Transcribed by: Cambria Adu

Zoe: Hey everyone, welcome to a special Halloween episode of lemon OG. I am so excited to be back and I'm here with my favorite people in the world Bethany and London. Today we'll be talking about Halloween movies horror movies, my favorite type of movies and my favorite season of all so what are y'all smoking today.

Bethany I’m smoking, that is a pretty good question.

Zoe: *laughs*

Bethany I’m smoking a flower. Callie's secret it's a nice little Indica.

Zoe: Oooo

Bethany Yeah I know it sounds real fancy inside.

Zoe: That was Victoria's Secret. We just found it out. I'm ready this time. 

Bethany: I actually looked it up because I like looking up at the flower that I'm smoking so I'm smoking Kim Reserve which is a smooth sativa dominant hybrid and they say that this flower is not for the state of heart and I think that's really funny.

Zoe: I love it. I am chill. Not currently smoking because I may or may not have forgotten that it was a lemon OG episode but I am drinking Twisted tea are you the same caliber so That's where I'm at but anyways let's get into it so how how do you guys feel about scary movies do you have any favorites do you have any like do you like scary movies?

Bethany No 

Zoe: you're fired 

Bethany *laughs*

Zoe: I love everything about horror movies.

Bethany: I am a coward. I'm you take me to a horror movie I'm sitting there like hiding behind my fingers with no shame 

London: No I'm sorry I just love when they're bad actually more than I love when they're good it was weird

Zoe: so when I was younger my Mom hated horror movies she was very like anti horror movie Harry Potter was scary but you know as I got older like I remember watching like the first couple horror movies and I was like wow I love these are crazy because they're so wild and I'm having so much fun and now like genuinely all I watch is for and I love psychological thrillers which I argue are part of the horror genre I can hang with us I enjoy like the story aspects of horror 

BethanyI just don't like getting scared I don't like the anxiety I don't like the buildup like I don't like especially don't like like horror movies where like you're in settled after they're over like when I turn that s*** off I should be like okay that was fun I shouldn't be like sitting there like oh God for like 2 days I am one of those people 

Zoe:I watch I want something that's going to leave me like what's going on and like at the end you're kind of like you just have to think about it for yourself by the way cuz I sat through  something 

Zoe:I love psychological Horrors because I think just the art of being able to write something that will stick in someone's head for a really really long time there's there's an art to that I think that's really neat 

Bethany: They’re talented and they're amazing creations and I understand their pop culture relevance but I'm a p**** and that's how that is 

Zoe: Understandable

London:no I agree with Zoe like I love them so much everything

Bethany: I have watched psychological horror movies for Necessary Behaviors, which is why I am not fired  by the way because I sat through something I hate for this job 

Zoe:Anyway listen, you're on thin ice Bethany. Wkle have two requirements it's just horror and Twilight that's it if you don't like Halloween get the f*** out of here.

Bethany: fine fine. FInd someone else to edit the podcast

London: Please please don't leave

Bethany: I will you put it that way I started and leave it for 3 months because it made me want to cry and the song changes so quickly 

Zoe:anyway so I watched horror movies I love scream I'm going to say I enjoyed it or things that made you laugh like there's the little scene where the nerdy kid is like screaming at the television of the scary movie behind you look behind you and the Monsters literally like walking up behind him so like you're having a laugh even though like you know this guy is like might get his like guts torn out

Bethany: I really appreciated that you know I would say probably like one of the movies that really got me into horror movies one of the movies that I think like made me put kind of like a more light-hearted feel into it.

Zoe: It is the scary movies like series like Scary Movie 3 where they just make fun of them and like make fun of s*** like that where it's just like cuz it's for the most part like it's all predictable you know they play the music  when you need it they whatever would always scares me and also slightly annoys me is like when there's a buildup and then like nothing happens and that's a thing now but 

Bethany:I agree I agree I think when you can balance a little bit of humor in there like Jordan Peele films

Zoe: I feel like always have that really good balance of like humor and also being like really f****** good horror films

Bethany: Scary movies have been around for a long time that fulfill within people and there's like this huge.. sorry guys I messed up… like a huge platform to discuss like trauma and pain or mental health illness and the purpose of the world like you use it as a platform.

Zoe: Oh Del Toro anyways del Toro one of his films and I can't remember what it was but it was like one of the like faceless monsters and how it represented just like white men in power and the fact that they have all this power.

Bethany: Oh oh, it is from Pan’s Labyrinth. But I know what you're talking about I don't know what they called it b****** 

Zoe:I think it was just like it was reference to it like the faceless monster but just like the fact of like it will come and get you if you try to take anything from it no matter like it has access food like it does not need as much food as it has but it will come grab you and then also like the idea of having my hands or that you can only see what you're grabbing for which I thought was really interesting

Bethany: So London brings up tea oh my goodness teeth is one of my favorite horror movies so I hate tape and love it at the same time like it's traumatizing but that's okay I've never okay don't watch it cuz I hate it but like it's fine. That is my argument I just hate it because 

London: I don't like when movies like show sexual violence

Bethany: so I read the summary and the whole time I'm like yeah b**** bite their d**** off but I don't want to sit there and like stare you don't want to watch it again on a vagina we will revisit teeth we will revisit it don't worry so I wanted to talk about the rules and so the rules to not die in a horror movie are never have sex never drink or do drugs and never say I'll be right back when you leave because then you're never coming back but the first two rules of like don't have sex and don't do drugs or drink all really like feed until like a very Christian like messaging don't sin or the devil's going to get you I always think of The Cabin in the Woods where the whole movie is like based on that kind of thing I love that one I think it's super good because that one just it just takes the rules and I don't know it just literally makes them rules yeah 

Zoe:  I can't explain it in any better way I I've always liked that one because it's like they take the rules they know they take the rules and then at the end you're like oh what the f*** this is all a simulation cool but anyways so one of the things that I hate about horror films is the psychological aspect of it. This couple that pretty much like started The Conjuring Universe they The Conjuring universe is based off of like real event supposedly were supposed to happen it to them but like I remember the end of getting sued I think by like the families that like these experiences like they were telling about so like the like the massive Exorcist or exorcism that they did that like led to the conjuring never happened that way like it was not this like Soul shaking body whatever like existential like things are flying across the room exorcism like never like the person was like no I was never like possessed or anything like the ideas of like Christianity. It’s like demolition of it. Have you guys realized that?

London: oh my gosh it's So bad though they demonize it because they don't understand it and it's like it's from these places for culturally white people have gone in like taken over and put Christian fear in people and they've seen Voodoo as something they didn't understand and they were like oh this is evil and that's the way it's just been hurt.

Zoe: Even when voodoo is not recognized well, I like the Catholic Church the Christian church I don't know where the f*** with Pope is but then I've always been like anti like the devil movies because I think that none of it is like an accurate portrayal of what that looks like I don't know like it's just there's better things to be scared of like racism.

Bethany: What scares Christians more than God and the devil?

Zoe: This is true because Think of like the nun like the story of the nun it's just like it's so wildly devil based that is just like what the f***

Bethany: I don't know you never hear like movies about like evil rabbis literally yeah there's a killer bean though they left 

London:Ghost stories and stuff scare me way less than like stuff that's like kind of more real or like that's like either a social commentary or like stuff that

Zoe: Yea

London: it is manifested in like real life things cuz it just feels so far removed when it's like demons and stuff at least to me and for my beliefs same here it's also like if it's moving around I'm just going to leave like I don't feel like I'm going to have this feeling 

Bethany: The one thing I hate in these Goddamn movies is the people that don't think there's ghosts it's like I don't care if she's moving around and leaving but it's on Netflix and like the brother who doesn't believe there's ghosts and things that's all like them being crazy but then doesn't do anything about them being crazy like baby if you genuinely think your siblings are like freaking out and like screaming and crying and Terror over a hallucination maybe you should address that problem like they're like oh you're just being crazy and blow you off I'm like I'm sorry if you genuinely think this person is insane or like sick or like Delirious or whatever excuse you're coming up for the house not being haunted why aren't you fixing that f****** problem why are you always just like oh no there's no ghosts 

London:  Some movies are very nostalgic about everything and it doesn't make sense and I feel like a lot of it half the time it's like especially if the woman is the one who's like having the hallucinations that's like yeah no honey like you're just being crazy it's okay or like you just went through something traumatically having a mental breakdown and they're like no babe some movies I feel like handle it pretty well All in it being like misogyny is the downfall like oh it's the husband did listen, they wouldn’t of been in this situation 

Bethany: but listen Act of horror is a social commentary is like it's always your lead person and nobody believes them I think that's why we end up with like final girls a lot is like people don't believe women like that's the statement right there is people don't believe women if I'm saying there's a monster you're going to say I'm crazy like if a man said there was a Monster Story theme song and so she ends up having to solve the problems on her own and I feel like that I think that might be why so many women like Horrors because they always see themselves in that main character have to address problems that the public chooses to ignore

Zoe: I'm like sitting here trying to think of movies where like the guy who starts to sense something is wrong can y'all think of any 

Bethany: no the weed man die 

Zoe: Ooo can we talk about Carrie like through and through and I'm not talking about the new Carrie I'm talking about like the original 1970s carry I the absolute gorilla grip that Carrie still has on us to this day I think Sissy Space. Amazing job playing and I think Sissy Spacek can like playing that really weird character and also just the fact that it was the first time that they actually showed like red period blood on screen, like ever.

Bethany: I think it also shows like the  how to raise your kid Bananas like walking her and f****** prayer closets and s*** and most things I've heard people say about Carrie is that Carrie was justified 

London: she was. I feel like I agree with everything Zoe said.  it's always good for like I don't know Carrie is just one of those movies that it's just like really iconic and if you seen it you know like you're like damn because it's like I feel like when you make a movie that like it's like a horror it's like like I was saying earlier like it's one of those movies it's like very real because she was just like you know regular girl except for like her mom was f****** crazy but like you know that s*** can happen to anyone kind of to some extent like that but you know what I mean and it's like this is what happens I feel like horror movies is like this is what happens when people are push to the extreme

Zoe: well I think even just like the amount of tormenting that she went through within with the school system I think it also like commentary on bullying 

Bethany: tell me one kid who's been bullied who hasn't fantasized that s*** every kids like I wish I was scared something that really happened like obviously not that extreme but like kind of like to the point of like getting beat up this stuff every day I'm like that really happened

Zoe: and the fact that like I can go and check for so long that it literally like is resulting in death

London: God damn 

Bethany: okay so I really want to talk about psycho so psycho when I listen to BBC referred to Psycho as the first modern horror film

Zoe: yeah it was an 1860 but it was a shot of black and white anyway because I guess the studio did not want Alfred Hitchcock to make this God damn movie so they kept slashing his budget so he was like you know what f*** you didn't black and white cuz it was cheaper and it ended up everyone was like oh the aesthetic one of the first films to ever show a like gory death scene I put gory dancing in like heavy like " is not even close to somewhere but it was also one of the first times like you so like blood splatter and like you know when the mom is when the person Was dying not the mom I think everyone's kind of seen that

Bethany: for those who don't know psycho is the movie about Norman Bates who kills a lady in the shower dressed as his mom and him oh my God it's in the f****** night the whole premise of the movie girl steals a f*** tons of money.

Zoe: Oh wow, what a way to spoil the movie 

Bethany: It was made in 1965, what f****** spoilers? and she runs away to go meet her boyfriend cuz she wants to pay off his debts so they can get married right and so the cops are already chasing her and she stops at this Motel and has dinner with Norman Bates who talks about his taking care of his mom taking care of this poorest Hotel who no one ever goes to and or where no one ever goes to and his enjoyment of Taxidermy and then later she like hears them arguing and so like you're supposed to assume like oh so the mom's mad about her being there and then later this shadow of like this little old lady like stabs the s*** out of the girl in the shower right and now this was a big shocking thing at the time cuz up to this point you were supposed to think that girl was like the lead character so this was like a huge plot twist and there's like a couple movies and then The boyfriend and the girls sister eventually come down and XYZ leads into things happening the sister breaks into the house and finds out the mom is actually not alive at all and it's in fact been Taxidermy and Norman Bates has a split personality where one of them is his mother that goes around and kills people and he dresses like a little old lady 

Zoe: like the soundtrack of psycho really just Just like.. Is it psycho? It’s like when he's killed Helene 

Bethany: Yeah when he dropped it in. I got it guys *plays horror music* boom

Zoe: That that noise I feel like is one of the like you hear that and you're like someone's about to die you know and I think that's like very powerful I think it's really cool 

Bethany: or like the Exorcist song the song in The Exorcist you know somebody you know somebody creepy showed up

Zoe: yeah I think it was really terrible how they filmed it let me just say there's a lot of things where I am not appreciative of like the style in which they film things like torturing people yes the person who played Wendy and I can't remember her name When she carried that s*** on her back man 

Zoe:absolutely yeah like in the fact that it gave her like trauma for years and years and years wild to me I think it's a great film I really do but like I also like it's one of those things were like I can't not leave that out and it kind of at this point like makes me not want to watch it just because it's like I feel like I'm just like watching her now that I know that it's like you struggle through everything and that's f****** terrifying you know to have to film the scene over 100 times too you know not knowing that someone is about f***** in an accident. That's a very very very awful Birds I think that was the movie. Those things where you feel like horror movies are able to get away with like really terrible practices in terms of how they treat the people that they're working wit because it's w**** you know it's supposed to be you're supposed to be scared you're like but it's also like there's also the aspect of consent where even when you're shooting these things like you have to make sure that people are okay with that like you can't just like genuinely f****** scare someone unless like you tell them ‘hey by the way there's going to be something that happens today that like I'm not going to tell you if you're okay with that you know’ I don't know that just always really I don't know makes me sick yeah so when we do have to mention because it was the only one of our employees was a nightmare on Elm Street and I actually went out of my way and I watched it for the first time.

Bethany I'm a scaredy cat I'll probably be able to see through the 1984 one better and it's probably the one he meant

London: Yea

Bethany: anyway the 1984 when it's great that just did not hit it all like the girls running through the f****** like Boiler Room in the Nightmare and for some reason her nightgown is like perfectly through the night and then like the 1986 pop stars playing in the background and I'm like no this is not the music that would set the tone for fear here buddy did you really think this is going to age that well

Zoe: I love how bad they age though like I feel like that I feel like I feel like those are more Classics and they did a lot for the genre and they were like innovative but like they've aged horribly but it's fun to look back on and like they were good for when they were made yes I agree I also think that '80s movies both as a whole

Bethany: I will starting off with as a whole are just they're a different type of movie you cannot compare anything to '80s movies u******** matched unmatched but then I think when you get into horror there's like cuz you get like they're really Glory like I feel like the start of really gory s*** so you know like when you watch Nightmare on Elm Street and and all of those you actually start to watch people get murdered psycho is really what kicked that off psycho was the first one that yeah push the limit with how people are getting murdered and stuff like that because Hollywood censorship laws because like I read that psycho was the first movie to show a toilet flushing on screen you weren't supposed to do that

Bethany: oh my God no get asked it was considered super controversial cuz you could see the contents when you flushed she ripped up a piece of paper and threw it in the toilet and flushed it so no one would find the note could you imagine if movies were like still like that so think horror movies Helping push the boundaries for like all movies really

Zoe: it really did even I guess just going back to carry like the fact that you just saw like actual red period blood on screen for the first time like we didn't even get that for like period ads like Tampax commercials are like always commercials until do we have them yet is it still like that strange blue liquid 

Bethany:it is they always they always make it blue cuz it's like dude it's literally just blood like you can you can have it be red 

Zoe: and like no one's going to really get grossed out and if they are like they have some s*** that they need to address within themselves So anyways, I think of like Midsummer when you see like the people's faces like completely bashed so disgusting but I love it yeah no it's sick it's f****** I mean it is the art of someone’s…you see someone's like face could be literally smashed

Bethany: yea 

Zoe: Good 

Bethany:I won't I won't see it yeah it's very gory don't watch it if you have a look like a loose stomach

Zoe: It's one of those things where it's like God that's f****** gross I look away you know it's kind of crazy but it's so f****** cool how they did that and like they I watch this video like behind the scenes of like how they made the heads and like what it looks like and like how they break apart and stuff like that like so f****** cool to me 

Bethany:But I feel like so many horror movies nowadays are going to be like CGI yeah because like CGI people don't have unions so like those older movies still have those like cheesy classical effects. Effects too but like there's like this scene where Freddy Is like trying to push through the wall and Nightmare on Elm Street to get to the girl and you know it didn't actually age that bad I mean I think they didn't try and push the parameters of what they were capable of and I think that kind of helps them a little bit but it didn't look as bad as I thought it might have I kind of like to overall I was glad that they recommended it because it was a girl Nancy I want to say her name is Nancy, oh my god, she kicked the s*** out of Freddy Krueger 

London: The effects like when you were talking about the effects when I was like 14 I really got into like horror movies and one of the things I thought was really cool one of the reasons I love Nightmare on Elm Street is I watch the lake behind the scenes video and how they did all the effects and like the way that they did like pushing through the wall and like when they had I don't know her name oh I think her name is Tina the one who dies and like the room who's getting like Beat Around by Friday when they did that they actually used to like spinning room and they spun her around and stuff and I just thought that like was really cool how they made the special effects so that's just like something that I appreciate about that movie that's what makes it like kind of like this is great to me and then like there's that whole thing about like like you said like Nancy like kicks his ass that's

Bethany:He might do like an or like and scream I feel like even the girls that got killed still like fought like hell there's not a single one of them that was not screaming and fighting like hell against this killer you know like the f****** I can't remember what the little blonde best friend's name is when she gets killed stupid stuff ever first of all b**** don't jump through the cat door you just knock the f***** on the ground and like two seconds ago in the scene we saw a shovel beat the f*** out of the guy with the shovel like Jesus Christ like if you're trying to murder me you would be dead before I like ran away through a cat door okay like understand your odds and like a haunted house technically count as a horror comedies but so do things like having the ones and screams that are actually like a little scary stuff like horror comedies kind of a big genre and Beetlejuice is also one of my favorite movies I think just because of like the iconic imagery within Beetlejuice like the movie itself is you know magic which is a beautiful thing in itself it's funny that like even children need to see like a version of their anxieties like played out on screen outlet for like any kind of genre like you know kids who are like gory or like psychological Thriller like something I feel like everyone kind of wants to watch that like their anxiety

Zoe: I love her because there's so much that you can do with it like anything flies you know anything goes It's hard to do other genres together we're like you can do like a romantic w**** you can do a like a kid's w**** like you were saying you know like there's so many different ways that you can play out a horror movie anything can be scary yeah and it doesn't even have to just be scary to like you alone you know you can play personally I hate saw I love that it plays to the broader fears so we know when someone's getting into like a pit of needles and you have to get out and all those things I think it's so interesting characters 

Bethany: that's another point I'm getting murdered in your life in a specific in certain way and you're like damn that's scary like it doesn't have to be you on the screen you know what I mean it's not a specific type of person getting murdered it's just a f****** person and that's scary thing 

Zoe: Your last worried about like the people in the movie but it plays on like the broader horrors of like the Healthcare System I would say I would say it's more of a psychological Thriller than it is technically a horror movie so it's not like scary scary but it does play to the fears of like what happens when you're not able to see a loved one what happens when other people are in control of someone's Health and Care and well-being you know and all that so I thought that was really interesting

Bethany: and it's like anytime someone has power over you like they could use it to harm you and it's I feel like it really talks about like systems of like oppression too like a lot of them are deliberately don't have power and what do you need to do to take that power back cuz it's like the final girl always has to decide to like square up like good night he's like all right come on Freddy like f*** with me like a f****** And finally she's got traps all around the house she like Home Alone that s*** the genre says so much about like what you need to do to like take or trying to find what you need to do to take power back 

Zoe: so yeah that reminds me of “Teeth” which is essentially just someone that has teeth in their vaginal Canal her name is Dawn by the way and like this guy decides to sexually abuse her and so her way in which she was able to fight back is that her  her vaginal teeth but off his dick and like I think that's a power mode like it really shows like women having power and like taking power over there like sexual expression

Bethany: I guess not even expression but like is there sexuality like it's in their own bodies and like her being able to like fight off his dick even though like the movie to pick sexual violence and that for me is what kind of takes away from it because that's kind of like and you can't really enjoy that aspect but you can kind of be like yes she bit off his dick 

Zoe:And like that's kind of what like every woman wishes

Bethany: they could do when they're getting sexually abused and this is one of the ones where it's like it's so Central to the theme so it's like one of those were and I'm very often I actually like usually always against showing sexual violence but this is one of the ones where it's like 

London:I'm not satisfied but it by it but I'm like yeah and it's one of those things where it's like I don't like it 

Zoe:I don't support it I f****** hate it but like I can get behind it in some sort of way for this film and this film alone but I also like I think of like the Trope of like the black widow woman almost where it's like woman ends up doing something that she regrets and I use it Loosely because it's obviously not the case of teeth but I think it does play into that idea and then she is able to like take revenge a certain way you know

London: it reminds me of is it coming third season third season where 

Zoe:it's Zoe she's the same name 

Bethany:but are you talking about the girl who like kills people kills who's ever she f**** 

Zoe:yeah I've always loved that similarly Emma Roberts character when she's able to flip the bus bus schedule watching them die f****** great really really amazing

Bethany: For that part but I feel like it does not need to be shown show the bus flipping show him dying 

Zoe:I'm completely on board with that but just like allude to the fact that like she was harmed in the process American Horror Story crosses the line 

Bethany:I feel like it was one of those things where it's like they saw dollar signs and were like well you know what we can do this really terribly because then people will talk about it and then we'll get more views because people are going to watch it to see how f***** up it is until There is not a single f****** person with I think it's this is associative identity disorder is actual name

Zoe: I had to say that very slow cuz I am pretty high dip anyways so they kill people like that's no no they don't do that I even think of like psych hospitals and like Like the way that we portray those I mean it's very like old practices which I think for like incredibly f***** up but like the way that which in which we present not fullness and like psych Hospital some like what even help looks like is so wild to me I don't know like we just don't do a good job at all with that like we I think that even just kind of goes with like ableism in general we do not do any work to show folks with no devices are like folks who actually suffer from mental illness 

Bethany:I think there's so much like horror that comes from Monsters looking like just like non-standard people 

London:I don't know I think it's it's kind of weird when it's like you try to betray these like certain like Quote on quote defects I don't want to call them next

Bethany: they're not ready to keep that s*** before 

London: But you know why are these portrayed as monsters ? 

Bethany: Yeah and it look and I feel like what would be different if they like we're all so portrayed in like completely normal roles or completely normal figures but they're never portrayed that way they're always portrayed and you know some like way where it's like oh they're the monster or

Zoe: oh they're the one who's like the butt of the joke or something like that literally and are they really ever scared and like a white man no listen to other social commentaries like get out Jordan peele get out is like straight up like some of them are like tongue and cheek social commentaries on like oppression 

Bethany:Jordan feels get out it's like very clearly like a statement on like white liberalism like that's about like white people who like to pretend that they're all oh well we voted for Obama like we're all great oh no yeah we're totally going to steal your body and take it over in it yeah that's not racist because of your your eye for photography I need the artistic eye okay first of all you crazy mother f***** it's not how that works literally if there is a person of color in a horror 

Zoe: But horror film where people are dying like they're usually one of the first people to go oh yeah they're never like a main character or the main character I even think of Twilight we're like Tyler is very obviously demonized again not necessarily horror movie but like always just needs to be addressed but like Tyler is always Twilight and that makes it sound like a horror film Twilight is a horror film like high schoolers 

Bethany:Oh they literally supposed to be 16 and I'm supposed to sit here and watch some f*** like that's weird 

Zoe: there's so much that needs to be done within the horror movies fear but I think there's always that fear of like is this going to be a good thing but I think it's also like counteracted by the fact that like the horror movies we just talked about that for a little bit but there's so much that needs to be done still within that and I hope to see more growth and like having more folks featured and not having it just be like the same thing over and over and over again overall I would say you know obviously we've talked about a lot of ways a lot of  issues and controversies and topics that we might not be comfortable in talking about otherwise but also there's a lot of work to be done within horror as we've obviously addressed all in all horse still my favorite I think we've got a lot to do and I think especially with these commentaries and especially with like these continued conversations I think we will see change and there's always space for more creators that's my take I love it I'm so glad that we were able to get together for this special Halloween episode and yeah signing off bye

London: happy Halloween 

Bethany: happy Halloween 

Zoe: it's Halloween from September 1st until the end of Halloween