Fear Street: 1994

The Balance Podcast interviews author R.L. Stine about the film adaptation of his hit book series Fear Street. With such strong sexual content and gratuitous violence, we had some questions we wanted to ask. The film we discuss to today is 1994, one of three films in a series exclusively on Netflix. 

Transcript

Kris  0:00  
Oh no, just kidding. You guys often have to get up in the middle of the night and go pee. Yeah. Yeah, I often should. I don't often do yes be in bed. Not no i torture myself. I'm like I'll I'll push myself to go back to sleep but like I am that lazy I can't. It's very rare that I will get myself to get up or like, there could be like a water bottle sitting on my nightstand because I know how fucking thirsty I get in the middle of the night. And I just can't bring myself to reach over and open that bottle of water. I'll just force myself to go back to sleep at night, same sort of thing.

Micah  0:39  
I know what you mean. But okay, I'm going to tell an embarrassing story and this was recent to Okay, I did that very thing, Chris is that I kept waking up in the middle of the night having to pee but I just suppressed it just kept waking up and it was pretty bad. kept going back to sleep. I was like, fuck it. Like just sleep, sleep sleep. I did that for hours until I had a dream. I was paying. Oh, no. And I woke up and I was like, was it warm? Yeah. It felt so embarrassing like peeing my bed. Man. I'm 33 years old. But but

Kris  1:14  
you have like a targeted reason for it. Like, I that I understand. That's there's like a very specific thing there. Where it's kind of interesting how dreams can connect to reality like that, right? Just like all so good. You wake up you're like, Oh, no, like, like, just consider like a classic wet dream. Right? where like, you have your like, you're in this fantasy and your dreams. And then you wake up to the reality of doing laundry.

Micah  1:48  
I like how it's like classic wet dream. You know? Just you're just a classic wet dream. Yeah. I've never had a wet dream. No, no,

Kris  1:58  
I don't remember the last time I had one. I think it I don't know. I feel like it is what defines a classic one. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a question I didn't want to ask. You know like just like the like teenage boy fantasy of like, oh, the girl that you are have a crush on or like usually some girl You don't think you've ever seen? I don't know what what were what was like dreaming for you guys. Like, a lot of times I feel like I inserted people in from my subconscious into dreams because I don't remember. Most of the people in my dreams being real aside from like, family members and shit. In your wetdry No. Dreams general dreams in general. Wow. That's those are classic. That's a class. That's a classic 2021 dream. Good. Change. Yes.

Unknown Speaker  2:51  
I think it changes but like, sometimes it'll be like, oftentimes, it'll be like someone I recognize, but they look a little bit different, you know? Right. That's kind of too real of an answer. I wish I had a funnier answer.

Kris  3:02  
That's okay. You're talking about wet dreams though.

Unknown Speaker  3:04  
I think I've no clue even in wet dreams though. I do. I do remember having one that was kind of like, it was someone that I knew from my school. My height it was way back in the day from my high school.

Micah  3:19  
Disclaimer, this was I was in high school at the time. Okay. Yeah. And

Unknown Speaker  3:24  
they were in the a the J ROTC thing that wasn't like they weren't like in uniform or anything, but that's just who I knew them from and or where I knew them from and I just completely random.

Micah  3:34  
It's too bad. They weren't in uniform.

Unknown Speaker  3:38  
And that is too bad. Like guns a blazing. There was only one gun a blazing.

Micah  3:47  
pistol P. Oh, pistol. P What? No, I you know, I don't think I think I've come close. Because I have had dreams to where, you know, I'm doing something with someone. And all like in the dream. I know. I'm close. And then I wake up and I'm like, Am I do I finish the job? Like, should I go fulfill my dream?

Kris  4:16  
You just wake up casually look down and go, Hey.

Micah  4:21  
Wake up and look down. Hey, buddy. Hey, man,

Kris  4:24  
some people involved in themselves. Yeah, that's okay. Man. Good morning. You know, that reminds me of a scene from a film I watched recently called behind the candelabra. Have you seen that Shane? No, but I know what it is. The Wizard again. I think it's a Steven Soderbergh movie. Oh, well, I mean, it's about Isn't it about some guy? Yeah, it's about Liberace. bracci is played by Michael Douglas. And he's kind of like young lover and The film is played by Matt Damon. And there's a scene where like Matt Damon's trying to avoid like getting sexual with him because it's too early. And like, you know, he's an older guy and all that right. And so like they're just platonic. They just sleep in the same bed together. And the next morning, Matt Damon's character wakes up and Michael Douglas as Liberace looks over and like he clearly has, like, you know, like mourning wood or whatever. And then you just see Michael Douglas Liberace go, Well, look who's out. And then his head slowly goes down under the covers. Oh, it's Michael Douglas. That's what's like, you know, that's, that's the most shocking thing is seeing my

Unknown Speaker  5:44  
throat cancer from like, does it wasn't that a whole thing? Like you got throat cancer from going down on Catherine Zeta Jones or something like that?

Kris  5:51  
He did have throat cancer. I don't I I remember, there was some weird context of like going down on someone and you can get throat cancer from like an STD from somebody or something like that.

Micah  6:03  
It's right. Is that real? Did that happen? Yeah. It's from HPV. You can get a certain virus, which by the way, I mean, bro, everyone who's sexually active tends to have some form of HPV. It's like in writable,

Kris  6:13  
but it's pretty common. Yeah. But

Micah  6:15  
yeah, there's one that specifically can cause that. Yeah.

Kris  6:19  
I read something about that recently, because I had I didn't realize like, I think maybe I heard something about it. But I read more about Michael Douglas because of Val Kilmer. Because he's about to come out with a film in theaters that's going to go over to Amazon. If you guys heard about this film, Val, Val. Oh, I've heard of. I want to watch it, man. I'm kind of interested. It's like him telling his own story, right? Or, well, him telling his own story, but apparently, he's been taking, like, videos of himself throughout his career for the past 40 years. Whoa, yeah. So like, he has like 1000s and 1000s of hours of footage of himself that a team came in and helped him cut together into a documentary.

Micah  6:59  
That's incredible. I'm really excited to watch that. We have to cover that.

Kris  7:03  
Yeah, for sure. There's gonna be like old footage from like, you know, him and him doing tombstone and the Batman Forever days. Batman Forever days Top Gun like it's gonna be like, it's really interesting to me. And I didn't realize like he was like speaking through like a voice box right now. Oh, I

Micah  7:21  
didn't know that. Did he have in the vowel as well?

Kris  7:24  
Yeah. That's why like it was related. I guess at some point, Michael Douglas had mentioned overseas that Valve was struggling with the same thing he had and valve denied it for years. But I guess he had some sort of I don't know if it was like a tracheotomy. I don't know. But in the end towards the end of the trailer for valve, like you can hear him speaking with the voice box.

Micah  7:45  
Damn, that's crazy. Man. What's the moral of the story here? Don't go down on people. Without without a dental dam. Do you know what a dental dam is? Why don't think I had anything to do with that story. But oh, I thought it did. Oh, wait, what? What is the dental dam? Well, you're just gonna have to look on google images for that free. I remember that term. I think it just leave it there. I think it's okay. Google Images, folks. It's, yeah, search it. I am okay. Oh, Shane's looking at Oh, oh. Yeah, I mean, why not? Right.

Kris  8:24  
I love the unsuspecting reactions from people when they don't know what they're searching for.

Unknown Speaker  8:28  
That seems like a you know, seems like it might be uncomfortable for both parties. But hey, you know what? So is sex in general? I don't know. I'm gonna say

Micah  8:42  
Shane. While you're at it. Search blue waffle on Google Images.

Kris  8:45  
He knows what a blue waffle is. There was a waffle that's blue. Right? Of course. Yeah. Now I know. Okay. Did you look it up?

Unknown Speaker  8:59  
Yeah. But I mean, I didn't look up pictures of it. But I'm looking up the definition. Oh, what's the definition? I don't know. It's a well it's a fictional sexually transmitted infection. That's believed to both turn the vagina blue and disfigure it That's what it says here. is a fictional says fictional. Um, those fake photos. God now I'm gonna look at the photos. Probably fictional. It's probably like some sort of Smurf thing.

Micah  9:30  
Some avatar shit. Yeah. Well, welcome to the balanced every word Chris. Go he's looking at it up now. Man, I've every definition I'm reading says it's fictional. Okay. Well, I don't know man. I have speak in a fictional nonskid Well, it's funny. So I was gonna say I have zero idea how to transition into zero Welcome to the blue waffle.

Kris  10:02  
Speaking of frightening things,

Micah  10:07  
things that instill fear. Fear street 1998 people are l Stein. That's so how much of this film was true to the book? Because this is a pretty edgy film.

Unknown Speaker  10:24  
Well, there were books, I think, yeah, like many different ones.

Unknown Speaker  10:29  
Yeah. And I don't read any of them. So I have no context for this.

Unknown Speaker  10:33  
Like, I don't even know if the ones I have are technically a part of the same series. Well,

Kris  10:39  
I guess my question for you then is do the books Connect, even with the ghost version stories, like in a similar way that it seems these movies are gonna connect?

Unknown Speaker  10:47  
I don't think so. Um, yeah, I think they're all just like different things. But I don't know if the original book series like really was supposed to connect too much either. Like, yeah, I mean, who knows? I guess they came, like, some of a lot of them came before the goosebumps books. Okay. So you guys read goose? I just know that.

Kris  11:09  
Yeah, I grew up with goosebumps for sure.

Micah  11:12  
I collect all the books, but I didn't read them. I just had them. Same with my Pokemon cards I just collected I didn't play with them. play Pokemon man. Not when I was younger, only as an adult. Fair enough. But I enjoyed the goosebumps like series and I love to all the artwork on the on the covers. But if the book is anything like the film, I don't think my mom would have let me read that. To be quite honest with you between the fear

Unknown Speaker  11:41  
street ones. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think they are though. I think they definitely like overreach the they've made they made these are rated for some reason. I think just to appeal more to people and get people I was

Kris  11:55  
surprised by the violence. I honestly didn't even look at the rating before I watched it. So some of the violence was surprised by because I thought it was supposed to be a teen series. And I was like, it is it's for young adults, the little far for this, like, for any kind of teenagers that are like excited about the books to see that they're being made, I would think I don't know. But maybe these are more so for people who grew up around them when they were created because I know a lot of people in their 30s that grew up reading these for sure.

Micah  12:21  
I was really excited that this one took place in 1990 for the movie opens up with closer by Nine Inch Nails. I was like yeah, it sets a nice little tone. Yeah. Fun. Oh, fun fact, though. Apparently, some of the songs that they used. were released in like 1995 99 were like more high known in human by white zombie. That wasn't released yet. And there was a few others like that, which I don't know. I mean, is it deliberate? Or they're just like, oh, screw it, it'll set a cool tone or like, do they just overlook it? Because it seems like something that's fairly easy to research. Like, that was intentionally

Kris  12:59  
I think that was intentionally done like not like, probably more of like, close enough like, the song we want to use. And it's only a year away. Yeah, like it's mid 90s enough. Is that I looked up a few I think most of them they nailed it. Like I think they had creep in the film as well. That came out in 92.

Micah  13:18  
Yeah, Creek was in it. Some portas Portishead song I made sure me y'all shimmy rock for me, hey. Yeah, I think there was four songs that were not part of that time period, or they got released after. Okay, but the opening scene was a trip really. And it kind of is interesting how just a simple skull mask is still god damn scary. You know? Because like, it's such an old kind of scary trope is like the skeleton, you know what I mean? But yeah, and so I feel like we've tried to evolve and create different kind of monsters, but this was just kind of a stereotypical thing and do the skull scary. Not gonna lie.

Kris  14:00  
It's Yeah, and I don't know, you'd like you could feel like some of the like, I don't know, introductory horror elements that they did like the line of skulls that one of them inevitably was the bad guy. Yeah, she thought it was, you know, which I thought they did pretty effectively. Like it was it was a trip to watch,

Micah  14:18  
right? And so I mean, the the movie opens up and we're following this character named Heather. And she works at a bookstore in in this mall, and they're in Ohio. Right. And she works at this bookstore and they're closing up and she needs a ride home from a guy who works at another store in the mall, right Ryan?

Kris  14:41  
Yeah, Ryan he works in Is it a sex shop? Or is it just like a Spencer's?

Unknown Speaker  14:46  
figuring it was like a Spencer's. I was looking for six jobs. at the mall. Yeah, I guess no, no, I don't know, man. Isn't it called like shady Ville or something like that?

Micah  14:55  
Yeah, it is. shady. shady side. shady,

Kris  14:57  
shady side. shady sides got shamed. pawn shops. They got sex shops in their malls.

Micah  15:03  
But the same sunnydale say in Sunnyvale, is it sunny Dale? I think I thought I thought was a whale.

Kris  15:10  
It's Sunnyvale. And I have sunny Dale in my head because that's from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Micah  15:14  
Wow. My band. Oh, you're good. Oh, did someone rip someone off?

Kris  15:22  
v Johnson? Question Navy just Sweden. Maybe that was maybe creepy bitch ass jaw Sweden. Maybe that was supposed to be a nod to RL Stein.

Micah  15:31  
RL Stein. Well, you know, it's funny at the beginning when she Heather is having the transaction with the woman buying a book and she's like, Oh, it's for my steps. Daughter, it's like B level or whatever. Right? Right. The author of that his initials were r L. And I guess the book was from the fear street series, but they put a different name on it, like Robert Langdon or something like that. Supposed to be like RL Stein, just like a little

Kris  15:57  
I read it was like Raman something like the name they use was actually what RL Stein stands for. Okay, just they just actually spelled out his name. Gotcha. Which obviously, would confuse people because they literally just did the RL and left out Stein.

Unknown Speaker  16:13  
Yeah, one of the books was called Wrong number of the fear street series. And I think that's what the name of the book was that she was holding. Okay.

Micah  16:21  
Yeah, it's little easter eggs like that are always fun.

Kris  16:25  
Yeah, I mean, especially in something like this. It's so rich in history with like, you know, this is just like another one of those, like, people grew up with Harry Potter and all that, you know, this is something like ice. The only reason I know what fear street is to be honest with you, as far as I remember is because I had a friend post about it like a year ago that they were being turned into films. Okay, and she was super pumped. So until that I didn't, I honestly just knew RL Stein from goosebumps. And that's it. Me too. I

Micah  16:54  
didn't know about fear street until a week ago.

Kris  16:56  
And then I didn't know that these were before the boot the goosebumps series. Yeah, that's interesting. Very interesting.

Micah  17:02  
So do you remember when so Heather's asking Ryan for a ride? And he's just like, all right, and he's holding a blow up doll. And he tells her how he has and he's like, Alright, just give me 15 minutes to close up. I was like, Is he gonna go fuck that thing? That's what I thought he was talking about. I was like, That's weird. I man, this is happening again. Nope.

Kris  17:26  
He literally just met close up and he was just using her as a proper his joke

Micah  17:30  
that he's holding a blast on grabbing its boobs. Yeah, not too far fetched here. No, I'm

Kris  17:36  
not saying you're fine. I just didn't I just it just didn't occur to me. It just occurred. I'm

Micah  17:42  
fucking pervert. No, that's not what I'm saying. I know. I know. But um,

Unknown Speaker  17:49  
so she's a girl Heather is played by Omar Thurman's daughter.

Unknown Speaker  17:53  
Oh, really? Yeah. No. That's cool. Maya Hawk. As long as we're on the subject. She died quick. But she had some good scenes and I think she did a really good job.

Unknown Speaker  18:05  
Yeah, Ethan Ethan Hawke's daughter to swipe, though they're married to each other. Okay. I'm looking

Micah  18:11  
at a picture of her now. She definitely looks like a combo of the two. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Interesting. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So she goes back into the bookstore starts rearranging stuff and she hears something and come to find it's a fool and a skull mask. Right? hell bent on killing her.

Unknown Speaker  18:31  
Right. Which then turns out to be Ryan.

Micah  18:35  
Yeah. Which is really pretty fucking weird. And before he goes off to have sex with the blow up doll, he has he looks back and he has that fly crawling on his face. Remember,

Kris  18:48  
I didn't notice the fly but I did notice that when he when he turned back it was he was asking what she said. And she turned around and was just like nothing weirdo and at first I thought like he was a little bothered by being called weirdo. Maybe like one of those Oh, like I'm an outsider, but I'm friends with a hot chick kind of situation. like Oh, she thinks I'm a frickin weirdo because like what's weird about carrying around a blow up doll? Yeah, right right. But I think what it actually was was i don't know i came hearing the witches voice or something. Yeah, yeah, cuz it went

Micah  19:23  
okay, it whispered his name. He's like, huh yeah, TNT. It was pretty creepy and I mean, I feel like they were like, old kind of scares you know, like a whisper a bump, but I enjoyed it. Yeah, fit the vibe of the the movie but I read that they base this opening scene as kind of like an inspiration or an homage to scream the same way. Okay, Dream opens. Interesting. Oh, yeah, I didn't catch that.

Unknown Speaker  19:52  
There's a lot of references to Well, I kind of took it that way because like it opens with this girl who I recognized her from A few things she was she had a small part in once upon a time in Hollywood, and she was in the third season of Stranger Things. And she worked at the mall and Stranger Things. Oh, and I was like, Oh, she's gonna be like a part of this movie. And then she gets killed off, like right away. That's kind of the same thing that happens in screen is everybody thought Drew Barrymore was going to be like the star of that movie. And she gets killed off. And it's, it takes place. 1994 which I think is like the year right before maybe two years before screen came out. And not to get too into this because we'll talk about this next time, I guess. But the second one is almost like a direct homage to Friday the 13th work to Oh, awesome. Very cool. That's probably trying to go for something like that. Like, yeah,

Micah  20:42  
I like what they did with it. But she gets stabbed and killed. And it's pretty brutal than the way like the first killing I mean, like, this isn't the like first 1015 minutes. I Oh, shit. It's gonna be it's gonna be this is gonna be a scary movie. It's gonna be a horizontal slash slasher. And then in the struggle, she rips his mask off and it is Ryan.

Kris  21:04  
Right. And right before the final blow. cop comes in. Sheriff Goodman. Good, I think. I think this is good. Good. Good, good, man. God dammit. Anyways, breaks into the last minute and shoots him dead. I thought sort of.

Micah  21:27  
I thought that cop was Fred Savage. At first, to be honest. You did? Yeah. What would you do? If I say

Kris  21:40  
i didn't i didn't i didn't catch it. I didn't see that. But I did see him recently. Like Fred Savage. Did all those. Those advertisements with Ryan Reynolds for like the Christmas cut of Deadpool two. Oh, yeah. Oh, did he? I

Unknown Speaker  21:53  
didn't forgot about that. Because it's like a Princess Bride. parody, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty funny. Oh, I'll check it out. Anyways, so she gets murdered. She does she was kind of like I was a little bit I knew that it was the only because I saw an announcement that they were going to make these movies like a little hardcore. Like, you know, I think either two of them are rated or or one of them's rated R. The second one's definitely rated R this one. Yeah. The first one was definitely rated R two there was cursing it had to be like, if not for the brutal violence, like just the current the constant f bombs. I was like, I don't remember RL Stein having such a potty mouth.

Micah  22:30  
Yeah, for sure.

Unknown Speaker  22:32  
And I'm pretty sure all that stuff was just kind of shoved in there. But, you know, I'm like, it's a horror movie Can't you know? It's like, if you have a horror movie with the way that kids are just saying, Aw, shucks, and darn. Like, it's kind of turns into a, like more of a Halloween family film.

Kris  22:47  
Also, if you stick a teenager through a meat grinder? Yeah. Through a meat slicer. Yeah. I mean, you probably include all the F bombs, no matter what you want. Yeah, at that point, if you're going to take it that far,

Micah  23:00  
right? Throw some lesbian sex, guys just like do

Unknown Speaker  23:02  
Oh, they did a little bit of ad. But then you have the really whole show much. But yeah,

Kris  23:07  
they showed enough I guess kiss scene. Which I guess I don't know if that's that. Oh, yeah. Kinda right.

Unknown Speaker  23:16  
Cuz the one kid I can't remember his name as the Hotspur, cheerleader. Josh, Josh. And I like Josh. So I thought I found it strange that he was like, all into AOL and stuff. Like was that around in 1994? I guess it was for sure.

Kris  23:33  
Yeah. Because I was born in 87. So 94, I would have been seven years old. So yeah, for sure. Right.

Unknown Speaker  23:40  
There's that I'm sure it was that right around the time it like was really poppin I'm sure it was around, but I feel like you would have had to be like, very, like, on top of the tech world to be like doing amens. I don't know if it was ame or AOL or whatever. But now I sort of instant messaging.

Micah  23:59  
I think you're right, Shane, because I remember like, AOL instant messaging. ame been really popular when I was in high school. Yeah. And that was, you know, 2003 to 2007. For me, I

Kris  24:13  
want to say it was mainly like Junior High that I was super into that. was probably around though, but it just probably wasn't like picking up speed as much as Yeah, it's like, around the same time as like the Napster days, right. That's like junior high.

Micah  24:29  
Do you remember your first screen name? what it was, it was anything embarrassing?

Unknown Speaker  24:33  
I remember yours. It was sad. Eight or some 788 or something? That

Micah  24:38  
was my second one. I have a first one. All right. Um, I don't remember what my first one was.

Kris  24:44  
I have no I don't either. I'm blanking. I don't I like I remember what some of my friends were. But I don't remember. I can remember my friend. Amy's was squeaking boxes for the longest time. I don't but I don't remember what mine was. We bought was a box squeaker

Micah  25:06  
I had a my first one was Ozzy fan one us. Ah, okay, very first.

Kris  25:14  
I know I had some like some like lane dramatic ones that were like related to stuff that I had been writing because I remember I would go back and forth with Amy back in the day. And we were on aim. I would write like a line, and she would try to finish it. Yeah. And we were just go back and forth trying to write lyrics like that. That's kind of and so so I think we I ended up with like some, some fairly like serious and dramatic screen names.

Micah  25:40  
You know, I bet I bet. Do you remember how exciting it was though? I remember like talking to girls from my class or something like that on aim and seeing that they're online. And if they message you first, it's like, whoo. Like there's like a weird feeling, you know, aim to another level like human interaction. Oh,

Kris  25:58  
for real? Well, in the case of fear St. Josh is like, acting as like this. This person's like, servant or night.

Unknown Speaker  26:10  
Yeah, they have like conversation. They have like a live action role playing thing going on through the instant chat. Yeah, they're talking to each other. Like, like, Hi, like people from high rule. You can see my face. You know, I'm joking.

Kris  26:29  
I thought it was a pretty neat, like nerdy kind of like, introduction into Joshua's a character, but also like storytelling device, you know, like you got more story about the world while learning. Like what kind of kid This is like, he's very imaginative and very smart. But also kind of weird and sheltered. I like that. When you first see him chatting like he's built himself like a little blanket for it. Oh, yeah, I

Micah  26:54  
want every time I see a blanket fort in a movie. I think to myself, I want one. Because I used to do those all the time as a kid, for sure. And there's they're so cozy and safe. Good, man. I'm gonna build one after this podcast straight up.

Kris  27:12  
Do it. Do it. I recommend it any pictures?

Micah  27:16  
What he's the brother of our really our main character, at least one of them. Deena right. That's by Kiana forgive me if I'm mispronouncing this, but Madeira. Kiana Madeira. Yeah, I believe that's her name or how Jada Madeira. What a wonderful name. You know, and she in, in reality is 28 years old. That was pretty interesting, because she did pull off looking like a high schooler. She did. Yeah, for sure. I thought all these people did for the most part

Unknown Speaker  27:51  
was I just had to question which cuz I can't remember what it was. He was chatting with the cheerleader on the aim thing, right.

Kris  27:58  
So here's Yeah, so here's my question is cuz like, for a while, I thought Josh was chatting to the cheerleader. But I don't know, like in the context of the movie, and like, as the relationship progresses, like, maybe but she seemed pretty surprised by certain things. And then at some point after, oh, yeah. And then at the end of the movie after she's been killed, he starts chatting with that girl again, online. Oh, yeah. Okay, so yeah. rxR about how these were his friends and they weren't just like drug drug addicts or anything like that. Like it was though they kind of were they were pretty hardcore, like in the drugs and stuff. I was like, in terms of selling them. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  28:41  
they will. Yeah, turn to knowledge. But knowledge is gained through experience. I would think, maybe not. I don't know. One kid works at a pharmacy. What's his name homeboy, from? What's it called? Woman woman in the window? Yeah, wasn't it and I was like, hey, there's that guy again. That's Fred hettinger Fred hettinger. He played his which is funny sight because

Kris  29:05  
I didn't notice that. And I really liked him in this film, like a lot. Like he was one of my favorite characters. But there was a part of this like, I really like him. But I don't know what it is. I just can't shake it. He kind of creeps me out too.

Micah  29:17  
Yeah. There's why that's why

Kris  29:20  
cuz you haven't seen when women woman in the window, check it out.

Micah  29:23  
Because like that guy, or whoever he plays like, he'd be someone who goes on a purge. He'd be like, Dude, it's fucking the animal purges do this shit. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  29:36  
But so he's like, working at the farm is me. I'm jumping all over the place here. But he's got like all this knowledge about like, what these different pills do and stuff. And then on top of that, they show him at the pharmacy at one point. And they show like these, the slew of pictures of him being employee of the month, a month after month after month at this pharmacy. Oh, yeah. And I'm like, Is he the employee of the month because everyone loves him because he just gives away drugs to people probably Billy Oh, that's

Kris  30:00  
a that's a that's funny. That's a good point. He's the camera. Yeah. So. So I mean, that's interesting though, because like if he's a pharmacy tech and he has that knowledge, that's what I just still think like the the collection of pills they decided to use down the road when they're trying to like temporarily kill one of their friends. I know, like, I've jumped to the end because of that scene. But like, I just remember thinking it's overly complex. And my girlfriend who's in healthcare kind of was like, there's much easier ways to overdose somebody and to bring them back.

Unknown Speaker  30:34  
I love that she's like wanting to go and like, there's a lot easier ways to kill someone and bring them back to life. Like, Come on, guys get it straight. I'm sure there are

Kris  30:44  
drug addicts do it every day. And some of them carry the doses with them to bring themselves back. That was a lot of any.

Micah  30:51  
We'll talk about when we get to it. I think we will. Sorry. No, no, no, we're good. So the opening scene is Heather being murdered. And she is part of shady side. I get that right. shady side, Slim Shady side. And that's like almost like a rival town in Ohio and 30 minutes away is Sunnyvale. And yeah, there's stark contrast between these two towns in terms of like, what happens poverty and like money? Right. And, you know, the Sunnyvale is like the weld to do kind of like the upper upper class, right to bring race into it, but I think most of them are white. You know, they kind of it gives you crackers and cracker town. So they go to a memorial for Heather and both sunny side or Sunnyvale and shady side show up. Right? And they end up getting into like kind of a scuffle into a fight. And because one of the Sunnyvale guys is talking about it, like this is fucking pathetic, basically, like this keeps happening in shadyside. They're pathetic. They can't control themselves. They're like Monza. They're animals, basically. Right. They start like fighting with each other. And

Kris  32:08  
I know it's kind of crazy, because like, it's a total tragedy. And some of this kind of reminds me of like it. Like it gave me serious like it vibes, that whole concept of like, there's something wrong with the town and there's some evil presence that is forcing all of these people to act unnaturally an inhumane towards each other. Right. And, like, it's so bizarre, like all that tragedy. I can't believe that that amount of people would be that callous towards people their own age being brutally murdered.

Micah  32:37  
I can't imagine. Oh, yeah. Well, even when the character Kate, played by Julia reweld, railed RHW ld sorry. She's even she and Simon are talking about it in the bathroom too. Pretty callously as well, though, and they're part of the IT side. It's

Unknown Speaker  32:54  
kind of weird. Definitely. He's like, how is it not fun? The guy was wearing a skull mask. Yeah, it's like, Yeah, he killed someone like he killed a person we know. Yeah. Which,

Kris  33:05  
I guess does kind of track with like, the assertion that some of this was inspired on something like screen because they play it out a little bit too. Right. It's like people kind of making fun of it and making light of it and all that and trying to make it seem like something that's kind of cool or badass, you know? Right. Right.

Micah  33:22  
So after they, so they after the memorial, shady sides, leaving in a bus? And then

Kris  33:31  
yeah, and this was a little far this. This part was kind of crazy. It was

Micah  33:35  
but let me back. Back up a little bit. I'm sorry. Our character Deena she is break in the middle of a breakup or has already broken up with her lover Sam. Right, right. And we don't really know who Sam is, but she's trying to get messages to Sam through her like her friends. Hey, can you give her this? Can you tell her this? And finally they you don't know her? Well, yeah, finally they see each other. Yeah, I

Kris  34:00  
guess I didn't think about that. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. All you know, is a name. Yeah. They

Micah  34:03  
give it a reveal because first they show like a guy. You know, one of the jocks and one of the Letterman jackets. That's right. It's from Sunnyvale. And I think she says like Oh, she's at least looking like Oh, damn that Sam. But then we come to find that it's it's the girl that he was with. Like it shows the guy but it was his girlfriend that she was

Kris  34:24  
looking at that was sad. Oh, that's interesting. I don't know why. But when I watched it the first time I'm the assumption I made was what was actually happening but like so now that I'm now that like we're talking about it's interesting, because the the the perspective that you could have taken like that was probably intentionally trying to trick you was that her reaction to seeing Sam was urged to divert her eyes because Sam if it was the dude was grabbing the other chicks ass. Yeah, but I didn't take that. way I took it as like, what how the movie kind of played itself out, which is weird. I don't know why I lasered it on that part of the story. That's crazy. You're just like, Dude, this

Micah  35:09  
chicks a lesbian.

Kris  35:12  
I don't know if it was exactly like that. But I was just like, interesting to me. The way I perceived it

Unknown Speaker  35:19  
differently Have you guys ever seen across the universe? Yeah, not in the long there's, there's, there's a sort of similar scene where this girl singing. I want to hold your hand while watching a cheerleader. Or she's watching these jocks play football. And it's not exactly yeah, I'm talking to one of the jocks. And then you've come to find out she's looking at one of the cheerleaders and interestingly, similar like that, yeah, I'm saying they ripped it off. No.

Micah  35:43  
They ripped off. That's pretty cool. Um, so then we've so they have a conversation, her and Sam, Dean and Sam. And you know, Sam had moved to Sunnyvale while Deena is still in shadyside. But Deena is like really blaming Sam like, like, why did you do this, like you left? And it's like, you don't really have a choice when you're in high school and your parents move right different town, you know, but I get I mean, they're young. And she's the what a half hour away, she says, But obviously, Dina's taken it seems seems like it at first worse than Sam. Well, yeah. For sure.

Kris  36:23  
Because, well, I because I think like down the road, Sam admits that a lot of what she's saying is correct, that she is running away from a part of who she is. But at the same time, that scene was pretty intense. And like, Sam had a pretty good point. Like, she broke up with her. Because she moved because her parents got a divorce. And she left with one of her parents. Yeah, so I don't know that. Like she was being pretty ridiculous. But again, high schoolers. I get it for sure. Emotions run high. Fuck you. You left me. You're all I had. I get it. Oh, yeah.

Micah  36:55  
I was so stupid in high school. Not that they're stupid. But I you know, I would just wouldn't do that. What, uh, you know what I mean? I don't think you're gonna get it.

Kris  37:07  
I mean, hopefully we're better at, you know, managing our emotions than we were in high school. Hopefully, hell no man thinks so. That's

Micah  37:13  
the goal. That's the goal. That's the goal. But then we fast forward and now shadyside is heading back home and their bus and a school bus. Well, I believe the boyfriend's name is Peter Sam's boyfriend. And then some other guy are in school masks behind them driving and like tailgating and throwing beer bottles or some sort of bottles at the back of the bus. Yeah, just like very menacing and hateful. Just like do calm down. You know? And what is their plan? Aren't they gonna like spill something on them? or?

Kris  37:46  
Yeah, they're gonna empty the Gatorade or juice or something.

Unknown Speaker  37:50  
What do I was confused about? Like, what? Like, what? They're going to get the car wet?

Kris  37:56  
That is a very good question. Because I like their high schoolers. What? Yeah, end up happening to me. I was like, okay, success. That's not how he felt obviously. But you mean like what you mean when they ran them off road? Yeah. Chris is like great success. Like high five. What's the problem? He get this? What happens when they run them off road, do they they don't die. I can't know. And they go back for them. But they get run off the road and they run down there. And that is where Sam gets out of the car and accidentally touches the bones of a witch. Oh,

Micah  38:42  
something something that's really weird. Is that while they're tossing that cooler out or trying to Dina gets a bloody nose? Yeah,

Kris  38:51  
yeah, for sure. I've totally forgot about that. And is Was there any explanation as to what that is? That's just something that happens or don't happens on Stranger Things?

Micah  39:00  
I don't know if there was an explanation maybe Yeah, I don't know her connection with Sam I guess. Or I don't know. I know because Sam's nose didn't start bleeding at that point. Did it? This whole time where you're wondering like Who the fuck is driving the bus and why aren't they doing anything? They're not noticing any

Kris  39:18  
of this it's the 90s never thought about it. What the fuck was driving the bus? Right and is even did it wait? Did it ever show who wait wait hold on for the whole movie did it not sure who was driving the bus? No. Oh, there's a character we never met that was driving the bus.

Unknown Speaker  39:36  
I think so. That's probably RL Stein. That's how I think back then. Didn't they? I mean even today don't they not really care who drives buses is probably high out of his mind or something like no no, I don't know about No. Talking about so as a matter of fact, I should I shouldn't say like they don't care. But isn't it kind of like I mean, you know, they don't do too much research. It's not like the The most responsible true ever. I don't think that's true either.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai