what lures them, is they hear a generator, which I was like, is this a generator?

That was a generator, in fact.

I learned.

But this is one of those things where, like, we have the benefit of knowing, like, modern horror movies. Maybe we're also a little more cynical. When they found the graveyard of abandoned cars that were all in fairly good condition, That would have been the first sign of oh people are getting lured here and they're keeping the cars after they're dead.

Sure.

Which why are they trying to sell the cars? That'd probably be the more profitable.

Well, we'll get there. But all those three people.

I'm just saying back in the seventies you could have easily faked much of that. True. Maybe not this group. Who knows?

That's this group. I don't think anyone wanted to deal with them.

And then so yeah, these two kids sneak off and this is like what said where it goes zero to a hundred. Like the first murder.

Yeah, they all die.

Yeah, they all die. They all die in like the foyer of the house.

Five minutes. Yeah, they do the same thing. Three three of the five die.

die in the same spot, basically.

Yeah.

Um, so there was Kirk.

Yes, Kirk goes first.

Kirk goes first, um, because he stupidly goes into the house.

He hears pig squeals and he's like, gotta see what that is.

But again, also 0 to 100. He's walking, Leatherface almost kind of like comes into frame and just bashes him in the head.

Yep.

Although there was like a very, lack of a better term, graphic moment where like Kirk's on the ground like after the first hit and kind of just twitching.

They were talking about like pig slaughtering earlier, or cow slaughtering earlier, and how sometimes you don't take them out on the first sledge. That's what that was.

Leatherface is not a skilled—

He's not a skilled butcher.

Look at the mask he made. Clearly, he's not—

Not a great artist.

Listen.

Art is subjective.

That house was full of art.

Yes.

I think this is a good time though to talk about Ed Gein, the inspiration for this.

Yes. That directly was?

So Ed Gein, one of the things that he is most known for is when they finally caught him and found his house, it was full of art made out of skin and skeletons.

Lampshades.

Lampshades made out of skin and books and skulls made into stuff.

All over the place.

Yeah.

Was that in the '50s or the '60s?

'50s.

He was kind of an earlier one.

But the way that it's always been described does not sound nearly as desolate. Their house was like a just Pigpen.

No, his house actually seemed like it was a functioning house. It just, when you looked closer, oops.

Oops, all corpses.

Oops, skin everywhere. Yeah, I mean, he made stools out of skin and all sorts of things.

That also implies a level of skill that is not shown in this film.

I think someone actually says that, that he has carpentry skills.

Yeah, that might've been what he did for work. This film, I could definitely see—

This gets crazy.

The inspiration. Yeah, well, yeah, but this is like, We definitely get the implication that Leatherface is some kind of mentally handicapped, disabled.

Something's going on. The voice is off. He's not speaking.

Well, he doesn't really speak English. He makes a lot of sounds.

Yes.

But there was the one— what I thought when we were talking about cinematography earlier, one of the most interesting scenes is like after he kills, I think, 3 of them.

Sure.

And he goes and he's like panicking almost, and he sits down and he's kind of just like has his hands kind of curled. He has his hands kind of curled in front of him. He's just kind of rocking back and But he looks very pensive, like he's worried about getting in trouble, is what I thought in my head.

Yeah, well, I mean, once, once you get him with the other characters, he kind of has this childlike thing going on.

So yeah, we kill off 3 of the characters in like the— in like a 10-minute—

Consecutively, yeah.

Kirk goes in, gets murdered. Pam, who was with him, doesn't realize he's dead because she walked away a little bit, came back, also goes in, stumbles upon the, uh, the— all of the different art and such.

Gets hooked. He gets— she gets meat hooked.

Maybe it's just because they spent a lot of time showing like all the stuff she was seeing in the room.

Yeah.

But it almost felt like, in my perspective, that she's just sitting there on the floor for an extended period. Maybe I'm playing like Monday morning quarterback, but like, if I was— if I saw any of this, I'm like, I'm out of here.

Well, she just sits there and throws up and screams and cries and is like, just like making a snow angel and all of these like feathers and skeleton bits.

Yeah, they focused on the chicken that was in the room a lot.

They like zoom into it like that's the skeleton. They're like, look at this gross chicken.

Whoa.

Ah! She's like throwing up. But it was pretty bad when they zoomed out and she's like, there's just shit everywhere. Yeah, and yeah, like chairs of skeletons and stuff.

She doesn't flee immediately.

No, she's stupid.

Yeah, she goes still trying to find Kirk, and then yeah, Leatherface just comes up, grabs her, and meat hooks her. Yeah, and she gets to watch as Kirk gets— who was already dead, but he gets chainsawed to pieces.

Yes, but then she ends up in the freezer.

But I thought that was weird because like they made it— they've definitely implied that like she was like banging on the freezer, but So later on, yeah, I was like, is that even real?

Right, the way she like, ah, well, we'll get there, we'll get there.

Yeah, so Jerry, who is the boyfriend, I think, of the main character Sally. Yeah, who is, yeah, Franklin's, uh, sister. Jerry comes looking for them, uh, finds her in the meat closet, immediately gets, uh, clobbered then by Leatherface. He was also the only one that really got a chance to react.

He was like, ah, yeah, and then Done one one one bash. He also, but he saw he saw Pam in the freezer. Yeah. So he opens it. Well, he hears the freezer rattling around. He's like, ah! He opens the freezer, and then she comes out of the freezer and like waves her arms around.

Very like almost made me think of like 1930s horror movies. Like they would come to life.

Yeah, it made me think of like an animatronic like skeleton popping up from its coffin.

Oh yeah, no definitely.

Like in a Halloween decoration. It was stupid.

Also. Jerry was really, again, probably just more how people dressed back then, but he reminded me of Disco Stu from The Simpsons.

You're so right. You're so right.

I almost wonder if Disco Stu is somewhat inspired by this character.

Yeah, by Jerry. Disco Stu gets clobbered in one clobber.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It did not take much to— none of these kids took long.

No, it didn't take much to take out Disco Stu. He was the easiest kill, in my opinion.

Definitely, definitely. But yeah, eventually, It's late at night and they haven't come back, you know, because they're all dead. But the other 2, the brother and sister, don't know this. So they're kind of just arguing in the car, eventually decide to go. They get about halfway to the house when Leatherface appears out of nowhere and just eviscerates Franklin in his wheelchair with the chainsaw.

Listen, I was like, thank God.

But that was one of those 0 to 100 moments that I was like, I did not think he was going to go out that quick.

No, I didn't either.

Right then.

I honestly thought Franklin was going to be the final girl and I was real mad about it. I was like, oh, he's gonna whine.

So no, Sally, who— let me say, I realize I'm saying a lot of names. Sally Hardesty is the character's name. She's best known for this series. The actress's name is Marilyn Burns.

Okay.

But she is considered kind of like the quintessential final girl. Like, this is kind of one of those first times where girl lasts to the end, you know, clearly mentally broken by the experience. And then Jerry, this was one of 5 roles he's done. Oddly enough, the last 3 were in the last couple of years according to IMDb.

Oh. Yeah.

Played by Alan Danziger. But yeah, this is one of the few roles he's done. Franklin, played by Paul Partain, who has done 7 roles, including 2 from the Texas Chainsaw series.

He's in another one?

So in a, in a later one, some of the actors come back, but they play other characters.

Okay.

Gunnar Hansen played Leatherface. This is most known for this, but he's done many different horror films. He did pass away. Oh, and then I thought this was interesting. Do you know who John Larroquette is?

No.

Have you ever seen the show Night Court? Nope. I'm trying to think. He's done a lot. He's one of these people that you would know him if you saw him because he's been in a lot of things. He's probably in Old New Murders in the Building, I'm willing to bet. But he was the narrator, and this would have been, I think, before he really started taking off as an actor. So I thought that was—

wait, that didn't have a narrator?

Yeah, in the beginning, the guy who read off the text.

Oh yeah, you're right. It went into the radio, so I forgot that there was 2 different—

yeah, crossfading into the other stuff. So yeah. Where were we in the plot then?

Franklin gets killed.

Franklin gets killed, and this begins basically 30 straight minutes of Marilyn Burns screaming.

Screaming.

At the top of her lungs.

Crazy, running in zigzags, the stupidest Scooby-Doo chase ever.

Listen, this guy was like a— he's like a linebacker build. I'm surprised that she— the fact that she could stay so far ahead of him means that she went to girl gym and did cardio.

Hell yeah. You're going to girl gym because you never know if all your friends are going to be chainsawed and you got to get away. But he was like stopping to cut down a lot of the like twigs and stuff in the way.

My thoughts on that were more like that she was small enough to get around them and he had to cut through them to get through.

Okay, fine.

But also at the same time, he's probably strong enough to just bash them.

It seems like, I have a chainsaw. And then, you know, she runs into his house and he runs after her and then she fucking jumps out the window.

She jumped out of 2 windows.

She did jump out and I was going to— I was like, noted. We were going to talk about that.

Okay.

She runs back into the woods. He runs after her, and then finally he catches her.

Well, he doesn't catch her.

No, no. She runs to the gas station.

Yeah. And that's where we find out that the—

Gas station guy sucks.

They're all in the same family.

She sees that he's cooking some human meat.

The hitchhiker from the beginning, also in the same family.

Yes. So they're all brothers?

Yeah, yeah. That's the implication there.

And then we meet Grandpa. Yeah.

Who's basically just like—

What the fuck? Fuck was Grandpa? I've been waiting to ask you.

Oh, I think he's just like a—

They show him at first, we think he's dead because he's sitting with Grandma.

He's basically a corpse in a wheelchair who maybe is living off blood.

Yes, because he sucks on Marilyn Burns' finger when they cut it.

Yes, they cut her finger and make it feed to him.

The worst horror movie scene I've ever seen.

Yes. He also— he's very much not all there, clearly.

I mean, he's dead.

No, no, because he was moving. He was grabbing the hammer.

That was the craziest.

But like, yeah, I think he is like on the brink of death.

Like, they could have— I think he died like 20 years before that.

He's just rigor mortis grabbing the hammer.

I think so.

Well, no, because he was super alive when he was suckling on that thing.

No, it was— the hands were just going everywhere.

Well, it made me think of someone with like dementia, like retreating into like an infant state.

Oh, that was not like a person, though. That was another Halloween decoration brought to life. Brought to life. I literally was like, is this is this supernatural?

No, it's he is supposed to be a living. He's supposed to be a living human.

Yeah. Okay.

Does he want to be alive? Different story. No, no.

So they torture Marilyn Monroe.

Yeah, they torture her. They basically tell her they're gonna they make her have dinner with them and then tell her basically they're gonna kill her. She Escapes because—

Screaming the whole time.

Yeah, so much screaming.

So many cinematography close-ups of her eyes and her mouth and her eyes and her mouth and her face and her eyes and her mouth.

We— that's another example of actually the really good cinematography. They had this one shot that really focused on the eye for a bit.

Yes.

We also— oh, we didn't even talk about this. This was on 32mm film.

Okay.

And we were able to just get so much detail. Like, it really showcased like the amount of like just, I don't know, the details of a human eye. Every time I get a really good close-up of them are just like so interesting. Yeah, and this, like I said, the fact that we got such high fidelity film, I think really showcased it. But yeah, just so much screaming.

Yeah, so much screaming. And if she had stopped screaming, she may have been able to hide and get away. But she screamed.

Yeah, she could not stop if she wanted to. No. But yeah, so she eventually gets away again. Jumps through another window. Yes. Runs into the street.

Now it's daylight.

Now. Well, that's how long.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Sorry.

Let's go back to. They tell her they're going to kill her at the table, and then they're like, Grandpa's going to kill you because he's the best killer in the whole family.

Maybe back in the day he was.

One blow and you're done. You won't even feel it. Then they have this whole fucking scene where they put her head over a—

A bucket.

A bucket.

Yes.

They proceed to try to put the hammer in his hand.

In Grandpa's hand.

I was laughing the whole scene.

Like, I don't know if that was intentional, but like there's an amount of humor that— because he does— he actually gets a hit in at one point.

He does get a hit in, but like—

but like literally they're putting the hammer in his hand, Leatherface is lifting up his arm and then letting it go.

And then there's like points where he just like throws the— he just kind of like tosses the hammer at him.

Like he's dropping it basically.

He's dropping it. But it was so ridiculous.

Yeah, well it was like 10 times.

Yes, yes, it was too much.

And one of them did hit.

One of them did hit. He hits her in the head.

Yeah. Eventually—

Then she gets up, jumps out the window.

Jumps through the window.

It's daylight. Everyone's going on their morning run at this point, running after her. They run into— that's what it felt like.

Hitchhiker chases after her and Leatherface chases after her with the chainsaw. Hitchhiker gets hit by a passing freight truck.

Run over.

Run over, just splattered. Freight truck guy. This is one of the— also one of the funny moments.

This is the stupidest.

Freight truck guy gets out to check on Sally. Sally's coming around the corner, Leatherface right behind her. He sees Leatherface and also books it back into the truck.

Gets her in the car.

Yeah, let me see. They get out the other side. Leatherface is still chasing them.

Well, no, because Leatherface proceeds to try to cut—

Into the door of the truck.

Which he's not. He's just like carving an X. Yeah, paint.

Well, because I don't think you can— I don't know if that could cut through that.

I don't think so.

Maybe eventually, but not easily. No, not like stupid. We also— yeah, he's not all there. No. So they get out the other side. Leatherface realizes, chases them around. The guy, the freight truck guy who we don't get a name from, grabbed a monkey— grabbed a wrench, hits Leatherface in the head with it, caused Leatherface to fall and chainsaw his own leg a little bit.

You hear the stupidest doink when it hits Leatherface's head.

But also, so another person happens to pull up around in a truck and stops for for Sally. Sally gets on the truck. Freight guy is running in their direction, not in the same direction as the truck. So let's so Sally and and the truck person escape, but the freight truck guy still running the other direction. He's got to come back for his truck eventually, or he's going to get chainsaw massacred.

Yeah, I didn't notice that.

And the whole film ends more with Sally screaming and having a mental breakdown.

And she's laughing in the back of the truck.

She's having a bit of a mentee bee.

She is having a mentee bee.

But that was the film, Jenn

Oh, and then there's a gratuitous scene of Leatherface spinning around in the morning rising Texas sun, waving his chainsaw in the air.

That's another one of the iconic scenes of her screaming juxtaposed with him dancing, essentially.

Yes. Yeah, I felt like it was a dance.

The other thing that I'm surprised about, there's no focus in the film enough on it, but he changes masks. Yeah, he has a mask that he's using for the first half, but then when it's dinner time, he has a makeup mask on.

Yeah, well, he's like cooking and he has a wig.

I've been assuming it's like a mom.

It's a mom mask and a mom wig. Yeah.

Yes, um, because there are no women.

Yes, anymore. And at one point the gas station brother is like, get back in the kitchen. Yeah, yeah, that was a weird movie. Also, they're cannibals.

Oh yeah, yeah, they're super cannibals.

They're super cannibals.

Yeah, yeah, they show the barbecue They sell, and you're definitely like, oh, that's a human body in there, huh?

They're eating dinner.

They all ate it earlier.

They fed it to Grandpa, who chewed rigorously.

They also fed it the whole crew of kids when they stopped in the van. Jerry was like, I got us barbecue.

Oh, that was the barbecue?

They were all eating it.

Gross.

Well, because I also thought about that. There's a very subtle thing when Franklin starts biting into it.

The hush puppies?

Yes, he's just like, He looks like this is peculiar. Like I don't know what this is.

That's so gross. Little intestine. Fuck Texas.

I don't think Texas made this movie. So Jenn, having seen all of this now, would you be interested in seeing other films later in the series?

Listen, I've driven from San Antonio to Houston, and I I am interested in seeing. what the 2004 version is like?

I think that would be the best.

Okay.

In my opinion.

I was so interested in like— I had my shirt up around my face at some points, especially when the hitchhiker was in the car at first. Just ready to— because I just thought I was going to see— I don't know. I just like to sometimes cover my eyes when things get a little graphic, but it never did because they didn't have the effects. That's what I started to realize. Like, they're just going to kind of like act like they're chainsawing someone, but you're never gonna see anything.

Yeah, there's tension, but there's not graphic.

Yeah, because they just didn't have those effects.

But it did a good job of creating that tension.

Yes. So I'm interested to see what 2004—

Much better.

Because I'm sure those effects, you do see those.

But again, when you think about in the context of what it had, there was, you know, those special effects didn't exist yet is really what it probably— I don't even think it was a budget thing. I think it was strictly that like those—

Oh, I— yeah, I just don't think it existed. Was the 2004 one funny?

Very much not.

Yeah, like, was it better?

I think so.

I mean, I feel like now we're gonna have to watch them all, so that's what it is.

But based on what I know about the series, having not seen the other films, I don't know if it's worth it, but we can definitely do it. Yeah, we've watched worse. We watched Saw V.

We've watched Saw V and the one that Chris Rock made.

Spiral. Closing thoughts on the film?

I'm glad we checked it off the list. Nice to do. Iconic. I don't know. I was prepared. I was so anticipatory. I thought it was going to be scary and jarring and it just was not what I was expecting.

Did you have fun?

I did. I did. I always have fun when a theater laughs. And there were some moments where this theater was a good theater to do this with.

We'll have to go back and look and see if there was anything of like, oh yeah, I wanted a lot of tension breaking. because of how intense this movie is.

Yeah. Or if like— but I do think that a lot of it was like they thought it was good acting, but it wasn't. And that's what made it funny.

Yeah.

I think so. I really do think so.

The idea of a Franklin-type character in this scenario is interesting. The idea of a Pam and a Kirk and a Jerry.

Sure.

The execution of it, sadly, wasn't. Yeah.

The way it was executed was stupid.

I enjoyed it. I will definitely be willing to watch the other films with you. Yeah. Um, if they bring them to the Coolidge Corner Theater, I guess we'll have to go.

We'll be there, Mark. Don't worry.

Don't make Mark have to find a print of that movie. But, uh, yeah, I think with that, uh, this has been Coolidge After Dark. I'm R.C. Beiler.

And I'm Jenn Evans.

Keep it Coolidge, everybody.