Introduction and Episode Synopsis
On our pilot episode of The Graveside Podcast, Mark chats with guest Sara Finoro; an accomplished non-fiction writer and lover of horror and heavy metal.
Episode Transcript
Mark Phillips (00:01)
Hey everybody, my guest today is horror and metal super fan Sara Finoro. Sara is an accomplished writer, lover of cats, frogs, and Jeff Goldblum. Welcome to the podcast, Sara.
Sara (00:12)
All true. Thank you.
Mark Phillips (00:15)
Awesome. Glad to have you here. And ⁓ yeah, so you and I met talking on Instagram about our mutual love for horror and metal. And that brings me to my very first question for you. How did you get into horror and at what age?
Sara (00:31)
So for me, the intro to horror was not through movies, it was through books. And so I was an absolute scaredy cat. And so ⁓ mixed with my inability to watch horror movies because we were not allowed to, our parents were a little bit strict in that way. ⁓
It ended up where I just got hooked via being obsessed with Halloween. It was really Halloween because it seemed
creepy but approachable, you know? Like I like the black hats, I love the pumpkins, like that eerie imagery without things being too nightmarish. And so from Halloween then spun into, ooh, spooky stories. Okay, that’s kind of dipping my toe without it getting, you know, too overwhelming. And then yeah, it was Pardon?
Mark Phillips (01:25)
Like the book spooky stories? Like the
book spooky stories?
Sara (01:30)
no, that would probably be still too much for me. Like, I’d probably say like third grade, fourth grade was goosebumps. And then, ⁓ even though I think the covers are
Mark Phillips (01:33)
Okay, okay.
Sara (01:43)
even better than the stories inside in some of the cases. And then it kind of spiraled from there of like, Arl Stein also wrote, you know, Fear Street and then moved on to kind of Christopher Christopher Pike, who is even darker stories. ⁓ so yeah, I’d say the interest in horror was really through the pages of a book because I felt like I could immerse myself, but there was a boundary.
Mark Phillips (02:07)
Did you guys have those scholastic book order forms when you were kids that you could get? Yeah. They were so exciting, right? Whenever it was the scholastic day and you could go through it and order all your favorite books.
Sara (02:11)
We sure did. ⁓ my god, they were glorious. Yeah.
Yeah, and I remember I ordered this goosebump pack and I I don’t know where I got the money because I don’t feel like my parents would have let me, but it was the don’t go into the basement. So like that like creepy, like garden y hand because the dad gets all like messed up. And it came with like ⁓ like a door hanger, it came with like a keychain, like just like really badass stuff. And I remember in this one ⁓ squishy that it came with, it had like blood and guts in it, and that just
Mark Phillips (02:44)
Awesome.
Sara (02:50)
There was something about that that I was just horribly obsessed with because at that Yeah, it was. It was like this cool pack. And like at that time, Halloween stuff like that was around was not very gory. It was like very like, you know, child friendly and stuff. So having this like ball of like guts was like, my God. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (02:51)
Ha ha
Scholastic was kicking that stuff out? That’s amazing.
That’s great.
I remember I ordered ⁓ a couple books from Scholastic back in the day. I got ⁓ one called My Teacher Was an Alien or My Teacher Is an Alien and another one called My Teacher Fried My Brains, the sequel.
Sara (03:20)
⁓ yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, there was a
whole series. Like or like there was like the my gym teachers from wherever or my teacher from the black lagoon. It was like a whole series. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (03:35)
Yeah. Yeah, my son
still has that. My teacher fried my brain’s book up in his room. I was like, this was dad’s when he was a kid. I don’t even know where he got it from.
Sara (03:43)
Yeah, that’s cool.
There are so many good ones.
Mark Phillips (03:47)
Yeah. So you mentioned you started with Halloween and that was like a big theme. ⁓ do you have like a favorite ⁓ costume or memory of Halloween growing up? The one that were like really stuck in your head?
Sara (04:00)
So I don’t remember there being any sort of costume stores. Like maybe like I don’t even know. Like maybe a party kind of place. So ⁓ we usually relied on my aunt to make us a costume. So we were kind of like a rotating, you know, clown or ⁓ a dinosaur princess. One year I was a bride, which looking back, being a child bride is extremely strange.
Mark Phillips (04:27)
Ha ha.
Sara (04:29)
Like, wait
a minute. but I’d say no, no, I was literally like ⁓ I thought it was so beautiful. My mom’s like, he looked like a doll. Looking back, I’m like, no, it’s a child pride, but whatever. probably like Dracula in later years, like when I was still trick-or-treating. but I I still dress up. Like I usually wear two or three costumes a year.
Mark Phillips (04:32)
It wasn’t like the blood soaked bride or anything, it was just regular bride.
Ha ha.
Yeah, you
gotta, man. Like it’s not just for the kids, it’s fun. Last year I dressed up as the Crimson Ghost from the Misfits and I had the mask and the cloak on and I was standing outside on the street waving at everyone and I went out even to walk Jesse during the day, like my pug, and it wasn’t even Halloween time yet. And was in full costume. People are like, What is this nutcase doing?
Sara (05:02)
That’s awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love it too. Like either like playing with makeup is really fun or one year this is probably one of my favorites. My mom hated it. But I was ⁓ Dr. Gonzo and I was pregnant. So I had like the big belly and so I just looked like
Mark Phillips (05:30)
Who who is Dr.
Gonzo?
Sara (05:32)
So Benicio del Toro in fear and loathing in Las Vegas. The one with Johnny Jack. Yeah. So that’s who I was to work, and everyone was just really horrified. They’re like, you’re just some like chubby middle-aged man. I was like, You guys don’t get it. This is great. This is a great idea. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (05:35)
⁓ yeah, yeah. Right, yes, yes.
Ha ha ha.
That’s awesome.
Yeah, Halloween was a good time as a kid. And and yeah, you bring up an interesting point. There there wasn’t any costume stores that I remember either growing up. So that’s stuff we take for granted now. Like I think about it and I’m like, Yeah, where did where did everybody get their costumes? They must have all been homemade because or maybe Zellers or something might have sold them, but they probably would have been pretty crappy.
Sara (06:00)
No
Yeah.
Yeah, Zellers,
Sears, Walmart wasn’t as much of a thing here in Canada. yeah, I I I I try to remember and it’s just like I remember, yeah, some people had masks, but I feel like a lot of people were just wearing whatever somebody kind of made made for them. ⁓
Mark Phillips (06:19)
Yeah.
My mom made
me a costume of Freddy when I was like in grade five or six. ⁓ I think she probably does. It’s so bad. Like it doesn’t even remotely look like Freddy. Like my face was painted. My face was painted brown. And then I had like one scar on my face. It looked like a slice of pizza on my cheek. And that’s Freddy. It’s like, ⁓ terrifying. It’s so bad.
Sara (06:35)
Do have pictures?
That would be Yeah, I’m trying to imagine how you would Yeah. No, no.
⁓ no. Yeah, yeah.
You’re just like a mildly burned victim. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (07:01)
Yeah. Yeah, I remember
my buddy was Joker from Batman the same year ’cause that’s when the Tim Burton Batman came out. And he looked amazing and we had a Halloween party and I was like, dude, I look terrible and you look so good. Like I’m gonna come to your house and your your mom can do my makeup next year.
Sara (07:08)
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s still a cool
that’s still a cool costume. I definitely wasn’t like anything kinda like iconic like that. Not as a kid.
Mark Phillips (07:26)
Nobody knew who I was.
They’re like, You’re some pizza dude. Yeah. Even had the f the plastic glove too. But ⁓ later on when I had the shop, I decided that I wanted to get the real metal glove. So I contacted a guy in the States and he made me one, a custom one from the Dream Master from number four. And I didn’t know at the time until I talked to him, but like Freddy uses a different glove in every movie.
Sara (07:30)
Yeah.
⁓ cool.
Mark Phillips (07:52)
And it has like different leather looking to it and it has like a different colored bead on the string and obviously as they go as they age they get more battle damage and stuff. But yeah, really cool.
Sara (07:55)
Mm-hmm. ⁓
Yeah,
like Michael’s mask. I love the way every movie it’s just a little bit different. It’s cool. Mhm. Yes.
Mark Phillips (08:08)
Yeah. And they get more and more decayed and stuff and I I
sold the glove when I had the shop and I regret it. I wish I would have kept it ’cause it was so cool. I sold it to some chick and she didn’t even know what what it was. Like she w collected swords and knives and stuff and she came in and she’s like, What is that? That glove with the knives on it. I’m like, It’s Freddy’s glove and she’s I don’t know what it is, but I’ll buy it ’cause it’s awesome.
Sara (08:16)
Well, ⁓
Yeah.
Well, she had some homework to do.
Mark Phillips (08:33)
Yeah. Yeah,
hopefully it got her into Freddy and Nightmare on Elm Street and stuff.
Sara (08:38)
Yes,
yes. And now you need to buy a new one.
Mark Phillips (08:42)
I do, yeah. I don’t even know if that guy’s still around doing it anymore, but yeah, it’s it’s so dangerous doing it now online. Like I tried buying a Freddy mask and ⁓ I thought, I’m gonna get this amazing silicone one that like covers your neck and goes down and like moves with your mouth. When you open your mouth, it like opens and I’m like, I want one that looks like Robert Englund’s face is just plastered on me. And I ordered one and it w the picture looked amazing, but it was like a hundred bucks and I thought, it’s gonna be a great deal.
Sara (08:50)
Right.
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (09:12)
And it arrived and I’m like, This this mask isn’t even worth two dollars. Like it’s terrible.
Sara (09:15)
⁓ no.
It’s bringing you back to your childhood costume. ⁓ no. It’s like those Temu things, right? It’s just like, how I imagine it then it’s Freddy from Temu or Wish. ⁓ no.
Mark Phillips (09:18)
⁓ the childhood costume blew it out of the water. That’s how bad it was.
It was.
It was like Wish Freddy, yeah. Like it was terrible.
And I put the mask on and it smelt like like diesel fumes. It was so awful. I’m like, this is garbage. I went back to the website to try and return it. Pfft website’s like gone. They took it down. Like they sell all this junk and then just shut down and disappear.
Sara (09:35)
⁓
Yeah. Yeah.
⁓ my God. Yeah. no.
Mark Phillips (09:47)
It’s my own fault, ’cause you’re not gonna get a good Freddy mask for like less than a thousand bucks anyway. So thinking I was gonna
get a deal for a hundred, forget it.
Sara (09:54)
Yeah, I know. Better luck next time.
Mark Phillips (09:56)
Exactly.
Yeah, that’s one of my earliest memories too about like really being into Freddy is like especially the Dream Warriors is like that Dokken tune, The Dream Warriors, it’s so good. Yeah. It is. And like that’s like most people when they see Freddy, it like in our demographic are super young. And so we hear that and it’s like, Holy cow, this music is wild. It it matches perfectly with the movie.
Sara (10:08)
⁓ it’s so good. It’s such a banger.
Yeah, yeah. And I you know, I didn’t see Nightmare on Elm until later in high school. And so it didn’t ⁓ so I was already older then and wasn’t such a scaredy cat, but I can imagine the first one especially being quite creepy. Like how old were you when you saw it? Quite young.
Mark Phillips (10:40)
I think I was like seven when I saw the first nightmare on Elm Street, like way, way too young. No, I I didn’t. I think all throughout elementary school I had nightmares almost every night about Freddy and I was fighting him and fighting him and scenes from the movie would stick in my head, like going up the stairs and like sinking in, like she did in the movie, and and yeah, it was awful, but eventually I trained myself like they did in the movies that I could like defeat him in my dreams. But it took years.
Sara (10:43)
Yeah. I would never never sleep again.
⁓ no.
In your dreams.
⁓
Mark Phillips (11:09)
But I did
finally defeat him in my dreams and then after that the nightmares stopped. But it took years. Yeah.
Sara (11:15)
Wow, that’s quite a
story. And it’s funny how then, like, someone that gave you so much like trauma is now one of your favorite like horror icons.
Mark Phillips (11:23)
He is my favorite. I think it’s it’s yeah, I think it’s because that was probably the first terrifying experience I had watching a horror movie. Like I’d seen I think my earliest memories of of horror esque stuff were probably like Monster Squad watching that at the video store. ⁓ I walked into the video store and the guy was playing it on a little TV on the counter and it was the scene at the beginning where Van Helsing is s staking all the vampire women. So I was like, whoa, what is going on here? It’s crazy.
Sara (11:31)
well.
Okay, yeah. Yep.
Mm. That is happening.
Mm-hmm.
Mark Phillips (11:53)
Yeah, this
is nuts. And then so I saw that and then Gremlins, of course. Gremlins was amazing. And that was yeah, I remember my buddy, my cousin was like terrified of it. He’s like, I I’m terrified, I hate this. And I was like, I love it. So good. And then yeah, Freddy, but Freddy was too much. I wasn’t ready for it yet.
Sara (11:58)
Mm.
Yeah.
Yeah, Freddy’s Freddy’s a lot. I mean, I think the ear the earliest horror horror movies I can remember seeing are the Universal Monsters. And I felt that those were interesting and not scary enough that they were always in the back of my mind. They just felt immediately iconic. And again, because I was so into reading, especially at a young age, it was like, ooh, like I want to read these stories. So when I was a bit older, you know, reading Frankenstein, reading Jacula, Dr. Jekyll.
Mr. Hyde, all of those stories. And then it was just like, I think that kind of firmly cemented my love of horror. So I’d say that was more of the foundation than the slashers. I really didn’t see them until I was a lot older. And then I was like, ⁓ it just felt like a whole new world of horror. But I feel like yeah, I would have been very traumatized if I saw those when I was young. Because I would have nightmares from very benign, like who frame Roger Rabbit, scared me to death to death.
Mark Phillips (13:08)
⁓ yeah. Christopher Lloyd,
right?
Sara (13:12)
my god, that man has given me so many nightmares between that and ⁓ Dennis the Menace. He plays that hobo character. There’s no right being that scary in kids’ movies. Yeah. my gosh.
Mark Phillips (13:19)
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I used
to get nightmares from Back to the Future when he got attacked and he was like, The Libyans, Marty, it’s the Libyans. I used to like imagine them driving around in that little Volkswagen with the bazooka at the top. I always find it so funny watching that movie because he’s like, they found me. I don’t know how they found me. And right on the side of the van it says like Dr. Emmett Brown Enterprises and phone number and all this info.
Sara (13:29)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I know, I know.
I thought he was like a hundred when I saw that movie. Now he’s quite elderly, but yeah, then it was just like, yeah, what an iconic guy.
Mark Phillips (13:50)
Yeah.
Yeah, he
must he must just have the the fountain of eternal youth because he he’s always looked old. Can’t kinda like Steve Martin too, he’s always looked the same age.
Sara (14:04)
Yes, yes. There’s some actors that you’re just like, I just always remember you like that, and that’s how you still look to this day.
Mark Phillips (14:11)
Yep.
So we talked about ⁓ Dokken being on Nightmare in Elm Street. ⁓ another awesome tune that I remember being on a on a horror movie was Alice Cooper’s Man Behind the Mask on Jason Lives. So that’s still my favorite Friday the 13th out of all of them. I think it was the first one I saw because my buddy had it on VHS. And I love it because the the music.
Sara (14:24)
yeah. Yes. Yes.
Okay.
Mark Phillips (14:37)
The characters, like that dude that plays court, is absolutely hilarious. And and I like Megan, the girl that’s the like the final girl heroine in that. She’s super cool. She drives the Camaro, and I’m like, yeah, this chick is badass. And then CJ Graham is amazing as Jason. He’s like so tall and he just he looks wicked.
Sara (14:38)
Mm.
Mm, yeah.
Yes, yes.
She is.
Mm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that your favor like second favorite horror like series after Nightmare and Elm? Or hard to say.
Mark Phillips (15:04)
I don’t know. It’s very close,
probably like Friday the 13th. I also love Hellraiser and Texas Chainsaw. And I and I massively love Evil Dead too. Those would be the ones that I have a real hard time choosing between.
Sara (15:11)
Mm.
Yeah, fair, fair, yeah. Yeah, for me I’d say probably Evil Dead and then Hellraiser, somewhere kind of in between, they’re very different, but
I’m just, I’m a huge Clive Barker fan. He’s one of my favorite art authors. And so, ⁓ yeah, the first Hellraiser is just it’s perfect. It’s just, you know, typically when a movie is adapting a book, there’s always things that you’re like, ⁓ the the book is better. But he was just like intricately involved in that movie, and it’s just an absolute.
perfect testament to that book and just the practical effects. Like that’s just really before I go on a whole rant. That’s what’s missing, I think, in modern horror movies.
Mark Phillips (16:02)
definitely, yeah. they’ve been missing for a long time.
Sara (16:05)
Yes, unfortunately.
Mark Phillips (16:08)
Yeah, like who’s the new Tom Savini out now and like the Greg Nicotero’s and stuff? It’s all pretty much CGI now, isn’t it?
Sara (16:15)
Yeah, I mean they’re still working. I mean, ⁓ you know, Rick Baker is still working. What an iconic figure as well. He’s up there. You know, I follow him on Instagram and I’m still amazed by the stuff he does. But yeah, they’re all getting up there. I mean, I know the newest ⁓ alien movie, Romulus, actually had a lot of practical effects and real puppetry. And when I watched the movie, I I actually immediately thought it was mainly CGI. But then when I watched the making of it later, I was
Mark Phillips (16:22)
He must be a hundred by now. Yeah.
Wait.
Sara (16:45)
Like pleased to find out that actually a lot more was practical than I would have thought. ⁓ which is cool. You’re like, okay, like getting back into it again. But I feel like so many trailers, and not to come down on the evil dead, but I saw the trailer for the latest one, and it just it just feels like another kind of like again, lots of computerized types of effect rather than the old spurting blood and fluids like the original three.
Mark Phillips (16:50)
That’s so cool.
Yeah, I was reading an article today online about the new Evil Dead and the trailer and stuff, and it’s ⁓ they’ve just gone another direction with it again. Like it seems like they always pivot with every movie. The first one that came out, it was so low budget and grimy and gritty. Like I think I was fifteen when I rented it and I had no idea what it was about. I had an older cousin and he’s like, Have you seen Evil Dead? I’m like, No. And he’s like, You need to check it out. Like, it’s amazing. So we rented it and I was I thought it was gonna be cheesy.
Sara (17:27)
Yeah.
How many?
Mm-hmm.
Mark Phillips (17:43)
And I put it on, it’s friggin’ terrifying. I’m like, it’s like the exorcist times ten, like there’s demons everywhere and it’s horrific. Yeah. But the thing about two is they take it like down Campy Avenue, so it like the effects get crazier, but it’s not as like nasty and gross.
Sara (17:45)
Yeah. Yeah. And then two just ramps it all up, ⁓ Like yeah.
Yes, it gets more humorous.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They’re just they’re perfect. And I actually saw Evil Dead the musical when it first came out. I don’t
Mark Phillips (18:08)
nice.
Sara (18:09)
Yeah, yeah. And we had sat in the the f the front row, which was like the splatter zone. And so you’re actually getting like, you know, the chunks of blood and the like spurted It was so fun. yeah, it was excellent. So I just had like chunks of blood running down and then you just then you have to go out into the public and it was not near Halloween, it was like June and people are looking at you like, What the hell happened to you?
Mark Phillips (18:17)
That’s so cool.
Yeah, yeah.
It’s like coming out of a
GWAR concert.
Sara (18:33)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. People are just like, ⁓ my ex actually got asked by a police officer to go wash his face because he was scaring people. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I those type of movies are just ⁓ some of my favorites. And yeah, so again, I didn’t see them when I was younger, but then ⁓ getting into them more in high school, yeah, like The Halloween, the Friday the 13th the Hellraisers, all of those. Candyman was another one I really loved.
Mark Phillips (18:41)
wow. Jeez.
Candyman
is terrifying as well when it came out. Mm-hmm. Yep.
Sara (19:02)
my God, what a beautiful movie and so scary. Cause I
remember in the fourth grade the whole Bloody Mary, like saying Bloody Mary in the mirror, and that was a big thing. And I remember kids doing it and then coming back, they probably like scratch their arms and be my god, she came, she got me. So then when I saw Candyman, I was like, I was really scared. Like really scared. ⁓
Mark Phillips (19:11)
That was the big thing, yeah.
Yeah.
yeah. Yeah, Tony Todd was amazing. He was so good
in that. And yeah, the the Night of the Living Dead remake that Savini did with Tony Todd in it is fantastic. Like
Sara (19:32)
It’s fantastic.
I love the original, but that’s a very good remake. Very good. One of the one of the good like one of the really good ones.
Mark Phillips (19:38)
It is, yeah.
That’s one that I need to pick up again on on disc because I had it on VHS back in the day and ⁓ not anymore.
Sara (19:46)
Hmm. ⁓
man. Yeah, the VHS. That’s a whole other thing, isn’t it? Yeah. Yes.
Mark Phillips (19:52)
It’s we’ll get to the VHS stuff. So
so speaking of of circling back to the music, ⁓ I want to know what what got you into metal music and like what was the band that brought you in?
Sara (20:07)
It’s funny because I didn’t have any outside influences that liked metal. Like in my family, it was very much like adult contemporary. And my friends ⁓ were into mainly like R B and rap and that sort of thing, like growing up into late 90s, like early two thousands. And I didn’t have what do you call it, like a CD player or anything at home. Like so I was really at the mercy of Celine Dion.
And Shania Twain. And whatever else my parents spun. It I got to the point where my brother and I would ⁓ hide their CDs because ⁓ we were getting real tired. But I think it it was probably ⁓ probably at some point in the like at the end of elementary school where I started hearing, probably watching like much music. there’s there’s other music out there that appeals to me a little bit more and it
Mark Phillips (20:48)
Yeah.
They’re not playing Celine
Dion on Power 30 ⁓
Sara (21:08)
Yeah.
Right. And I’d say it was probably probably like Metallica and AC/DC and Iron Maiden as kind of like the more classic ⁓ ones that I heard first and I was like, okay, these are cool. And then I kind of went through a bunch of phases where I liked them, but then I listened to ⁓ I listened to I tried grunge music and then I tried punk music and then more current rock. And then that’s where I kind of started developing of like,
Okay, so I’m not much of a rap R & B person. I’m more into this side of it. But it’s hard to say of like which I don’t know if it was just like one band. It was the whole process of breaking away from my parents’ music.
Mark Phillips (21:54)
I often wonder that with my kids too. ⁓ I well not my daughter ’cause I pretty much know what she’s into now. She’s old enough. But with my son specifically, I’m like he doesn’t really listen to music. He’s only eleven, so I I’m kinda wondering like what is he gonna be into? Is he gonna be into the same stuff as me or is he gonna hate it ’cause he’s heard it all the time and is he gonna listen to rap or country or blues or jazz? I don’t know. Or he might be a metalhead just like his old man, who knows.
Sara (22:06)
⁓ yeah.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, it’s it my kids are it’s funny, they don’t they don’t like rock music. If it’s if I have it on the radio, they’re tolerating it and then they’re like like they they’re more into like pop, ⁓ not rap, but just kind of like popular music, because that’s what their friends listen to and all of that. So I don’t wanna shove it down their throat and then have them be like, I don’t want to listen to mom music, because then it’s gonna be very not not cool. So I’m just gonna let it be. You know, I’ll just I’ll let it be and then see what they end up gravitating towards, right?
Mark Phillips (22:38)
Right.
Right. Yes.
That’s what happens is like I I never tried, you know, making my daughter listen to metal or anything and like her mom’s into metal too, but it was always kind of on in the vehicle. But I I think the first song that my daughter told me she loved was that Call Me Maybe song by Carly Ray Jepsen or whatever it was.
Sara (23:01)
Mm-hmm.
My gosh.
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (23:09)
But
she was like four or five at the time and she was singing the lyrics to it and I’m like laughing in the car. But she she got into like heavier stuff, started listening to Metallica and Megadeth, and then now she listens to way heavier stuff than I do. But I got into it too from like my dad growing up. My dad had a record player and he always had deep purple records on and he had Rolling Stones. That was like his favorite band. And I always thought, ⁓ Grandpa music, old man music’s not very cool.
Sara (23:12)
No, yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Mark Phillips (23:38)
So I started listening to like a lot
of rap and stuff to rebel. I was big into like naughty by nature and like run DMC and House of Pain and and Kriss Kross even wore my clothes backwards to school one day with my buddy when Kriss Kross were super popular. Yeah.
Sara (23:42)
Okay, okay.
Okay.
That’s amazing. That’s cool.
Mark Phillips (23:59)
We grow out
of that stuff, right? And then I think yeah, our our parents influence, at least with mine, probably not so much with yours, ’cause you’re not rocking out to Celine Dion.
Sara (24:06)
Mm.
No, no offense. I mean, she’s a Canadian icon, same with Shania, but and yeah, I just just hearing like the Canadian radio where they just like shove the same. Like Bryan Adams, like, please, I just I don’t I just don’t wanna hear them anymore. ⁓ and yeah, so it was this interesting process of kind of breaking away and then finding out like what area in rock I really I really like because there’s so many there’s so many types. ⁓ but the love with the the classic ones never, yeah, never
Mark Phillips (24:34)
Yeah.
Sara (24:39)
went away and then it’s then it was more of a process of discovering like newer ones. newer ones with maybe a little bit of a a harder sound ⁓ that then appealed to me. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (24:52)
Yeah, and and diving into ones that ⁓ kind of had multi-layers and get more technical and complex. You know, when I was young, I used to like the bands that were very straightforward and kind of caveman beats and just bash you over the head with raw heaviness. But as I get older, I’ve got more refined taste now, and I like layers and and different instruments going on and different composing and all that sort of stuff.
Sara (25:08)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, that that’s cool. I mean, I I definitely liked my punk music. I really liked early AFI and ⁓ and then that kind of branched me out into other bands. Like I remember, I think it was through AFI that I kind of discovered like Silver Chair. I really loved them. And ⁓
I don’t even know. Like I I kinda listened all over the place. But it was definitely high school that I heard Mastodon for the first time and they remain my favorite band to this day. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mark Phillips (25:50)
They are most excellent. Yeah, one of my favorite bands too. Yeah, super, super awesome. For
for me it was it was a hard sell in the beginning. ⁓ I I think the first song I heard from theirs was ⁓ Carpillion Crest or something, and Dylan played it for me, and he’s like, What do think of this? And I was like, Too crazy, man. There’s too much going on. I can’t find the groove, I can’t find the beat. Just sounds like instruments falling over in a closet or something.
Sara (26:09)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm.
Mark Phillips (26:18)
And then I listened to more and
more and really got into Crack the Skye. And yeah, that’s I think Crack the Skye is probably one of my favorite metal albums of all time. It’s so good.
Sara (26:22)
yeah.
It’s really
it’s really beautiful and I was fortunate enough to see them play that live. it was I forget who opened, but Dethklok played afterwards and it was probably it was one of the best nights ever. It was just fantastic. yeah. So many you know what, there’s so many shows I I wish I went to. You know, looking back is like, ⁓ man, but
Mark Phillips (26:38)
Sweet.
Yeah.
Sara (26:54)
Definitely been to a lot of ones that are just like, yeah, forever, forever memories, right?
Mark Phillips (26:59)
I was so glad that I got to see Mastodon too in Calgary a few years ago when they did the ⁓ this from this shirt, the Ashes of Leviathan tour with Lamb of God. It was so good because yeah, it was ⁓ it was them celebrating their two big albums. And ⁓ yeah, they they opened Kerry King’s band opened for them. And Phil Demmel plays guitar for them, and he’s he’s one of my favorite guitarists because he used to be the lead guitarist for Machine Head.
Sara (27:09)
that’s cool.
Cool.
Mm.
Mark Phillips (27:27)
And so it was super awesome. Like three bands that I love on the bill. And yeah, hearing Mastodon play Leviathan from beginning to end was just absolutely incredible. And obviously the last time I got the chance to see them with Brent too, so so glad I did get to see them, because I’d never seen them before that. And I really, really would have been kicking myself if I never went.
Sara (27:43)
Yeah.
Yeah, I yeah, I saw them for the last time with Brent open for Ghost and I went I went though for Mastodon. I I I don’t really listen to Ghost. I mean they put on a fine show. It just it’s not really my my type of music. But yeah, I’m really glad I went. However, I miss them with Gojira and Gojira’s another one of my favorite bands, and that’s one that like every once in a while it like wakes me up at night. I’m like, God damn it.
Mark Phillips (28:14)
Yeah. ⁓
Sara (28:15)
Like that’s
the one that like bothers me.
Mark Phillips (28:19)
I saw Gojira
when they opened for Metallica, ⁓ not on their last tour, but the one before. And it was wild because they were on the bill with ⁓ with Avenged Sevenfold as well. And so Gojira was the opening band. So they were playing at like five o’clock in the afternoon. It was still bright in the stadium. Nobody even knew who they were. They were like, Who are these guys? And I’m like, These guys rule, like, this is an awesome band. You don’t know. Yeah.
Sara (28:29)
Okay.
⁓ man.
yeah.
They kick ass. Yeah, you don’t even know. Yeah, they
opened for corn ⁓ last year and I ended up not going because I’m like, I really would like to see them on the main stage. ⁓ no offense to corn, but I was like, hmm, ⁓ I’d rather see them do like a full set. So I’m waiting for them to come back. ⁓ I loved how they had that whole set at the Olympics though. Like to have holy, like that was one of the
Mark Phillips (28:58)
Yeah.
That was that was
like the highlight of the Olympics, right? Yeah, yeah.
Sara (29:09)
That I was done. I was like, yeah, rest, you know, sports. But like
the fact that they were there ⁓ just like my god, ripping hard. It was amazing. Yeah. ⁓ my god. Perfect.
Mark Phillips (29:15)
Yeah.
It was. It was so good. And like the Marie Antoinette stuff and like all that. It was amazing. Yeah. Yeah,
that that was the highlight of the Olympics for me too. I watched that performance. I’m like, all right, well, I’m good. I’m done with the Olympics for the year.
Sara (29:32)
Yeah.
Yeah. I mean it could only go downhill from here. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (29:36)
Yeah.
No, that was pretty awesome. I had lots of people messaging me and asking me, like, who is that band? Did you see that crazy band? I’m like, Yeah, they’re awesome. So good.
Sara (29:45)
They’re so good. Yeah.
I haven’t been to a live show in a long time and it’s depressing me. it’s just been, I don’t know, I don’t know. I’ve just between life and whatever and ticket prices, of course, have gone up a lot. ⁓ so I think people are being a lot more choosy about going out now.
Mark Phillips (30:00)
Yeah.
Yeah, it’s hard going to shows too when you start getting older. Like, ⁓ I think the last show I saw was Black Label Society with ⁓ with Zakk Sabbath and Dark Chapel and three awesome bands, really good. But man, I was standing for like five hours and I’m like, I can’t hack this anymore. Like my feet are killing me. I wanna sit down at the at the bar and just have a drink, you know?
Sara (30:09)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah.
My back.
Yeah. Yeah, I know the last show I went to, I it might have been Jinjer or Meshuggah I can’t remember which. But it was, yeah, like the concrete. And you’re like, all right, like fine, you know, you’re there early, and then the setup, and then the opener, and like the pain in my lower back. I was just from standing, I was like, holy, like, I swear being in the mosh pit would hurt less than that.
Mark Phillips (30:43)
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, I used to
get on people that went to shows and sat down. I was like, you don’t sit down at a metal show. And it’s like, you do once you hit 40 plus. Now you sit down and you just enjoy the show. Yeah.
Sara (30:55)
Yeah. Well
Right. You’re comfortable. You’ve got the view.
No one’s sweating and rubbing on you. It’s just like, you know. We have it right sitting down.
Mark Phillips (31:07)
Yeah.
That’s true. And then, you
know, not being super tall, like I’m only coming in at five foot eight. I’m going to shows and staring at a lot of dudes’ backs and their heads. And I’m like, this sucks.
Sara (31:16)
Yeah.
That sucks. Or like the people and the b why are you wearing a backpack to a show? Like just like obnoxious clu spikes out to here. It’s just like, alright, like God.
Mark Phillips (31:26)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, I remember
me and my buddies spent a fortune to go see Van Halen when they came to Edmonton when they had Sammy Hagar singing with them. It was years ago, probably like in the early two thousands, and we got floor seats and it was so expensive. And and my buddy’s like, I told you to get tickets for us, dude. And you just went ahead and got floor seats on my credit card. And I was like, But I thought you wanted the best seats. He’s Well, I didn’t know they were gonna like 300 a pop, dude. And I’m like, It’s Van Halen, man. Like we’re
Sara (31:38)
okay.
Well, you spent your ticket.
Like That’s probably
cheap now, right? Like that would be cheap. Like, I swear. I remember I saw Metallica and Lamb of God and I remember paying a hundred dollars for the ticket and I was like, Whew, like this is this is ⁓ breaking the bank. And it they weren’t amazing seats, but they were okay. And now like you can’t even get to the door with parking for a hundred dollars, right? Like, so yeah.
Mark Phillips (32:02)
Yeah.
Ha ha ha.
No, I think Metallica
tickets in the sphere are like eighteen hundred dollars plus just for one seat. That’s a lot of cash.
Sara (32:30)
That’s
that’s a lot of money. And yeah, it’s not i I mean, I know there’s lots of factors involved in it, but it’s just not really accessible to the average fan anymore, right? We’re gonna have to just stream them online or something.
Mark Phillips (32:35)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Did you watch the Black Sabbath concert that they did?
Sara (32:49)
my god, it was so sad. It was beautiful. Yeah, yeah, it was really beautiful and very emotional. I’m so glad they got to do that.
Mark Phillips (32:51)
Yeah. It was it was awesome tunes though, like everybody was there.
I think I wonder if they’re gonna release that or they should release it on Blu-ray or something, right? ‘Cause I think everybody needs to own it.
Sara (33:07)
yeah.
Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t think about that of there being like an actual f there has there has to be something like that in the making. That would be really special.
Mark Phillips (33:17)
I saw online, I can’t remember what website posted it, but Sharon mailed out like big framed poster pictures of Ozzy, and it was signed by him to everybody that was there performing with him at the show. Really cool. And now they’ve got his cologne. They leaked his cologne that he wears, like his amazing scent. Yeah, ho Jose Mangan was talking about this, like he posted last week that he he the his most treasured thing that he has in his life.
Sara (33:26)
really?
that’s amazing.
really? No.
Mark Phillips (33:45)
Is a guitar that he or a ⁓ not a guitar, a far beyond driven poster that got signed by Dimebeg and a bottle of cologne that Ozzy gave him. Because everybody said that Aussie smelt so good. And he gave Jose Mangan and said, Tell you know, take this to your grave. Don’t tell anybody what kind of cologne I wear. But now they’ve released it and Sharon’s actually selling his cologne in collaboration with this company now.
Sara (33:51)
Mm.
Yeah.
No.
Mark Phillips (34:13)
And so they
have like a Prince of Darkness version of this cologne. So it’s sold out instantly. Like as soon as they announced it, it was gone. But I wanna know what it smells like. Yeah. It sounds pretty neat, but yeah.
Sara (34:20)
I bet. I bet. I know, I’m so curious now. It’s like, well, what is it? That’s cool. Mm-hmm.
Cool.
Mark Phillips (34:30)
So we were talking earlier, we touched on it just briefly about ⁓ me not having some VHS tapes anymore of old movies that went in the bin because they they I never thought they would ever be, you know, coming back. I was like, nobody’s gonna need a VCR anymore. Yeah, I’m just like just get rid of it. So now VHS has come back with a vengeance.
Sara (34:39)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, these old dusty old things, yeah. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (34:56)
And everybody online is posting tapes of their collections. And every time I see it, I like die inside. I’m like, ⁓ this is dreadful. So so why do you think this is back? Like, why why VHS specifically and why not DVD or Blu-ray? Is it because lots of these movies are still out of print and you can’t get them on D V D and Blu-ray? Or is it just because it’s old and like cassette tapes, people want to relive the eighties right now?
Sara (35:00)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I had that. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I think it’s like a multi-tiered thing where there was a huge s like resurgence of them during COVID where people were just going back to whatever brought them joy from their childhood. So people were buying, you know, old video games, ⁓ toys, like if it was a polypocket or some sort of other collectible. ⁓ some may say. Definitely not me. ⁓
Mark Phillips (35:48)
Furby,
Sara (35:55)
Yeah, if RBs. ⁓ and then I mean, I know people were collecting tapes before, but there seemed to be something about, you know, being locked in the house of like, I just need something to entertain me and make me kind of like reflect back on good times. And so, ⁓ yeah, tapes really popped off. And I think they’re just like that mix of like nostalgia, ⁓ and also just owning something physical during this very
digital era where there’s something about kind of having that you know like the way that it was intended like the best technology at the time and watching it in that way and yeah then there’s the ones that were very hard to find they’re not on any other form of media or you know there’s some sort of cool cover that’s really sought after so it’s a collector’s piece especially if it’s like a director or an actor or somebody that you really like ⁓ but
Mark Phillips (36:26)
Yeah.
Sara (36:54)
But now it’s gotten so crazy that there’s tapes that go for hundreds of dollars. And, you know, are they worth that? It’s whatever people are willing to buy. So if somebody’s gonna drop 300, 350 on killer clowns, it’s worth 350 or maybe more. it’s just so interesting though, the way that yeah, it’s just become this thing. And everybody’s gotten into it different ways in talking with people about it.
Mark Phillips (37:21)
Yeah, they they’ve definitely blown up in price. And yeah, I I never ever expected it. ⁓ I th I think in the early 2000s, I was looking for ⁓ VHS copy of Return of the Living Dead before MGM picked it up and put it on DVD. And and I was on eBay and I was like closing in on paying like four or five hundred bucks for a tape, and it wasn’t even like a mint tape. It was like an 80s one with the slipcase and
Sara (37:35)
Mm-hmm. ⁓ yeah.
Mark Phillips (37:48)
I’m like, I just need it because it doesn’t exist. And I think I I I was like, I was just waiting and holding off. And then a couple days later, MGM announced, we’re gonna release this on DVD within like six months. So I was so happy that I didn’t pull the trigger on it, but I can see people wanting it and
Sara (38:00)
my goodness.
Mm-hmm.
Mark Phillips (38:06)
And yeah, you
mentioned the special cases and stuff. I remember going to the video store as a kid and seeing the dead pit when you press the zombie on the front, his eyes light up and glow green. Like stuff like that’s pretty cool. Yeah.
Sara (38:15)
⁓
That’s so cool. That’s so cool.
Yeah, it’s I mean for me I didn’t really get into it during COVID. It was actually somebody was selling ⁓ a hundred a hundred horror tapes on marketplace with a TV with the VCR built in for a hundred dollars. And I was just like, I I just I that’s where it started for me. So it wasn’t that long ago and I didn’t go I I was holding off. I was holding off from tapes because I’m more into books and I was like, I don’t need too expensive hobbies.
Mark Phillips (38:36)
that’s amazing.
Yeah.
Sara (38:50)
So I told myself with tapes that I wouldn’t be, you know, buying hundreds of dollars worth of tapes on eBay. It would kind of be like, ⁓ if that’s a cool movie and I’m in a thrift store, it’s a good price, then I’ll get it. And I’ve been pretty good that way. I have kind of like my my cap on what I would spend for one. ⁓ or I’ve kind of like focused in on, ⁓ I really like that director, I’ll try to get those. But yeah, I’ve just in seeing, yeah, online like just some people, I it it’s wild. And because the
They’re so sought after, it kind of went where you can go to a thrift store and find them to the point now where like it’s incredibly rare to find, especially like a good horror tape. You’re gonna find Godfather and Titanic and like the ones that everybody had. ⁓ yeah. So for some, it’s a a bit of that thrill of the hunt is not there anymore because they’re snatched up by resellers a lot faster than they ever were.
Mark Phillips (39:25)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Are the tapes expensive at thrift stores and flea markets and things? Like are the people that run those stores catching on or are they still getting sold dirt cheap?
Sara (39:53)
Yeah.
Yeah, so like around here we have like Goodwill and Value Village and that sort of stuff. And you know, there’s still they’ll still be like three or four bucks, sometimes five bucks. But you like I don’t find anything at Goodwill ever. And good and Value Village now it’s like incredibly rare to find anything cool because all their VHSs are priced the same. So I have a feeling that if something cool comes in, someone that works there is probably grabbing it. ⁓ but antique malls, they’re pretty much caught on to the value. You know, all you have to do is
Mark Phillips (40:18)
Gone.
Sara (40:25)
hop on eBay and you can see how much money you can make on some of these things, right? Yeah.
Mark Phillips (40:30)
For sure. So speaking
of of shops and stuff around you, ⁓ well not super close I guess, but in the area, is suspect video still open? Is it still a thing? No? When did they shut down? Long time ago or
Sara (40:40)
Mm-hmm. Mm-mm.
Yeah. I mean we had like Blockbuster, but we didn’t really have I don’t really remember any of the other smaller chains. it feels like a whole other lifetime ago.
Mark Phillips (40:56)
does. Yeah, it’d be it’d be
awesome if they came back because, you know, I I don’t know if it’s just enthusiasts and people that are like into niche collecting and stuff that are thinking this way, but I think a lot of people are sick and tired of like digital and streaming and paying for 10 different services and
Sara (41:12)
Yeah. All the platforms,
yeah.
Mark Phillips (41:15)
Yeah, paying extra for ads and then the movies that you’re looking for are disappearing and you can never find them. And you’re like, I used to own this on D V D and now I’ve rented it six times from Amazon. Yeah.
Sara (41:17)
I know.
Mm-hmm. Right? I know.
I know. So yeah, there’s something so satisfying about like having it in hand. And I mean, I do like, I don’t say I collect EVs. I have like a decent amount of them and they’re cool. You know, you get the extra features, or you know, you’ll get the director’s cut, or you’ll like you’ll get different versions of them, which is I do like that. But there’s just something so satisfying about
Mark Phillips (41:34)
Yeah.
Sara (41:51)
the tape because I ⁓
I don’t really seek movies out to be as like crisp and clean as possible. I kind of like the like kind of grittiness of it when the lines are there. You know, there’s some movies where, you know, I I have the tape and then I’ll watch like a 4K. And I like the tape version better. I just think, you know, some things are not meant to be seen in high def because, you know, ⁓ either the lighting is different and it’s like, that throws off what, you know, the tech would have been at the time, or the makeup doesn’t look so good. Like you’re just not transported the same way.
because it’s just wasn’t really meant to be brought into 2026 standards. ⁓ But then there’s other things that look really cool. So or the sound is really amazing. So yeah.
Mark Phillips (42:25)
Yeah.
Yeah, I
think for sure for for old school low budget grimy horror, you can’t beat VHS and like that that overscan and like the just the on the old CRT television and all that stuff. It’s so nice. And yeah, it it probably doesn’t look as good if it’s all digitally remastered and crisp.
Sara (42:43)
No.
No.
No, it’s just not the same. You’ll see, you know, the the the rubbed on makeup or like you’ll see like things like that, which, you know, they just have that charm on on the tape. And ⁓ you know, the tapes they don’t last forever. Like they’re kind of a that’s what is kind of wild about, you know, people paying so much is that, you know, that film wasn’t really ever meant to last forever. So yeah, I just again I
Mark Phillips (43:01)
Ha ha ha.
Sara (43:24)
I’ve had to cap myself because it’s it’s a endless rabbit hole. So there’s something really fun about finding them in the wild and it just feels really satisfying when you do.
Mark Phillips (43:34)
They certainly don’t last forever if you watch them on a gold star VCR. I had a Gold Star VCR as a kid, and if you press pause on that sucker, tape’s done. All you hear is it starts eating the tape. You’re like, no, you press pause. Yeah. And and that’s my fear with VHS, is like I don’t want to spend a ton of ⁓ money on something wicked and like some hard-to-find horror flick and the VCR just chews it up.
Sara (43:37)
Yeah.
⁓ bad bad time. ⁓ it just
⁓ chewing it up. Yeah. Yeah.
⁓
I know it’s a fear of mine. I a it’s cool. Actually on Amazon I bought a like it cleans the because because I have the V like the actual VCR in my TV, I can’t take it apart as if it was separate. So when when the movies start to get, you know, they get all snowy. ⁓ and it’s time to clean it, it’s this cool dry buff tape that you put in and it gets it like nice and perfect again.
Mark Phillips (44:32)
Does it show you anything cool on the screen like a Zamboni driving past?
Sara (44:32)
Perfectly considered that. Yeah. Yeah.
It just it’s funny. I was telling people at work about it and they’re like, How is that still a thing? Like how do that still exist? I’m like, there’s dozens of us.
Mark Phillips (44:45)
Yeah, you
get those for D V D. I have a disc that you put in a DVD that has like a little little brushes on the disc. And so as it goes around the laser, it like does little curling and like sweeps the rock as it goes past. Yeah. That yeah. So we we briefly touched upon books and ⁓ Clive Barker specifically. Is it would you say Clive Barker is your favorite author?
Sara (44:51)
Yeah.
That’s cool. It’s very Canadian of us talking about Zamboni.
that’s really tough. I you know, I’ve read almost every Stephen King book. That’s he was definitely the guy that got me really into horror ⁓ horror books and and fiction and that sort of thing. His ability to write
In short form and long form. And to me, the short form’s even more impressive. being able to tell a short horror story that tells the whole story and all it needs to tell. ⁓ in, you know, five pages, ten pages is even more impressive than a thousand words to me. so definitely Stephen King, and then yeah, Clive Barker is definitely at the top. but it’s hard. There’s so many, there’s so many good ones. I’d say Mary Shelley is probably one of my my absolute favorites. And
you know, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft are my older just like standbys. They’re geniuses of their time.
Mark Phillips (46:09)
H. P. Lovecraft is is from a different time. Certainly reading his stuff, it’s like, Holy cow, you couldn’t say that anymore. Yeah.
Sara (46:14)
Yeah. Yeah. No, as a person, ⁓
not the best, not the best, but the the cosmic horror that he was able able to put on paper without just often describing what you’re seeing is unlike anything I’ve ever read. And ⁓
It’s just to use language like that where you’re creating this just like sense of horror without even yeah, what is he even talking about? I don’t know, but I’m scared. Just incredible.
Mark Phillips (46:41)
Mm-hmm.
I have a few HP Lovecraft collections that my older cousin gave me and ⁓ admittedly I haven’t read them because I I’m like, I’ll just watch the Stuart Gordon movies because he does so well with his material.
Sara (46:52)
Yeah.
Yeah, there’s some interesting, like ⁓ Color out of Space was one with Nick Cage that was actually quite impressive to make yeah, to make a movie about a scary color, like you know, that’s just threatening it was really hard to do. yeah, I I I’d be curious to see if there’s more adaptations, but I really do want more Clive Barker because
Mark Phillips (47:07)
Yeah. That was good, yeah.
Sara (47:25)
Love Stephen King, but we have about twenty different ad adaptations coming about every year from him. I think I think we need more Clive.
Mark Phillips (47:34)
Yeah,
I would love to see some more Clive Barker stuff put out. I’d love to see a movie of the damnation game. That’s one of my favorite novels of his. ⁓ ha has he ever made a a movie of the Great and Secret Show? No.
Sara (47:41)
⁓ man. Brilliant.
No or Weave World.
Like he yes, he’s horror, but he did fantasy so well. Like the man was just pumping out genius works. so yeah, it’s really unfortunate. I mean, they tried to make books of blood, like on Hulu, and it was like the worst thing I’d seen. I was like, absolutely not.
Mark Phillips (47:53)
Mm-hmm.
And they did some standalone
films of those too. Like they did the Midnight Meat Train and stuff. And I’m like, ⁓ it’s okay, but it’s not nearly as good as I imagined it when I was reading it.
Sara (48:10)
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
yeah, I know. It was so dark and so visceral. ⁓ yeah, it didn’t quite translate. Still creepy, but just not the same type of like impact.
Mark Phillips (48:26)
A night breed was amazing. Near and dear to your heart.
Sara (48:29)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yes, Cronenberg, my favorite being the very scary Dr. Decker, one of my favorite killers. That book is very scary. my god, he was the perfect casting. ⁓ the mask. I want I’m not a mask collector because again, I can’t get into more things. I do have some, but I would love the Decker mask.
Mark Phillips (48:38)
He is a amazing villain. That mask. Yeah.
I think Trick or Treat Studios does that mask. And it looks so cool. Yeah, I agree. Like that mask was amazing.
Sara (48:55)
Yeah, don’t tell me that. ⁓
there’s a figure too. There’s a lot of really cool Clive Barker toys. ⁓ like from Hellraiser and yeah, from ⁓ Nightbreed and there’s a decker one that I really want. But again, I try to pace myself.
Mark Phillips (49:16)
So speaking of Cronenberg, you love Cronenberg and you’ve written a nonfiction piece about how his movies ⁓ affected you and and how they are a part of your life. You wanna talk about that?
Sara (49:30)
In like short form or long form? Yeah. Yeah. So I it’s hard to remember when exactly I got into him. I don’t know when I first started seeing his movies, if I was specifically thinking, yeah, this is another Cronenberg film. I think, you know, it was kinda like watching them here or there. and not till I was a bit older, probably
Mark Phillips (49:33)
Just go whatever you want. ⁓
Sara (49:55)
Probably like university, I don’t think I saw any of them in high school. And then they just started speaking to me on a personal level where I didn’t just see them for, you know, the gross out kind of body horror side of it. It was the really ⁓ beautiful connections between people in them. A lot of them have love stories and a lot of them have dark humor too. I think he was amazingly able to just provide this like.
Like commentary on society, yeah, commentary on human body, fear of aging, disease. but then he also made amazing, you know, like gangster films and other things, right? So like just this totally multifaceted, brilliant human who’s also Canadian. ⁓ he lives only an hour away from me. Not that I’m but yeah. yeah, just like very proud of his origins and filmed his movies here in Canada. Just
Mark Phillips (50:45)
Nice.
Sara (50:55)
yeah, so for me, having gone through a lot of different health struggles in my life, which saw my body literally mutate, and ⁓ I just felt this very strong ⁓ affinity towards his work and what he’s has, you know, always said. I’ve read a lot of his books, watched a lot of his interviews, and ⁓ yeah, it just feels like this very strong connection to the way that he sees the world.
Mark Phillips (51:22)
And you recently had ⁓ an article published that you wrote in Delirium magazine?
Sara (51:26)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, that was really exciting. I love, love, love writing. a lot of the books now I read are nonfiction. I’ve kind of moved in into the last decade. It’s been more theory, film theory, ⁓ philosophy applied to horror movies, different, you know, ⁓ explorations into different directors, that sort of thing. And so the article I wrote for Delirium was on body horror, but with a focus on female directors and
how they have been handling the themes of body horror in more modern movies. And so I kind of checked it, starting with ⁓ well, I got to it eventually, but Boxing Helena that Jennifer Lynch, David Lynch’s daughter did, and how you know it was in my opinion, it it almost came too early. It it was not really recognized for what it was when it came out. People didn’t understand it. I think if it came out today, it would be received differently.
But I think women now today of course are much more involved in horror than ever before. And we have lots of stories to say and ⁓ body horror’s being done a little a little differently now.
Mark Phillips (52:41)
It seems like there’s been a lot of body horror movies that have come out as of late and the ones I’ve seen have been really good, like the substance and together and stuff like that. I mean, they’re amazing. They’re just really, really good. And the substance went all over the place. It was it was reminding me of like Frank Henanlauder like basket case and like just crazy brain damage type stuff where it’s like, I can’t believe they’re going here with this.
Sara (52:46)
Yeah.
Yes.
Hmm.
Yeah. Yeah.
And the fact that it, you know, was a
it was almost became a household title with, you know, Demi Moore being up for the Oscar and that sort of thing. That was huge. That was huge for horror. ⁓ and I wrote about the substance in my article because it was a very moving movie. And, you know, someone like my mom who doesn’t like horror, you know, either of my parents, whatever, she watched it and she said that was really good. And, you know, ’cause it it spoke to a lot of people about the way that society views aging people, especially women, as, you know, your youthfulness.
Mark Phillips (53:16)
Yeah.
Sara (53:42)
Is the best thing that you have to offer the world. And so once you’re kind of past that prime age, you’re expired. And so it was a very emotional ride to the point where when I’ve re-watched it, I don’t even really see all the like yuckiness anymore. I just feel so bad for Elizabeth Sparkle.
Mark Phillips (54:03)
What did
your mom think about the end of it when it went really off the rails? Was she like, what is happening?
Sara (54:07)
She was like, that was crazy. I actually was
sweating thinking about her watching that because she doesn’t watch anything like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sara, is this what you’re writing about? What are you doing with your life? Yeah, yeah, no. They were they were really proud that I and you know, they understand that I’m
Mark Phillips (54:14)
You’re like, I’m gonna get a phone call.
Sara (54:26)
I really like to look at what else is going on in in the movie. And of course, every time we watch a movie, we kind of have our own opinion. We bring our own personal experiences into it. And that’s why, you know, something I find terrifying, you’re gonna be like, meh, didn’t scare me, and vice versa. And that’s why I think a lot of I I I hate reading about when people are like, that was stupid, or like that, that was, you know, not scary. It’s just like what’s what’s scary is very subjective, right?
Mark Phillips (54:55)
It is, yeah.
Sara (54:56)
It’s very personal. So like to you, what do you think
Mark Phillips (54:57)
Yeah, that that’s always the hardest
Sara (55:00)
like what do you think one of your like scariest movies is, like in your opinion that you’ve seen?
Mark Phillips (55:05)
It’s it’s always a very, very difficult thing to answer, ’cause like you said, very subjective. ⁓ I mentioned it earlier, like Evil Dead scared the pants off me when I was fifteen. And people are like, Evil Dead, that’s so campy and goofy. I’m like, no, but the first one was gritty and visceral and horrifying. ⁓ it was like the Exorcist Times Ten. There was like ten Reagans running around vomiting and screaming profanity and doing violence. It was Yeah.
Sara (55:09)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
It was wild. It was a wild ride.
Mm-hmm.
Mark Phillips (55:32)
I loved
it, but it was it was pretty scary, yeah. And and I I think yeah, it’s it you’re right. It’s whatever scares you in life. So I mean I think the idea of demonic possession is probably pretty terrifying. So lots of those those movies, The Exorcist doing it the best, and then the the Italian spoof called the Antichrist, which is hilarious, but still pretty yeah, th those ones and
Sara (55:44)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mark Phillips (55:57)
Yeah, I I think those are probably a and I remember Jew on like the Japanese grudge, the origin that scared me when it came out.
Sara (56:03)
⁓ so
so creepy.
Mark Phillips (56:06)
And
I think the biggest thing with that was because we we do get desensitized as an audience. We see the same sorts of things all the time. Once you’ve seen one jump scare, you kind of know what to anticipate next time, so it doesn’t have the same effect. We get nullified. So having foreign films come out of Japan where it was like a completely different culture, different environments, different types of creatures, like Julon was terrifying.
Sara (56:14)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yes, and a lot of those movies like from Korea, they don’t really care about f a following any sort of formula. Cause in a North American movie, we can usually follow it and there’s usually some sort of resolve. Maybe not a happy ending, but a resolve that we can anticipate. But in those movies, they are just a wild ride from start to finish. And there’s some that I’ve seen that I’m just like whole like the first time I even saw like Old Boy or ⁓ The Wailing and I’m just I don’t even know what’s
going on. I’m glad I’m here. But just unlike anything that you know we can that we’ve really seen out of North America. ⁓ and yeah, very scary stuff, very haunting stuff.
Mark Phillips (57:16)
Old
Boy has one of the most unbelievable dark twists I’ve ever seen in a movie. I’m just like, this is unreal.
Sara (57:21)
just
Yeah. Yeah, that one and ⁓ have you seen The Skin I Live In with Antonio Banderas? okay, I will say no more. That’s another Yeah, that it’s I think it’s in Spanish, if I remember correctly. That was another one. There’s some movies that just they stick with you. They stick with you for for better, for worse.
Mark Phillips (57:31)
No.
I have to add that to my list.
Mm-hmm.
What would you say is your scariest of all time, the one that shocked you and stuck with you the most?
Sara (57:55)
⁓
I would echo Exorcist being very scary. I think to this day. The demon thing is it it freaks me out. hereditary scared me. The idea of these the ghosts that were not completely ⁓ dealt with by the camera. It reminds me of, you know, you’re in your house and you see something and you look and there’s nothing there. People hiding in the corners, like that idea was scary.
Mark Phillips (57:59)
Yeah.
Sara (58:26)
⁓ and then it follows scared me a lot because I had had a nightmare before I saw the movie. That was just like the movie where someone inconspicuous was following me, and no one else in my dream knew, but I knew in my soul that that person was slowly following me. So then when I saw the movie, I was just filled with a sense of dread and to the I’ve never watched it again. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (58:51)
You were like, This was made for me.
Sara (58:55)
This movie is out to get me. I like I can’t watch it. And you know, I think they’re making a sequel now and I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t know if I need to watch that. Yeah, it’s still following Sara through her house. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (59:03)
Is the sequel gonna be called Like It Still Follows or something like that? Still following, dot dot dot. ⁓ Yeah. So
there’s there’s so many different types of horror movies, so many different subgenres of horror. What would you say is your overall favorite within horror for like different types?
Sara (59:27)
so
I really love the classics. So, in terms like the Universal Monsters, if that’s a genre classics, ⁓ I also absolutely adore the era of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Vincent Price is one of my absolute favorites. And so, you know, the the Hammer era, the Roger Corman era with Vincent Price. Like, I watch those all the time. They’re like my comfort movies.
Mark Phillips (59:51)
Mine too, he’s he’s the best.
Sara (59:59)
movies.
⁓ so I’d say those are probably my favorite. In today’s, like in the in the more modern world, I’d say, yeah, what’s probably considered body horror, I love that. I love the exploration of that. That’s why I love Cronenberg and that’s why I love, you know, all these movies coming out now. but yeah, I’d which one? ⁓ yeah.
Mark Phillips (1:00:20)
Did you like tattoo of the Iron Man?
So bizarre.
⁓ man.
Sara (1:00:25)
So bizarre. So
crazy. Or like society is another one. ⁓ my goodness.
Mark Phillips (1:00:31)
Society’s amazing. I love Brian
Usner. Like his stuff and and again Stuart Gordon stuff, amazing.
Sara (1:00:39)
Yeah, just really yeah. But you know, I I enjoy a slasher every once in a while and sometimes it doesn’t need to be this deep think piece. Sometimes it’s fun to just put on something that’s kind of like mindless and cheesy or some sort of like creature feature. Horror’s just really fun.
Mark Phillips (1:00:56)
What do you think of the of the
remakes of the classics, like ⁓ when Jeffrey Rush played Vincent Price’s character and did ⁓ House on Haunted Hill? Did you like that?
Sara (1:01:08)
I love the original so much that it’s just not the same for me. Now, I’m not one of these people that’s gonna say that I don’t like remakes because some of my favorite horror movies are remakes. The Fly is a remake, The Blob is a remake, The Thing Yeah, the Thing is technically a remake. Like so I think we’ve seen a lot of really cool interpretations of these movies. ⁓ but maybe we’re getting a little bit carried away.
Mark Phillips (1:01:24)
Yeah, I think those are probably both better than the originals.
Sara (1:01:38)
the remakes. But ⁓ yeah. What do you think about remakes?
Mark Phillips (1:01:42)
Yep. ⁓
depends on the remake. I really liked House on Haunted Hill because it went an entirely different direction than the origin. It wasn’t nearly as hokey, obviously, because it’s not as old and stuff. And I I liked how dark and sinister it was, and I liked how they made the the doctor so twitchy and the way he moved so awkwardly. It was really creepy. And I thought Jeffrey Rush did a really great job channeling Vincent Price. Yeah. But but yeah, remakes in general.
Sara (1:01:50)
Yeah.
Of course.
Yeah, yeah.
He is a good he’s a good he is a good actor. Yeah. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (1:02:12)
They were all getting remade when I had the shop or at least rebooted. They had the new Texas Chainsaw that came out that had Jessica Beale and Eric Balfour in it. And they did just everything was getting rebooted. They did the Dawn of the Dead remake with zombies running Mach 1 around, and I’m like, what’s going on here? Like, this is not what zombies do. I love it now, but when it came out, I was vehemently against it. I was like, this should not be Dawn of the Dead, because
Sara (1:02:20)
Yeah.
⁓ yeah.
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (1:02:43)
This isn’t what Romero envisioned for the zombies. This is not what they’re about.
Sara (1:02:45)
Right. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. It’s I know what you mean. I saw that and I appreciated it for what it was as its own movie, but yeah, I just had this strong affinity towards Romero’s kind of like slow moving, but them still being extremely terrifying ⁓ creatures, especially with, you know, Night of the Living Dead being such a ⁓ my gosh, such a classic.
Mark Phillips (1:03:11)
And I think the remake kind of it seems like it missed the point because with Romero there was always like commentary on like losing our humanity and like becoming this shambling creature that’s just based on motorized instinct and you know and then Dawn of the Dead being all about consumerism and just being mindless zombies walking through the shopping mall even in death. And the the new ones, I mean, yeah, they’re great, but they ramp them up into like vicious killing machines.
Sara (1:03:39)
Yeah, and I think we got a little bit overloaded with zombies. And I think that happens with like lots of monsters, right? Like we’re we’re just pummeled with zombies and then we’re pummeled with vampires. And then we got a little bit tired and then they have to kind of like shift and be like, okay, like what’s going on in the world now? How do we kind of like make it a little bit different? And they keep finding ways, you know, they keep finding ways to grab our attention, which is neat. So
Mark Phillips (1:04:05)
There is
a lot of zombie stuff out there and I think we’ve reached the point of saturation where it’s like, no more zombie stuff, we’re zombied out, we we need to do different things.
Sara (1:04:12)
Mm
hmm. Yeah, so I’m I think
You know, last year was such a banner year for horror where we had so many big movies. You know, Sinners was incredible. That was Vampires, but it was ⁓ it was a twist. Or, you know, we had Weapons, which was a witch a witchy type movie, but that was a little bit of a different telling. we have, you know, twenty-eight years later type movies coming back again. So it’s it’s really cool to see the era ⁓ that we’re in now where horror is becoming a lot more mainstream. It’s finally being recognized.
Mark Phillips (1:04:26)
Right.
Sara (1:04:48)
⁓ you know, not that I really care about award shows, but for the people involved in making those movies to actually be acknowledged for their work. And I think I’m biased, but I think some of the best acting ever done on film has been in horror movies, and they’ve been ignored for all of time. So the fact that they’re saying, Hey, this person actually did a good job. Like we’re living in that era, finally. ⁓
Mark Phillips (1:05:05)
Yeah.
Especially for the special effects guys. I mean, the stuff that they
do and the things that they bring to movies, like my favorite, the heads blowing off scenes in movies.
Sara (1:05:18)
Yes.
⁓
do you have a favorite like
Mark Phillips (1:05:27)
The the favorite head blowing off scene for me, I have a couple. The two that come to mind. I have ⁓ Maniac, when he jumps up on the hood of the car and Savini is in the car and he gets his head blown off through the windshield. When I rented that on VHS, we just kept rewinding it over and over and over and watching it on repeat. We’re like, look at his head explodes through the whole car. This is amazing. And then the second one, even more horrific because of the
Sara (1:05:42)
Yeah.
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (1:05:56)
The victim, Lucio Folci’s the beyond when that little redhead girl gets her head blown off and you’re just like, I can’t believe they just blew the head off a little kid. Like that was just like, ⁓ my god. Yeah. What about you? What’s your fave?
Sara (1:06:00)
my gosh. Wild. Yeah. Yeah.
What a crazy movie. Yeah. they went there. yes, they sure did.
Well, you’re probably not surprised, but it’s scanners. I I I I love that. I just a like just
Mark Phillips (1:06:25)
The one that became the gif of them sitting at the news desk and the news anchor just his head, ⁓ it’s so good.
Sara (1:06:28)
Yeah. I have such a bad headache. Yeah, yeah.
I I love it so much. It’s one where yeah, you could just like watch it bit by bit and just so good every time.
Mark Phillips (1:06:40)
Yeah,
those special effects are amazing. That’s that’s the stuff that really needs to come back in force ’cause that those just those segments alone make the movies and that’s what everybody talks about. And it’s how they get recommended and passed around and stuff.
Sara (1:06:53)
Yeah. And I think we were talking because I just watched The Deadly Spawn and it was like there was something so satisfying about just, you know, watching this like a puppeteered critter just like slowly peel the skin off this skull and it’s just like, whoa, like the people involved in making it is just so much better than any sort of modern movie where yeah, it looks more realistic, but you’re just you’re almost numb to it because you’re like, I could be watching a video game right now. It could be watching anything that’s not, you know, somebody didn’t build
that skull to try to get that blood like texture and like look and color and skin all like exact, you know?
Mark Phillips (1:07:30)
Yeah, yeah. The Deadly Spawn is awesome. It’s that’s that’s another one
that I gotta track down and get back on Blu-ray or DVD wherever it’s available. Cause I had it in the store and loved it but sold it. I sold lots of movies though. Yeah, yeah. I I sold off all my collections and stuff because it’s just it’s kind of what you do when when you sell the business or you close down, you sell off a lot of stuff. But ⁓ yeah, there’s always time to build it all back up again as we go.
Sara (1:07:39)
no.
You have a lot of you have a lot of building back up to do.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Sure.
Mark Phillips (1:08:01)
I I have one final question to ask
you. ⁓ I saw on your Instagram yesterday you posted that you went to see the Iron Maiden documentary. Dylan actually went to see it yesterday too and was texting me about it. Yeah. So he he didn’t put on an eddy mask and pose for photos. So that had me laughing so hard when I saw that. I’m like, that rules. Did you wear that mask to the movie? No.
Sara (1:08:08)
Yes. Yes, I did. ⁓ okay.
I was by myself too, which is really funny. I was like, I’m doing
No, no, you can
like barely see because it’s got like these almost like glass eyes. So you kind of just like have these like little slits. I’m like, I need to see this movie. but yeah, ⁓ very limited showings. It was only showing yesterday, so I like literally canceled all plans to just go to it and then playing one thing tomorrow. So I was like, I need to go see this. it it wasn’t like for someone that’s a like a really big fan, you’re probably not gonna like have your mind blown by any of the facts or like stories or anything.
Mark Phillips (1:08:31)
Yeah.
Sara (1:08:58)
like that but it was honestly an emotional roller coaster watching them as like kids all the way to today. It was really amazing.
Mark Phillips (1:09:07)
So it was like the whole history of the band essentially?
Sara (1:09:09)
Yeah.
Yeah. So it was a really good mix of ⁓ old because they took so much footage, right? Like, you know, you always see like the guys in the band like filming everything, like all through the decades, right? Pictures, whatever. And it started at the very beginning of their roots in the UK. And then it kind of ⁓ now they’re breaking outside of England and now they’re America and then my goodness, they’re actually looking at going to Europe and then but it was all voiceovers of the guys.
So it wasn’t like they’re sitting down now with the interview. And then it was a equal mix of that and just fans talking. So fans being like, you know, this is why, you know, I love them, or this is why ⁓ I was at this show, or like I saw them back in the eighties. I was there in Rio, like that sort of thing. And that’s what made it just feel so like you just like feel one with like all of the fans and just like all the things they went through as a band with different
you know, members or illnesses or whatever, I was like, my goodness.
Mark Phillips (1:10:13)
Yeah, there’s
been quite a few of them come and gone now and some of them like Paul Diano and stuff dying, right? And a few of them.
Sara (1:10:20)
Hull,
yeah, when they asked him to leave, ⁓ when Bruce left and they brought in Blaze for a bit, and then when Bruce came back, Bruce’s illness, ⁓ now their drummer, ⁓ he he left. I think he retired last year. So yeah, there’s been lots of changes throughout the years. ⁓ but they’re still they’re still out there touring.
Mark Phillips (1:10:37)
Yeah.
I think they’re the only metal
band that I can think of that have three guitar players and plus the bass.
Sara (1:10:45)
Yeah they
Yeah, they talked about that when they went up to three and they’re like, how’s this gonna work? And they’re like, you know what? They’re just a band that always focused on making the music but also just doing whatever for the fans. So absolutely grueling tours, back to back years, touring the world. And you know, they’re not spring chickens anymore. And it’s just absolutely incredible ⁓ of what they do. And you know, they weren’t one of those bands that were like
you know, sleeping with everyone, doing every drug, that sort of thing. They were like, if you’re not serious, like Steve Harris was just like, this is serious shit. Like you’re in this and we’re writing music and we’re touring or else it’s not gonna work. ⁓ and so the fact that they hung on like, you know, mainly a lot of the originals for so long is just like so cool.
Mark Phillips (1:11:36)
I wonder if Steve Harris’s daughter Lauren Harris is still in a band and touring.
Sara (1:11:40)
⁓
yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know. He’s such a he’s such a genius, that guy.
Mark Phillips (1:11:46)
I saw her opening for ⁓ they might have been opening for Maiden actually when I went to see them years ago. But the cool thing was is that Richie Faulkner was a guitarist for her band before he went to Priest. And he’s one of my fave dudes as well. So like having seeing him and like and then seeing him with Priest, I’m like, man, his his stock has really gone up. He’s he’s a legendary guy now, being the priest guitarist. One of them anyway.
Sara (1:11:50)
⁓ cool. Cool.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah,
that’s awesome. Yeah, I mean I saw they’re already ⁓ I don’t know if it’s a 4K, but it’s some sort of like DVD release that they’re doing of it. So at least everybody will get to see it soon. But it was fun. It was like me and like mainly just like older dads, like in their sixties being like, Yeah. But ⁓ yeah, I don’t know. I just I got into them in high school and then just like never really looked back. So ⁓ yeah, it was about
Mark Phillips (1:12:29)
Ha ha ha.
What’s your favorite
maiden?
Sara (1:12:41)
Favorite song? my goodness. ⁓ I really like Ancient Mariner. I really like ⁓ Dance of Death, ⁓ Wicker Man, I don’t know, Number of the Beast. I can’t pick. They’re so good. They’re so good.
Mark Phillips (1:12:54)
Those are solid picks. Those are goodrists. Yeah, I think Rhyme of the Ancient
Mariner and ⁓ Hallowed Be Thy Name would be my and maybe Ace is high probably be my three favorite ones.
Sara (1:13:05)
Yeah, yeah, just I love the storytelling, I love the history. They were just I think that’s what pulled me in, aside from like the music. It was just, these lyrics are like very different for a metal band.
Mark Phillips (1:13:17)
And they put on a
hell of a show too.
Sara (1:13:19)
my goodness. And you know, the last time I saw them was after Bruce had recovered from cancer. And you know, everyone’s like, is he still gonna sound the same? Is he still gonna be running around? And the man has more energy than I had even like twenty years ago. Like incredible. And of course, like the the big Eddie that they bring out and just all of it is just epic.
Mark Phillips (1:13:40)
One of my favorite songs ever is Machine Head’s cover of Hallowed Be Thy Name. Fantastic. So good. Yeah. All right. Well, I think that that wraps it up for us and brings us to all the questions and the talk. We’ve gone over time by about 15 minutes, but that’s okay. I’ll I’ll ⁓ go through it and and check stuff out. Yeah. Yeah.
Sara (1:13:45)
I’ve heard that. So good. So good.
Thanks. Yeah. No.
Sounds good. Well thank you. This was fun. Lots of
fun topics. Mm hmm. Awesome.
Mark Phillips (1:14:07)
Yeah, thank you so much for joining us. And it was a pleasure to talk to you again. And ⁓ yeah,
we’ll keep in touch and have a nice weekend, Sara. All right, take care. Bye.
Sara (1:14:13)
Cool. Thanks, Mark. Bye.
