Well-Adjusted Horror podcast

Phantoms is the Bomb (Phantoms)

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The Return

  • Back from a 6-month break (Levi's "summer slumber")
  • Spooky season timing couldn't be better
  • Beer of choice: Maharaja IPA from Avery Brewing ("battery acid in a can")

Phantoms (1998)

  • Directed by Joe Chappelle (Halloween: Curse of Michael Myers)
  • Written by Dean Koontz, adapting his own novel
  • Starring baby-faced Ben Affleck as a sheriff/ex-FBI agent
  • Features Peter O'Toole bringing gravitas to exposition dumps
  • Rose McGowan and Joanna Going in peak Miramax era roles

Plot Discussion

  • Small Colorado town mysteriously empty (before it was cool)
  • Ancient enemy that's basically primordial ooze meets ChatGPT
  • Lovecraftian influences mixed with The Thing vibes
  • Pacing issues: "It's a four-act movie pretending to be three"
  • CGI that aged like milk left in the sun

Peter O'Toole Appreciation Corner

  • From Lawrence of Arabia to... this
  • Survived pancreatic cancer in the '70s (absolute legend)
  • Professional drinker, occasional actor
  • Died in 2012 at 80

October Horror Plans

  • Pumpkinhead (Kentucky hillbillies and monsters)
  • Witchfinder General (Vincent Price at his cruelest)
  • Discussion of recent releases: Sinners, Weapons, The Long Walk

Random Tangents

  • SSRIs and their gill-growing properties
  • The bridge troll health guru phenomenon
  • Why cigarettes are actually good for you (they're not)
  • Ben Affleck's chin as a character unto itself

Rating: Mixed bag - great concept, questionable execution, worth it for Liev Schreiber's creepy giggle alone

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