The Omen

0:00 Lee Hey evening ladies and gentlemen, Lee here for Welcome to Horror.

0:03 Lee Just wanted to give you a bit of information about this evening's episode.

0:07 Lee It may well come across as a little bit disjointed.

0:10 Lee The reason for that is that we've actually been struck by the curse of The Omen.

0:15 Lee We've been recording separately for a year now, as our regular listeners are aware, due to COVID primarily, but before that for a few months due to time constraints.

0:26 Lee We've had no problems with our recording in that time, but this episode, my internet refused to stay up for longer than about 15 minutes at a time.

0:35 Lee And on top of that, the third-party online software that we use to record the episode, and we have been for the last six or seven episodes I believe.

0:44 Lee also just completely gave up on us.

0:47 Lee It booted us out three times and it also switched itself off at one point and didn't let us know that it wasn't recording.

0:55 Lee So as a result, the episode is a bit of a hodgepodge of different parts that we've had kind of glued together.

1:02 Lee We didn't want to go back and completely redo the episode because it always feels a bit staged if you try and redo an episode word for word or verbatim.

1:12 Lee So instead, we've just tried to put this together as best we can.

1:15 Lee We hope it doesn't affect your enjoyment of the episode.

1:18 Lee And thanks very much for listening.

2:23 Lee Good evening and welcome to Horror.

2:25 Lee I'm Lee.

2:26 Chris I'm Chris.

2:27 Adam I'm Adam.

2:28 Lee And we are here for episode 103, I believe, if I'm keeping count correctly, of Welcome to Horror Podcast.

2:37 Adam Yep.

2:37 Chris We are racking them up.

2:39 Lee We certainly are.

2:40 Lee And this evening we are covering a one of the classics, most well-known, I think, of kind of

2:48 Lee Not quite contemporary, but of that, when we were growing up, it was certainly one of the kind of big five.

2:54 Chris It was in line with The Exorcist for me at the time.

2:59 Lee Yeah.

3:00 Chris It seemed like one of the big

3:02 Adam They're often made in the same breath.

3:05 Lee Yeah.

3:06 Lee I think because of the religious connotation.

3:08 Chris I was going to say, yeah.

3:10 Adam And talk about that.

3:11 Lee And creepy kids.

3:13 Adam Yeah.

3:14 Lee Kids are always creepy.

3:16 Lee Um.

3:17 Lee So a quick bit of news before we kick off.

3:20 Lee Some good news that I'm sure you guys will be as pleased to hear as I was.

3:24 Lee Last weekend I was messaging on Instagram with Kim from The Oblong Babysitter.

3:33 Adam Oh, yeah.

3:34 Lee And found out despite the fact they've been on hiatus for a year, they've actually been recording episodes all the way through lockdown.

3:43 Adam Okay.

3:44 Lee So they are

3:45 Adam Oh, yeah.

3:45 Lee Sorry?

3:46 Adam So would you a bundle then?

3:48 Lee Yes.

3:49 Lee Yes.

3:50 Adam Nice.

3:50 Lee So they've they've got a load ready and waiting and they're going to start in the new year and start rolling those out.

3:56 Lee So I thought this I thought I'd let people know, anybody who hasn't listened to The Oblong Babysitter, it's two girls from the UK covering things they watched when they were kids effectively.

4:06 Lee It's two sisters, so they grew up in the same house and watched the same stuff.

4:09 Lee And a lot of it is things that we watch and have touched on, Tales of the Unexpected, Ghost Watch, they did a two-part Nigel Kneale.

4:19 Lee Yeah, so they cover a lot of the same stuff as us.

4:22 Lee So add them into your list and look out for them coming back next year.

4:26 Adam Yeah.

4:27 Adam No, they're always they're always worth a listen.

4:28 Adam They also started doing their Disney one, didn't they?

4:31 Lee Yes.

4:32 Lee Yes.

4:32 Adam So that was which was good as well.

4:35 Adam So.

4:36 Lee Yes.

4:37 Lee Absolutely, I'm very looking forward to it.

4:39 Lee They were going to I think the last one they were going to release before they sort of disappeared for a while was they were going to do the Hammer House of Horror TV show.

4:46 Adam Oh, yes.

4:47 Adam Yeah.

4:47 Lee Which I absolutely love, so I was really looking forward to that.

4:50 Lee So yeah.

4:51 Lee No pressure, girls, I've only been waiting for it for a year.

4:54 Lee So I'm sure I won't have built up expectations too much, isn't that right?

4:57 Lee Um.

5:00 Lee Um.

5:00 Lee So on that note.

5:01 Lee Chris.

5:02 Lee What have you been watching in the last seven days?

5:05 Chris I have been watching.

5:07 Chris Oh, so, excuse me, I've just got to return some videotapes.

5:10 Chris And and feed a stray cat into an ATM machine.

5:16 Adam They fell down then.

5:18 Chris I'm assuming by the laughter you do know what I'm talking about.

5:22 Lee Yeah.

5:22 Adam Yeah.

5:23 Lee Absolutely.

5:24 Chris I I didn't doubt that you would.

5:26 Chris But it's it's funny, I think I had mentioned before that this was the first DVD that I ever bought.

5:34 Chris And I think.

5:35 Adam Yeah.

5:36 Chris Yeah, and I think I I owned this and one other one, I can't actually remember what it was, and that was it, just two for ages.

5:43 Chris I didn't have any more.

5:45 Chris So I must have watched this so many times.

5:48 Chris Um.

5:49 Lee For anyone who doesn't know, Chris, do you want to let them know what it was?

5:53 Chris I'm sure everybody listening knows, but it's American Psycho.

5:58 Chris And I I really liked it.

6:01 Chris But I do now realize that I absolutely mixed up Christian Bale with Patrick Bateman as in I could not view Christian Bale as not being him.

6:12 Chris At all.

6:13 Chris And and that that really put me off and I didn't watch any of his Batman films like for ages.

6:21 Chris And the only reason I watched one was when I realized it was Christopher Nolan that had, I don't know if he wrote it but directed it.

6:29 Chris Hm.

6:30 Chris Um, yeah, but so.

6:35 Chris Yeah, it was just so hard not to picture him.

6:38 Chris But I I think he did a great job in this.

6:40 Chris I do really like him throughout.

6:43 Adam That's probably the point.

6:46 Adam Is that you couldn't separate the two because he is just brilliant in that.

6:50 Adam Yeah.

6:50 Adam But if you think about it, it's also a pretty good training for certainly playing Bruce Wayne.

6:57 Chris Hm.

6:57 Chris Yeah.

6:58 Adam Of, you know, a rich nutter, specifically.

7:03 Adam So, yeah.

7:05 Adam But I mean it's no, it's a fantastic.

7:07 Adam Fantastic film that is.

7:09 Adam I think, me and Claire watched it not that long ago.

7:14 Chris Oh, yeah.

7:14 Adam Um, and it was like Claire's first time and she really just really enjoyed it.

7:19 Adam And it is so fucking funny.

7:24 Chris Yeah.

7:25 Adam It's just.

7:26 Adam Yeah.

7:27 Lee It is basically a black comedy, isn't it, really, about a, about a, you know, a sociopath serial killer.

7:33 Chris Yeah.

7:34 Chris Yeah, he's sent into.

7:36 Adam About just about an arsehole.

7:39 Adam I think I think this is one of those again, it's one of those things where loads of people certainly like the novel like the Bret Easton Ellis novel.

7:44 Adam Loads of people kind of associated him with Patrick Bateman.

7:48 Chris Hm.

7:48 Adam So and it was like, it is possible to write about someone and not think like them.

7:53 Lee You know.

7:56 Adam So, but, um.

7:57 Adam Yeah, I think it again, that was like a lot of flack went his way where people it's like, no, I think it is meant to be the character, not necessarily him.

8:04 Lee He doesn't he doesn't think any of this behavior is acceptable.

8:08 Adam Yeah.

8:09 Adam He's not, you know, if anything, he's probably trying to highlight how it's not.

8:14 Adam So, you know.

8:18 Adam Yeah, no, terrific film.

8:20 Lee Anything else, Chris?

8:23 Chris Finished Brave New World.

8:25 Chris Which I really liked and actually the last episode was moving into Horroresque.

8:33 Chris It it just it descends into, you know, chaos.

8:37 Adam There is there is that sort of element to it, yeah.

8:40 Chris Yeah.

8:40 Chris And it was, you know, like I think it suddenly shocked Shelley a little bit.

8:46 Chris Um, but it was all right.

8:48 Chris But I did look it up afterwards and I I saw I think anybody that had read the novel and really liked the novel probably wasn't so keen on this.

8:58 Chris Um, whereas not having read it, just having, you know, doing the concepts.

9:03 Chris I I thought there was a lot in it that they did touch on.

9:07 Chris Um, seems what upset people were all the orgy scenes.

9:12 Chris Which I didn't hate them.

9:15 Chris You know, I can handle an Orgy scene.

9:17 Chris But I I didn't I didn't think they were as overdone as some people thought.

9:23 Chris Like they were there and they were that side of it, they were, you know.

9:27 Adam Yeah.

9:28 Adam But that is I mean, I I wonder if it's people who are forgetting that again, going back to the book where it's like.

9:36 Adam You know, that the stuff's in there.

9:39 Chris Yeah.

9:40 Chris But most people would probably not.

9:43 Adam But people.

9:44 Chris Notice that so much.

9:45 Adam Do you know what I mean?

9:46 Chris It's not.

9:46 Chris When you see it live, like you notice it a lot more.

9:50 Adam There well, there is a difference, it's the difference, it's like well, it's the difference between reading.

9:53 Adam He shot him in the head to watching someone get shot in the head.

9:56 Adam You know, and there's probably hundreds of people who can read the book fine and then they watch the film, yeah.

10:00 Adam Bit much.

10:01 Adam What was in the fucking book, mate?

10:03 Chris Yeah.

10:04 Chris But yeah, no, you know, I thought it really touched on on everything.

10:08 Chris And and I liked the the cast as well.

10:10 Chris Um, yeah, I did enjoy it.

10:12 Chris So it seems like they're not continuing it though, apparently.

10:16 Adam They may not be if because I mean, I do I trust Grant Morrison, but I also know he would probably be aware of maybe they just want to do the adaption rather than drag it out.

10:30 Adam Because I know that's what a lot of people funny enough it was something that came up on Oblong Babysitter about um the Handmaid's Tale where in essence, the first series of The Handmaid's Tale was the book.

10:45 Adam With with an alteration to the ending.

10:48 Adam And then after that, they've kind of.

10:52 Chris I think the film did as well.

10:54 Adam Essentially, yeah, essentially made more story.

10:57 Chris Yeah.

10:58 Adam To the point where actually Margaret Atwood, who wrote the original, has released a sort of sequel book.

11:06 Chris Okay.

11:07 Adam Since but since the series has been on because I think she's one of the executive producers as well.

11:13 Adam So I mean, you know, it's not they've got the originator there certainly at least pitching in if not sort of devising the next bit.

11:20 Adam So it's it's as.

11:21 Adam It's as true as it can be, it's not like making up new show like Home Stories because, you know, Arthur Conan Doyle is not going to be able to help.

11:31 Chris Yeah.

11:33 Chris But I think yeah, the end of Brave New World, they left it as if it should carry on.

11:38 Chris There's quite a few questions and it looks like it's set up ready for another season.

11:42 Chris But.

11:45 Chris Yes.

11:45 Chris Well.

11:46 Lee Nice.

11:48 Lee Adam.

11:49 Lee What have you seen in the last week?

11:52 Adam Well, I finally managed to get my hands because they've brought out uh BFI brought out a Blu-ray.

12:00 Adam Um, of Tales from the Hood.

12:03 Lee Oh, yeah.

12:04 Adam Which I never saw the first time round.

12:10 Adam And it's fucking great.

12:11 Adam It's really fucking good.

12:14 Adam It's it's in that it's weirdly enough, it's basically it almost is the a similar premise to The Mortuary Collection.

12:21 Lee Hm.

12:22 Adam And, you know, because the wrap around story is this gang break into a funeral home because they've heard they've got some good drugs there.

12:32 Adam And, um.

12:34 Adam But yeah.

12:35 Adam And then you get the force you get the four stories.

12:39 Adam It's.

12:41 Adam Again, it's an anthology, so immediately I'm sold.

12:45 Adam But.

12:46 Adam It's very much in because it's sort of early 90s or mid 90s.

12:52 Adam It's very much in the same sort of mold as Creepshow, where it's that thing of, you know, like the stories are all like an EC Comics thing where it's like set up and punishment as it were.

13:00 Lee Yeah.

13:01 Adam You know, it's it's transgressions and stuff like that.

13:05 Adam And.

13:07 Adam You know, I mean, still absolutely fucking relevant.

13:10 Adam Because it's like you've got police corruption, political endemic racism and stuff like that.

13:15 Adam But.

13:17 Adam It's just genuinely a cracking good anthology film.

13:22 Adam It's well if you've not seen it, it's well worth a fucking watch.

13:26 Adam Um.

13:27 Adam So I and to the Blu-ray is actually.

13:31 Adam one and two.

13:34 Adam So I will be so I will be watching two because apparently two is it's the same creative team.

13:40 Adam So it's not just that thing of they've followed it, you know, someone else has followed on with the franchise.

13:44 Adam It's the same director and writer, like writer director.

13:48 Adam And, um.

13:49 Adam Yeah, no, I just it was just.

13:52 Adam Fucking great.

13:53 Adam And it's and it's that same sort of thing that you get with Creepshow where it's a it's funny as well as dark and sort of, you know.

14:07 Adam Um, but yeah, Tales from Tales from the Hood is.

14:13 Adam Just fucking great, I really enjoyed it.

14:15 Adam And it was just I'm looking, I'm definitely looking forward to watching the second one.

14:17 Adam The second one's got Keith David in it as well, so immediately I'm happy.

14:21 Lee Nice.

14:22 Adam Um.

14:23 Adam And, um.

14:26 Adam Yeah, I really, really recommend it because I think it's a good example.

14:30 Adam And another good, yeah, another good example of an anthology horror film.

14:34 Adam Claire was saying, are there many like that because I quite like them.

14:37 Adam And I was like, oh, you'd no idea.

14:40 Lee Someone's getting the Amicus box set for Christmas.

14:43 Adam That's the that's the flood gates opened.

14:46 Adam Especially because in the end I was like, oh, yeah, and there's that one, and there's that one, and then I sort of quietly thought, I'm going to Google horror anthology films.

14:54 Adam And I was going, oh, yeah, I forgot about that one, or that one's good, or yeah, and yeah, so.

14:58 Lee Um, the majority of the Amicus ones are all on YouTube.

15:03 Lee I mean, I'm sure you probably own them anyway.

15:06 Adam Um.

15:06 Adam I've got yeah, I've got them I think I've I think I've got most of them.

15:11 Adam Um, mostly on DVD as well, I think it was rather than I haven't upgraded anything, so.

15:17 Adam Yeah.

15:18 Adam But, um, yeah, I mean.

15:20 Adam This is if if again, it was like when Claire said, oh, I really like Vincent Price, you know, I'm like have you other movies of his, I have a few.

15:27 Adam So.

15:28 Lee So.

15:29 Adam You know, and similarly, you know, do you I like anthology films.

15:32 Adam Oh, you've really dug your own grave there, mate.

15:38 Lee Because.

15:39 Adam We can wallpaper us in them.

15:42 Lee Excellent.

15:44 Adam And that's all the weather.

15:46 Lee Excellent.

15:47 Lee Um, I have, as I said, I've been reading a lot during my furlo time.

15:54 Lee And I've had a week off from reading.

15:57 Lee So just to give you an idea of how much time I've spent reading, this is what I watched in the last seven days.

16:03 Lee Um.

16:04 Lee Following last week's episode, when we talked about Barbara Steele.

16:08 Lee I finally watched Piranha.

16:11 Adam That was the very original.

16:12 Lee Yeah, the Joe Dante one.

16:14 Lee My brother bought it for me for Christmas a few years ago on Blu-ray and I hadn't quite gotten around to watching it yet.

16:21 Lee Um.

16:22 Lee Yeah, and I finally watched it last weekend.

16:24 Lee It was good fun.

16:25 Adam It is.

16:26 Lee Um.

16:27 Lee I think it I think it's the perfect to be I know this is going to sound like I'm knocking it, I kind of am, but I'm not.

16:34 Lee Um, like as much as we go on about how films shouldn't be remade, this was a film that needed remaking.

16:40 Lee Because the plot was great.

16:41 Lee But it just needed to be done now that the effects are there and they can give it a bit more punch and a bit more pizzazz.

16:49 Lee So yeah, I think I I love Piranha 3D.

16:52 Lee Um, but yeah, I haven't got to watch the original Piranha.

16:54 Adam Oh.

16:55 Lee Yeah.

16:55 Lee I thought this was a perfect film to have remade for that reason, great concept and just needed needed to be done at a time when they could actually make it look more believable.

17:06 Adam I think yeah, but then I still think that that's the thing is that the 3D one did still keep the the sort of hokey fun.

17:15 Lee Yeah.

17:15 Adam Of it in that, yeah, the effects were improved, but it was still this is bloody silly.

17:22 Lee Yeah.

17:25 Adam It wasn't sort of like, you know, they didn't decided to do like Dark Knight Rises with it.

17:30 Lee Yeah.

17:30 Lee No, it didn't become very serious.

17:32 Lee It definitely.

17:33 Adam It's a gritty hard-edged version.

17:38 Lee Um, I also following last week's episode, as I promised I was going to do in the in the dying moments of last week's episode, I went and watched The Blood Beast Terror.

17:48 Adam Oh, yes.

17:49 Adam Yeah.

17:49 Lee I didn't watch it the next night, I didn't watch it that night, sorry, I waited and watched it the next night, because Lady Jennifer wanted to watch it.

17:55 Lee Um.

17:56 Lee I thought it was brilliant.

17:57 Lee She said it was a load of old crap and it was she was not not surprised that we'd never heard of it before.

18:01 Adam What is it she not like?

18:03 Lee So how have we both had such diametrically opposed ideas from the same film?

18:09 Lee Um.

18:10 Lee It's it's one of the.

18:11 Lee People say a lot about Hammer that it was done tongue in cheek and it was supposed to be funny and I disagree majority.

18:17 Lee Um, but this one was hard to take seriously.

18:22 Lee But I loved it.

18:23 Adam I think again, it's one of those things where to a certain extent, you're making a film about a weirmoth.

18:29 Lee Yeah.

18:30 Adam And that's yeah.

18:33 Lee It's a push.

18:34 Lee It is a push.

18:35 Adam It is a push.

18:37 Lee But yeah, I thought it was great.

18:38 Lee Totally campy and stupid, it looked beautiful.

18:42 Lee It was it had ludicrous bit.

18:45 Lee The bit when they're supposed to be in the Amazon and I was like that is the Thames Estuary.

18:49 Adam Yeah.

18:50 Lee It like it's just.

18:51 Lee It's this horrible gray day, but they've got two men, two big black men in grass skirts in a canoe going down this muddy, dirty river somewhere.

19:00 Adam Trying to get through its yeah.

19:01 Lee Yeah.

19:02 Adam And.

19:03 Adam Just a bloke with a butterfly net and then a red London bus goes past it.

19:09 Lee Yeah.

19:10 Adam Someone says, excuse me, do you know the way to Tooting? Someone, we're trying to film a fucking film here.

19:17 Lee Yeah, so.

19:18 Adam But it is it is it is an exceedingly silly fucking film, but yeah.

19:26 Adam And I mean, obviously, Peter Cushing's great in it.

19:30 Adam And.

19:31 Adam Oh, and obviously, you've now seen the bit with the butler arguing with the vulture.

19:36 Adam Which is just brilliant.

19:38 Lee How many times have I told you?

19:39 Lee It beat me.

19:40 Adam Yeah.

19:41 Lee You're poking him with a stick.

19:44 Adam Yeah.

19:45 Lee Oh, fantastic.

19:48 Lee Um, next one on the list was another recommend from you, Adam, you've been telling me about for ages, I finally got around to watching Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

19:56 Adam Oh, yes.

19:59 Lee Fucking hell, that's a good film.

20:01 Adam Yes.

20:02 Lee So it's on YouTube.

20:04 Lee Again.

20:04 Lee It's that's why.

20:05 Lee I watched Blood Beast Terror and on the side, all the stuff that's yet to come up, Kolchak was on there.

20:10 Lee I was like, well, Adam's been going on about that for ages.

20:13 Lee And it has got the dad from A Christmas Story, so I'm going to give it a go.

20:17 Lee Um.

20:18 Lee Oh, it was just brilliant, so, so good.

20:21 Adam Yeah.

20:22 Adam That's definitely one that I'm that's definitely one I'm showing to Claire.

20:25 Adam Because it's basically Columbo does The X-Files.

20:28 Lee Yeah.

20:29 Lee Totally.

20:30 Lee It's it's that beautiful 70s Vegas back when everything.

20:35 Lee Was like it was still all the old 70s signs before they dragged all them down and replaced them with all the big crazy shit we've got.

20:41 Lee Well, it was basically just signs with lots of lights.

20:44 Lee But they were big as a five-story building, it's just lunacy.

20:51 Adam I can't remember what it was I was watching, but there was something or I was listening to, I can't remember, but it was something where someone was saying that the trouble is with Vegas now is it's trying to be classy.

21:04 Lee Yeah.

21:04 Adam And it's like, no, that's not what people want from Vegas.

21:12 Adam You know, that their tourist board should be run by John Waters.

21:17 Lee Yeah, oh, yeah.

21:18 Lee Totally.

21:19 Adam Should say.

21:19 Adam He would he would get it.

21:22 Adam He he would know know what people want.

21:24 Adam The camp.

21:25 Adam Because it was like someone saying they went to the the what is it, Luxor or what, the pyramid one, and they said, oh no, it's not it's no longer a guide greets you dressed as Tutankhamun and and there's like stuff like mummies walking around or whatever like that.

21:38 Adam They've sort of like, oh no, now come on now, we're a serious business, it's classy, let's have a touch of class.

21:43 Adam No, don't.

21:44 Lee No.

21:45 Adam It was this was the reason people wanted the camp.

21:48 Lee Bobby will tell you when we were over there, we did like we went in a lot of the new hotels and stuff around where we were because we were in the Flamingo.

21:56 Lee And as you say, all that's been classed up at that end of the strip.

21:59 Lee But the best time we had was when we all walked all the way up to Circus Circus because that's not been touched since 1972, and it's just dirty and filthy and it still stinks of cigarette smoke.

22:14 Lee Um.

22:15 Lee Like, yeah, it's just looks tacky and terrible.

22:17 Lee And Slots of Fun was right next door, which is just, oh, it's yeah.

22:22 Lee It's it's the super tacky bit.

22:24 Lee So it's still there if you know where to find it.

22:27 Lee And boy, did we find it.

22:31 Lee So that was excellent.

22:33 Lee Um.

22:34 Lee In prep for today, I also went and watched, I was looking through David Warner's back catalog and discovered that he did a film for Cannon where they did Hansel and Gretel.

22:43 Adam Oh, I did not know that.

22:44 Adam What's it called?

22:45 Lee It's it's got too many songs in it.

22:47 Lee But the whole thing's on YouTube.

22:50 Lee Um.

22:51 Lee Yeah, and David Warner's brilliant in it.

22:52 Lee And the kids are pretty good, one of them turned into a long time actress in East Enders, is all I know her from from the 90s.

22:58 Adam All right.

22:59 Lee Um.

23:00 Lee Uh, yeah, and the witch is like the witch is pretty good, she looks like a little haggard old woman, but when she turns into the witch, she's got like big crazy hair and a stupidly big nose and it's just yeah, it was really good.

23:07 Lee I thought I really enjoyed it for a for a kid's thing.

23:11 Adam And was it not just Hansel and Gretel or?

23:13 Adam Is it just called Hansel and Gretel?

23:14 Lee Oh, right.

23:15 Lee It's just called Hansel and Gretel.

23:17 Lee But yeah, as I say, it was made by Cannon, so I was like, right, well, I need to watch that because it's going to be mental.

23:20 Adam Yeah.

23:21 Lee And I was not disappointed.

23:24 Lee So onto this evening's main event.

23:25 Lee Um.

23:26 Lee Chris, is this the first time that you've seen The Omen?

23:29 Chris Yes, it is.

23:29 Chris I had heard of it, I'd heard of it a lot at the time, similar to The Exorcist.

23:34 Chris Um, but I just thought.

23:36 Chris You know, it definitely sounds like something I would want to watch.

23:40 Chris But there's a lot of other films that come up and that just never quite came up.

23:44 Chris And it has now, thanks to Adam.

23:47 Lee Well done, Adam.

23:50 Adam I'm afraid that this is this it's certainly a few years back, certainly that would almost be de rigueur.

23:58 Adam It'd be like, oh, he's talking about fucking Omen again.

24:01 Lee Yeah.

24:03 Lee Do you know what I've got to admit, not wishing to be controversial.

24:09 Lee Um, but I think the reason it's taken us this long to to do this film.

24:13 Lee I don't much care for it.

24:16 Lee I thought it might be one that I maybe didn't remember enjoying so much.

24:19 Lee And when I watched it again, I'd enjoy it more, which seems to be something that happens quite frequently.

24:23 Lee Um.

24:25 Lee But no, I didn't I find this film a bit of a chore to get through, I'm not going to lie.

24:32 Lee And I don't know why.

24:32 Lee I don't know what it is about it.

24:34 Lee It's not badly paced.

24:36 Lee It's got a great script, it's got a fantastic cast, it's got a really good story, it's got all the elements I love, I just don't enjoy it.

24:43 Adam Maybe it's maybe there's just something there that's just not for yourself.

24:47 Lee Yeah.

24:48 Lee I don't I can't work it out.

24:51 Adam I mean, my.

24:53 Adam Um.

24:54 Adam To I mean, I I've always said that I prefer it to The Exorcist.

24:57 Adam And I mean this is the first time this is the first time I've seen it.

25:02 Adam In cuz actually that was something that came up is it's the first time I've seen it certainly since the second series of Brian Pern.

25:09 Adam Uh because uh at the end of every series of Brian Pern, if you don't know Brian Pern was um Simon Day from The Fast Show did a.

25:16 Adam spoof about basically he was Peter Gabriel from Genesis.

25:20 Adam And it was a spoof on that.

25:21 Adam And then at the end of every series, actual Peter Gabriel would turn up and kill him.

25:26 Lee And the first series, they basically recreated a bit from the last ever Sylvester McCoy episode of Doctor Who.

25:28 Adam Got that in a heartbeat, knew that one.

25:34 Adam Third series, they recreated the end of the Longer Friday.

25:36 Adam Again, you know, I was perfectly on it.

25:39 Adam But yeah, they um on the second series and I was like, I I know this, but I can't think what it is, and it was the the wife getting thrown out the hospital, falling off the balcony.

25:47 Chris I did like it.

25:48 Chris And as it progressed, I liked it more and more as it became really when you saw it from, sorry, what's the father's name?

26:03 Adam Robert Thorne.

26:04 Chris Robert.

26:05 Chris Yeah, as you really see it from his perspective and like he's figuring out what's going on, but obviously, you know, doesn't want to face it.

26:12 Chris And then.

26:13 Chris His his wife is pregnant again, she thinks she doesn't want another child, it's like, that's starting to get quite complicated.

26:18 Chris You know, and it's still got the devil as a child to deal with.

26:22 Chris You know, yeah, as I saw it through his eyes more and more.

26:25 Lee Now, I wondered as the only one here who isn't a parent, I always wondered if that is a an element of why it works, possibly more for people with kids, is like there must be times when you've not slept enough and the kid is just driving and you're just like, is this really evil?

26:39 Chris He can think, yeah.

26:41 Lee Yeah.

26:42 Lee Like you say, could you could you almost believe that it coming that.

26:46 Chris I think that's interesting.

26:48 Chris But you know, I haven't seen it, but Lord of the Flies where children.

26:52 Lee Yeah.

26:53 Chris Are in charge.

26:54 Chris Like, isn't it that.

26:55 Chris Essentially, humans can easily descend into evil behavior and it is the systems and it's the elders that are continuing to keep things.

27:03 Chris You know, working well and all of us being the best we can be.

27:05 Chris But, you know, it's it's so easy.

27:06 Adam But you want.

27:07 Chris To tip to descend into terror.

27:09 Adam See, I think that's the thing that interests me with like apocalyptic stuff.

27:14 Adam And things and things like that, he's and maybe it just speaks to the fact that I'm not the jolliest of people that I quite like those films where it's like, yeah, that's what people would do.

27:22 Adam They're all cunts.

27:24 Adam You know.

27:24 Adam They they would expose babies and fuck each other over, that's what they do, because people are essentially come.

27:31 Adam Um.

27:32 Adam And I think, yeah.

27:34 Adam But equally, Lee, I'll be honest and I hope I hope Claire doesn't mind me saying this, but.

27:46 Adam That bit where he is the the where Damien is pinging balls up and down the pool table.

27:53 Lee Oh, he clearly wants to throttle him.

27:55 Adam And then and then he comes in, Damien, daddy, daddy, daddy and he's being all cute and I think, yeah, that's that's happened a few.

28:06 Adam I think I come in and suddenly it's like, oh, look at our child.

28:11 Adam Was not.

28:12 Adam Yeah, if I if I have to listen to him for another second I might scream.

28:17 Adam So, yeah.

28:18 Adam I think though, though weird.

28:24 Adam And I think that is something that because I I haven't watched it since being a parent.

28:29 Adam Now that I'm a parent.

28:30 Adam Two things.

28:32 Adam One.

28:34 Adam I do feel that I'm glad he doesn't kill the child at the end.

28:41 Adam On the basis that I think that it's it is almost like the thing.

28:44 Adam No, you know, if if he is the Antichrist, kill him when he's old enough to know.

28:49 Chris Yeah.

28:50 Adam Or whatever like that.

28:51 Adam But you know.

28:52 Adam I just.

28:53 Adam So, but also.

28:54 Adam The trouble is, is now.

28:55 Adam I find Damien so fucking cute.

28:58 Lee I I well soft.

29:01 Adam And I find.

29:02 Adam Yeah.

29:03 Adam And I think.

29:04 Adam There is when he waves at the Rottweiler, I think that is adorable.

29:09 Adam But.

29:10 Adam Equally, I just think, oh no, he's a fucking nightmare child from most of it.

29:15 Adam But there are just bits where I'm like, I I felt sorry for him when the animals were running away.

29:20 Adam And he didn't even seem to really.

29:22 Adam I was like, look, if you know, when when you go to a zoo or a Safari.

29:26 Adam You know, if you see animals acting like that.

29:29 Adam Can can I just say though.

29:31 Adam Everyone's down on baboons, right?

29:34 Adam Baboons were going to fuck him up.

29:36 Lee Yeah, and then you're kissing licking.

29:40 Adam Yeah.

29:41 Adam You know, fucking pussy fucking arseholes that just.

29:45 Chris Do you know what they did to make the animals all act like that?

29:48 Adam Well.

29:49 Adam Do you want do you want the story of the.

29:51 Chris Were were any animals harmed in the making of this?

29:54 Adam No.

29:54 Adam No.

29:54 Adam But I'm I'm going to get I'll get into it because there is a curse of The Omen.

30:01 Lee Oh, yeah.

30:02 Chris Yeah.

30:03 Adam But.

30:04 Adam Yeah, to get the effect, basically, they went to the.

30:07 Adam They went to the zoo or the Safari Park and one of the trainers there came up with the thing of, well, if we take one of, basically, they didn't feed the baboons for they didn't get their dinner the night before, so they were already arsy.

30:28 Adam And then they took a baby from the group and put it and put it in the car.

30:35 Lee Oh.

30:36 Adam And.

30:36 Adam Apparently, the baboons didn't give a fuck.

30:38 Lee Yeah.

30:39 Adam They were just like, yeah, fuck it, you're taking the kid.

30:42 Adam Sod off, you know.

30:43 Lee It always brings him back.

30:44 Lee We about.

30:45 Adam So then they rethought it, tranq the alpha male and put him in the car.

30:52 Lee Oh.

30:54 Adam And they went fucking insane.

30:59 Adam And apparently, like Lee Remick like that's just that's just her panicking because because it looked like they were going to just break into the car and rip them to shreds.

31:09 Chris Yeah.

31:10 Adam Yeah.

31:10 Adam And I'm not sure I'm not sure I didn't I couldn't find it and I didn't get chance to because there's a very good making of on the box set.

31:17 Adam I've got, I've got the box set of the trilogy.

31:19 Adam There's a very good making of on there and I'm sure that they said that.

31:24 Adam While they were filming it, the the alpha male started coming round as well, like so it was like, right, so we've got a car covered in baboons trying to rip us to pieces and this big bastard sort of like slowly groggily, what.

31:39 Adam What's that, where am I?

31:42 Adam Who are you?

31:44 Adam And yeah, so and like and I might be misreporting this, but I think it actually I think it grabbed Lee Remick's hair like as a reflex thing or something like that, you know, didn't wake up fully like they got out of there.

31:59 Adam But again.

32:00 Adam Yeah.

32:01 Adam It was like that was that is what they did to that.

32:03 Adam I don't know what they did to.

32:04 Adam Rass, I think they just said, boom, they ran off.

32:07 Adam So.

32:08 Adam Yeah.

32:08 Adam I mean, come on, they're not going to help you.

32:12 Adam Bastards.

32:14 Adam But there is there is a lot of.

32:18 Adam Weirdly enough though, and this is something that I think is very much again, maybe a testament to it, I don't know, but like the director Richard Donner.

32:29 Adam Um, for example, when the bowl of goldfish drops.

32:34 Adam That was sardines painted orange.

32:37 Lee Oh.

32:38 Adam And his exact words were, well, I'm not killing a goldfish for the sake of a fucking film.

32:43 Lee Part of me did think that, I was like, oh, it was the 70s, I wonder if they killed those gold.

32:48 Adam No.

32:48 Adam No.

32:50 Adam But the weird thing is is that it's also because of like with The Exorcist where we went through what a fucking nutcase William Friedkin was.

33:00 Lee Yeah.

33:00 Adam This is actually quite the reverse in that Richard Donner was actually, I mean, yeah, there's I mean the baboon thing is.

33:06 Adam Shaky at best.

33:08 Lee Yeah.

33:09 Adam But, you know, at least he wasn't like firing off guns or giving people permanent injuries.

33:14 Adam So.

33:15 Adam Because that that because I mean that when she falls off the balcony, they basically glued a floor to a wall.

33:22 Adam And she rolled back towards it like sort of just standing up.

33:25 Lee Yeah.

33:27 Adam Because apparently that was again, I think everyone who was on the set was kind of like, you're not going to do what they did on The Exorcist, are you? No, I genuinely, I think it was quite a I think it was like not not not a secret, but like a sort of open secret within Hollywood that it was like, well, you know, she got a back injury and like, you know, this happened and that happened and basically it was all William Friedkin's fault.

33:39 Adam Um.

33:40 Lee Her fall from that balcony looks good.

33:40 Lee I've got to say.

33:41 Adam I mean.

33:42 Lee Yeah.

33:42 Lee I don't I don't think there's anything in this that doesn't hold up.

33:46 Lee I think that's the thing.

33:46 Lee As I say.

33:48 Lee In spite of the fact I'm not a huge fan of it, it's just like, I in my head, when we sat down to watch it, I was like, oh, it's going to be a chore.

33:52 Lee Because I remember it taking like being slow and taking ages to get going.

34:00 Lee The nanny jumping off the balcony, it's like 13 minutes in it does, it really goes at it.

34:06 Adam That's Jack Palance's daughter by the way.

34:10 Lee Oh, was it really?

34:11 Adam Yeah, because I think like Richard Donner had just done a TV show.

34:14 Adam That Jack Palance was in and he said, I'm I'm filming in England, and it was like, oh, my daughter lives in England, you want to give her a job.

34:18 Adam And.

34:19 Adam So yeah, that's why that's why she's in it, she said she's the it's all for you, Damien.

34:25 Adam Which incidentally.

34:26 Adam I've heard former guest Dean say far too often.

34:30 Lee Yeah.

34:31 Lee He says it a lot.

34:32 Adam Yeah, it's just one that we we've always attached off.

34:35 Chris Yeah.

34:36 Adam We've latched off.

34:36 Chris Yeah, it will it will mean something now.

34:37 Adam I wonder if it's that domestic element that is the part that drags for you as well.

34:42 Adam Like you were saying because obviously there is the thing where it's it's.

34:46 Adam Their relationship being eroded and damaged and essentially it's like.

34:53 Adam Yeah, but.

34:55 Adam When when does he get his eyes picked out by Ravens?

34:58 Adam When is it.

34:58 Lee And I think the problem is, as well.

34:59 Lee Because it starts so strong, like before the actual film even starts.

35:02 Lee That opening sequence where it's just the the title cards and the backdrop and the music.

35:07 Lee Like, it's massive and it's ominous and it's it's really scary.

35:11 Lee And then all he says.

35:12 Lee And now politics and like, oh, God, no.

35:17 Lee Um.

35:18 Lee And as you say, it it has got that constant ominous feeling.

35:21 Lee It it it is it is kind of laced through it.

35:22 Lee This film is in no way a dud.

35:26 Lee I just and that's why I don't understand what it is about it.

35:29 Lee I just don't.

35:30 Lee I mean it's David Warner, I shouldn't need anything else to keep me entertained.

35:32 Adam Yeah.

35:32 Adam No, I mean.

35:33 Adam David Warner's fan.

35:36 Adam I think actually that's one of the things that I think is such because you've got like.

35:40 Adam Um, Gregory Peck and Lee Remick are fucking brilliant, there's no question of that and they're they're always really fucking good, I mean Gregory Peck's, you know, an Oscar winner.

35:51 Adam It's like, you know.

35:52 Adam They they are shit hot at what they do.

35:54 Adam But the smartest thing for me anyway is I feel is they went, right, we're going to film it in England and it's like, great.

36:02 Adam So now you can surround them with hundreds of character actors who can act their fucking arse off.

36:06 Lee Yeah.

36:07 Adam And you get like David Warner and Patrick Troughton and Leo McKern and, you know, Martin Benson and all all these people in there.

36:15 Adam Who are, you know, it's none of them have a starring part, you know, nearest equivalent is David Warner, but they are all sort of like they're just shit hot.

36:22 Adam They.

36:22 Adam It's just really.

36:24 Adam And it's that.

36:25 Adam Again, it's that whole companion thing of.

36:26 Adam Selling the whole thing, isn't it?

36:28 Adam So.

36:30 Adam I think Lee might have frozen.

36:32 Chris Yeah.

36:32 Adam Yes.

36:33 Adam But.

36:34 Adam I mean.

36:34 Adam Obviously you've got.

36:36 Adam There's the whole sort of.

36:38 Adam Because the poem as they say in it.

36:40 Adam It is actually made up for the film.

36:41 Adam That's not the Book of Revelation.

36:44 Adam Um, but apparently.

36:45 Adam Lots of people now kind of.

36:46 Adam Attribute it to it.

36:47 Adam And everything else.

36:47 Adam Like that.

36:49 Adam But I remember.

36:50 Adam I think there was that thing as well is I got heavily into a lot of apocalyptic theory.

36:54 Adam Or like.

36:55 Adam Stuff like because there's the thing about in the Book of Revelation, one of the things that is the sort of the beginning of the end was they mentioned what is it, the third angel sounded his trumpet and a great star blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and the springs of water, the name of the star is wormwood, a third of the waters turned bitter and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.

37:16 Adam And do you know what the Ukrainian word for wormwood is?

37:21 Adam Chernobyl.

37:22 Lee Oh.

37:22 Lee Ah.

37:24 Adam And it's like.

37:24 Adam So something with the power of a star brought to Earth and it poisoned the waters in the Earth.

37:29 Lee Yeah.

37:30 Adam And again, this was.

37:31 Adam There was there was also an.

37:32 Adam Erroneous thing that was going around because obviously the the whole thing with the 666 in scripture, it's causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave to be marked on the right hand or the forehead so that no one can buy or sell unless they had unless he has the mark.

37:48 Adam That is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

37:51 Adam This calls for wisdom, let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man and the number is 666.

37:56 Adam And there was an erroneous thing going around that, you know, barcodes are sort of divided into.

38:01 Lee I remember this.

38:01 Lee Yeah.

38:01 Adam And the main markers were supposedly sixes, and obviously you cannot buy and sell without the mark.

38:08 Adam Yeah.

38:08 Adam Without barcodes, but apparently that's absolute bullshit.

38:12 Adam So.

38:12 Adam But again.

38:13 Adam You know, it was all stuff that was it was quite quite interesting at the time.

38:16 Adam If you if you're stoned and you've got fuck all better to worry about, so, you know.

38:26 Adam Turn that one around.

38:31 Adam But and and obviously six is opposition to is in opposition to God.

38:34 Adam Because seven is God's number.

38:37 Adam Um, and six because it's only it's just a short fall, so it's imperfect.

38:45 Adam Uh, I am going to have to quote here where it's uh heavenly number is seven, seven days of creation, seven seals, seven, seven broads for seven brothers.

38:56 Adam Um.

38:56 Adam And and equally the seven daggers of Megiddo.

39:04 Lee Yeah.

39:04 Adam You know.

39:05 Adam So it's so I I think that that was another thing that had got me.

39:09 Adam You know, really got me into the film.

39:11 Adam Because I think it was a lot of that scripture stuff, and I love the bits where David Warner's going through.

39:19 Adam You know, and it's the eternal see that could be they say that's the world of politics.

39:24 Adam You know.

39:25 Adam And he's just.

39:27 Adam Everyone's just shit anyway and I love I love Lee McKern.

39:30 Adam Lee McKern's not even credited in the film.

39:31 Lee Lee McKern.

39:32 Adam He he of Rumpole of the Bailey.

39:34 Adam You know, he turns up right at the end.

39:35 Adam As.

39:36 Adam Bugenhaagen.

39:37 Lee Yes.

39:37 Adam Which.

39:38 Adam Interestingly enough is also a name that I've heard was in one of Garth Merenghi's films.

39:41 Adam I think it was like the War of the Wasps or whatever.

39:43 Adam And there was a called Bohagen.

39:45 Adam And I am convinced now it's because of The Omen.

39:49 Adam Um.

39:50 Adam But he's just great again in that sort of tiny role.

39:55 Adam And yeah, actually that's that's something.

39:57 Adam Because obviously he's in um because he's in um.

40:04 Adam Bugger it.

40:05 Adam Obviously he's Rumpole of the Bailey, but he's also in X: The Unknown.

40:08 Adam Which was like Hammer's follow up to the Quatermass Experiment.

40:10 Lee That's right.

40:11 Lee Yeah.

40:11 Adam It's fucking great in that, but also he's in help like The Beatles film.

40:15 Adam He's in Marriott and The Avenger.

40:16 Adam Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother.

40:18 Adam Um, but I really think people genuinely, genuinely great film is The Day the Earth Caught Fire.

40:22 Adam And he plays a journalist in it.

40:23 Adam And it's basically the world heats up and they don't have any idea what's going on.

40:29 Adam And it's just so well done.

40:33 Adam And it's just.

40:34 Adam It's so gripping.

40:36 Adam It's just a very, yeah, really, really worth really worth checking out.

40:46 Lee Cool.

40:47 Adam Obviously.

40:47 Adam And obviously, I'm going to have to say, what why did they not listen to Patrick Troughton?

40:51 Adam He is the second doctor, he knows what he's he knows his shit.

40:54 Lee Oh, I didn't know he was the doctor.

40:55 Adam Oh, yeah, he's he was the he was the second one, he was after William Hartnell, and he is fucking brilliant.

41:01 Adam Yeah, he's one of Claire's favorites.

41:03 Adam He's definitely one of my favorites.

41:04 Adam And we're also quite fortunate because um one of his ideas when he got the part is because he was worried about being type cast is he he did think about blacking up, and so fortunately no one agreed with him on that one.

41:18 Adam Because otherwise they'd be like, yeah, you can't watch any of these.

41:21 Adam Yeah, three three years of Doctor Who's gone missing, but we're not looking for it, actually.

41:24 Adam For some reason.

41:27 Adam But obviously, like he's in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, Jason and the Argonauts, Box of Delights, um, and um, but he does the rounds in Hammer as well because he's in The Gorgon, he's in Scars of Dracula, Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell.

41:45 Adam We'll have to do The Gorgon at some point because again that was like, you know, when we were like, we haven't done a headless horseman, we've definitely not done a Gorgon.

41:48 Lee No, definitely not.

41:50 Adam But and and.

41:51 Adam Actually, and this is something that I think is probably the one there's one factor in this film that I think does.

41:57 Adam I think.

41:57 Adam The producers.

41:58 Adam May have been right.

42:01 Adam But basically, Billie Whitelaw's character, Mrs. Baylock, is the most sinister fucking person to ever appear on screen.

42:09 Lee Yeah.

42:10 Adam And the fact that and as Claire pointed out.

42:13 Adam You've already had a very intense Irishman priest turn up at your office, possibly blackmailing you, or at least acting like a loony, and then another Irish person turns up acting so fucking sinister.

42:27 Adam And you realize that neither of you booked her.

42:29 Lee Yeah.

42:29 Adam And even though they go running when she then says, oh, yeah, the agency sent me, oh, that'll be it.

42:35 Adam No.

42:35 Lee Yeah.

42:36 Adam Well.

42:36 Adam I don't know, the way she's playing it, you know, might up end your thing about it being a series of coincidences, but apparently Richard Donner just thought she was so fucking good.

42:48 Adam Because.

42:48 Adam At one point they were going to cut the character.

42:50 Adam And she was he was like, no, I think she was.

42:52 Chris Yeah, she is iconic.

42:52 Adam What she's doing.

42:56 Adam Yeah.

42:56 Adam She is.

42:56 Adam I mean, Billie Whitelaw's a fucking great actress anyway.

42:58 Adam But she is particularly disturbing.

43:01 Chris It stays with you.

43:02 Adam Yeah, because it's it's weird because obviously.

43:08 Adam She's the nearest you get to an actual villain within it.

43:15 Adam Because I mean, you only find out that the priest, the priest at the start, Mark Benson, you only find out he's a villain in passing later on.

43:22 Adam And again.

43:22 Adam He's another one where it's like, oh, he nearly died so he goes back to try and find God because of what's happened to which all of it seems like a 1970s plan with the master in Doctor Who.

43:32 Adam Be like, I'm a doctor.

43:33 Adam I've bought these aliens to Earth.

43:34 Adam Yeah, but don't you realize that these aliens are going to kill you as well.

43:38 Adam Oh, fuck, yeah.

43:39 Adam Oh, I'll go and get rid of them then.

43:40 Adam And.

43:40 Adam You know.

43:41 Adam All of you stupid bastards, if you just hadn't raped a jackal and made it.

43:47 Adam Give birth to the Antichrist and killed the the senator's kid and, you know.

43:52 Adam You could have all just happily gone off.