Zombie Book Club

Warm Bodies (THE MOVIE) with special guest Wicked Words Book Club | Zombie Book Club Ep 117

• Zombie Book Club • Season 3 • Episode 117

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Can a film adaptation ever capture the quiet ache of its source? In this crossover with Wicked Words Book Club, we dissect Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies and its sleek, sanitized movie version, tracing the emotional, ideological, and tonal shifts that split page and screen. We celebrate the bits that land, like visual metaphors of zombified liminality and clever sight gags, and lament the simplifications that undercut weight: interchangeable bonies, narrative shortcuts, and a romance that skips its own gritty labor.

Did the adaptation elevate or erode the zombie genre? Tune in and decide with us.



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Wicked Words Book Club



ZOMBIE BOOK CLUB GOFUNDME: https://www.gofundme.com/f/keep-zombie-book-club-alive




Zombie Book Club Links

SPEAKER_04:

So we're 17 minutes in.

SPEAKER_05:

It's a little bit late. I'm only nine minutes in, but I think we should start and we'll just pick it up somewhere randomly in there wherever we like.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I mean, do you guys want to get started by telling us a little bit about you and Zombie Book Club and what you guys do if this is the first time people are tuning in?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. First of all, if this is the first time you're tuning in and you've not read the book, Warm Bodies, shame on you. Go listen to part one. Pardon, Sarah? Spoilers ahead. Yes.

SPEAKER_04:

Does this mean we've started the episode? Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, that's my first start as I'm scolding the audience. But yes, what's Zombie Book Club, Dan?

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, you're asking me. Boy. I wish I was prepared for that question. Zombie Book Club is a podcast that we made where we talk about zombie books and we talk to zombie authors about their books. And also sometimes we watch movies. Um, we probably watched more movies than we've read books, if we're being honest.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. So it's like zombie film club with books.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. It's and it's specifically around the zombie apocalypse genre, we like to break it down um into you know, we we like to compare it to our current world um and draw parallels from it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. My brother's uh visiting right now, and he's so instantly was like, Oh, I bet you love watching the zombie films because it helps you escape from reality. And I was like, no. This is what makes me think about our reality, but in a much more fun version where there's zombies.

SPEAKER_05:

He does not understand the core tenet of zombie lore.

SPEAKER_04:

No. The the zombie apocalypse is so much better than the apocalypse we're facing right now.

SPEAKER_02:

Then you would you say then apocalypse now? Oh.

SPEAKER_04:

Ooh. Yikes.

SPEAKER_01:

I would choose a zombie apocalypse over Apocalypse Now. Oh, but it's such a good movie. Oh, it's a great movie. I don't want to be in it.

SPEAKER_04:

You know what's great about Apocalypse Now is that the Vietnam War ends.

SPEAKER_03:

That's true.

SPEAKER_04:

And I know that it ends because we live in the future. But the current apocalypse that we're living in and the zombie apocalypse, uh, we don't know when that ends or if it does. And maybe by the time it ends, we're all dead.

SPEAKER_00:

Or zombie lifting.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. So silver line.

SPEAKER_05:

Welcome. Welcome. And in that vein, though, I did based on last week's pod, I did actually go back and listen to your con plan eight eight. Is it 8888? Is that yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

I went back and listened to that episode this week. And in this whole idea of living through the zombie apocalypse and surviving, that episode was one hilarious and two, insanely educational. I adored it. I thought it was great. But you know, just like you guys are saying, that mashup you kind of do of like reality with zombies and the frightening nature of the hellscape we're currently living in and the challenges and all that kind of stuff. But um just really, really funny, really great, really educational. And I didn't realize I needed to be afraid of them, but evil magic chicken zombies.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_05:

I mean, just nightmare fuel people.

SPEAKER_01:

So, Greg, do you have an impersonation? Like, could you give us your best evil magic chicken zombie clock right now?

SPEAKER_05:

That sounds like the real that's that's yeah. I mean, boy, if I had known it was coming, I would have spent some time in the bathroom preparing. Smoked pack of marble.

SPEAKER_02:

What are you doing? Are you smoking cigarettes?

SPEAKER_05:

Gargled a bottle of jackets. His method, okay? Sean Penn method over here.

SPEAKER_03:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_05:

I love it.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh uh fun fact about the evil magic chicken zombies. That that episode has spawned not only hundreds of impressions of people clucking like zombie chickens, but also um a song and a movie trailer.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Um I think episode 100 has both at the end.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, at the very, very end. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, there was during that episode, you guys also threatened merch around the evil magic chicken zombies and your categorization of zombies. And um there was also uh a uh discussion of a rule 34 coloring book, I think. So I gotta listen to this episode again. Yeah, I don't know. You should listen to those guys over at the Zombie Book Club podcast. Their shit's pretty tight. It's fun. I gotta do that.

SPEAKER_01:

We don't follow through on the rule 34 coloring book. We do have a t-shirt. It's all right. I would like to redo it. I drew it, I did draw an evil magic chicken.

SPEAKER_05:

I think it's amazing, personally. Uh, tell us about Wicked Words. Well, we we're gonna try to do this better than we did last week because we epically fumbled this last week when you asked us. So uh we are Wicked Words. We are a horror media obsessed podcast. Uh, and for each series of our podcast, we read a horror or horror genre adjacent book. So, like sci-fi thriller, supernatural, what have you. Um, and then we pair that book reading with a movie, either the adaptation of the book or something that is in the same vein, like when we read Clown in a Cornfield, but then watched Killer Clowns from Outer Space, which was almost like a one-to-one comparison of the books.

SPEAKER_02:

No, it really wasn't extremely uh poor choice.

SPEAKER_05:

But it was fun, not one of our better laid plans. I mean, hey, it was really fun, it was fun, and people really dug Killer Clowns from Outer Space a lot more than we did.

SPEAKER_02:

So it's a cult classic, and I remember from high school poorly. I was like, oh my god, no, this is such a good movie. Yeah, it's a cult classic for a reason. Like, trust me. I was like, they're very self-aware of how bad it is. It's it's bad on purpose, and then you watch and you're like, this is it's really bad.

SPEAKER_01:

That on purpose is the best kind of like the film. I actually just added this to listen to later.

SPEAKER_04:

I have a bit of a story about Killer Clowns from Outer Space. It's short though.

SPEAKER_03:

Who doesn't go on?

SPEAKER_04:

So when I saw Killer Clowns from Outer Space, I was very, very young. I was, I believe, visiting my biological father, which is something that only happened once every couple of years. And it was on in maybe my aunt and uncle's house, if I remember right. Anyways, I was a bit young, so I I hadn't really figured out the world yet. So I see these clowns, I see these tents that are also spaceships, I think.

SPEAKER_03:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04:

And all this weird shit happening. And I'm just like, is this real? Is this actually happening? And I was very concerned. I I knew it was a movie, but I I also felt like movies were always like uh based like based on a true story was like something that always was like at the beginning of a movie that I was known to watch. Like this is based on a true story, or it was a cartoon and I knew it was fake.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_04:

But this wasn't a cartoon and it had things that were familiar to me, like clowns.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_04:

And I'm just like horrible that this is happening to people.

SPEAKER_05:

Is that very destabilizing to you? I mean, at that at that point, it was.

SPEAKER_02:

It was like, come on, son. But you know, it clearly one shot to shape your mind for the next two years.

SPEAKER_04:

And I don't even think that anybody was watching it. It was just on, and I just wandered into the room and I'm just like, I don't like what's happening here.

SPEAKER_05:

Why is there a 10-minute shower scene with a woman who just can't seem to get herself clean?

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. I definitely I'm gonna just listen to your episode and then decide if I want to watch it. Like it follows a new one. No. I've only listened to mostly either your author interviews or your book uh movie reviews because I'm afraid to like listen to a book I haven't read yet.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Um but I gotta catch up now so that I can be on to the next one. Um who is next in your lineup?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, well, that is the secret surprise. Okay. But we will tell you after we're done recording if you'd like to know. I would love to know because I'll need more time to read because I'm slow. Well, yeah, you'll have plenty of time to read this line.

SPEAKER_05:

We have a little hiatus coming.

SPEAKER_02:

It'll be a little hiatus, but yeah, you'll have uh until the end of November to read this one. Oh, that okay, I gotta get on it.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm slow. But I do have a more serious question for you. It's the zombie apocalypse, and you only get one book and one movie to entertain you for the rest of your days, and you both have to agree.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh no, that's not gonna work. That won't work.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, you gotta figure it out real quick. Oh shit.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, I'll I'll choose the book side. I the first book I thought of, you're gonna be like, absolutely not, is The Odyssey. Oh my god, there.

SPEAKER_00:

I love the Odyssey.

SPEAKER_02:

Just some light reading. But no, listen, listen, listen. If this is the only book you have to read for eternity, one, the Odyssey has a ton of different stories in it. Yeah, there's a ton of like little stories made up. And two, it's so dense, you have plenty of time to read and think about it and go, wait a minute, okay, let's go back. What does Homer mean by this? Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay. I'll give you the Odyssey, which means carte blanche. I now get to pick the movie and you have no choice.

SPEAKER_04:

Great. Is it the made-for-tv version of the Odyssey?

SPEAKER_02:

Is it oh brother, where art thou?

SPEAKER_05:

Oh that that actually would be a uh you know a decent soundtrack to go with.

SPEAKER_02:

That's based on the Odyssey.

SPEAKER_05:

But no, I I think just off the cuff, I'm gonna make you pay, and I'm gonna go with the Chevy Chase classic Fletch, just to really kind of I've never seen that. Yep, exactly. And you will hate it.

SPEAKER_04:

I've also never seen it.

SPEAKER_01:

Why will Sarah hate it?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, it's just it's like old, dumb humor.

SPEAKER_02:

Most people I love Chevy Chase.

SPEAKER_05:

Very funny.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_05:

I really find him hilarious. But uh yeah. I don't know. But that's that's I mean, I don't know how to like I could pick like my National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. Never heard of it. Uh it's a very old black and white movie.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh Orson Wells and I love Orson Wells. Joseph Cotton are in it. That would actually be my number one choice, honestly. My number two choice is Chinatown with Jack Nichols. Those are my two favorite movies.

SPEAKER_02:

Never seen that either.

SPEAKER_04:

And you're not gonna pick either of those. You're gonna instead pick Fletch because you know it'll upset Sarah.

SPEAKER_05:

Fletch was a punitive choice. I'm not gonna lie. Punitive. I would pick the third man, also because there's a banging soundtrack all done by a zither. What's a zither? Look it up. You can find like if you just look up third man zither on YouTube, you'll get the soundtrack and everything for the movie.

SPEAKER_02:

But I just want to know what the zither is.

SPEAKER_05:

It's a it's a stringed instrument.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, strange. Zither with a Zed?

SPEAKER_05:

Yes, with a Zed.

SPEAKER_02:

It is. It's a stringed instrument characterized by a flat, shallow soundbox with multiple strings stretched horizontally across its surface, played with fingers, or a plectrum.

SPEAKER_01:

None of those words meant anything to me. Right?

unknown:

Plectrum.

SPEAKER_01:

It was made in 1949?

SPEAKER_05:

Very old. Yep. Okay. Yep.

SPEAKER_04:

Some people I thought you meant the zither. I'm like, that's a very recent instrument.

SPEAKER_02:

Actually, it was a popular folk instrument in the 19th century.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm like still reading Wikipedia.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh boy. Anyway, should we do the dating game?

SPEAKER_04:

Let's do the dating game.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm scared. I'm dying to know what the questions are for this.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, are you ready for this?

SPEAKER_04:

Me too. Because, you know, um, full disclosure, uh, I I am completely and utterly destroyed from the last several months of nonstop paving and shit that I do. Um, so my brain has not been available. So I don't even know what the questions are.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, very good. Thank you, Greg, for pulling this through. Then I'm going to assume you did some of the heavy lifting.

SPEAKER_05:

That's all right. Dan, do you have the questions or do you want me to just write a lift? I have the questions. Okay. Okay, great.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

So um why don't we start here? Because this the first question will apply for both Leah and Sarah.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. And who's answering first? Leah?

SPEAKER_05:

I will ask Leah. Let's do that. Yeah. So um Dan and Dan and I have each put together our own death row meals.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, no, you got this idea from me. Oh, I did not.

SPEAKER_05:

I had this idea before. Um, we have selected, I don't know how many people how many items you selected. I I have four. Okay. We have selected four items for this menu. How many, Leah, of Dan's items can you name?

SPEAKER_01:

First of all, the world's most epic sandwich. Like staring at Dan to be like, is sandwich on the list. I don't think it is. Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm you you there's four items. Okay. You get more points if you guess more.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'm starting with my starting with a sandwich.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, what do you mean by epic sandwich?

SPEAKER_05:

Is this like Joey Tribiani kind of thing? What does Joey love? Sandwiches.

SPEAKER_01:

Beef good. Seems good. Basically, yes, because if I say, hey, honey, I'm gonna make you a sandwich, his eyes turn into hearts and they like beat out of his eyeballs at me. He loves a sandwich. Nothing's fancy, really. By epic, I mean like lettuce, tomato, onion, some sub sauce, some foes and meat, tomatoes, and a really good bun. Yeah. Um death row meal. I don't know why this is coming to me, and I could be totally wrong, but I think you'd want one last pizza nug. And I'm not sure if that counts as one thing you're doing. I don't know what that is either. Pizza nug uh is a tradition that started in 2020 when we first moved to Vermont, and uh it was our first year with Dan working constantly, and I was also working constantly because I had a hell job. So we invented frozen pizza and vegan chicken nuggets as an emergency meal.

SPEAKER_04:

It's kind of like pizza and wings if you think about it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So I'm gonna count that as one just in case I'm wrong, because then maybe I'll get half a point. Uh then there would be ice cream, Ben and Jerry's, probably Oh fuck, I forget the one that you like. That's it's not caramel sutra anymore lately. It was something else now. Damn it. I'm just gonna say Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I forget the That's fair. That's fair.

SPEAKER_05:

That's fair.

SPEAKER_01:

If I could see it, I would know, but I'm bad with these things. And then the fourth one, burger and fries. Wow. Am I totally off?

SPEAKER_04:

So here's the thing is that I should have put sandwich on this list. It went. Oh no. I should have put Ben and Jerry's ice cream on this, but I didn't because I was literally just hungry and only thinking of main course food.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

However, um, here's my list pizza nuggies.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, pizza nugs.

SPEAKER_04:

Cheeseburger. And I spelled it C-H-E-Z-B-R-G-R.

SPEAKER_02:

Of course you did.

SPEAKER_04:

And fries. Okay. So you inadvertently, with your combo meal choices, actually guessed all four.

SPEAKER_00:

I deliberately stacked it.

SPEAKER_04:

While I'll guessing too that we're not on there but should have been.

SPEAKER_01:

So do I get four points?

SPEAKER_02:

Or do I get I think you nailed it?

SPEAKER_05:

It sounds like a four-point winner to me.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you, Greg. Thank you, Sarah.

SPEAKER_05:

Sarah, you can also feel free to use a strategy to up your odds.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, so now I'll ask. Okay. S Sarah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes.

SPEAKER_04:

Um, Greg has put together his death row meal. I don't know what he did to get there. Uh, but they're going they're putting him to death. Okay. Greg has selected four items on his menu. Um, how many of these items can you name?

SPEAKER_02:

Are there more than four, and you're just saying there's four possible points?

SPEAKER_05:

No, there's four items.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, four items.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay, well there are no restrictions, by the way.

SPEAKER_02:

He certainly would have he would have a medium rare steak. No doubt, perfectly cooked by like a famous chef that I couldn't name because I don't know the famous chefs, but Greg does.

SPEAKER_05:

Just give me the hot plate in the cell, I'll do it. Sky Fieri.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, probably crazy. Yeah, probably what's he called? Crazy town. Flavortown.

SPEAKER_05:

Flavortown, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

No, it definitely would be a medium mirror steak. Whiskey would be somewhere on there if that was permitted.

SPEAKER_04:

Is that a food?

SPEAKER_02:

It's not, but I'm gonna I think he would go with whiskey. And um I better do some combo things just in case.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, if you combo these other two items, they're gonna oh, they might actually be genius. Go for it. Um that's something for our next dinner party.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, so there would definitely be a medium rare steak. There'd definitely be whiskey. Um, and then I think he would have some kind of an indulgence that he normally wouldn't have as often, but maybe just wants to have it for his final meal. So it'd probably be chicken wings.

SPEAKER_05:

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, and then um, you know what? Maybe I will go with the ice cream idea that he loves um caramel, salted caramel anything. It'd be salted caramel something, but let's say salted caramel ice cream.

SPEAKER_05:

Well done. Well done. You're very, very close. So salted caramel anything is actually literally what I wrote.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh my gosh!

SPEAKER_05:

Salted caramel anything for dessert.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh so there's a point there.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

Medium rare steak. Of course. Dead on. Um, your I did go back and forth on my beverage of choice because I knew you would go there as well. I went with like a fish bowl filled with petite serrah just to go with the steak. But whiskey was the other unreal that you didn't choose whiskey. It's one or the other, but petits,rah. But a but a jess.

SPEAKER_02:

Specifically from a certain vineyard, probably.

SPEAKER_05:

No, I didn't get that specific, but I something like that. Not until they said, Pet Serah. Um, you were you were very close on the indulgence. I went with a warm soft pretzel.

SPEAKER_02:

I should have known that.

SPEAKER_05:

You know, I love you know I love a good warm soft pretzel. Yes, okay. Yeah, so very, very close, but you got two out of four.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, two out of four, I'll take.

SPEAKER_05:

Yes. Okay, great.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, but sidebar. I just have to say that as a vegan, the one thing that will make my mouth still salivate when someone says it is a medium rare steak. I'm sure. It's okay. It's like the one thing I'm like, oh my god, that sounds so good. Okay. Oh, crazy. Yeah, sorry. No, it's okay. I would just like watch you eat it and vicariously enjoy it in a really fucked up way.

SPEAKER_02:

I have to think it's like, put your pants on, Leah. Why are you we're back to 34? What's the next question?

SPEAKER_05:

Um Leah, what zombie icon does Dan say he identifies with the most?

SPEAKER_01:

Zombie icon? Is this can I ask clarification questions? Is a zombie? An actual zombie. What? This is an actual zombie, not like a person in a zombie. Like it's not like a character in a zombie apocalypse, it's an actual zombie.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh really I don't I think it's more like the way we were kind of phrasing it was uh like based on horror icons in the genre and things like that.

SPEAKER_01:

So George Romero, George A. Romero.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

That's that's it, that's your answer.

SPEAKER_01:

What why is there more? It's a zombie icon. Well, like, okay.

SPEAKER_04:

I guess I I mean George Romero is an icon. It's not what I picked.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh I went with a character. Do you want to try again? Because like you you were asking a clarifying question, but then you answered it. Oh, okay. So um I was I'm thinking of a character in zombie apocalyptic fiction.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel like I should know this and I don't. I like I want to it's not the zombie pocus pocus, is it? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04:

Somebody could be a zombie.

SPEAKER_01:

Dan's having an alarm problem.

SPEAKER_04:

My my pants are telling me things. Icon is just a word for somebody in the zombie apocalypse genre.

SPEAKER_01:

Um I'm going to say the wrong answer just for fun, because I don't know. Okay. Brad Pitt in World War Z.

SPEAKER_00:

Because I know you would never choose the.

SPEAKER_04:

I actually thought about saying that just because it'd be so wrong and it'd be funny. Yeah. Probably the same reason that you picked it. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Because I and you would never pick that.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, which I feel like deserves partial credit. Um, but I actually this is something that I've uh that I've told you before is that I feel like I identify with um a combination of both Eugene and Abraham from The Walking Dead.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, see if you'd said The Walking Dead, that's like too like you know when you said to us that it's too much to ask any horror movie the best ones to watch. I needed The Walking Dead for context. Yeah. But okay, yes, Eugene and Abraham for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Um I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Two of the characters I like the least, so I'm not sure what that says are.

SPEAKER_04:

But a combination of them. Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

Maybe that's I think I remember I don't think I remember who they are. Is Eugene the old guy?

SPEAKER_01:

No, Eugene is the one who is kind of like a he's autistic. He's a coward, he makes bullets, he turns uh and he's like with Negan for a while, and he has got a really bad mullet. Okay. And then Abraham is the like, whoo, I'm an army guy, and he's got red hair. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm I'm like a combo of those where I'm just like, I'm gonna tell you endlessly about all the stuff that I know about trains. Um, but also when a zombie walks up, I'm gonna punch it directly between the eyes and it'll just fall over dead.

SPEAKER_01:

The difference is that Abraham was dumb.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So I see where the U.S. I'm uh, you know, uh there's a very difficult question. Thank you. Thank you for there. Abraham upfront Eugene in the back.

SPEAKER_01:

But I'm curious, you're I'm assuming the next question for Sarah is not the same question.

SPEAKER_04:

Right it's it's similar. Um, so Sarah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

What what horror icon? It's an even broader question. What horror icon does Greg say he identifies with the most?

SPEAKER_02:

Hannibal lector.

SPEAKER_05:

It would be character-based, yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Hannibal Ector.

SPEAKER_05:

100%.

SPEAKER_02:

Final answer, I knew it.

SPEAKER_05:

But you have to pick the right Hannibal.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, obviously, the the Mads never been Hannibal.

SPEAKER_01:

The TV series is mad? Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Can you say more about what you relate with? I love the character, but I'm so curious.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh Greg. I'll let Sarah fill in the blanks for me.

SPEAKER_02:

Greg, just because I feel like that was a gimme, and now I feel like I have to try harder because the question was so hard for Leah. But the reason that Greg relates the most specifically to the Mads Nicholson Hannibal actor is that he's very smart, but not smug. He's very um and he's very refined, he's classy, and he loves cooking, and he's very passionate about what he's passionate about, and that is Greg to a T.

SPEAKER_05:

And he loves classical music.

SPEAKER_02:

And he loves classical music.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. That leads me to the third question perfectly.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

This is this is gonna be tough, I think.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay. Sarah. Okay. What surprising passion does Greg have that you only learned about after you moved in with him?

unknown:

What?

SPEAKER_02:

What did I only learn about after a surprising passion? Yeah, weird.

SPEAKER_05:

There's things that you learn, right? When you're dating somebody, and then you move in and you're like, I didn't know you were passionate about uh stuff.

SPEAKER_02:

No, just get in.

SPEAKER_05:

Right, exactly. That's not my answer.

SPEAKER_02:

That's fine if you're into that.

SPEAKER_05:

Um that's that, then that's that.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, what what is a surprising passion that I only learned after I moved in with you? Because it was like a private thing.

SPEAKER_05:

Not necessarily private, but it's like there's all those things that you don't really know about somebody until you live with them and then you share space and you're like, oh, holy shit, I didn't realize you were that crazy.

SPEAKER_02:

Surprising passion.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Well, you you did say that he uh he has a passion for cutting people up and then cooking them, right? Right. Yeah, and you can't do that. Which might be how I ended up on death row. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

That I knew before.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

God, I guess um, I mean, this is a really impossible question. I don't know what passion you have. I I could jokingly say that you now have a passion for our cat, but I know that that's the wrong answer. Uh maybe it's like mowing the lawn and like taking care of the lawn. I don't know. Well, now that we have a lawn, I am very passionate about making sure we're yeah, your lawn was scorched earth when we were just dating.

SPEAKER_05:

So yeah, we've had to really nurse the lawn back then.

SPEAKER_02:

I really don't know. I have no idea what the answer could be.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, it surprised both you and the cat. And it is my my love and my over exuberance for Michigan football.

SPEAKER_02:

No, I knew that before I moved in. Did you? Yes, because you didn't want to watch football with my parents.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh.

SPEAKER_02:

Remember? They're Michigan State fans.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh fuck.

SPEAKER_02:

And you you when we first started dating, you were like, no, I don't want to. And I was like, oh no, they're cool, they're gonna be fine. Like, everyone just drinks a bunch, and you were like, No, I'm the one who wouldn't be cool. I would not be able to watch it. What would you do? He gets very angry.

SPEAKER_05:

I get very animated. I'll choose a different A-word than angry.

SPEAKER_02:

He's he's like Marvin the Martian. He's like, I'm very angry. He gets very angry because he just and he has definitely scared our cat a few times. Wow where she just bolts away because he'll yell at the screen.

SPEAKER_05:

I yell, I shout, I clap my hands. Yeah. Uh I get the guy thing.

SPEAKER_01:

You get you let those feelings out.

SPEAKER_02:

My dad was the same way that he'd just go, fucking come on, come on, and you just get all pissed and you'd be like, Dad, can you relax? And he'd be like, Yeah, no, I'm done fine, Dolly. It's okay.

SPEAKER_04:

You know, that's why I never got into sports, because uh a lot of people in my life were way into sports, and if their sports teams didn't do good, they would be pissed off for a year. And I'm like, I don't want to spend a year of my life being mad that something didn't go right on one specific occasion.

SPEAKER_05:

Older me has definitely tempered quite a bit, like like 20-something me. It could like a loss in Michigan football back then would have ruined an entire weekend for me. Like, and that's sad to say. Um, I don't let it do that anymore. It's like, all right, when the game's over, the game's over. I can't, I'm not gonna carry it with me any further. But it doesn't mean that for those three hours I can't act the fool. Oh no, he yeah, he gets at a level of 15 or 20.

SPEAKER_01:

I do think that like uh sports and like loving a team is a really it's like one of the few socially acceptable outlets for man to man, for man to have big emotion. And I'm sure you're an emotionally in touch man, Greg, but I do feel like that's a common theme that I see. Like dudes love to let it out when they're watching their favorite game. Or not favorite game.

SPEAKER_02:

It's interesting psychologically the way that people react to things that are like because the way your brain works when you're watching it, the parts of your brain that are like lighting up are the same as though you were doing it yourself. That's why you get so like intense about like catch it! Why didn't you just catch that? And it's funny because I would have caught it. Yeah, exactly. It's like you're sitting on the couch throwing Send me in, coach, I'll catch the ball.

SPEAKER_05:

Exactly. But I'm gonna run 80 yards without getting winded.

SPEAKER_02:

But it's because of the way that our brain works that we literally are like monkey see, monkey do, and our mere neurons are reacting to what we're watching. And then when there's failure in what we're watching with the people that we're identifying with, we feel like it's a personal failure on our part. So if you think about it, like the younger version of you wouldn't handle a loss for Michigan football as well as the current version of you does. Well, I'm sure the younger version of you wouldn't handle a personal or what's perceived to be a personal failure as well as the current version of you would handle what's perceived to be a personal failure. It's all a psychological fun game.

SPEAKER_05:

Psychology corner with Sarah.

SPEAKER_01:

That was quite fascinating. Now I know why I love HGTV so much, actually. Why I found such satisfaction.

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. Because you watch and you're like, I could do that. Or it's why you're on Pinterest for four hours and you're like, I'm gonna redo this entire room, and then you're not you're not doing it. But for those four hours, yeah, you have completely redecorated the room in your mind. That's amazing.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

So, same question, Leah, for you. Yeah. I I don't know what time frame we're talking here, though, Dan. Were we talking um after you guys moved in together or after you're gonna be able to get the first time? Yeah, which time?

SPEAKER_00:

The first time or the second time?

SPEAKER_04:

I you know, I only thought about the second time, but I guess I guess I feel like it would have there, it would have been a more you know, if you want to let Do you want to give two answers, first time and second time? Because I have my answer for the first time.

SPEAKER_01:

What do you mean first time that I didn't know before I moved in with you? My first thought is that leaving dishes in the sink, but that's not a passion. That's just a thing that I discovered. It's not something that broke out of the way. Which you're very good at now, I have to give you your flowers. It was bad, y'all.

SPEAKER_04:

I've I've battled too many, too many hordes of things scurrying towards me to do that now.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, okay. I have to say this memory out loud so I can actually answer the question, which is when we first moved in together and you were like, it's okay, we don't need to clean the dishes tonight. We can do it tomorrow. And I was like, all right. And then I had to go into the bathroom, into the bathroom, the kitchen in the middle of the night for God knows what reason. I turned the light on and it was like a fucking horde, speaking of zombies, of cockroaches in Georgia. It was the most disturbing thing I've noticed.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah. Cockroaches in the south are not a joke. We're really not like a big apartment building, so it's not a thing you can control very well, other than not leaving the dishes out.

SPEAKER_04:

And they can fly.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, horrifying. Um, okay. Passion. That's awful. Passion I learned about this. Is a really hard question.

SPEAKER_04:

It it is, and I don't think you're gonna get it.

SPEAKER_01:

I have another one that's kind of embarrassing. Are you okay with me saying it's slightly embarrassing? Why is it embarrassing?

SPEAKER_02:

We're here to listen.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh my god. I feel I feel like I'm getting a contact embarrassment.

SPEAKER_02:

Just you can we can we can edit this out if we like seriously.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel like you're really passionate about going to the bathroom because you're in there for a really long time. I've I've never pooped it my entire life. I feel just scrolling the internet, but like like 45 minutes later, like what's going on? It's not 45 minutes later.

SPEAKER_00:

No. Yes, it is. No. Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

So is that your answer? Yes, that's my answer. That's not that's not my passion, Leah. Okay. Do you even know me, Leah?

SPEAKER_01:

I all the passions I can think of that I know I knew before we moved in together. Okay, what about after you got married? Is it different?

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, I don't know. This is such a hard question because like I'm I'm just I just grab onto passions.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

You know, I can't even keep track of them. I put down growing mushrooms because that's something that I kind of picked up um after we moved in together. The second time. That's true. A lot of kinds of mushrooms. Um my favorite is uh lion's mane. That's my favorite.

SPEAKER_02:

Ooh, there's supposed to be really good health benefits to lion's mane. That's really cool. And also tasty too.

SPEAKER_04:

They're delicious, especially if you cook them right.

SPEAKER_01:

Cool. Um, I'm going to counter this like Sarah did and say, I knew this before we moved in because we chose this house for the potential purpose of growing mushrooms.

SPEAKER_04:

We lived together before we moved in this house. Good point. Okay, good point.

SPEAKER_05:

You win. I'm ready. Um, and I think what we're proving is that the boys shouldn't be planning games.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, this is a I think it's a zero-sum game with this, especially this last question. Like what last question was hard. Did you have other questions that you threw out?

SPEAKER_05:

We had a list we were working from, but we can uh, you know, we've already ground this into the into the into the dirt.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. So maybe we should maybe we should get to talking about uh And maybe after the book we'll revisit the other questions you'll do quite curious.

SPEAKER_04:

I think the first two questions were great.

SPEAKER_02:

I think so too. I think those worked fine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, the pan the pasture question uh it made sense in my head, but then I was like, like as we were working through it, I'm like, uh maybe I should have workshopped this more.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that's a fun question. I learned something about you and Greg and Dan.

SPEAKER_05:

We learned that we all have problems with chronology.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_05:

All right. So uh do we want to move on to some warm bodies chat? Or Dan, what do you got?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, should we talk about this movie? I think it's time. Instead of waiting um an hour and 45 minutes like we did for the first episode.

SPEAKER_01:

We had to establish our relationship in the last episode. Now we're all married.

SPEAKER_05:

There you go.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right.

SPEAKER_05:

All right. Do we wanna start with a recap of the movie, of the book? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I'd have to know. Well, did you, Dan, did you write one?

SPEAKER_04:

I have I have a recap if you unless you have one that's better. Mine is hastily put together. Uh but maybe that's the charm of it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes. Oh, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

I think it's gonna be amazing. All right. Uh warm bodies. Bear with me as I read this, as I am learning disabled. That's actually true. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

It's okay. Did you take some of those psilocybin mushrooms before you got started?

SPEAKER_04:

And now it's that would have made this episode really great.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

You would have wanted to record probably outside, because inside rough right about now, I'd probably be like, wow, have you guys noticed how like when you look at the wall, things move?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. You'd be like, you know what? Actually, like, can I say something? I love you guys. I and and I just I love you. And I I want to make sure you know and feel that.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. But you know, I love you guys, and not just because of who you are, but who we all are together as we're all part of the same. Because we're all connected.

SPEAKER_02:

That's right. And just like in Warm Bodies, there's nothing to ever worry about. It's true.

SPEAKER_04:

And to love you guys is to love myself. Anyways, let's talk about this movie. Warm Bodies is a 2013 romantic comedy horror film based. It's a comedy horror film based on the novel by Isaac Marion, uh, which we talked about last week. And this movie's pretty much exactly the same as that. It's set in a post-apocalyptic world where zombies roam the earth. Imagine that. Um, the story centers on R, a zombie who's a little bit little bit more sentient than the others. After eating the brain of a young man, R experiences the man's memories and develops feelings for the man's girlfriend Julie, as we all do. As R and Julie form an unlikely bond, R slowly starts to regain his humanity, and this transformation spreads to other zombies as well, like a disease. The zombie clap. The movie is both humorous and heartwarming, especially uh essentially offering a zombie-themed twist to the classic Romeo and Juliet story, right down to the names R and Julie. And M. In the end, it's a story about love and connection helping to heal a broken world.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh perfect.

SPEAKER_04:

Now let's talk about how terrible this movie is. Well, first dive in.

SPEAKER_02:

First, I want to talk about some interesting film facts that I scared up for this one. Yes. Um, the haunting airport scenes were shot in the real airport. Leah, you might like this. It's the Montreal Mirabelle International Airport in Canada.

SPEAKER_01:

Makes sense. They have good subsidies there for filming.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, some of the hardest scenes for Nicholas Holt to film were shared with Rob Cordry, who threw in a lot of very funny unscripted dialogue. One part that I kept trying to catch when we were watching it is that when R is bringing Julie into the airport for the first time, if you look carefully in the scene where they walk through the metal detectors, you'll actually see Isaac Marion stumbling in the background. Wow. The actors, this is my go ahead.

SPEAKER_04:

I I didn't see it. You didn't see Isaac? I didn't see it.

SPEAKER_02:

The movie either, but Oh, Isaac Marion. Yeah, okay, for sure. Um, my last fact, which this is kind of my favorite one, is that the actors in Warm Bodies were trained by a movement director from Cirque du Soleil to develop zombie movements. Love. Really paid off because you could totally see it. They did more. What's that?

SPEAKER_05:

I said, who taught them parkour then? Was that the day of somebody else come in? And because there's at one point there's a zombie that like jumps.

SPEAKER_01:

But Cirque du Soleil, they do parkour type shit.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Oh, that's true, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, they're leaping pretty pretty far and wide and twisting their butt, doing all kinds of weird things.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. I love parkour designed by the zombie parkour. That's it took me a little off guard when it happened.

SPEAKER_02:

I think that we both or that we all are probably planning to rip this movie a new asshole. Yes. Before we do that, can we talk about what worked?

SPEAKER_05:

Why don't we just jump ahead to what doesn't work?

SPEAKER_03:

No, it won't work.

unknown:

Let's get that out of the way.

SPEAKER_04:

You know, I have I have something that that worked, which is that um when when reading Warm Bodies, it was you know, it was it was book length, you know, it was a it was a fairly long story. Um whereas like when you make a movie, you have to condense all of that down to only the most important parts in order to fit within the 90 minute um uh runtime. And I feel like they cut out a lot of the stuff that's just kind of extra like storyline? Extra storyline that you can easily compress because it's kind of all the same thing over and over again in the book. And uh if you were if you just wanted to know what the story of Warm Bodies was, you don't really miss out on a whole lot by just watching the movie.

SPEAKER_01:

I already disagree with you. But that's in the what doesn't work part. Okay. That's very kind of you, Dan. What do you all think worked?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, I think that there was some social commentary, just like in the book. At the very beginning, there's a part where um Nicholas Holt is saying, wow, it must have been so different when people were alive and they're walking around in this airport and you just see everyone on their phone. Um I thought that was pretty funny. I also thought that R's physical appearance gradually changing throughout the film was a really effective form of visual storytelling for me. It was an interesting um just tactical approach, I guess, to visual storytelling to say, okay, this is how we're gonna explain that he's coming back to life. Slowly, he has more color in his cheeks, and like now his lips are not this black, and like he's becoming more and more human.

SPEAKER_01:

I did like that a lot too. Like, props to the makeup artist because it was it was very subtle. Um 2013 me really liked the heart glowing. 2025 Leah didn't. Not sure why. Maybe it was special effect. I thought the special effects were great when I first watched it. I'll say that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, they have aged terribly well. The bony is I mean, there's a lot of factors that go into that, but that it is unfortunate sometimes when you look back and are like, oh, I don't like it. That doesn't work as well as it did the first time, right?

SPEAKER_02:

It's yeah, unless it's Jurassic Park, because you watch that now and it still looks totally real. It's true.

SPEAKER_01:

I did like seeing R's home, like his airplane. Uh they did a really good job of visualizing what Isaac Marion was describing, and that was kind of neat and oddly made him more human to me, even though he was still a zombie at that point. But I think his motor skills were really impressive, and I I didn't I was just like, you're way too adept, like uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Adept. Articulate He just had great fine motor skills in a way that I just have a hard time believing him as a is a zombie. But that's again, I'm trying trying to stay positive here.

SPEAKER_05:

I agree. I think those are I think those are fair criticisms, honestly. Um you know, for me, if you want a movie to spoon feed you every digestible morsel of a plot, its themes, and its ideologies, uh, while simultaneously avoiding the fun and gross parts of zombie lore, then I think this movie's a banger, and I highly recommend it based on those based on those uh those rules. Okay. So that is uh Nick Holt. There we go.

SPEAKER_02:

Of course, Nick Holt works. He works in everything. And you know what, Rob Cordry, he's good. But you know what? I feel like he was really like when we learned that fact that um Rob Cordry was so funny in it. I felt like there were so many missed opportunities because they didn't just let his character be funny then.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yeah, they probably edited a lot of Rob Cordry out of the movie, and the best parts were the humor for sure. Yeah, I like it.

SPEAKER_02:

It's kind of funny. But he's the kind of person that like anything he says makes me laugh. I love him. But yeah, I thought that was a kind of a bummer.

SPEAKER_05:

Does the bitches man reference work for you when he does that toward the end? Not really. So, right? No, it was just weird.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Bitches man.

SPEAKER_02:

And I feel like because here's the thing though. I know Rob Cordry, he knows You know him? Oh, no, no, I don't. Sorry. I don't know him personally. I'm saying that I know that he knows comedic timing, and it makes me feel like he could have delivered that line way funnier. And I believe that he probably did, and they kept having him redo it, and they kept the shitty take. Oh they're like, it can't be like funny. It's like you you're relating to him, and it's like, no, it needs to be funny.

SPEAKER_05:

Are you basing this on his fine performance in Hot Tub Time Machine, perhaps? Why does that keep coming up? No, I'm actually basing him on the Hot Tub Time Machine.

SPEAKER_02:

I believe he was in um VH1's I Love the 80s.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Which I really appreciated his work in.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. He's in a couple episodes of community, and he's he's hilarious.

SPEAKER_02:

I love that guy.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, let's get into um what didn't work.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes. You know, I I am going to love what didn't work so much more than I'm gonna love what did work.

SPEAKER_01:

Can I start?

SPEAKER_05:

I think it would be more fun is if Leah just completely uh, you know, systematically takes apart Dan's statement about what did work and tell us why.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, let's start there.

SPEAKER_05:

It's in the everything she believes. I already forgot what you said.

SPEAKER_04:

I said that it was it did a really good job of condensing the story.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, all the interesting parts were gone, and then they made a really cheesy ending. Oh, I I agree. Ending is the worst part. Yeah, but the most the most dis disappointing thing for me was like I really wanted to see the clickety-clacky zombie boning. Oh, I know, me too. The poultry slapping, you know. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I thought it was a really funny moment. I don't know how they could have done it. Because I literally pictured the bonies being like skeletons.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, me too. Okay, thank you. I was disappointed by the bonies. They had too much flesh. They were actually exactly as I imagined them. And they weren't clacky enough. Yeah. It should have been like a cacophony of clacking when they were.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that was like they were clicky, like almost like icks insects, like a clicking sound.

SPEAKER_04:

You know what I I did um hate about the bonies is that it's very clear that the uh visual effects department paid for one 3D model of a skeleton, and they just cut and pasted that one all over the scene. Uh they're all absolutely identical, including their heights.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, exactly the same height.

SPEAKER_04:

Maybe that's what's that maybe that's a factor to being a bony. Like you have to fit the physical requirements.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that makes no sense that they would all be the same height. Like, think about it. I didn't even think about that until just now. All men, too, for sure.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, they're all dudes. I mean, they don't have any genitals anymore because they ripped up.

SPEAKER_02:

I guess they can't tell. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

They did show an interesting scene, and I don't think that they uh they they talked about like what they suspected um causes people to become bonies, but they showed this one guy like peeling skin off of his face. And I got the impression that like they were showing that this person had like kind of just lost it and was in the process of like tearing his skin off, and that's what's going to make him eventually become a bony.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, and he says something about like you just give up. Like you basically just hit a point where you just completely give up, which is not the impression I got from the book. From the book, I got it, it's like they're the ancients.

SPEAKER_05:

Like they're it was the one thing I do think the movie did in an interesting way, though, because I I liked that scene and I I caught it as well, Dan. I was like, when he sits there and he starts pulling away his face, it was like the one good, gruesome kind of moment, gross out zombie thing that you want to get out of a zombie movie, but times a million. Um, and and that one moment, it worked really, really well for me. And I like it felt like it tried to explain the bonies a little bit better.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, they also tried to really oversimplify the bonies too, because they were like around that same time, like that whole when they're showing that guy pull across pull apart his face, they were saying, Well, like a bony, it'll go after anything with a heartbeat. And they're setting the foundation for like the zombies will eventually have a heartbeat, and then they're gonna start eating the zombies, which is not who what they were in the book. In the book, it was like, Yeah, they still eat humans, they don't eat other zombies, but they are angry with the zombies for not sticking to tradition and being against who they're against. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

I didn't think it was quite as like in the movie, they feel like they coexist, but the the bonies are really more angry and malevolent toward the zombies, anyways. And I didn't get that impression from the book, so it was like they felt like they had to create a greater divide amongst zombies and bonies to make the bonies more villainous and sort of progenemy-like.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

And I didn't think that was needed either. I liked sort of the duplicity of them in the book that that they kind of, again, another element they sort of stripped away in the adaptation that didn't work for me.

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm. Agreed. And also, like it can we skip straight to the end? Can we go there?

SPEAKER_02:

Let's get to the end. That's the worst part of this movie.

SPEAKER_01:

It upset me so much because it just turned it like it broke, I think, a fundamental rule for me of of a quality zombie story or film, which is that everybody just decided that we like that they humanized. So the zombies that were whose hearts were starting to glow, and obviously the people were like all, you know, eventually we're all on the same side. And then there is the one big bad, which is the bonies, who are one-dimensional and have like zero depth at all. Whereas in the book, it's very clear that the bonies and General Grigio and like the folks that have become themselves like bonies and are entrenched in tradition are still human-esque. They just are stuck, I think, in a way that the others aren't, where this was just like we have to have one big bad. And I find that so boring.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that and they had they made this like huge conflict at the very end of like all of this war breaking out between the living and the zombies, and then also the bonies are added in as like a third element. And then, like, right when Grigio just has this instant change of heart when it didn't die at all, immediately they're like, Okay, no one killed the zombies anymore. And then there's like a montage that happens, and during the montage, R is like, Yeah, we just killed all the bonies. Like what?

SPEAKER_05:

And the ones that they killed just naturally died on their own.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, just that easy. Like you they pressed the staples easy button.

SPEAKER_05:

Whole movie presses the staple.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that was easy.

SPEAKER_05:

Let's be honest.

SPEAKER_04:

And it's like they they decided right at the end, they were like, We don't ever want to do another sequel to this movie. We're done with this movie.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, exactly. Even though there's a sequel to the book and a prequel.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. There's like it has there has to be an end. Um that kind of reminds me of that like a lot of my gripes with this movie is that they didn't understand the zombie apocalypse genre. And like that decision at the end to like have a final resolution for the zombie apocalypse is a perfect example of it because that's not what that's not the reason that people like the zombie apocalypse. They like it doesn't have to be a thing where the goal of the story is to defeat the zombies. Like the zombies are an ever-present threat and it's about living with the zombies.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_04:

Um and I just I just feel like they didn't understand it and they didn't take it seriously.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Even though Isaac Marion's book didn't follow like the the story that I personally look for, which is one of the survivors, and it took a different way of going around it. He still treated it with the same level of respect by exploring themes within the zombie apocalypse.

SPEAKER_01:

You wrote a quality story that they turned into like a really sad version of like the Twilight series, but I was just gonna say, I was saying while we were watching it, I was like, she's just blonde Kristen Stewart.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_04:

I thought it was Kristen Stewart for a long time.

SPEAKER_02:

I did, I did too. I was like, is that her? And then I was like, no, it's not. But she looks just like her, just blonde. It's like the blonde version of her.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I feel like they were literally like, okay, Walking Dead is popular, Twilight movies were popular, what can we create? And then let's take this actually like book that has some depth and interest and make it a shitty version of both of those things.

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04:

Like, let's let's make some money, boys.

SPEAKER_02:

But the thing is make sure you make Nora white because she can't be a person of color, that would be absurd.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, when did you like again things I didn't notice in 2013 that maybe because I hadn't read the book. Right. Um, but what was your reaction to just being like there's only white people in this movie?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, I was immediately pissed, especially with Nora, because she was explicitly black in the book. Like, I can understand if it's like, okay, fine, like there's no reason that it they have to be a certain race. I get it. Like, I'm not trying to be like, they needed to make everyone a different race, like whatever. But the fact that she was written to be a black female character and they cast her as a white girl, I thought that was a little icky. Like it felt really kind of ick to me.

SPEAKER_04:

And it's not like the person who played Nora in the movie was an incredible actor either. It was pretty bad.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, she wasn't given a lot to be fair to her.

SPEAKER_02:

She really wasn't. And it was it, it kind of had this like high school musical, like like we're just goofballs, like kind of attitude behind it that um took away, I think, from like you said, like they did they didn't respect the story at all.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. No. They had enough big names to throw in there, like um, they had Rob Cordry and they had John Malkovich, and they're like, this is how we're gonna sell the movie.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_04:

You're gonna it's going to be a comedy, it's a uh young adult romance set in the zombie apocalypse, and we just have to uh link our direct deposit and the money will just flow right in.

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. Bada bing. I actually, right when they showed Nora at the beginning, I shared uh Leah, maybe you'll get this more than tan. I shared from Mean Girls when Karen's like, Why are you white? Yes. Like four people were like, Oh my god, right? Like this is so weird. But it was funny.

SPEAKER_01:

I actually did some reading about it because I was like, there's no way Isaac Marion was cool with this. And I read I got some quotes from him, and I think he did a really good job of trying to sound balanced, but also being clear that he wasn't okay. Yeah, like he said in this one article, he's like, he was talking about like how he felt about the casting, and he just and how they portrayed the characters. And he said that Nora in the books is half Ethiopian orphan who's older and tougher in Julie and is protective of her most vulnerable fent friend, whereas in the movies she's a teenage white girl, seems more like Julie's classmate. And then later on he says it was disappointing to me that they chose a white actor to play the most prominent black character, Nora, but Annalie Tipton nailed her version of the character, and I thought the rest of the cast were perfect. So I thought he did a good job of like making a criticism and still being supportive of the actor, which I think is pretty class act.

SPEAKER_02:

Just for him. Yeah, I totally agree with you. Yeah, good that's well said. That's a really good reaction for him to have. Because on one side it's not like he's just like, okay, fine, whatever, sorry. But on the other side, he's not just ripping into the actress who it's not really her fault. Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So that I I already liked Isaac. I like him more now. I thought it was a good thing to call out, but also to be nice because it's not, like you said, it's not Annalie Tipton's fault. Right. And then I tried to see if any of the producers of the film said anything about it, and of course they did not.

SPEAKER_02:

No. Well, they they don't see color, so they probably just didn't occur to them. Yeah. Um, this is a tiny little like nitpicky thing, but right at the very end, like the very last scene, R refers to the living as humans. He's like, zombies learn to live with the humans. And I did a whole thing on our last episode talking about the book, how it was interesting how socially offensive R found when um Julie considered the living to be human. And R was like, Well, I'm still human, I'm just dead. I'm not not human suddenly. So that was another little tiny nitpicky thing that I was like, it yeah, it's nitpicky, but it also shows how much you're missing the depth of the story that you're adapting, and that's frustrating.

SPEAKER_04:

It would have cost them nothing to leave that in the movie.

SPEAKER_02:

But the fact that it doesn't occur to them, probably, is just like the problem.

SPEAKER_01:

Agreed. Watching the movie made me like the book more. Like I want to retroactively increase my score because I could just the like the contrast was so painful. I was like, this book's wonderful. And I felt pain for the author.

SPEAKER_04:

Like I when I watched the when I watched the movie, uh, the place where my cold dead heart was suddenly beat to life for my love of the book. Yes.

unknown:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04:

And then that spread to Leah and our dogs.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And everybody in the house eventually was like, we love the book.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I thought it was a good book, but now I'm like, it's a great, great book. I think I just couldn't, maybe whatever reason. Sometimes you have to see the terrible thing. You know, you have to be in a bad relationship before you appreciate a good one. I feel like that was this story for me.

SPEAKER_02:

Did you were did you have anything that you wanted to add?

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, I just I mean, I agree with all of that, honestly. And I I kind of envisioned myself as Isaac Marion watching the movie, just grinding my teeth into little tiny nubs because you're so like it was just so frustrating for me to watch, and I agree with everybody else's consensus. It makes me appreciate and love the book more, and I have the same thought. I'm like, I'm bumping up my score on the book now because it's it's you know, showing me the negative to give me more of the positive. And um, you know, it they strip away the really good parts of humor from the book aren't in the movie. There's a couple chuckley moments but they're cheap, but they're cheap. The cheap shots they're easy pun touches. The great little humor moments that are in the book, gone. And that's the easiest thing to keep.

SPEAKER_02:

And the beautiful, insightful lines that were just like so deep and thoughtful, gone.

SPEAKER_05:

And I know they're making a PG-13 movie, but it's a fucking zombie movie. Can we get some blood and guts for crying out loud? Just a little bit. Yeah. Even his eating of the brain was super sanitized.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

You know, I half expected him at one point to maybe pull out some chopsticks or something. Yeah. Just kind of like eating in an important game. Yeah, he just pulls out a knife and a fork to my Hannibal.

SPEAKER_04:

Sets up the place setting. Also, super disturbing from that same scene. Uh, when he goes to wipe blood on Julia's face.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, God, and it's brown.

SPEAKER_04:

And I'm just like, did he just wipe shit on her face?

SPEAKER_00:

I had the same thought.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm like, is that blood?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't it does it look like blood.

SPEAKER_02:

This is zombie blood, though. So you have to remember it's got some rot and some species.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, it's got a lot of people. Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

And I don't know if that like just like a couple streaks of poop on her face, all of a sudden makes her less desirable to all of the zombies and covers up all of the the the uh living sense.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, just one little just one little finger dab is a little poopy, and then she's good to go. And then 20 years into the zombie apocalypse, and they haven't figured out if the you just take a little dab of zombie shit and smear it on your face that they just don't even notice. Like they could that would have been a instant solution to all of their problems, is just we're gonna put zombie shit on our face.

SPEAKER_02:

Which makes me feel like they weren't trying hard enough, honestly.

SPEAKER_05:

I think the movie fundamentally doesn't understand the apocalypse and zombie genre at all. Yeah. No, that's that's another failure in my mind.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Um, it's just it's it's not hard. I know, again, it's a PG 13 movie, but you can still shoehorn a lot of those elements in here in a much more successful manner, you know, just right down to like just that that weed whacker, how is that weed whacker working? How are the car hacking?

SPEAKER_03:

Where did you find it?

SPEAKER_05:

There's some of this in the book too, but where did the fucking weed whacker come from in its era?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, since when? Yeah. That was bizarre. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And in the book, wasn't it a chainsaw?

SPEAKER_02:

I believe there was a chainsaw, yeah. Yeah. But just which would have been cooler. That's very Ash versus Evil Dead.

SPEAKER_04:

Um, you know, I'm glad that you brought up the stupid things like the weed whacker and the the smear of zombie shit because something that I I I Look for immediately, and then maybe this is just because of how my brain works, is always I'm always looking at the details. And if the if a movie can get the details right, I can forgive so much more. And it's such so little things, and it's things that most people probably don't even care about. And that's probably why they overlooked it in this movie, because they're just like, no one's gonna give a shit, just give her a fucking weed whacker. Um they're not gonna notice, but that's the premise of this whole movie. And exactly. And like it started right at the beginning when the the five teens that are now making up the entire army that goes out and fights zombies is uh is getting a briefing from the general on a giant screen in the middle of the city for some reason instead of just going to his office, which they couldn't do because Julie's his fucking daughter.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Um standing right there because he walks out right afterwards. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

He's just waiting for his video to hit like and subscribe. And during this whole briefing, like he has to explain everything. Like, we're in a war with the zombies, and if you get infected, or I don't even know what he says anymore, but he basically just lays out this whole apocalypse like it's the first time they've ever heard of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

And I'm like, it's much spoon feeding. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Are we to believe that we're like 20 years into a zombie apocalypse or however long it's been, and they haven't even heard of these zombies?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, like like you're clearly just telling us as the audience so that's they are running very low on our ADHDA medication.

SPEAKER_05:

Yes. Look at me go.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, they don't have Adderall, they can't get XR. It's really a problem.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, but they also don't have TikTok.

SPEAKER_02:

So That's right.

SPEAKER_04:

So it balances out, I think.

SPEAKER_02:

I think it does, actually.

SPEAKER_04:

But then like the whole scene of the zombie attack inside of whatever place they were hauling up for whatever reason. Um like just the choreography of it and just the the the acting in that fight scene was just so like slapped together that I couldn't take it seriously.

SPEAKER_02:

It was but it was also like Rob Cordry has one part where he it's clearly choreographed. Like you can tell that he's doing a choreographed move to the point where it's like kind of awkward because it's so stiff. Like, which I get it, he is a stiff, I guess. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But he's not stiff in other moments. He's surprisingly adept.

SPEAKER_02:

The the choreography, which you would think that a guy who is doing Cirque du Soleil would do a better job with making everyone have fluid movement.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, it's not a movie that believes in setting rules and then following them in any sentence. Um even at the very beginning, though, like R is like, oh, we don't even we barely talk. And then in about three minutes later, he's fully forming sentences and he's opening doors and you know picking locks.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that's the other thing too, that they're like sometimes we grunt and sometimes we just moan. But that's also not accurate to the book because M and R would say one and two word things to each other at like from when the book starts.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And then they start kind of building more and more syllables on each other. But um, yeah, it was just a very like it's like someone played telephone with the story of warm bodies, and when it got to the fourth or fifth person, they were like, Great, I'm gonna write a movie all about it. Like it just it has like some of the basic parts of it, but it doesn't there's a lot of changes from the books. Um, how do you feel about them not using Frank Sinatra and instead using 80s rock and hair metal?

SPEAKER_04:

What a choice.

SPEAKER_02:

It's a choice, right? I'm not saying I don't like it because I do love GNR very much.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. You think it would have been less exactly.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's what we were saying.

SPEAKER_05:

That's what Greg was saying, especially compared to Springsteen. Yeah, yeah, you know, and the music's a little too on the nose every single time, like hungry heart and welcome to the junk. Or it wasn't cry. Yeah. But the music is wrong and oppressive, and uh like that was a huge problem for me. Like I just felt like the music was just slapped in there, but nobody was actually thinking about how it goes with the vibe and feel of the movie overall.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that here's the thing the movies slapstick all the way around. It's like it's this is definitely a comedy slash kind of horror romance. It's not it's like comedy romance with some horror elements, whereas the book is like the comedy is so smart and subtle that it's more of like kind of a depressing think piece romance story with horror elements and some funny parts. That's kind of perfectly summed up, Sarah, I gotta say.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I I I agree with all of that. I I I don't think it's a comedy in any way. That's the problem. I think they think it's a comedy, but they didn't make anything that's funny. Like, is there one the movie, you mean?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Oh.

SPEAKER_05:

No, the movie. I think they thought that.

SPEAKER_02:

It's a comedy, it's just not funny. It's like a bad one.

SPEAKER_05:

Like, is there one moment that stands out besides a very awkwardly delivered bitches man line that is intentionally funny?

SPEAKER_01:

I know I laughed a few times, but also I was born.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, that that social commentary part where everyone's looking at their phone, that was kind of subtle and funny.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Um Yeah, most of it came right from the beginning where it was very close to the source material.

SPEAKER_02:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, anything that was good about the movie came from the book. And anything that was bad does not. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Like, I wish someone would redo this and do it with like a subtle, dry sense of humor and make make a masterpiece that is like very emotionally affecting and very kind of depressing and and kind of like gives you that feeling of being depressed and kind of pulling yourself out of a depression, which is what the book is about, with really well-timed, witty lines, like the book had, where he like the part where he's looking at a bony and he's like, we were like eye to eye socket, like I'm staring at his eyes, and he can't stare. Like just things like that that are just clever.

SPEAKER_05:

I think all of this is rife for like disassociating this movie, casting it out, and starting over and taking all of Isaac's four books and making them like a limited series on HBO or something. That's exactly you know what?

SPEAKER_02:

I said that to him when we did our little meet and greet with him in the Discord. Yeah. I was like, Don't you think like your books would make a good like a series on Netflix or streaming services? And I think he did say that Netflix bought the rights to it, or someone bought the rights to it, or it's an option, or something, but it obviously hasn't been made yet. But I think it would be perfect for a series.

SPEAKER_05:

For sure.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know how you like I I I think moving to the middle of nowhere was an appropriate response. I don't I don't know how you make something great and then watch them butcher it and then not really have the right to do anything you want with it anymore.

SPEAKER_04:

And then move not move out into the mountains with your kids.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and like obviously there's a paycheck involved, and that's good, and like it's hard to make a living as an artist or a writer. Right.

SPEAKER_05:

But oh his response is far more kind and measured than I think I could have ever been. Like if this was my book and they did that to it, yeah. I I don't know what my response would have been, but it would not have been it would not have been as kind and as I think it did damage not just to his book, but I think it damaged the genre as a whole.

SPEAKER_01:

And like Well, that's big words, Dan.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, well when you talk to people who aren't necessarily zombie fans, because I believe truly that there's no there's no out of season for zombie fans. They want it all the time. They don't care what terrible movie there was. They're like, I just want zombies. Just give it to me. But if you ask if you ask a normie if uh you know if uh when when they think uh zombies were popular, um it's a brief period of time between 2010 and 2013, and they often mark uh this movie as like the end of it being popular. And they'll even you know, they'll they'll some people even say that like this movie like it came at the end of it, so it was at the end of its height of popularity. Uh-huh. But I I feel like uh it actually damaged the genre as a whole because they didn't take it seriously. They didn't uh deliver a good movie based on what was actually a good story. And when people watched it, they're just like, oh, well, we're at the point of this craze where we're just getting twilight with zombies now.

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. And that's the big mistake that they made because you look at like a movie that doesn't take themselves seriously but is a zombie movie and is fantastic, Sean of the Dead.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

They respected the zombie genre though, and made a funny, worthwhile film.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. And I mean, zombies were not at the height of their popularity when they made Sean of the Dead. Sean of the Dead brought it back from the dead.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And then shortly after, one month later, you had 28 years later.

SPEAKER_05:

So it's sort of like Warm Bodies is it's I mean weeks later.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes. Days Days. Days. What did I say?

SPEAKER_01:

What is time? He said years.

SPEAKER_04:

I know it feels like 28 years later.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well.

SPEAKER_05:

So Warm Bodies was kind of like the canary in the coal mine for the genre then. I I had never really thought about that. But it's like like everybody looks at it and goes, well, we've squeezed all the juice out of it. This is what we've got now got zombie Romeo and Juliet time to pack this up and put it on a shelf.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, film producers are fucking terrible. Like they'll they just look at trends, they look at how much money you can make. And when you have a movie like Warm Bodies that had uh that was at a point where they're like, this should make money because zombies are really popular right now, and magical vampire romances are really popular right now.

SPEAKER_02:

The Twilight impact on the film was very evident. Like it was clearly supposed to be Twilight with zombies.

SPEAKER_04:

And I could even see like there's no Jacob, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

He was Rob Party.

SPEAKER_04:

What do you mean? Jacob was Perry.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh yeah, that's that was the anyways. I don't know the characters of Twilight.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm just making shit up. Anyways, like you two are not Twilight fans?

SPEAKER_05:

No, well, I haven't seen any of the greatest horror movie of all time. Uh Underworld, you mean?

SPEAKER_04:

Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

Fair kidding.

SPEAKER_04:

But because so many people will point to this as the as the death of the zombie apocalypse genre. Any film producer after that point, if you came to them like, I have a great idea for a zombie Netflix series. I have a zombie movie. There there's romance and comedy involved. They're just like, absolutely not. It's out of style now. Nobody wants it because this movie did a bad job of it. And I think it had more to do with the fact that they did a shitty job making this movie. I don't, but it got good reviews back in the day. I still think it was I still think it was a shitty movie.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't disagree with it when they first saw it.

SPEAKER_01:

So you also liked it. What happened to us? We read the book.

SPEAKER_05:

I mean, that's that's a huge part of it. Like it's not a good movie on its own. But I think you can watch it and be like, yeah, okay, passable, whatever, rom-com type is thing.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

But yeah, when you compare it to the book or any of the other things that we've been massively consuming lately, it's it's really fucking bad.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well, just I think I honestly think it's reading the book that changes it because the book has so much more depth to it, and it's so much more layered and fleshed out, obviously, than the film was.

SPEAKER_05:

Unfleshed out.

SPEAKER_02:

Unfleshed out. That it's yeah, it there's so much to miss in the film. And then I think there's also the retrospect of kind of the corniness of it, yeah, which I think might might have been more in style at that time. So we didn't it didn't maybe stick out to us as much in 2013.

SPEAKER_01:

We're all probably all more nuanced people with more fleshy or unfles. We're are we more bony or less bony now? I I'm less bony. More bony. I would say I'm objectively less bony than I was in 2013.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm just rotting skin and bones.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh no, you're not. But I I do think like maybe I was just also like a little bit more simple in 2013.

SPEAKER_02:

Because I remember liking it a lot. I mean, I wonder what other movies came out in 2013. Because sometimes if like you compare to movies that I can't think and type at the same time that came out in 2013, if you compare to some of the other things that came out, then part of it is like, oh, okay, well, this was this is what we were all used to culturally. So there are things that we just wouldn't have picked up on.

SPEAKER_01:

World War Z also came out in 2013. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02:

There's this list of popular 2013 movies, and I haven't heard of any of these. And this is just on Google, except for Mama. I do remember Mama, and that movie was hilarious.

SPEAKER_05:

Jessica Chastain, that horror movie, Mama. But I don't know that movie.

SPEAKER_02:

It's the one where the little girls like eat the moth out of the sky.

SPEAKER_00:

They're like, I have not seen that. That sounds literally crushed. Really easy.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, but yeah, I looked this up and it says popular 2013 movies. The Counselor.

SPEAKER_05:

Saw it. Oblivion. Ridley Scott. That's Tom Cruise Sci-Fi. Pope. No.

SPEAKER_02:

Enemy.

SPEAKER_05:

No. Yeah, that's Jake Gyllenhaal. We watch it.

SPEAKER_02:

Have we watched that?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, Jake Gyllenhaal didn't even learn.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, coherence.

SPEAKER_05:

Coherence.

SPEAKER_02:

Coherence is fantastic, but I wouldn't call it a popular movie.

SPEAKER_05:

None of these are popular movies. I haven't heard of any of these movies.

SPEAKER_02:

Coherence is really good. Willow Creek.

SPEAKER_05:

Tell me again how AI is gonna be able to do it. Under the skin jobs.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_05:

Under the skin's a good one.

SPEAKER_02:

That's I haven't seen that one, but I really love that chick.

SPEAKER_05:

Jonathan Glazer and uh Scarlett Johansson.

SPEAKER_02:

Scarlett Johansson, yeah. You know, The Longer Life of Walter Middy.

SPEAKER_05:

That's bad. But that's also Ben Stiller. Fuck that guy.

SPEAKER_01:

Now I just want to have a week where all we do is watch 2013 films. I mean, there's really great things I can do without a job. There's a lot of good ones in there.

SPEAKER_02:

Movie 43?

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, that movie got disavowed basically.

SPEAKER_02:

Why?

SPEAKER_05:

Uh, because everybody making it hated it, and then the guy who wrote it tried to do what's the thing in Hollywood where they they disavow that they wrote or had any part of the movie, so they put like oh they put Alan Smithy as a name. Right, yeah. Um, anyways, that movie was notoriously like just hated by everybody. Really? It just bombed terribly.

SPEAKER_02:

You know who's in it? It's a comedy thriller.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

It's got our guy from um Succession.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, Brush Cox.

SPEAKER_02:

No, the one who's related to the kid from Home Alone.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, Rory Col uh Kieran Colkin. Rory Colkin. Rory. Igbee goes down with him is a fantastic comedy. Little dark comedy. Claire Danes, Jeff Goldblum. I've heard one of these. My Rain Man movie brain is picking off it. We need to bring this back because I'll just you guys will tune me out eventually.

SPEAKER_04:

So I'm I'm hearing you about what you said about um Warren Bodies being popular at the time. Uh I think it was like a junk food version of a zombie movie.

SPEAKER_02:

Totally. And I think really shitty junk food. Like an office. Like it's not a haribo gummy. It's like the off-brand shitty gummies that they have at the dollar store. Gummy brains. Kind of junk food horror movie.

SPEAKER_01:

They're stale too, because they've been there for like five years when you pick them up.

SPEAKER_02:

They're not peach rings, they're like peach O's.

SPEAKER_04:

And they're the sugar-free version.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, exactly. Give you explosive diarrhea.

SPEAKER_01:

That's why you're in the bathroom for 45 minutes. Yeah, I love gummy bears. Passionately. It's passion. I do have one more thing I feel like I need to say about this movie, um, which is that I was more grossed out by them being together in the film too, than in the book. It was just really, I don't know. Like every time they would get close, I'd be like, just I don't know why. I can't really pinpoint why it was grosser to me. Did anyone else have that reaction?

SPEAKER_02:

No, because I find Nicholas Holt attractive no matter what. Even as a zombie.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I was really hoping that there would be the um the the makeover montage. And they didn't, they didn't give us that. They did. They kind of did. They did. Oh, yeah, they did do the makeup. Yeah, too much blush on. But I was waiting for him to like take a shower for the first time and like just 10 years of grime.

SPEAKER_02:

I feel like he also took a shower. Yeah. Where were you?

SPEAKER_04:

I guess I wasn't.

SPEAKER_02:

You might have been in the bathroom for a long time. That's what it was.

SPEAKER_03:

Literally had to be.

SPEAKER_05:

Is Nick Holt hotter before or after the makeover? Because I think he looked creepy weird after the makeover.

SPEAKER_02:

I agree. The makeover made him look like Tom.

SPEAKER_03:

The rosy cheeks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

He looked like a cherub.

SPEAKER_02:

He was very effeminate. That's what Greg said, and I totally agreed with it. The effeminate, he looked like a pixie.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, not that that's a bad thing, but it just wasn't the right vibe.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, not that there's anything wrong with it.

SPEAKER_05:

In 2013, knowing that you gotta put him before John Malkovich, general dad, not the right move.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. You probably don't want to go with the peach lip end of face scars in place.

SPEAKER_05:

He might he might respect that.

SPEAKER_02:

Might have some respect for it, yeah. But I did think he was much more attractive as a zombie. I also liked his I know that this wasn't accurate to the book, but his like red hoodie kind of street outfit.

SPEAKER_01:

You like that?

SPEAKER_02:

I like I like that. Yeah, but also this is again, I'm this might just be my problem that I'm attracted to men like this.

SPEAKER_05:

He's the only person in the movie wearing something of color. Like he's the like there's nobody else in the movie wearing anything that is as like radiant or standoutish as he is in his red hoodie. All the other zombies are like in brown blacks and grays, and they're super dirty and nasty and filled. Like he just throughout the entire movie stands out like a beacon in that red hoodie.

SPEAKER_02:

That's probably very intentional.

SPEAKER_05:

It is, but it's it's interesting why there's it it's it was so drab everywhere else with everything, and then they just stick him in there.

SPEAKER_02:

But that's what makes it that's because he's different. He's not like others not.

SPEAKER_01:

I have a beef in general that zombies are always in dreary clothes because like as we discussed last episode together, if I was a zombie, I would be colorful as fuck. Like this idea that we're all just all zombies are in black and brown annoys me. But I didn't notice that he was specifically the only one in color.

SPEAKER_02:

That's an interesting a very colorful like Lisa Frank zombie sounds horrifying. That would be me.

SPEAKER_01:

I love Lisa Frank.

SPEAKER_02:

He's so much more scary than like just a drab zombie, you know? Like who's Lisa Frank Prince?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, sorry.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh no, uh, actually, Lisa Frank herself is a horror movie, if you're aware of the Lisa Frank uh scandals. Oh no.

SPEAKER_01:

Am I another hero ruined?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yep. Sorry, that is a whole nother rabbit hole to go down, but Lisa Frank is a demon. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

That's I have no idea what's going on. You're old enough to know now. Is she a designer?

SPEAKER_02:

Lisa Frank? Oh, this was like a 90s kid thing that you probably are generation away from. But basically, it was like, you remember there was like a trend of like all the folders with like rainbow-colored like animals, like it'd be like a lion cub or like horses, and it was like rainbow everything.

SPEAKER_05:

No.

SPEAKER_02:

Really? Matthew didn't have any Lisa Frank. I have to believe Matthew had something Lisa Frank in school.

SPEAKER_04:

No, they will text. They didn't have colors or art yet.

SPEAKER_03:

So we had black and white. They didn't have colors yet. Or art.

SPEAKER_05:

We had cave drawings with cave.

SPEAKER_02:

So we grunted with Flair sometimes, but that was about it. Well, if I showed you a Lisa Frank like trapper keeper, you would be like, oh, I know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_05:

I know what a trapper keeper is, but anyways.

SPEAKER_04:

A trapper keeper is when you uh prop up a big rock. That's right. And when an animal goes underneath it, the rock falls on top of it.

SPEAKER_02:

Maybe a gopher, maybe a squirrel, maybe a dinosaur.

SPEAKER_05:

It's a very big box.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Or or maybe a horde of cockroaches, even. That's a protein that could just be used if you know how to use it right.

SPEAKER_05:

You know, I'm gonna bring this back to Leah's point a minute ago because this is out of control and I will not stand this age slander continuing any further, as much fun as it actually is. Um There wasn't art. There is a weirdness to their relationship in the movie, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it either. But is it is it just simple to say that Nick Holt is actually out of her league in this movie? Like even if Yeah, I totally agree. What is he doing with her?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, and it's funny because like um uh Dan, I'm glad that you had the same reaction that I did because I was like, she looks exactly like Kristen Stewart to me. And I'm I'm sure that that was a very intentional casting choice, I'm sure, because of the popularity of Twilight. But I said it during our watch party when we had other sinners that were like with us watching it. I made that comment. I was like, is she just blonde, Kristen Stewart, or is it just me?

SPEAKER_04:

I just thought she dyed her hair.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I know that's exactly what I thought at first too. And then I realized I was like, oh no, because I Googled her and looked at her on my phone and I was like, okay, no, it's not her, but it it looks just like her. But um, I said that in the in the um group chat during the movie, and someone responded with, it was actually our our guy, Jump Pogo, responded with um, oh, because she has the emotional range of a toaster. That was like, yeah, good point. Now do you say that? I meant she literally looks like Kristen Stewart to me, but yeah. Those are both fair critiques. A lackluster performance there on her part, I guess.

SPEAKER_04:

I mean, to be fair to the toaster, toasters have a little lever at the bottom that goes from one setting all the way up to another setting.

SPEAKER_05:

They can get very hot.

SPEAKER_02:

And I had nothing against my little toaster.

SPEAKER_05:

It's a brave little toaster.

SPEAKER_04:

I love the brave little toaster. Me too. Yeah. My the original post-apocalyptic movie that got it that started little toaster.

SPEAKER_01:

That's correct. I did want to say briefly that I had fully intended us joining you for the watch party, and I'm sad we didn't, but my brother has sucked my soul out of my body, and I have no idea where I am or what time it is. Oh, because he was visiting this week, and I think we were just finishing the movie. We watched us with him last night. It was like 9:30, and I was just like, fuck. Oh, yeah. And I would be glad you were already asleep. And then I was like, damn it, we were supposed to be somewhere right now on the internet.

SPEAKER_02:

We had like eight people show up. We had a pretty good turnout. Everyone was chatting and having a good time and sharing good uh gifts and stuff. But hey, you know, hopefully you can join us next month for our movie, and you know, we'll tell you guys after we're done recording what it's gonna be, and that'll be exciting. Yay!

SPEAKER_01:

I definitely want to do that because watch parties are so fun, and I felt I feel a lot of FOMO from not getting to see them.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, we do them every month. So you're always welcome to join us. We have a lot of fun until we get in trouble for it, which hopefully we don't for a long time. Knock on wood. Yeah, tell me your secrets later for that too. Oh, it's it's literally just blatant, blatantly breaking the law.

SPEAKER_00:

I love breaking the law. But how? I need to know the one, two, three of this. Haven't you heard? I'm a terrorist. I don't think you want to put that on the internet right now. Now you're in Tifa? They already they already know. My BI agent knows.

SPEAKER_02:

Before we wrap this up, should we I think that we can all agree that this is ass.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes. It is so ass. It's pretty bad.

SPEAKER_02:

It's a stanky ass. I what would you rate it out of five stars, do you think? I would give it two out of five.

SPEAKER_05:

Are we doing are we doing two out of five or are we doing ten zeds again? What are we doing?

SPEAKER_01:

You can do we can have different, it's all the same. It depends on the conversion rating.

SPEAKER_02:

I would give it three out of ten zeds, but two out of five stars. It doesn't get four out of ten zeds to me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I would give it a three out of ten zeds as well.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Oh, go ahead. And part of part of my decision on that is just like how if it wasn't like a terrible movie. Like if you just if you were like, I want to watch a movie, you would watch that and you'd say, that was a movie. Yeah. But if you wanted to watch a zombie apocalypse movie, you'd be like, what the fuck it was that?

SPEAKER_02:

So And honestly, if you wanted to watch like a feel-good romance movie, you'd be like, What the fuck was that?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Everything it claims to be, you'd just be disappointed.

SPEAKER_01:

Why am I vaguely repulsed when they kiss? That's not the sort of the feeling you're supposed to get in a rom-com. But you're repulsed by her or by him? Both of them. I just the whole thing made me really uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_02:

Nick Holt could do anything and he would be amazing. Huge crush. I think Greg and I both have a huge crush on Nick Holt.

SPEAKER_05:

I think he's a fantastic actor. I really enjoy everything he does, but um this was you know, not not his best day, but it's not his fault, also.

SPEAKER_02:

No, I think he carried the movie. I think he like he did the best.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I and it's universal. I wrote down three out of ten. I would also conversion wise, I wouldn't go down to a two out of ten. It's not one, it's not that that bad.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's not that bad.

SPEAKER_05:

It's not zombie two, it's not zombie ass bad to make this fun. So I'm not gonna go through everything, but I found one one-star review on Letterboxd. Amazing. I just want to share it. So it says I made a whole ass Letterboxd account just to say it's it's was so mind-bogglingly ass on.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, amazing!

SPEAKER_05:

It's was it it's was, yep. Uh, I can't decide whether to blame the acting, the scripts, bitches, man, directors, or honestly, just everyone for this stank face inducing 100-minute waste of time.

SPEAKER_02:

Wait, was this a was this review made recently?

SPEAKER_05:

No, all of these are really pretty old.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, so so it's not someone who listens and like is in wicked words and is like, oh, this is definitely us.

SPEAKER_05:

This is somebody off of Letterboxd.

SPEAKER_01:

Amazing. That's so funny. I think the time, space, continuum bent there, and like this is an influence in the past for a few.

SPEAKER_02:

I feel like you know how sometimes you have like synchronicities that show you like, oh, I'm on the right path. Like I've been doing everything. That that was our moment. It's finding the this is ass for warm bodies.

SPEAKER_05:

We've had a little bit of success with finding. I mean, it's a it's kind of a common phrase, things being ass, but yeah, but oh I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

I think it's perfect. The this fucks and this is ass is one of my favorite things about you too. It's the ass shoe fits, that's correct. Yeah. Well one last question for you. This is just for you, Sarah. Did you look up what Zeds are? Have you figured it out?

SPEAKER_02:

No, I no, I didn't. I thought we kind of covered that.

SPEAKER_04:

Which what was your answer?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh they're the they're the different names for the donut holes from tidbits to Hortons to Tidbits. Timbits.

SPEAKER_01:

Timbits. Zeds. It's the correct pronunciation of the letter Z, as you Americans say. What? Really? Yes. Only in America do they pronounce it. They I'm an American now, too. Z. Everyone's Z. Yep. I know it ruins the rhyme. Yep. Really? Yep. That's banana. I might say Z, like I remember singing. Obviously, we all learned our alphabet here, and I do remember singing Z. But because that's the how it's because it rhymes. But it's Z. The pro the the English pronunciation is Z. So like all things, America had to be different. Right. We had to remove the colour and Z just is weird.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, it's all about efficiency. So we just removed the unnecessary two letters from Z.

SPEAKER_01:

For what it's worth, I do think Z makes more sense. But I it's like one of the few things I refuse to let go of is my Z. That's like the thing that makes me Canadian.

SPEAKER_02:

So it's like World War Z. Yes. Wow.

SPEAKER_04:

You know, and since it's a world war, I guess both are correct because depending on the other.

SPEAKER_02:

Since it's a world war, it actually seems like majority rules, and it should be World War Z. And in fact, they probably call it World War Z in other countries.

SPEAKER_04:

It might, yeah. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. I mean, just like everybody else uses metal.

SPEAKER_02:

It blew my mind.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm glad I could return the favor because you did that for me. It's Tim bits, yes. But I like that answer.

SPEAKER_02:

Blow your mind.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, because I maybe actually already forgot, but it was a psychology fact that I thought was cool that I'll remember when I listen back to this episode.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yeah. It's about mere the mere neurons. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Yeah. That that actually everything I enjoy now will be like, oh, it's my mirror neurons neurons.

SPEAKER_02:

You should look up Dr. Ramashant. I'll give you some, I'll give you some some stuff to read.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you. Oh, well, I have also this is my final thought before anyone else wants to share their final thought, which is that we talked about being a quadruple. And I wanted to give folks an update that um Joe and Uli did say yes to our sex tuple wedding offer, marriage proposal from the last episode. But I think we could potentially open up this commune to like one more couple. Do you all agree? What do you think? Or do you want to keep it the sex tuplet? I was thinking we could uh get applications.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh I don't know. I think Google Docs has um, you know, formal letters of uh indoctrination we could draft.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh my god, let's not, because it actually might end up being legally binding and then but that's what we want though.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, is it who are who are we thinking of adding? This is very exciting.

SPEAKER_02:

Well that's she's saying that we'd we'd make it a casting call, essentially. Who wants to join?

SPEAKER_05:

We could do that.

SPEAKER_02:

We could do that.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, because nothing says we have to accept them. We can be incredibly bigoted and be like, no, none of you meet our standards.

SPEAKER_02:

We do have very high standards. We do.

SPEAKER_04:

We're saving ourselves for they've gotta bring something to the table.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. What do you bring to the table?

SPEAKER_05:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Consider this a casting call. Let us know in the comments. Wherever we are. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and and include definitely like send us an email and include like pictures of you as a couple, potentially dressed up as zombies, that'd be fine as well. And let us know what you think about Zed.

SPEAKER_05:

Like it's a person.

SPEAKER_01:

Let us know what you think about Zed.

SPEAKER_02:

Just your personal belief about it.

SPEAKER_01:

Like the movie Warm Bodies Don't Apply.

SPEAKER_02:

Don't need not apply. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Exactly.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh sadly, are now a hard path.

SPEAKER_02:

Sorry, Jonathan Levine. You need not apply. He is a director of Warm Bodies.

SPEAKER_00:

I did not know that.

SPEAKER_02:

No, I wasn't just picking out a name of anyone right now.

SPEAKER_01:

I thought you were calling out like a friend in your Discord or something.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. It was just like, and not you, Jonathan. Oh Lord.

SPEAKER_05:

Nicholas Holt, you are welcome to apply.

SPEAKER_02:

Nicholas Holt, hey, listen, call me at home.

unknown:

We'll talk.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, this has been fun, you guys, as always. We uh had a ton of fun doing these two episodes with you guys. We'll have to find another crossover somewhere in the near future.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Maybe something better.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, we do invite you to join us.

SPEAKER_05:

The book is good, but we definitely need a better book movie combo because the movie epically led us down here.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, we're hoping our next one will be there. So if you're listening right now, hang tight. We'll be announcing a new book soon. What do you guys have coming up next?

SPEAKER_01:

Zombie Ween Game Show 2025. Fun. Game show. Yes.

SPEAKER_05:

Is there a 2023 episode or 2024 episode?

SPEAKER_01:

There is and a 2023.

SPEAKER_05:

I gotta go back and listen to those now.

SPEAKER_01:

Um and I'm gonna say it now. You two are invited for the 2026 Zombie Wien Game Show. I think you would be wonderful contestants. But it was too late. I already I had planned this way in advance, so I've got my guests who are secret. We have not announced them yet. We're recording next weekend. But basically, imagine like a RuPaul snatch game mashup with Jeopardy and a dating game. In a dating game, but there are no right answers. The right answer is the one that makes Dan laugh the most. And that's how you win, and then I make you a zombie crown. Oh, that sounds fantastic.

SPEAKER_05:

We are in next year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

If you if you're you have to think about whether you want to compete with each other or you want to compete as a duo, let me let us know. We'll think about it. That's a tough job.

SPEAKER_05:

I don't know. After I have to read the Odyssey on my desert island.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Not really sure we're gonna be friends again after this.

SPEAKER_02:

I might actually like Fletch.

SPEAKER_05:

You might like Fletch. They they didn't remake it, but they made a movie uh a couple years ago with John Ham where they brought back Fletch, and John Hamm is fantastic as Fletch.

SPEAKER_02:

You do love John Hamm too.

SPEAKER_05:

John Ham can do anything. John Hamm needs to be in a zombie movie. Yeah, I agree. That'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_02:

I I would see him being more goofy like he was in my wet, hot American Summer, then he wouldn't be Don Draper about it. No. No, it's not gonna be a good one.

SPEAKER_05:

He'd be goofy. He's not gonna be a burly badass either, but I could see him a guy who's you know he's like a shyster post-apocalyptic kind of grifter character of some kind. He's definitely missing a tooth.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. Right.

SPEAKER_05:

I can see him going method too and just being like, oh, I'm gonna take this fucker out.

SPEAKER_02:

No, wouldn't he please don't ever suggest that. John Ham, don't do that ever. He's gonna do it now. Nope, he can't do it.

SPEAKER_05:

It's dedicated to the role people in Hollywood have done it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, but Brad Pitt's not John Ham. John Hamm is a beautiful, beautiful man.

SPEAKER_01:

I have no opinions with any of these men. I I'm not on mushrooms, but I no, I don't fun fact about me, I don't like look at people and be like they're hot. It just doesn't my brain doesn't compute. I have to fall in love with your soul and your brain. And then later on, I'm like, oh, okay, hi. That's how it works. So every time somebody says something is hot, I'm like, really? Oh yeah, I guess so. It's kind of awkward for me a lot of the time.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I believe you.

SPEAKER_02:

Or there's sometimes there's people that like I'll find attractive that a lot of people don't find attractive, and that's a really interesting thing. And then the other way around, a lot of people will find someone attractive that'll be like, I don't see it. I don't know. Is it something about their personal like persona beyond just their like well, people's personalities can certainly impact how I feel about them physically?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

But I would also think that there's like instantly a physical attraction to like that's an attractive person. But I guess that's true. I mean, like, people like John Hamm and Nick Holt, who I find extremely attractive, they don't look anything alike, but they're also extremely talented actors. So there could be, you're you're probably right. There's probably something there.

SPEAKER_05:

And that's why Billy Bob Thornton is on the top of your food chain.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh. Actually, he has a sexy swagger to him, too, I gotta say.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. Yeah, he does. He's always a controversial figure. Well, I just wanted to say, not on mushrooms, that I do love you all, and you are my favorite fellow book club podcast by far, and I'm very excited to continue to participate in your book club. I'm going to officially uh read the books from Wicked Words book club, not just Zombie Book Club, which for me is a big deal because I don't read a lot.

SPEAKER_02:

Greg said when we started.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, exactly. But cherry pick them carefully. They're not they're not all winners.

SPEAKER_02:

That's what we'll say. Yeah. If you need suggestions, you can text me.

SPEAKER_01:

I will let you know which ones are worth it. That is very helpful. I'm a I'm very comfortable with DNFing, so.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, that's good. I I'm not, so that's good to know.

SPEAKER_05:

I'm I'm all about that, but Sarah's very anti-DNF. Wow. I appreciate your commitment.

SPEAKER_04:

I'll be sending my book to Sarah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, exactly. Uh a lot of people do that. Don't do that. It's because I just I have like a completionist thing to me that like I have to just finish it. But I'm very proud of myself when I don't, and so is Greg.

SPEAKER_04:

I did it. I quit reading this book.

SPEAKER_02:

I quit it. Isn't that great? He's like, that is great. Good job, babe.

SPEAKER_04:

Am I growing as a person? Right. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. It makes my heart glow. All right, y'all. Well, we uh love you guys as well, and we look forward to some whatever we do next, whatever, whatever happens to come down the pipeline. Uh and in the meantime, stay wicked.

SPEAKER_01:

Stay wicked. I'm definitely wicked now. Actually, that's what we say out here in Vermont. It's wicked. It's wicked awesome.

SPEAKER_02:

It's wicked awesome. I thought that was like a Boston. Wicked pizza.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know what that means, but I saw it in a t-shirt here recently. That's where we're gonna leave it on our end. Have a good day, everybody. And a nice listening. Yeah. Find us in the places where you find us.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, don't don't die or whatever our outro is.

SPEAKER_05:

I forgot there was there should be a musical outro from Leah. Oh no.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, Leah. Let's hear it. Okay, I'm gonna sing it badly. Might sound crazy, but the end is nah. Baby ba ba ba. Bye bye. Don't die. Don't die.

SPEAKER_00:

That's the worst version I could possibly do. So you're wonderful.

SPEAKER_04:

Like over. Let's let my brain down the middle.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, okay.

People on this episode

Contributor

Dan

Host
Contributor

Leah

Host