Hola, Sneakers! Welcome back to Sneaky Dragon, the podcast that has all the feels.
This week: co-co for co-hosting; no money, no problems, accounts payable; pious in space; extreme nit-picking; gimme bears; love to say data; do your research; supernatural busters; living doll; timeline of terror; after shocks; left out-rage; warning signs warning; targeted; vivid dreams; sleep shifts; Belgium bound; Top 5 Songs; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; one word reviews; puppet love; Oz inducing; fawlty remake; Gemini man; Paris match; and, finally, spot the mascot.
Top 5 Songs – City Lovin’
- The Five Americans – “Big Cities” – Western Union, 1968 – 1:11:14
- Joni Mitchell – “Night in the City” – Song to the Seagull, 1968 – 1:17:43
- Sandy Coast – “Back to the City” – Page One Records single (b-side to “Deep Down Down”), 1969 – 1:22:30
- The Glory Rhodes – “Can We Go to the City?” – Atco Records single (b-side to I’m So Happy [Singing Tra-La-La-La-La]), 1968 – 1:27:40
- The Turtles – “Love in the City” – Turtle Soup (Ray Davies original mix), 1986 [1968] – 1:33:52
Question of the Week (from Jonathon): What’s the funniest sentence or conversation you’ve arrived half-way into?
Sub-question of the Week: What is the scariest scene you’ve seen in a movie? (No spoilers, please.)
Thanks for listening.
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The first and best jump scene I saw in a movie theatre was in Jaws when Hooper is doing the night dive at the fishing boat. You think the scary thing will be the shark which had already attacked someone swimming at night. So you’re expecting something to come from behind or below. There is also a scene in The Others (2001) that made me jump when a creepy old lady suddenly appears. That’s a pretty good haunted house movie. Despite The Sixth Sense predating it, I didn’t guess who that old lady was. I liked Nicole Kidman’s performance in it. She’s an actress who is good at playing troubled or morally-ambiguous roles like her ones in Malice, Birth, Rabbit Hole, Bombshell and Big Little Lies.
Funniest conversation: when I was a theatre student at UBC, the costume shop shared a wall with a dressing room. But the wall didn’t go all the way up to the ceiling so sound could travel between the two areas. One night as I walked by, I heard a guy in the dressing room tell another guy, “You’re not thinking about birth control when you’re going at it!” The discussion got even more explicit after that. It was interesting to hear what guys said about sex when girls weren’t present.
Bon voyage, gentleman (and Pia). Let me know if waffles taste better in Belgium!
P.S. I recommend visiting the Musee de Cluny in Paris, also known as the National Medieval Art Museum. The building dates from the 15th century and includes some ancient Roman baths. It’s full of wonderful art and artefacts from the Middle Ages including the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. Voted by me: the best spot for pretending you’re a time traveler.
Bonjour les mecs!
Hope you’re having a ‘chouette’ time in francophone territory. With Totally Tintin in the bag your reputation for thoughtful bonhomie is bound to precede you – can’t wait to hear all about the trip and the people you meet.
I’ve been trying to think of a scariest scene… it’s a good question.
So what do we find scary? As I think you discussed last time, in order to truly rattle us, scary stories need to tap into deep feelings of unease and discomfort. If the chosen themes chime with our own insecurities and fears and insecurities, the emotional impact will be greater, and will linger longer.
Jump scares are a fun effect, but don’t tend to stay with us: Gore scenes can be horrible, but are less scary than disgusting – it’s hard to relate to someone being torn apart by sadistic demons, but when someone cuts their finger we wince in sympathy.
The most effective horror movies seed their scares slowly, making us squirm in anticipation before building to some ultimate payoff. Films like Ring, [rec], Hereditary, and Blair Witch work hard to build an atmosphere of brooding dread before unleashing hell in the final reel.
But when it comes to scariest scene – the scariest bits of all these classic horror films rely on context: taking them out of this context waters them down. This got me wondering what the scariest self contained scene might be: is there a scene that you can take completely out of context, but which is still terrifying?
Two submissions:
1. The ‘Winkie’s Diner’ scene from Mulholland Drive.
It’s a brilliant trick. The scene is set and the trap is laid, the anticipation builds: the protagonist becomes progressively more terrified: and then even though you know it’s coming, the payoff is unexpected and confusing: the supernatural has entered our world – or has it? We are shown the aftermath. Was it a mental break? We’ll never know.
2. The ‘Coin Toss’ scene from No Country for Old Men.
A nice, normal person slowly realises they are dealing with ultimate agent of chaos and destruction. The threat is unspoken, but all too real. I think this might be the one for me – perhaps an odd choice since the film is more of a Western, but the idea of being in a situation over which you have no control feels horribly possible.
Brr. I wish I hadn’t thought of those just before bedtime…
Bon voyage, meisseurs!
Pierre.
Javier Bardem was unsettling and perfectly cast in “No Country for Old Men”. That film is a master class in suspenseful storytelling, good mention!
As I’m thinking what to write, I’m having more fun thinking about you guys preparing for your trip, I look forward to hearing all about it. So exciting! I’ve never been anywhere that far out of the states, so I’ll be living vicariously through your journey.
I remember a ComicCon in Dallas back in the late 80’s, the old school kind with all the rooms showing 35mm films, artist panels and lines to get comics autographed. No highly collectible toys, no famous celebrities. We were going in at the very beginning of the weekend, a Friday I think and a guy walks up to my friend and I and asks us if we enjoy “Filk Singing”. We both drew a huge blank as he led us to a room where Trekkies were singing traditional folk songs with lyrics about Star Trek in place of the original lyrics. In this room was a crowd of Star Trek fans, some dressed in cosplay, singing “What do you do with a Drunken Vulcan?” to the tune of the Irish folk song “What do you do with a Drunken Sailor?” That was enough for me as we politely passed on the whole thing. Star Trek has its idiosyncrasies, but this was an entirely new level.
I’ve never been a horror film enthusiast unless a movie really gets a lot of buzz or highly recommended, leading me to it out of curiosity. I know they’re movies and I know they’re fabricated to frighten me which has the opposite effect on me so they don’t scare me at all. Not even those horrific Rob Zombie films which I view as more of an art form than a horror film. The supernatural films make me think more than scare me, especially the ones based in religion, they fascinate me more than scare me.
No, the scariest scene I’ve ever seen in a movie is in Ben Affleck’s “Argo”, when the American diplomats are attempting to escape Tehran through the airport. Every second of that scene still makes me cringe with terror not to mention what would happen if they don’t make it. No spoilers, watch it for yourself to see what I mean. The entire movie is on one total brink with every scene, it’s hair-raising from start to finish.
Two things about “Star Trek” from the last episode. You were wondering about religion in the future and whether it was represented in any way. In the film “Star Trek: Generations”, both Kirk and Picard are fatefully swept into The Nexus energy wave which fulfills a person’s ideal life and desires. Kirk’s is living in a cabin in the woods, chopping wood and living a life of leisure with a woman he left to join Starfleet. Picard’s ideal life is somewhat similar where he’s with a huge family of his own in a beautiful home during Christmastime. He’s surrounded by children and a beautiful wife in what almost looks like a Dicken’s era holiday setting but none of it is real. That’s the first and only time I can remember Christmas being referenced in Star Trek. I’m sure there’s more but “Generations” came to mind immediately.
The robotic voice or evolution of its use in Star Trek is natural, it starts out very monophonic like Nomad did in the original series or the Enterprise’s computer. I can remember Spock asking the computer to analyze something with its response being a bunch of data chatter and a canny robot voice that replied with “Working!” By the time we get to “Star Trek The Motion Picture”, the voice from V’ger (Voyager) is in a binary sound wave until its translated by Lieutenant Ilia, the bald Deltan played by Persis Khambatta. Even then it’s still that cold robotic voice only with a female voice mixed in, so a little less harsh. By the time we get to The Next Generation, the computer’s voices are completely human synthesized. Commander Data speaks clearly and concise as does the Enterprise computer which was the voice of Majel Barrett, wife of Gene Roddenberry himself.
As far back as I can remember, the esteemed English theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking had his voice synthesisized into what sounded like a 1970’s Speak & Spell toy. That never changed until he died. Then when Roger Ebert lost his voice to cancer and relied on a voice synthesizer, he was able to get it modified to sound like Sir Lawrence Olivier! Who knew that option even existed until Ebert used it? Don’t you think that Hawking deserved the same since he was British and the World’s greatest theoretical physicist instead of that canny Speak & Spell voice? Seemed like that would have been a little more classy for one of our greatest minds.
I’ve gone on too long, I’ll stop now so you don’t miss your flight!
Enjoy the sights, take photos and spend lots and lots of money…
Bon Voyage Sneakers!!
I didn’t have an answer for “scariest scene in a movie” until tonight! I don’t scare easily, but I just watched the Korean horror film “Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum.” It’s an iffy one to recommend because the first hour is honestly kind of boring, but once the actual horror begins, it’s a real good 30 minutes. There’s one scene in particular that features the most disturbing sound I’ve ever heard, paired with a very unsettling visual. Most of the reviews about this film mentions this scene and how nightmarish it is. The sound is difficult to describe, and it was so bone-chilling, I never want to hear it again. It’s like reverse ASMR.
Ian: never, ever watch “Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum”
Everyone else: if you haven’t yet, watch it on Shudder, if you’re okay with sitting through a very slow burn. And please tell me how you would write that sound out phonetically
Disclaimer: I’ve seen a rare few people say this sound is very silly and not scary at all, but isn’t that usually how it goes with horror?