Original subtitles

♪♪

♪ Hey, everybody, have you heard the news? ♪

♪ Joe Bob is back in town ♪

♪ He's over at the drive-in, hanging around ♪

♪ Watching crazy movies, so come on down ♪

♪ To Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ Blood, beasties, boobies, and more ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's a spooky good time with monsters and ghosts ♪

♪ Crazy, kooky fun with the world's greatest host ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's gonna be legendary ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's gonna be very scary ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ Let's go ♪

♪♪

[Thunder crashes]

[Wolf howling]

[Static crackles]

♪♪

-Okay, see all these pumpkins?

We're doing pumpkins this year. Jack o' lanterns.

And if you come on the show, you're going to carve pumpkins

because we got to do something Halloween-y

because the pressure is really on us this year.

We have screwed up Halloween three years in a row.

I don't think you guys know what it's like

to get a hundred e-mails a day from people saying,

"That's not a Halloween movie, Joe Bob.

Thanks a lot, Joe Bob, for ruining my Halloween."

And actually, it's it's Darcy the Mail Girl

who feels all the flack.

And here she is, ladies and gentlemen,

the person who put the "mail" in Mail Girl and the "fe" female,

Darcy!

-What does that even mean?

-Well, you pretty much celebrate Halloween 24/7, 365, right?

I mean, you start in August and go through November.

-I mean, that's the least I do.

-And all your followers are just as insane,

and they jump all over us for whatever we do

or fail to do on Halloween.

-Oh, yeah, they definitely get picky,

but that's just because they love Halloween so much.

-You know, like the first year of "The Last Drive-In",

we didn't even do Halloween.

We did Thanksgiving.

And remember "Dinners of Death"?

I thought we killed with that one.

Plus much easier holiday to understand.

We had "Texas Chainsaw Massacre",

which is only the greatest movie in the history of the world,

followed by Wes Craven's original

"The Hills Have Eyes", followed by the very disturbing

Takashi Miike film "Dead or Alive",

followed by the cult classic "Blood Rage",

which was not a cult classic until we made it a cult classic.

They have midnight screenings of that movie

all the time now on Thanksgiving.

They give out souvenir turkey forks.

We had Michael Berryman on the show.

But after all that, it was like,

"Well, why weren't you on at Halloween?"

And so then the next year, we do the obvious thing.

We have three actual Halloween movies

from the original John Carpenter Halloween series,

but I try to do that Day of the Dead thing,

and we end up insulting the entire nation of Mexico

by messing up on the symbolism, so...

And then last year we did "Haunt",

which is a great movie, but I got slammed for

showing a recent movie.

You know, "We don't want a recent movie, Joe Bob.

We want a classic."

Plus, quite a few people hated "Hack-O-Lantern",

even though it's the only Indian Halloween movie

with porn star cameos and a Druid subplot ever made.

I mean, I brought you some Druids!

That's where the whole thing starts, right?

I mean, wasn't Halloween started by Druids,

Celtic high priest, hard core pagan

blood thirsty knife wielders in robes and hoods, right?

"Wicker Man" stuff.

You know, we've seen that stuff.

It comes from Wales or Scotland or Ireland.

It comes from the countryside,

out in the redneck side of the United Kingdom.

So I don't know where it comes from,

but someplace with runes and piles of rocks

where the fairy mounds used to be

because the fairies, they needed mounds.

Because -- see, this is why Halloween is hard to do.

Because why were there fairies,

and what were they doing on the mounds?

And it's supposed to be dark and scary,

the night when dead people rise up out of their graves

and come back and mess with us.

But apparently, we can't do that here.

So you know what I'm going to do this year?

I have invited to this trailer park, not one,

but two of the greatest experts on horror films

and specifically horror films about Halloween

that have ever trod the cursed Earth,

and those gentlemen will be out here

to comment on our double feature,

and maybe we'll all learn something.

And those two guys are David Gordon Green,

director, producer, writer, fellow Texan, and the auteur

behind the top grossing horror film in history,

"Halloween" 2018.

But that's not all.

We also have Jason Blum, the CEO of Blumhouse Productions,

who has made more money on horror franchises

than any man in history, going back to "Paranormal Activity",

"Insidious", "The Purge",

and the aforementioned "Halloween" 2018.

And actually he's in partnership with Malek Akkad,

the producer who actually owns the "Halloween" franchise,

and so they're all happy to be here.

And the way this thing worked out,

I said, "David, Jason, what you should do is premiere

'Halloween Kills' on 'The Last Drive In.'"

And then three days later, after they stop laughing

and we got them to raise up off the floor.

I said, "Well, maybe we should show

'Halloween' 2018 on 'The Last Drive-In.'"

And they said, "Well, we would love to Joe Bob, but, you know,

Universal has sold those October rights to people with more than

that money you're offering."

And so I said, "Okay, guys,

here's a list of all the stuff

we could show on Halloween, choose."

And I prepared introductions for about 12 different movies

because I didn't know what they would choose.

So, Austin, do you have the movie that David Gordon Green

has chosen for Halloween?

-Oh, yeah. -All right.

Let's see. We're going to do the reveal now.

It is...

Austin, what the...

Oh, God.

-[Laughter] -All right, so the movie...

we're showing on Halloween

so that we can blame the failure

of Halloween that we accomplish every year on somebody else

is...

Oh, no.

No, this is not. No.

Yeah, that's it. -Really?

I mean, I love this movie, too,

and Darcy really loves this movie.

You sure this is a Halloween choice?

-That's what they picked.

-Okay, Darcy, high school honor student by day,

Hollywood hooker by night.

-Oh, my God! Are you serious?!

-Yep. -Okay, well, it's not

a Halloween movie, really, but, yay!

-You know, it's people in weird costumes

on Hollywood Boulevard.

And it's a serial killer movie, you know?

And it's interesting to find out

why David Gordon Green loves it, so...

-Well, you know what? We'll make it a Halloween movie.

-So we didn't piss you off again with this Halloween choice?

-[Laughs] Well, I love "Angel."

I wanted to be Angel when I was little.

So there's never a time when I'm going to say,

"Don't show 'Angel'", even Halloween.

-Okay. You wanted to be Angel?

-Sure. Let's talk about that later.

-Plus, Hollywood Boulevard, that's your neighborhood.

-It is. -Well, I'm going to do a little

Halloween history here first.

Most people think Halloween came from the Gaelic festival of --

How do you say that?

-I don't know. -Everybody tells me different.

-Sam -- Sam -- Sam --

-S-A-M-H-A-I-N. You know...

-Samhain.

-It's not Samhain. It is not Samhain.

-People correct that all the time.

-No. It's like -- it's something weird

that has nothing to do with the letters write.

But it was a celebration of the end of the harvest season

and the beginning of the dark nights of winter.

And in the Gaelic lands like Scotland and Ireland,

those nights are very dark and very long and very cold.

And so it was believed

that when you're crossing over into the darkness,

there's this day where this world and the underworld,

meaning the place where all the dead spirits go,

could mix together.

And so there were these fairies, spirits from the other side,

who would come into our world and screw with us.

So what we would do is we would put on a disguise

so the fairies couldn't find us.

Because they might haul our asses back to hell with them.

You know, so you would also set stuff on fire

so that the fairies wouldn't come close to you.

Okay, so on the Celtic calendar,

the new year starts on November the 1st,

at the beginning of the darkest days of the year.

See, these were not joyful people.

Let's just start with that.

These were grim sons of bitches that started this stuff.

And the other importance of Fairy Day, October 31st,

is that if you were a Druid high priest,

you could predict the future.

So everybody put on an animal head and a loincloth,

and you lit a big fire, and you sat around,

and you waited for the head Druid

to tell you what was going to happen next year

and to keep the dead people away while you were doing that.

And you would sacrifice animals in order to protect yourself.

And sometimes you would sacrifice human beings.

-Are you sure about your history on this?

-No, I'm not sure about any of this stuff,

because it's all very confusing.

You know, trying to study the history of Halloween

is very confusing because the Catholics get involved.

The Catholics come along, and they say,

"Hey, we got to stop this stuff you people are doing."

And so they said instead of doing the Druid rituals,

let's just have "honor the dead" days.

So we'll have All Souls Day, and on November 1st,

will honor all the Christian martyrs,

and that'll be Halloween.

And if you still want to do something on October 31st,

you want to dress up like a saint, go ahead.

You know, that's that's the way to celebrate October 31st.

And everybody went, "Screw that, we're having too much fun,

but we are going to dress up

like angels and devils and ghosts."

-I've seen some people dress up like saints on Halloween.

-What St. Drogo.

-Who?

-St. Drogo, supposedly the saint of repulsive people.

So anyway, the reason I'm talking about Catholicism

is that modern Halloween doesn't happen

until the Irish potato famine of the 1840s,

when all these Irish Catholic people --

Those are your people, right?

-You're welcome. -Yeah.

They came over to the U.S.,

and what they brought to the party

is the trick or treat tradition.

Now, people don't even know what that means anymore.

It means on October 31st, all the children are free to do

whatever the heck they want to do.

They're liberated for that night.

And what they wanted to do was run around the neighborhood,

threatening the adults.

The kids were -- it was like a protection racket.

If you give us candy or money,

we will not throw paint on your house or dig up your garden.

And also one more thing they did.

Young women would use Halloween to tell their fortunes,

mainly their romantic fortunes,

and they would do this by bobbing for apples.

So if you got that apple on the first try,

you're going to marry a stud millionaire.

You know, if you took you nine tries to get the apple,

you're going to get paired with a guy named Hyram

who pumps gas at the Texaco station.

And then I would add two things that make up modern Halloween

to the official history, and one of those

is that Castro Street Halloween parade in San Francisco.

That thing started around 1963, and that inspired

Halloween parades all over America.

And the other one

was the movie "Halloween" in 1978,

which pretty much sent the message that it's this holiday

where everything gets turned upside down

and the boogeyman rules.

So America decided to embrace the boogeyman,

and in a few minutes we'll get the opportunity

to ask David Gordon Green,

the latest interpreter of the "Halloween" legend,

to tell us who the boogeyman really is.

Does that about sum it up?

-Well, you told me a lot more than that on the way over here.

-Yes, but I have to do the short version

because this thing goes in nine million different directions,

and we can't talk about Halloween history all night.

-I disagree. -All right.

Well, maybe we'll have a chance later.

But right now we're going to watch "Angel"!

-Yay, I guess.

-A movie that made millions of dollars in the grand houses

and drive-ins of America in the early '80s,

but it never got the respect it really deserved.

It's a story of a 15-year-old girl

who goes to private school in the daytime

and then goes down to Hollywood Boulevard

at night stands on the corner

until some guy gives her 50 bucks to go off camera.

And they call her Angel on the streets and Molly at school.

And she has a street family made up of an old cowboy actor

played by Rory Calhoun,

who was an actual old cowboy actor,

reduced to selling his autograph on the streets

while telling stories about Tom Mix.

And Dick Shawn, the stand up comic,

as a trans hooker with some of the best one liners in cinema.

And Susan Tyrrell, the indie film legend,

as a foul mouthed lesbian landlady.

And a bunch of street performers who transform

Hollywood Boulevard into a wonderland of sleaze,

perversity, and the forbidden, sort of like Halloween itself.

Unfortunately, there's a psycho hooker killer on the loose,

and since it's L.A., he's pumping iron

and oiling up his ripped deltoids.

And it's one of the forgotten classics of the '80s.

We're bringing it back tonight

thanks to David Gordon Green and our Hollywood brain trust.

So let's look at those driving totals and get started.

We have 11 dead bodies, 28 breasts, 2 bewtocks,

stiletto to the gizzard, stiletto to the stomach,

tender necrophilia, pom-pom tossing,

extended furniture-destroying fist fight, with head bashing.

Close up egg sucking with emotional subtext.

Extended Hollywood Boulevard foot chase

with extensive gunplay.

Body part bagging.

Attempted gang rape with poetic justice.

Random roller blading.

Mannequin, shooting, gratuitous fire eating,

gratuitous mime, gratuitous cheerleader practice,

gratuitous bikers.

Makeup fu, Hari Krishna fu, haircut fu, handgun fu,

six shooter fu.

Drive-In Academy Award nominations for Rory Calhoun

as the faded Western Star working the Boulevard.

Dick Shawn as the flamboyant trans hooker,

constantly telling jokes of the

"two blind lesbians walk into a fish market" variety.

Cliff Gorman is the tough detective who says,

"You know what happens to used up whores?

Jon Diehl is the psycho hooker killer

working out of a ratty hotel room

who tries to scrub the skin off his body.

Donna Wilkes in the title role as the little girl

with a big gun who does her homework

in the lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel

between tricks.

Susan Tyrrell as the orange haired punk mama.

Joseph Michael Cala as the co-writer

who doubles as the porn theater usher, who says,

"Hey, scumbag, get your dirty boots off the seats."

Elaine Giftos as the nosy principal.

And Robert Vincent O'Neil, the writer director,

for doing things the drive-in way.

Four stars. Joe Bob says check it out.

Okay, start carving.

Grab a pumpkin and start carving

because we are all carving tonight.

We're going to create a whole gallery of jack-o-lanterns.

And I lost my knife.

Oh, here we go. And no shortcuts.

Carve the face of a famous person.

-Like who? -There you go.

-I don't care. Tom Atkins, you know?

-Okay. -Crispin Glover.

See, here's one I already did.

See that nose.?

-Okay.

-It's a dead giveaway. You know how I'm carving?

-Michael Myers?

-No! That looks nothing like Michael Myers.

What are you talking --

This is an expressionistic jack-o-lantern

suggesting the face of Dag Hammarskjold,

second Secretary General of the United Nations.

He served between 1953 and 1961,

when his plane was shot down by the KGB over Northern Rhodesia.

-Oh, my God, you're right, it looks just like him.

-It does, right? Yeah. -It does.

-You know, I can... you know, if I mess up,

I can always say it looks like him

afterhis plane was shot down.

-Oh, that's wrong.

-But I'm summoning the fairy spirit of Dag Hammarskjold.

So come, Dag, appear effervesce.

Bring world peace.

-You're not quite hitting the right note for Halloween.

-I know it's a little off, right?

-Little bit.

[Laughter]

[Static crackles]

[Birds chirping]

♪♪

[Helicopter chuffing]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Hi, Angel. -Hi.

♪♪

[Horn honks]

♪♪

♪♪

[Students chattering faintly]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Jennifer! Come here.

-Molly!

[Students chattering]

-Don't yell at me!

-I just... -Now that's trash.

-Well, that's not my fault! You're not the one studying.

[Students chattering]

-Hey Sally, you want to have lunch together?

-Oh, so I'm stuck with you.

-What's doing? -Shh, don't say anything.

Your homework assignment...

-[Students groaning] -...tonight, ah, ah, ah, please,

is to read and digest

the first act of "King Lear".

[Students groaning]

Mr. Shakespeare thanks you, and I thank you.

[School bell rings]

[Students chattering]

-Um, Molly.

-Yeah?

-Hi. Um, I was wondering, well,

I-I-I thought that maybe, um,

well, my name's Wayne.

-I know. -Oh, you know?

-Mm-hmm. -Oh, well, I-I-I thought maybe,

um, maybe you'd like to go to a movie or something.

-Thanks for asking, Wayne,

but my mom thinks I'm too young to date.

-Oh, okay, I understand.

Um, thanks anyway. Uh, maybe next time.

-Maybe.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Rock music plays]

-♪ You've got something sweet ♪

♪ You've got what I need ♪

-Would you like a picture? Well, let me borrow your back.

Turn right around here. Thank you very much.

Here we go, from the original Kit Carson.

There you are, lady. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

♪ We can take it ♪

♪ Whoa, whoa, yeah ♪

♪ We can make it ♪

♪ Can't you see? ♪

[Bells clanging]

♪ You've got something that's ♪

-A little rock, a little cradle. You like that?

This next trick I can even do. Here we go!

Walk the dog, it's what you been waiting for.

-♪ Come to you ♪

-Save you here and now!

Give you what you need in your life.

When was the last time you got down on your knees

and thanked him?

♪ You and me ♪

♪ We can make it, can't you see? ♪

[People chattering]

♪ You and me look fancy tonight ♪

♪ I'll make you feel so right ♪

♪ We'll make you feel so right ♪

-Oh, sweet tits!

Honey, can we talk?

I mean, come on up here and play my mouth organ for me.

[Harmonica plays]

I don't like to play by myself.

Hey, what the hell's the matter with you?

Ain't my dollars good enough for ya, huh?

Well, I'll tell you something, you can just take a piss

on one of those Hollywood stars.

I wouldn't diddle you with your daddy's dick!

♪♪

-How much you want to spend?

-About 20 bucks?

-[Chuckles] You have a good night.

-Hey, all's I wanted to do was borrow it, not buy it.

-Genuine peacemaker.

It's a gift from Tom Mix.

-These are really nifty, Kit.

Great balance.

You know, it's lucky for you you got those fake bullets of yours

in there, or I'd have to haul you in.

-[Chuckles] I know what I'm doing, deputy.

My pappy didn't raise no turnip farmer.

-Take care, cowboy.

-Good night boys. -Good to see ya.

-Good night.

-Hey, Dick, who's Tom Mix?

-Well, sweet thing.

What's your name?

-Angel.

-Well, Angel.

I thought you and me could have us a little party, huh?

-[Chuckles]

I bet you would.

Look mister, I'm underage.

Or are you one of those perverts that gets off on little girls?

-We're a little touchy, aren't we?

-Look, why don't you just drop me off on that corner?

I see a friend over there.

-Look, I... I didn't do anything.

-Thanks for the ride, officer.

-[Scoffs ] What makes you think I'm a cop, honey?

-If you're not a cop, then what are you doing with this?

Here, call the station.

-[Whistling]

Angel!

What, goddamn freaks!

What's happening to this neighborhood?

I hate those -- sweetheart, don't let fatso go yet.

Why don't you go home now and spank your monkey, numb nuts?

Sweetheart, I thought they busted you.

-I had porky made out the minute I got in the car.

-Good.

-Didn't I have the best teacher?

-You better believe it.

Come on, let's get another ice cream cone.

Ah, keep going, here we go.

[Tires squealing]

[Upbeat music playing]

-This is your correct address, both of you?

-Yeah. -That's right.

-Okay, I'll give you a break this time,

but don't let me catch you working the Boulevard again.

-Thanks.

-Hey.

-[Laughs] Lieutenant!

-What do you say, Collins? Looking good!

-Hey, it's good to have you back, man.

-See they're keeping you busy, huh?

-Yeah, you'd think with a psycho on the loose,

these girls would stay off the streets.

-Collins, nothing stops the action.

If a tidal wave hit this street,

the hookers would bob up like a bunch of corks.

-[Laughs]

You got that right, Lieutenant.

Guess you're investigating the hooker murders, huh?

The way he chopped up those girls?

This guy is one sick son of a bitch.

What I can't understand is, what makes that sleaze bag tick?

-Well...

Figure he was dumped by his old man when he was a kid,

his mother probably sexually abused him.

We know he's a necro, probably bisexual, possibly impotent.

My guess is he wants to get busted.

Whatever the case, pal, he's out there somewhere

cruising this fuckin' boulevard.

-Ooh, salt and pepper.

-[Laughs]

-You operated that kid yet?

-No, but I've seen her around a lot.

She keeps her nose pretty clean.

-You really know this area pretty well, don't you, Collins?

-Yeah, well I've worked around here a lot of years.

-How'd you like to get out of those rags and help out?

-Who, me?

I thought you'd never ask!

-Good.

Try to get rid of that.

I'll be back for it later.

-[Grunts]

[Bells clanging]

[People chanting]

[Women laughing]

-Two blind lesbians lost in a fish market.

That is crazy, get it?

[Women laughing]

-Hey, Crystal, you know those stars

on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?

My dad installed a lot of 'em.

-Sure he did.

-No really, really.

He was a terrazzo stone artist.

When I was about 5, he took me to the dedication ceremonies,

and he propped me up on his shoulders

so I could see all the movie stars.

That was the best time of my life.

-Hey, you kids should've seen Hollywood Boulevard

25 years ago.

Then it was a boulevard something to see.

Now it's a toilet!

[Spoon clanks]

An ulcer, that bum is gonna give me an ulcer!

How's your mama, Angel?

-Oh, she's much better. She loved your soup.

-So does that bum, son of a bitch.

[Speaks in foreign language]

-I don't know about you ladies, but it's lean out there tonight.

-It's the murders, Mae. Even the johns are scared.

-Why should the johns be scared?

It's the hookers gettin' killed.

-Ever see a man try to run away

with his pants wrapped around his ankles?

[Laughter]

-I don't know about you girls,

I want to get the hell out of this town.

Go somewhere where there's clean air,

where I can breathe.

I don't know, maybe Tahiti.

-Tahiti. Why Tahiti?

-Because the men use their dicks for oars.

-Ooh.

[Laughter]

-Goddamn it, Mae.

Fay and Sherry aren't even cold in their graves yet,

and you can't stop with the jokes.

-You ever hear anybody whistle in the graveyard?

-Don't tell me no money. [Speaking indistinctly]

You say to me before! And don't come back!

[Speaks in foreign language]

At least the hookers, they got money, they pay!

-My dear boy. -What?

-Relax!

Puff on this, huh?

[Women laughing]

I never saw it to fail.

Give a man something to suck on, and he's happy.

[Laughter]

Come, off we go.

-Come on, let's go back to work.

-Okay, let's go by the theater this time.

-Okay.

-Give me some. -Here.

[Laughter]

You know what it says here? It's ridiculous.

-Hey. -What?

-I'm gonna go see Yoyo.

-Okay, 'cause he's so cute.

-Yeah, I know.

-I'll see ya. -I'll see ya tomorrow.

-I have to study after this. -Okay, bye-bye.

-Bye.

[Siren wails, horn honks]

-Mae West liked it.

I used to do it for her all the time in her bedroom.

-[Crowd cheering] -Oops!

You like that?

Wait, wait, there's more.

Next show in a half an hour.

Thanks folks, your donations will go to a worthy cause.

My survival! [Chuckles]

-Good show, Yoyo. -Thanks, Kit.

-Good night.

-You have a nice evening, Crystal.

-Thanks, Kit. -Good night.

-Oh, hi Crystal. -Hi.

-Boy, you look great.

-Thank you.

-I was with Kit, and we --

you look great. -[Laughs]

-You really look good, I mean it.

-I mean, I guess I look great, huh? [Laughs]

-So how's -- so how's business?

-It's kinda like you, Yoyo.

Up and down.

-Oh.

-Get it?

-Yeah.

Oh, wait, let me show you this new trick.

-Okay. -Let me show you this.

Hold out your hand.

-Like this?

[Gasps]

Oh, that's beautiful!

-It's yours.

-Thanks, Yoyo. -You're welcome.

Maybe I'll see you after work?

-You can bet your top on it.

Bye.

-[Chuckles]

Bye.

♪♪

♪♪

-Ooh, just what I like.

Nice and strong.

Come on.

We're gonna have us a real nice time.

I bet you can't guess what I do in the daytime.

I go to school.

I'm studying to be an accountant.

I got straight A's on my report card.

Oh, this is the place.

It's right over here, it's number 4.

Hey, you know, I'm into astrology.

I bet I could do your sign.

-He's out like a light.

-Hey, you think we should untie him?

[Crystal yelps]

[Women chattering]

[Women laughing]

-That was the easiest $100 I ever made.

[Women chattering]

-[Gasps]

-Whoops, I forgot my panties, girl.

-Don't bother. The old buzzard probably ate 'em.

[Women laughing]

-Hey, you know I thought he was dead at first?

-[Groans]

-We woke up lucky.

-Shh.

♪♪

-Now, this here is called a tombstone twirl.

Yes, sir, learned that trick from Tom Mix.

Used to double him in all of his pictures.

Matter of fact, I worked with most of the old western stars.

Let's see, there was Ken Maynard,

there was Buck Jones, there was William...

-Okay, I got a .45 finger in your back, partner.

One false move, and you're a goner.

-Why you slippery little sidewinder,

you went and snuck up on me again.

[Laughter]

I should've known it was you two.

Here you go, sonny.

Hang that on the wall and tell 'em you got it from

Kit Carson in person.

Now... -Damn pygmies.

-What are you doing out so late?

It's past midnight, and it's time for you to be home in bed.

-Well, I was heading that way now, partner.

-Why, you ladies mind if I escort you?

Thank you.

Say, Angel. -What?

-Did I ever tell you about the time your pappy and me

got thrown out of the Brown Derby?

-[Chuckles] Yeah, but tell me again.

I like that one.

-Or was it Musso and Frank's?

I'll tell you, when you've been around as long as I have,

the old memory begins to dim like a campfire at sunrise.

-[Laughs] -I'll tell you,

we tipped a few, your pappy and me.

-I bet.

-I miss him.

-So do I.

[Tender music plays]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Static crackles]

-Darcy, you got to know this one.

-You got to know this.

-Mm, Bozo the Clown?

-[Laughter] -Are you trying to

make fun of me? What are you --

-It's James Buchanan.

This is James Buchanan, the 15th president of the U.S.

You can tell by the oversized nose.

-How silly of me. -Dead giveaway.

-I definitely should have known that.

-Now I'm going to do Franklin Pierce.

Or I might do Millard Fillmore. You choose.

-Oh, well, that's just too hard. I can't decide.

-All right. How do you like "Angel"?

-Oh, my God, I've seen it so many times. I love it.

-So the the hooker killer

likes to have sex with the dead bodies,

which is a nice touch.

That actually goes back to "Maniac."

But people coming to this movie for the first time

had to be blown away by the supporting cast.

Dick Shawn as Mae, the trans hooker with the one liners.

Dick was one of those unclassifiable talents.

He was a stand up who was --

He was on every variety show ever made,

from Dinah Shore to Judy Garland,

Andy Williams, Joan Rivers.

He was a singer, he worked Broadway.

He replaced Zero Mostel in

"A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum."

He worked Vegas all the time.

He was on "Ed Sullivan" eight times.

He was probably best known as Adolph Hitler

in "The Producers", the guy who sang "Love Power."

But he was best known for his one man shows

that he would do mostly on college campuses.

They were a mix of songs, sketches,

satire, philosophy, pantomime.

And during the intermission,

he would lie on the stage floor and sleep.

And so just a very unique performer.

And actually, when he died on stage,

just four years after making this movie,

it took several minutes for the audience

to realize what had happened

because they thought it was part of his act.

So anyway, beloved Hollywood guy,

he invented the high five.

All right. I have many things to say about "Angel."

But before we move on, I want to get our guest out here.

The reason we're watching "Angel" in the first place

is that it is a favorite

of all of our first esteemed visitor tonight,

the man who brought the "Halloween" franchise

back big time, Mr. David Gordon Green!

[Cheers and applause]

-Yeah!

-Yeah, welcome, David.

When did you first see "Angel"?

-I remember vividly the first time I saw "Angel" was

the same night that I first saw "Halloween."

The original John Carpenter movie.

-That was a double feature?

-It was a double feature at a slumber party I went to.

And changed my life in a lot of ways.

Both disturbed me. Probably 12 or 13 years old.

-Oh, wow. -Watching movies

I was forbidden to watch,

and that was kind of the allure of what you do then.

You know, obviously you're --

-You were actually younger than Angel.

[Laughter]

-Yeah. -You grew up in Dallas, right?

-Grew up in Dallas.

-But you're too young for the golden age of exploitation

at the Dallas Drive-In.

So what was your childhood movie going experience?

Where would you go? -I do remember the final days

of the Galaxy -- Astro and the Galaxy

were a couple that I remember from the Dallas days.

-Yeah. -And growing up,

I lived like three blocks from the Promenade 6,

which was a dollar theater in Richardson, in Dallas.

And so that's where I would go every day.

And then the video boom when Video-Shmideo and Captain Video

and the first Blockbusters started popping up

all over the place over there.

-That was in your teens, I guess.

-Yeah, I mean, that was probably --

yeah, I was 11 through 14,

which I think is like, it probably affected

every choice of movies I've directed was influenced

by that period of very vulnerable movie going.

So I would watch something like "Angel"

and an image of a killer sucking an egg would be burned

in my mind for the rest of my life.

Or I'd watch "Halloween", and just so many images

from that movie that became iconic

and not just my film enjoyment, but my film education.

And you're just at that stage

where it's just an awakening in so many ways.

-Did your parents let you collect a thousand VHS tapes?

-Very strict parents.

I mean, these were, again, they were forbidden, like,

not into it.

They were like, "Wait till you're 17 to watch

a rated-R movie," and these kind of things.

-Oh, wow. -So it was the taboo of friends

that had cable, and you'd sneak over to their house

and watch that or at a slumber party.

When everybody goes to bed, then you stay up a little late

and see what kind of -- what you can get into.

-That's almost as bad as Wes Craven,

who grew up in a strict Baptist family.

Didn't see a movie till I think

he was 20 years old or something,

-But I used to look at the Dallas Observer

to get your breakdown of what, you know,

what was going to be appealing about a lot of these movies.

-Really? The old Dallas Observer.

-And then I'd hunt those movies down.

-Okay. All right, David, first question about "Halloween."

"Halloween Kills" comes out next week.

When Michael Myers is being moved from one facility

to another, why do they always do that on October 30th?

[Laughter]

-That's a good question.

Actually, I was watching, for whatever reason,

I started watching "Halloween 4" yesterday again.

I hadn't seen that in a few years.

So it is interesting to watch

the way that different filmmakers

will take the story and what's both,

you know, where the line between cliche and iconic signature

of a movie franchise is.

So it's trying to find an excuse to justify...

-Yeah, I don't know.

Tarantino uses this phrase "screen convenience"

or "film convenience" or something,

and you're supposed to always avoid that at any cost.

But with with "Halloween", you've got some conventions

you've pretty much got to do.

-It's got to be Halloween, yeah.

Well, part of the creative process is like

find these boundaries of what you define,

how you define the character

and what type of rules you're willing to break

to bring your own spin to that franchise.

And so that's, you know, it's a daunting task,

but it's kind of fun. -Right.

Well, obviously you had a lot of screenwriting conventions

that you had to follow because you were doing a sequel

to the first movie.

You were ignoring all the bad sequels that had come out.

Although "Halloween II" was not a bad sequel.

But what are the basics?

What are the John Carpenter tropes

that have to be in the movie?

-Well, for me and my co-writers, when we were trying to

figure out what to do with this title and how we were

going to approach it, you come up with things like,

we don't want to know Michael's back story.

It's a lot scarier if there's not a real psychological

or dramatic justification of his actions,

but he's the boogeyman.

And so making him as anonymous as Bruce the shark in "Jaws"

and as vacant in personality and justification of his actions.

So and I really love "Halloween II", as well,

that you cited, but that brings in a little bit more

lore and legacy that complicated

what we were trying to do in our

anonymous, expressionless, passionless, emotionless.

-Right. -He's not driven by anything

other than killing, and I like that simplicity

because that keeps it scary for me.

A viewer thinking he's in my closet

or he's under my bed, or he might be after me,

not just the legacy of Laurie Strode.

-My guess is that in "Halloween II",

they were probably trying to enlarge

Donald Pleasance's role.

And so in order to do that, Donald Pleasance has to have

knowledge about Michael. -Right.

-You know?

And actually, as the movies go on, he has more and more

knowledge about Michael.

-And what's super cool is like having someone

like John Carpenter does the score for us,

and he's an executive producer on the movie,

so he's there as a consultant.

Sometimes I'll throw him a curve ball of an idea I have,

and he's like, "Yeah, yeah, we messed with that one."

Because he was tasked with the same objective of like,

how do you keep the character going?

People love it. They want more.

How do I do that in a way that feels true

to what I've set up and make it a unique experience

for the audience to want to investigate.

-And so was John Carpenter hands on with you?

He gets a lot involved?

-It's so fun to -- Like, we'll all watch him

watch the movies, which is amazing.

And so usually, it's on Zoom or something,

and he'll just turn around and give me a thumbs up or like,

"What are you trying to do here?" You know?

And then he and his son Cody and Daniel do the score for us.

So it's great having his input,

everything from the script stage.

In fact, I was just -- I was talking to --

We just screened the new "Halloween Kills",

we just screened from Nick Castle,

who played the Shape in the original film.

And I sent him the script for "Halloween 3"

to get his notes and feedback on that.

And so it's kind of fun to keep the players alive

in a lot of ways.

"Halloween 3", meaning your "Halloween 3."

-The "Halloween 3" that we haven't shot yet.

-Okay. -So we start shooting that

in a couple of months.

And so I'm trying to keep those voices very pure,

and at the same time, challenge them a little bit.

-And... -Yeah.

So for "Halloween Kills", the first thing you had to do

was get Michael out of that burning house, right?

-Right. -You had to come up with a way

to get him out. -Right.

-So, did you come up with a clever way to get him out?

-He takes the fire department to task

when the try to put the fire out.

-[Laughter] -All right.

What do you think it is about horror

that makes a little kids want to dress up

like the serial killer instead of the protagonist in the movie?

-Oh, that's a great question.

Um, you know, I just think it's --

Well, the beauty of Halloween as a holiday is it's

a place to to disguise and express and scream

a little bit, and, you know, eat some sweets.

And so I think it's just being out there

and being the most...the most

-Yeah, well, I don't know if you ever go to

the horror conventions, but I'm always a little queasy

when the 8-year-old kid comes up and he has the Michael Myers

butcher knife and he has the mask,

and he has...

-I've been to those, yeah.

So obviously parents of today are not the parents

of your generation because the kids are

watching these, you know, very violent movies.

-Yeah, and I mean, I was watching the new "Suicide Squad"

with my kids the other day,

and I have 10-year-old twin boys.

So you start to see the devil that you had in yourself,

starting to exhibit itself through the next generation.

And where I'm strict and what I think is taboo is different

than what my parents thought, you know?

But then I showed my kids the trailer to "Alien."

I wanted to get them into "Alien" and "Aliens"

and those movies that I really loved.

And they watch it, and they said,

"No, it's too scary. We're not ready for that."

-Oh, really? Okay.

-So they're monitoring themselves pretty well.

So we watch "Lethal Weapon" instead.

-All right, so...

[Laughter]

Everybody tonight is going to carve.

So how are you with knives, David?

-I'm pretty good. -Oh, really? Okay.

Take a pumpkin, and we're going to --

I know you're artistic.

I know you're artistic because you're a graduate

of North Carolina School of the Arts,

along with your colleagues Danny McBride and Jody Hill.

The three of your partners in Rough House Pictures

in Charleston, South Carolina.

And the reason I know all about

the North Carolina School of the Arts

is that our director, Austin Jennings,

is a proud graduate, and my partner

in the first ever World Drive-in Movie Festival

and Custom Car Rally, which we did in Dallas.

We did it at the Gemini Drive in and the Inwood Theater.

Honored guests were Stephen King and Roger Corman was Sam Grogg.

-Oh, yeah. -Who is the founder

of the filmmaking program

at the North Carolina School of the Arts.

So tell me what goes with that place.

I keep hearing about it. I can't escape it.

You're in Winston-Salem, a city named after cigarettes,

and you're turning out all these masters of their craft.

What is it with that school?

-I think that school was like a good home for,

maybe still is, a home for like the outcasts

and the rejects that weren't getting into or couldn't afford

or, for whatever reason, didn't have either the time,

money, or interest in some of the bigger,

more prestigious film schools, and so...

-Because it's a public art school, right?

-It's a state school. -Yeah.

-In North Carolina, and you just got your hands dirty

with cameras.

And so that was fun, just to be able to have that,

a town where tobacco had been its major industry,

but now it's very rustic.

And yeah, I used the backdrop of that town

for short films during school.

And then my first feature, we shot there.

And so it was just a really great camaraderie of people

that didn't have necessarily the access

or the parents who knew somebody or...

-Yeah, well, for years, there was only two schools.

There was USC and there was NYU, and those guys had a leg up,

and they could get into the industry and everything.

I mean, today, they are probably, I don't know,

20 schools that have some kind of cachet.

But North Carolina School of the Arts is the weirdest one

because it's like -- because it is a public school.

It's really small, but they seem to turn out graduates,

maybe for the very reason that you that you talk about

in that the really talented kid who can't afford USC

or can't get into NYU finds that place.

-Yeah, and it's fun just to be able --

I remember day one just walking into the dorms

and you meet people.

And for the first time in my life, I meet somebody that

can talk about "Shakma" or Argento films

or these things that meant something to me,

but I'd never really found that community

growing up in my neighborhood.

-Okay, great.

Okay, well, we're going to go back to "Angel" right now.

Angel used all her hooker money for tuition to the cool

private school.

[Laughter]

She was aspiring to someday

enroll at the North Carolina School of the Arts, you know?

But in the meantime, hookers are dying

near Hollywood Boulevard, and that pisses Angel off.

So roll the film.

You know how old Donna Wilkes was when she portrayed

the 15-year-old hooker?

Very believably. Very believable portrayal.

24. -Wow.

-But she could rock that mini skirt.

Darcy, you're going to cosplay this, right?

-You know I am.

-All right School girl or hooker?

-I'm going to split it right down the middle.

-Okay, interesting.

You know, dressing like Angel would actually fit right in

with modern Halloween tradition, right?

Because when did sexy Halloween become such a big thing?

Because when you're trick or treating,

if you go back to the origins of trick or treating,

you're supposed to scare the people into

giving you something.

You're not supposed to seduce the people.

-Halloween is always sexy.

-Oh, right, I forgot. I'm surrounded by experts.

[Laughter]

[Static crackles]

-Good night, Kit.

-Good night, Angel.

-Come on, Mae. -Come on.

-Oh, Angel.

Get yourself a good night's sleep, you hear?

-I will.

-Night, ladies. -Good night.

[Crickets chirping]

-How about a little drink, my dear?

Say a glass of 100 proof milk, huh?

-[Chuckles]

-Hey! Girls!

Come here!

-Bring out the spray, my dear.

I hear a cockroach.

Shall we investigate?

Oh, she's painting by numbers again.

-I want to show you my latest masterpiece.

I call it "Fruit With Gun."

-I call it shit.

-What do you know about it, fagele?

You don't even wear the right clothes.

-What the hell are you talking about?

This dress cost me over 600 bucks.

-Hey, Solly, where'd you get the cannon?

-What are you, crazy?

This is no toy!

And for your information, I bought it today.

-Why? Bear season isn't even open yet.

-This psycho killer shows,

I'm gonna blow his fuckin' head off.

Hey, you want to play a game?

-Why not? I'll break out the board.

-Oh, hey, I gotta go study. It's getting late, Mae.

Good night. Mwah.

-Good night, honey.

-Good night, Solly. -Good night, darling.

Sweet dreams. -Thanks.

-Have you noticed our little Molly is growing up?

-I've noticed that you've noticed.

Now you keep your hands off her.

Listen, why don't you take that thing out of your pants

before you blow your balls off?

All eight of them.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Doorbell rings]

-Who is it?

-Solly!

-Oh. Just wait a second, Solly.

I'll be right there.

-Morning, darling.

-Good morning. Come on in. -It's rent time.

-Oh, gee, I almost forgot.

I was just serving breakfast to my mom.

I'll have her write you a check.

I'll be right back.

-[Humming]

[Door closes]

-Here you go, Solly.

-Oh, thank you, darling.

-My mom says to say hello.

-And how is your mother?

-She's improving.

-Receipt. -Oh, great.

-I gotta go dump the garbage.

-Have a good day.

-Later darling. -Bye.

[Ominous music plays]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Man shudders]

♪♪

♪♪

-Northrup, Northrup, rah, rah, rah!

-Five, six, seven, eight!

-V-V-V-I-C!

T-T-O-R-Y!

Victory, victory for Northrup High!

[All cheering]

-Hey, look who's coming.

You're always bragging about all your scoring.

Here's one you haven't even touched.

-Oh, ye of little faith.

Center the fuckin' ball, man.

-All right, Rick, on three.

Set, two, three!

-Touchdown.

Come on, baby. No applause?

Look, I hear you're really smart,

and I was wondering if you could help me with my homework.

Then I'll give you something you can really applaud.

-Gee, Rick, I'd really like to help you.

But I have better things to do.

-Ooh, Romeo!

Romeo Ricky!

[Knocking]

-Miss Allen?

-Molly, is that you?

-Yeah.

-Oh, I'll be right with you.

Just get this apron off before I get covered with paint.

You are looking terrific!

How's it going?

-Good, good. -Good.

-You wanted to see me?

-Yes. Why don't you have a seat right there?

-Is there something wrong, Miss Allen?

-No, not a thing!

I just thought it'd be nice to have a little chat.

What do you say?

-Okay. -Great.

-Well, you know, Molly,

I'm just a little curious about something.

I see here that you're not taking part

in any of the social activities at school,

and I was just wondering,

are you having difficulty making friends?

-No, not at all, Miss Allen.

-Well, Molly, your parents are paying a great deal of money

to see that you have the very best education.

-Well, I don't understand. I'm on top of the honors list.

-There's more to life than getting straight A's.

That means excelling outside of the classroom

as well as inside, you understand?

-Yes.

It's my mother. Um...

She's had a stroke, and she's paralyzed.

-Oh, Molly, I didn't know.

I'm so sorry.

-So you see, I don't have time

for school stuff or clubs and stuff.

I have to go home right after school and take care of her.

-I understand.

Will you do me a favor?

-Mm-hmm.

-If you ever have need to talk,

or I can help in any way,

would you call me at that number?

-Okay.

-Promise? -Promise.

-Okay.

-Thank you, Miss Allen. I appreciate it.

-Okay.

-1247, 1247, meet the officer at 77 station.

-1247, 1247, meet the officer at 77 station.

-933 clear.

[Yoyo sobbing]

-I was supposed to meet her today,

and when she didn't come by, I...

[Sobs]

-How long did you know her?

-Not very long. She was new in town.

And how could anybody do a thing like this?

-Can you prove where you were yesterday evening?

-Yes, sir.

-Okay.

What's that you've got there, son?

-[Sobs]

[Knocking]

-Who is it?

-It's me.

-Hi, Mae.

What's wrong?

-Oh, baby.

It's Crystal.

-What's wrong with Crystal?

-Did you take a look in there?

It looked like a slaughter house!

There's blood everywhere!

There was blood on the walls, up on the ceiling.

The rug was sticky with it.

It looked like Custer's last stand

without the fuckin' Indians!

[Crowd clamoring]

-Folks, would you settle down, please?

Hey, hold it!

What's the problem?

-Three of our friends are dead! That's the problem.

Now, what are you gonna do about it?

-We're gonna do the best we can.

-That's not good enough, obviously.

-You catch that son of a bitch, lieutenant!

Excuse me, ladies.

And we'll hang the bastard!

-Well, we're bringing in more men and putting out

extra patrols.

The rest is up to you.

I mean you ladies of the night.

Be careful on the street, watch yourself.

Work in pairs if you can, and for Christ sakes,

stick to regulars.

-What are you talking about? Are you nuts?

What do you know about our business?

-No matter how insignificant or trivial it appears,

it could be important.

Please phone.

-Take it.

-Thank you, fearless fa's dick.

♪♪

-I had a john that has a travel agency.

He told me that if we go to Tahiti in December,

you get 20% off.

-Tahiti in December?

Bitchin!

-You know what else is that if we go as family?

-Yeah. -Which is sisters, right?

We get 50% off.

-Oh, wow.

-Here, look, I got some brochures. Check it out.

It is so pretty, I gotta tell you.

Look in these brochures. They're great.

When you said Tahiti, I went...

-I think I see our down payment. I'll see you later.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-What are you waiting for, honey?

Why didn't you take your clothes off?

-All right, you clean off the tables, you set up the chairs,

and then you get your ass out of here.

-Yes, sir, I'll do it right now.

-Ah, uh-huh.

Thank you, thank you.

Excuse me, miss. -Hm?

-You were recommended to me.

Want to take a little break?

Would you be interested?

-Why not?

A girlfriend and I share this room, here.

[Knocking]

Come on Lana, time's up.

-What's the matter?

Can't you talk with your mouth full?

[Laughs]

Let us in! We'll have a little menage a twat, huh?!

[Laughs]

-I think we'd better do this another time, definitely.

-Hey, hold it! You're not going anywhere, cunt.

-Let go of my arm!

-Okay.

Okay.

Maybe this will put a little smile on your face, hm?

You better be 14, baby,

or I'm gonna throw you back in for being too old.

Now use your goddamn key.

-W-Why don't you go get cleaned up first?

-All right, baby.

But you pour yourself into that bed,

'cause I'll be right out.

[Toilet flushes]

[Man whimpering]

-What's wrong?

-[Gasping]

[Door slams]

♪♪

[Car door closes, engine starts]

[Tires squeal]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-[Gasps]

♪♪

♪♪

Help me.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Static crackles]

♪♪

-All right.

Does anybody go to the store and buy a pumpkin

just to eat it?

Do people browse the various pumpkin varieties and say,

"Oh, this one looks yummy?"

Because I've never seen anybody sitting on the steps in front

of their trailer house digging into a pumpkin?

You know, we throw out the meat.

Aren't we wasting fruit? Isn't that stuff edible?

Pumpkin innards are the same as squash, right?

Only people --

But people enjoy eating squash,

and nobody enjoys eating pumpkin unless it's in pie.

And I don't know if that's real pumpkin

that's in the pie to begin with.

But anyway, I'd be willing to bet

that the amount of pumpkin in pumpkin pie

is a very low percentage.

All right, we're not here for pumpkin talk.

We use pumpkins as God intended, for attacking with knives.

[Laughter]

But man alive, in the category of wordless performances,

John Diehl, as the killer, has scene after scene that just say,

okay, yeah, I believe this guy.

I believe he would roast a hooker on a spit

or whatever he's about to do.

Because John, he was in his 30s

when this movie was made,

and he's best known as Cruiser in "Stripes."

At the time they made this movie,

he was known as Cruiser in "Stripes",

the dumb as a box of rocks recruit.

Shortly after this, he would land a co-starring role

in "Miami Vice" as Detective Larry Zito.

But most of his career is wackos and psychos of various sorts.

He also, he pulled a Mickey Rourke.

He tried to have a boxing career starting in 1985.

He knocked out a guy named Deboe Pickering

in the first round at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

But then he retired one year later

when a guy named Gene Holly beat him at the Sports Arena L.A.,

and he was the only guy that Gene Holly ever beat.

So, you know, proving once again,

you cannot start boxing when you're 35.

All right, David, do you agree with me that the scene

where the killer punctures the egg with the stiletto

and then he sucks the yolk out while he's looking at

what appears to be a picture of maybe his mother on the wall

is an outstanding moment in expressive exploitation cinema?

-That's the one thing that was burnt permanently

into my memory and recollection of it.

In fact, I was revisiting it recently.

I was watching it with a few people,

and I said, "When the egg scene comes on, I might have to

excuse myself."

Really?

-It really is a -- I don't know, 12, 13,

whenever I saw that, I was like, "What is going on?"

It blew my mind. I hated it. -[Laughs]

-Well, since the killer has no dialogue,

when they were casting, they asked actors to come in

and just do something without words

to indicate how crazy and violent they might be.

And that scene is the improv that John Diehl did that day.

And they said, "Okay, yes, John.

Not only did you get the part, but that is now in the movie."

So...[Laughs]

Okay, David, let's talk about your career a little bit.

Your career is impossible to categorize.

You come out of the North Carolina

Filmmaking School, and bang, you make "George Washington",

critically acclaimed indie hit, right away.

And then you make two more indie hits.

And so we expect you to be hanging out in Greenwich Village

with Chloe Sevigny and Greta Gerwig.

And, you know, but no.

You start making big budget Hollywood kind of

stoner comedies like "Pineapple Express"

with Seth Rogen and "The Sitter" with our buddy Jonah Hill,

and and you make a Nic Cage movie called "Joe."

And you produce and direct your buddy Danny McBride's

hit series "Eastbound & Down."

And you do a bunch of stuff for HBO,

which you're still doing.

You do big budget commercials.

You do those State Farm commercials, right?

-Yeah, I'm headed to do Pizza Hut this week.

-Oh, okay.

-And you make an indescribable indie film with Al Pacino

called "Manglehorn."

-Mm-hmm. -Defies genres.

And then and then suddenly you turn up

doing the "Halloween" franchise.

What are you drinking, man?

I mean, just in terms of time and, you know,

the breadth of your of your interests.

-Yeah, I mean, it goes back to not having a whole lot --

I was not a kid that love playing sports.

I mean, I played soccer, like everybody,

but it wasn't really my thing.

My thing was going to movies and absorbing that diet.

So just as much as you'd go to the --

I'd go hit the video store and wander

through the genres and think,

"Well, you know, what am I going to watch this week?"

I really do, strangely, approach my career

in that same way of just the enthusiasm I had.

I mean, if you were to look at my --

my favorite movies as a kid, it would be

something like "My Bodyguard" or "J.T." or "Car Wash"

or "Revenge of the Nerds" or, I don't know,

it was like a little bit all over the place.

So...

-But you come out of film school,

and you're this really serious indie guy?

-Yeah, I don't know about serious,

but, you know, that was certainly something that was,

you know, just as much as one of the books

I read as a kid that I loved was Roger Corman's

"How I Made a Million Dollars and Never Lost a Dime", right?

So the idea of trying to figure out

what makes economic and creative sense.

Like, people are always talking about a package of movie stars

and studios and all this stuff that is the is the broad stroke

mechanics of how to put something together.

But I just thought, "I'm a kid with enthusiasm

and some resources," and that resource,

may be an old beat-up school bus,

and five bucks to rent a camera.

But I'm going to start trying to put my sculptures

together with those realities.

-Okay.

-And so that's just, one thing led to another

and then someone who would appreciate this

or this would make a little money.

So the industry kind of sees you do something

and reacts as they do, and then you have your impulse,

and you react as you do.

-And you're on to the next thing

when the industry sees what you're doing.

But you've gone full bore horror lately.

I mean, you've also got "The Exorcist" franchise.

-Right. -Now, that's very different

from the "Halloween" franchise.

What are you -- Are you going to do three of those?

-Yeah, right now, just the first one

is the only one that's been written,

and we've got a trilogy lined up.

And I'm writing that with another

one of our School of the Arts buddies,

Pete Sattler.

And it's just really fun

to be able to take these iconic titles,

these properties, these legacy actors,

in a lot of cases, for "Exorcist", it's fun.

I've been chatting with Ellen Burstyn quite a bit

and talking to her about, you know --

she calls the other day, says, "I have the love seat

from the living room of 'The Exorcist' in my house,

and I'm thinking of getting rid of it.

Would you like it?

And I just -- there's only one answer.

Of course I want the love seat from "The Exorcist."

-Is Ellen Burstyn going to be in the movie?

-Ellen Burstyn is going to be in the movie.

-Wow, you know, that's a whole different world,

though, because William Peter Blatty

was a messed up Catholic intellectual.

You know, he was -- and how are you going to recreate

that feeling?

I mean, it's a very unique...

I don't know, ambience to all of the "Exorcist" movies.

-Yeah, I think once you accept the fact

that it's never going to be what they did in that time

and with those resources, in that culture,

which was a very different thing

than the elements that we'll be working with,

and I'm a very different voice than Friedkin

and what he did was brilliant, and I want to honor that

and respect that and be true to that in a lot of ways

and then evolve that into my voice in this time

and see if the fan base shows up.

-Well, I know Friedkin had Jesuit priests

on the set and everything.

Are you consulting any Catholics on this?

-We've had a lot of consultants.

As opposed to "Halloween", "Halloween"'s like

you close your eyes, and you imagine what's scary.

And literally, I'll walk around my house with a knife and think,

"Okay, now he just took the knife from me.

Now what else do I use as a weapon?"

And I'll just be pacing myself around my own home,

trying to find domestic appliances

to hurt somebody with, right?

So that's a different exercise than the the academic process

of, "I need to find someone that knows this text

from some ancient philosophy that I need to..."

And then interviewing them, finding their trust

because the second they hear you're involved in a title

like that, everybody gets a little nervous

and wonders what you're doing and what you're trying to say.

-Right. -So it's...

-Right.

Probably the first one was the last time

they had the full cooperation of the Catholic Church

to make those movies.

-Right? Yeah.

But I've spoken to a lot of people that seem really

supportive of it because I actually think in some ways,

it does open up the conversation of -- in a lot of ways,

it opens up the conversation of religion and various beliefs

and various philosophies and how that is balanced

and how that's evolved with our culture today.

-What draws you to horror in the first place?

-It's just that adrenaline, you know?

And I get it from comedy, you know, when you just --

you know, it's all like, it's all like farting in church.

[Laughter]

You know, it's like it's so funny, and it's so wrong.

And it's so -- it can go in so many different ways,

depending on who you're sitting next to.

I love all that. -Yeah.

And horror, to me, very much is that,

and there's not more different genre to go from a slasher

to possession.

And the idea of having now feel very confident

two slasher movies in, with a third in the works.

-Right. -I feel like I've found

a footing that I feel like I'm comfortable,

I love to play, this is a great playground,

these are my rules, and this is my process a little bit.

And so while I'm in that mind-set and feeling

that energy, I want to take a different,

a sideways step and go into another sub-genre.

-Well, since you work in so many different genres,

have you ever done anything like "Angel"?

You know, just like, let's -- I mean, have you ever, like,

had a meeting and you say, "Well, listen, you know what?

Let's do a down and dirty exploitation flick,

and let's make it in two months,

two months from now, let's make it."

-I love that idea. I love that.

I've not done that, but I love that.

I mean, I love just the gritty genre movie,

the, you know, urban texture,

and especially, particularly in the '70s and '80s.

Those just, yeah, you'd have to find a new terrain

and find that seedy underbelly of a city and...

-Right. -But that's

a very inviting process.

-You know, the back story on "Angel"

is pretty interesting.

The director, Robert Vincent O'Neil,

was working for Sandy Howard,

who was a legendary low budget producer.

He goes back to the very early days of television,

and he started directing at the age of 19 years old.

He was the director of "The Howdy Doody Show",

and then later, he was the producer and director

of "Captain Kangaroo", which at one time,

was the highest rated children's show in the nation.

So anyway, so Sandy Howard was this old school New Yorker,

Broadway roots, produced 72 films.

And he liked to work really fast.

So Robert Vincent O'Neil is going to

Sandy Howard's office every day to edit his --

another great film of the early '80s, "Vice Squad",

and the office was inside the old Tiffany Theater

on Sunset Boulevard.

It's no longer there, near Los Cienega.

And they would they would go to lunch every day at the IHOP,

which is still there, which is right across Sunset

from Hollywood High School, with his friend Joe Cala,

who was a well-known L.A. sports announcer.

And at the time,

Sunset Boulevard is where the hookers hung out.

So every day, they would see this one girl.

She was 14 or 15 years old.

She was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt,

had a pack of Marlboros rolled up,

rolled up in her sleeve,

and she was trying to get picked up.

And so that was "Angel."

They never talked to her, but they just watched her,

and that's where they got the idea.

And they began to create a fantasy life for her.

And one of the ideas ended up in the film,

which was she lived without a mother and without a father.

But she pretended her mother was still there,

and she believed that her father was coming back.

So the concept became a 15-year-old girl

taking care of herself like an adult.

And Sandy Howard went crazy for the idea when they came back

from IHOP one day and actually made some overseas sales

before they even had a script.

You know, they started working on the script,

and it was quickly sold to New World Pictures.

It was one of their first pictures after Roger Corman

had sold the company.

And New World was kind of confused about how to market it

because it was a story about a hooker,

but she never takes her clothes off.

She never says a cuss word.

She never she's never seen actually getting in bed

with anybody.

But then they came up with the poster

and that promo line

"Honor student by day, Hollywood hooker by night."

And they just sort of went crazy with the marketing.

And it ended up being a giant indie hit.

So I don't think Hollywood...

I don't think Hollywood works like that anymore.

Even at the lowest levels of Hollywood.

But you tell me, David, because you have those meetings,

you're able to be with those guys.

So, is that possible, for a story like that to

materialize today and a film result from it?

-It would be hard without a movie star, I feel like.

Like, that's when a concept could kind of carry you through.

But without IP -- the other thing

you might be able to do is like a reboot of "Angel."

You know, there are sequels made.

"Avenging Angels" is not bad.

"Angel III", I don't remember much about.

-Yeah, no, they weren't -- they were not very good.

[Laughter]

-But yeah, I don't imagine if you hit the town with

the Angel IP, you'd get that many people pumped up about it.

But there's a lot of people

that I think it does trigger something within.

And if you cast it right, I mean, you can --

-But you can't walk into a producer's

like an indie producer's office today

and say, "Okay, Sandy, here's the concept."

-I think you could. -Yeah?

-I feel like you could.

Well, yeah, I think if you --

-Well, I think youcould, though.

That's what that's why I'm asking you, though.

I think with your, you know,

with the cachet that you have now,

then you could probably have those meetings.

-Because what I like about the concept of it is

I can describe this movie to you in 30 seconds,

and you get it, and you can you can see

an emotional narrative unfold.

-Well, you live in Charleston, South Carolina.

And so, if you want to have that meeting,

you've got to fly to Atlanta first, right?

-Yeah. -You got you got a long trip.

-Yeah, I mean, I don't get out there that much.

But I mean, part of the reason I've never lived in Los Angeles

or New York, I like the idea of finding my --

my stories come from different places,

and my neighbors have different things to talk about.

And it's a little bit different than --

because I know I work really hard,

I work every day, and I'm very motivated,

I think if I lived in an environment

that was that intense around me of other

like minded, ambitious people, I might just explode.

So I like to be a place that lives

a little bit of a slower sensibility and...

-All right. Well, you set a lot

of your stories in the South anyway, right?

So let's get back to the alternately sleazy

and unbearably cute Angel.

So roll it.

I think if they didn't have the -- if they only had

the sleazy part and didn't have the unbearably cute part,

it might not work, but we got to do these pumpkins.

Sandy Howard's best known movie, I think, was

"A Man Called Horse."

Does anybody remember "A Man Called Horse"?

Did you ever see that? -Yep.

-Richard Harris is suspended by his pierced nipples,

proving that he's no longer an English aristocrat.

He's a member of this Indian tribe.

He's a worthy Sioux warrior.

You know, nobody remembers the story.

They just remember Richard Harris got suspended

by his pierced nipples, you know.

Do you like westerns? That's another genre.

-I do. I need to do a Western.

-You got to do a Western.

We haven't even talked -- because we haven't even talked

about Rory Calhoun yet.

But, you know, Rory Calhoun had this exploitation period.

You know, "It takes all kinds of critters

to make Farmer Vince's fritters."

[Laughter]

[Static crackles]

-Look at it, Angel.

There must be something else you remember.

-[Sobs] Would you leave me alone?

I told you all I know.

It was dark. I couldn't see that well.

-What about his voice, his speech pattern,

something he said?

-He was across the street.

-Is there anything else you can tell us?

-Yeah, he killed Lana, I can tell you that.

-Get this Xeroxed, put out an APB.

-[Sobbing]

[Door closes, water pouring]

[Telephone rings]

[Sobs]

[Siren wails]

-You got a pimp?

-You think I'm stupid?

-Stupid?

Why would I think that?

Hell, you've got everything going for you.

You're young, attractive, healthy,

and you're swimming around in a toilet bowl.

-It's my life!

-The hell it is.

You think you're out there by yourself?

I'm on that street, too, goddamnit,

and every time I see a kid like you turning a trick,

I want to blow up the whole goddamn strip.

-Leave me alone. You're not my father!

You have no right to judge me.

You don't even know anything about me!

-How old are you?

15, 16?

You know what happens to used up whores?

They don't go to Leisure World, baby.

They end up on hard shit or booze

and spend half their time in the slammer,

and that's just where you're headed.

You're living in a dream world, baby.

What you need is a good, swift kick in the butt.

-You think I'm proud of what I'm doing?

I hate it.

Bunch of fat old slobs drooling and slobbering all over me.

Sometimes I get so disgusted with myself,

I just think I want to throw up!

-Then why do you do it?

-I have my reasons, and believe me, I have no intention

of doing this the rest of my life!

-What do you think this is, a game?

You think you get away scot-free?

Everything in life has a price on it, Angel.

Whatever you do, you pay the price.

Somewhere down the line, you're gonna have to pay.

-Then I'll pay!

[Sobbing]

-Then there was the Durango Kid.

His real name was Charles Derek.

Remember Sunset Carson?

-♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪

♪ Let it shine, let it shine ♪

♪ Let it shine ♪

♪ This little light of mine ♪

-Toughest star I ever worked with

was Franklyn Farnum in "Rough Gulch."

Then there was that time I broke a leg in a movie.

The Duke himself signed my cast.

He was a tough one. Did his own stunts.

Well, folks, I could go on all night,

but it's getting late.

-I think I saw that on television last week.

That was a good movie, too.

The Indians came around, and they had a stagecoach...

-Lana's dead, Mae.

-I know, baby, I know.

Come on, come on, let's go home.

Come on, baby.

You too, Kit.

-♪ A band of angels ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪

-And I'm telling you, I ain't going to no retirement home.

-Oh, I love it.

-Will you please put that cap pistol away, Mr. Cornwall?

-Carson! The name is Carson, Kit Carson!

-Hey, hey, what's going on here?

-Old baldy here is the executor to Kit's estate.

He wants to put sweet little old Kit here in one of those

creepy retirement homes.

-That'd mean I'd never be able

to walk the boulevard again, Angel.

-You can't force him to do that, can you?

-You're damn right he can't.

-No, I don't think so.

-You better let him go, Kit.

-Thank you.

-If you can't force him, why don't you just leave him be?

-Young lady, I have been a lawyer for 25 years.

-Listen, schmucko.

You heard what the young lady said.

Now get your ass out of here, okay?

-Hey, cheapo, I get five bucks for that.

[Chuckles]

Come sit, sweetie.

-Well, when I get ready to be put out to pasture,

I know exactly where I'm going.

Arizona. Why, hell, all of my friends are out there.

I'll get to see Tom Mix again.

-Kit, Tom Mix is dead.

-Oh, that's right. I plum forgot about that.

-Well, hell, then I'll see Hoot Gibson.

-I think Hoot Gibson's dead, too.

-Damn it.

There ain't hardly any of us left anymore.

-Look, I'm really glad I found you two

because I was just on my way to the morgue.

For Lana!

Do you have any idea what they do to unclaimed bodies?

-No, I don't reckon I do.

-Oh, well, I don't either,

but whatever it is, it can't be good.

-Well, we'd better get over there,

before she ends up in a tomb for the unknown hooker.

-You had no business being at the morgue.

What the hell did you expect to accomplish?

-We've got a right to claim the body.

We're the only family she had.

-I can appreciate that, Angel, but I don't make the rules.

-You mean to say there ain't no exceptions?

-Look, there's nothing I can do about it. It's the law.

-Then the law sucks.

-You people have got Lana in an icebox

while you sit on your...

She needs to be buried, but you don't give a damn.

You've got no feelings inside!

It's because you're nothing but a damn cop!

-Come on Mae, Kit, let's get out of here.

-Remind me never to get murdered.

[Door closes]

[Kids chattering]

♪♪

[Indistinct talking on radio]

♪♪

[Kids chattering]

♪♪

♪♪

[Kids chattering]

-Ooh, strong, aren't you?

I bet you're wild in the sack, huh?

-Rick, I'm gonna be late for gym class.

-Oh, come on, you don't know what you're missing, Molly.

I mean, why do you think they call me Razzle Dazzle?

Oh, my hand!

You bitch!

-We are gonna have so much fun, you guys.

We're gonna have the best game in the world.

Okay, we've got the victory song,

we've got the "Northrup rah, rah, rah."

We'll do the fight song, and it will just be so much fun.

So you guys really liven up and have a great time with it.

Stephanie, hurry up!

Hi, Molly.

-Hi, there.

-Wait up!

-Diane!

Diane?

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-[Groans]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Moaning]

-Hey, scumbag, get your dirty boots off the seat.

This ain't your fucking office.

[Moaning]

-Get the fuck out of here!

-♪ You've got something sweet ♪

♪ You've got what I need ♪

♪ Come to me ♪

-Yes, inside, yes.

[Sultry music plays]

-Damn right I saw him.

He's got a spur on his boot.

He's sitting right over here.

-Shit, well, goddamn it, the sleaze bag was here

not more than 10 minutes ago.

There he is! -You, hold it right there.

Freeze!

[Telephone rings]

-[Coughing]

-Gentlemen, turn to your left please.

Would you face front?

Angel?

-I don't know. I'm not sure.

He could be the second one from the left.

-Could be is not enough, Angel.

I've gotta have more than that.

-I only took one look at him, and it was dark.

I'm sorry. I just -- I can't swear by it.

-Thanks for your help, gentlemen.

You can take the men back.

-Lieutenant, the rookie with the coffee,

his weapon's in his holster.

-Will the officer holding the refreshments

please exit the room immediately?

On the double.

-I repeat -- -That's him, that's him!

The guy with the spur on his boot.

[Gun fires]

♪♪

[Shouting]

[Gunshots]

-[Screams]

♪♪

[Screaming]

[Indistinct shouting]

-Sir, do you see anything over there?

[Shouting]

-Check the alley on the other side.

Get the chopper and cordon the area.

-Right.

[Tires squeal]

[Siren wails]

-He went over the wall, lieutenant.

We found the girl unconscious between the cars.

She's alive.

-Collins, we need you. -Right there.

-Shit!

-All units, shots fired.

Hostile situation, officer detail.

-Don't worry about it. We'll get him.

Come on.

♪♪

[Static crackles]

-Okay, the Rory Calhoun character.

That was based on a real person that the director,

Robert Vincent O'Neil, saw in the year 1950

when he went to Hollywood Boulevard as a tourist

while he was in high school.

There was indeed some retired cowboy actor

who dressed like Kit Carson and had postcards of himself,

and he would sign them in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater.

And O'Neil actually went down there to check to see

if the guy was still there and was still alive

because he would have used him in the film

if he was still there.

But that's kind of a sad scene

where Rory Calhoun is talking about

how he wants to retire to Arizona

and hanging out with Tom Mix,

and they tell him, "Tom Mix is dead."

And Tom Mix had died in 1940,

and this movie came out in 1983.

So that's an indication of how far gone

the Rory Calhoun character is.

He also talks about Franklyn Farnum.

Now, nobody remembers Franklyn Farnum,

but he actually holds the record for the number of films

that a single actor has worked in, 1,100 films,

and most of those were westerns.

Great thing about having Rory Calhoun play this

character, or the ironic thing really, is that Rory Calhoun has

two stars on Hollywood Boulevard,

one for film and one for TV.

So when they're filming these action scenes,

they're actually running across

Rory Calhoun's stars.

I talked about Rory once before.

Rory had done a lot of prison time

before he discovered acting.

He was an armed robber, jewelry stores, and car thief,

and he did time at San Quentin

and also at the Federal Pen in Springfield, Missouri.

He was a boxer, lumberjack, actual cowboy

on a ranch, truck driver.

But his life changed when he somehow got cast in

"Something For the Boys in 1944 opposite Carmen Miranda,

and he starred in a whole bunch of westerns.

Also, he was in a lot of mainstream movies, too,

like "How to Marry a Millionaire"

and "With a Song In My Heart."

And he has over a thousand TV episodes on his résumé.

He was considered one of the hottest guys in Hollywood

when he was young.

And when his wife divorced him, she listed by name 79 women

that Rory had committed adultery with.

And Rory's reaction to that was he thought

she was hurting his reputation by listing that few.

So anyhow, Rory would continue making movies

for 10 more years after "Angel."

His last film was "Pure Country" in 1992.

Okay, David, you hobnob with everybody in Hollywood.

You know a lot of actors,

you know a lot of producers and directors.

What would be the equivalent today

of a Franklyn Farnum or a Rory Calhoun,

a character actor who has hundreds of parts

and everybody wants him

because he always delivers and he's recognizable.

-A couple a couple of answers.

One I actually -- there's a great character actor

named Robert Longstreet, who pops up in a lot of movies

and actually is in "Halloween Kills",

that I've known for years.

He started -- the first time I saw him was in a movie

that Onur Tukel made called "Ding-a-ling-Less."

I don't know if you've seen that one,

but it's a classic.

About a guy with no dick.

And so I thought he was amazing in that movie,

and I worked with him in a tiny role in the film,

and I've seen him as a character actor pop up all over the place

and just really building an amazing career for himself.

So he's one that I'm really excited about enough

where I wrote a role for him in "Halloween Kills."

So it's fun to be able to kind of take

those legacy actors, you know, like, we have Charles Cyphers,

who's obviously been around forever, and we put him in it.

Nancy Stephens and some folks.

But then there's the new wave of actors that when they pop up,

you know, the movie is going to be good.

Guys like Richard Jenkins or someone, you know,

that he's rarely going to be the top name on the marquee,

although in "The Visitor" or something like that, he does.

But those guys that you just know they're going to be

quality in that.

I'd actually say, in "Angel",

who stands out to me as Susan Tyrrell.

-That's true, too, because --

-Her in "Fat City."

And just the movies she'd done. An amazing career.

Just such a distinctive voice and that face.

So when I was revisiting "Angel",

that one jumped out to me as like,

"That's someone that I wish

I'd had a chance to work with her in her lifetime."

-Yeah. Very, very versatile actress.

On the other end of the of the spectrum,

tell me about your work with Jamie Lee Curtis.

I guess I'll ask it like this.

How much did you talk between the two of you figuring out

just how crazy she is?

[Laughter]

-You know, we didn't put it in those terms,

but when when we first started talking about the role,

it was trying to come up with

what's what's been happening for the last 40 years?

And so thinking about how that character's evolved from 1978.

And so that was just really kind of a fun history.

You're not starting from scratch on a character.

You've got a great foundation of her youth that was

established by by her and John Carpenter

and Debra Hill, and then we got to fill in the blanks.

-But she has the mental patient hair.

You made the decision to go for the mental patient hair.

Was that your decision? -That was my --

You know, she is lovely and very fit

and wonderful head of hair.

We wanted to make it a little bit,

you know, we wanted the fray it.

Fray it a little bit.

-Okay.

By the way, in the movie we're watching,

the usher in the red leisure suit who throws

the killer out of the porn theater,

that is the co-screenwriter, Joe Cala, the sports caster.

So, David, you're obviously a fan of classic horror

because one project that I forgot

to mention earlier, you're also doing

a "Hellraiser" TV series, right?

-Right, yeah, just the early stages of putting that together

right now with HBO.

-Are you working with Clive Barker on that?

-He's just now -- I haven't communicated with him yet,

but apparently he's just now joined the project.

-All right.

-Haven't there already been 14 "Hellraisers"?

-Been a lot of "Hellraisers."

Some good, and some a little bit less than good.

-Have you watched them all?

-I have not watched all of them.

That's one of the -- I mean, that's a project that

I need to do a little bit more of my homework.

'Cause I was a huge fan of the first one.

And actually, and Clive Barker's original short stories

was really wonderful and inspiring to try to --

-Would Doug Bradley be involved at all in this?

-I like that idea.

But that's a complicated property, like a lot of these

titles that have evolved over the years with various

ownerships and relationships that some are good,

some aren't good.

So that's one that there's like

a movie project on one part of town

and then a TV series on another.

So trying to get clarity on --

-That thing got cut up into like 19 different pieces.

-It's like real estate with your siblings

when you inherit something.

You know, there's just all these different,

you know, who's who and what's what.

Who knows.

-I hear a lot of people say, you know,

the era of the feature film is dead

or nearing its end, and the future,

everything in the future is going to be long form

streaming, big content dumps.

So in effect, we're going to be putting out

10-hour movies all the time.

Where do you stand on that? Because you've done both.

You do longform series, and you do two-hour movies.

-I personally love an hour and a half movie

in the movie theater.

That's where I'm at home, more than my own house.

So when movies are over two hours, like,

you've really got to be Robert Altman

or Paul Thomas Anderson.

Their name has to deserve more than --

I like a 93 minute movie.

That's what I enjoy.

-But what are the big overlords with the money telling you?

What's the future?

-Well, that's what I don't understand,

because if you have your packet --

people aren't budgeting a script.

They're budgeting the package.

So there's the same amount of money

you're going to get to make a movie

that's two hours versus an hour and a half,

and you're going to have fewer days to --

You know, you have to do the math

and figure out what makes sense.

But like for me, it's take the budget that you're given

and try to maximize -- minimize the pages.

I like 85-, 90-page scripts.

That's what I try to make. -Okay.

-Because I know I'm going to do a lot of improvisation

and discoveries.

-So you would prefer to stick to feature films

rather than do these longform projects?

-I don't know that I have the attention span.

Like, right now, we're shooting "The Righteous Gemstones",

this HBO series, and it's a dream experience,

with all my favorite collaborators.

The shoot goes from March to October.

Fortunately, there's three of us are directing it,

so you get to break it up a little bit.

But that's a long time if you were going to --

like for Danny McBride, who's been my collaborator

for 25 years, like, for him, all day, every day.

We're not even talking about the writing

and development of the script,

but to talk to all day cultivate this narrative,

it's just so massive.

I like the idea of a 30-day shoot, a 90-minute movie.

-And then move on. -And then move on.

And then go do -- and then make your Western.

-All right.

Okay, your assignment right now, David,

is to carve the face of Jason Blum into that pumpkin.

-You got it. -Because Jason Blum,

the horror super producer, is coming out here later.

And we're going to show him whatever you carve.

And if you screw it up, he's going to call your agent

and complain.

[Laughter]

All right, back to the movie.

I had forgotten how much I liked this movie.

Although I was actually on Hollywood Boulevard in 1983,

and it was not a place you would visit to watch the yo-yo guy.

You know, it was more like,

"Oh, look, Hollywood and Vine."

You know, the heart of Hollywood.

Why is that guy peeing on that abandoned building?

So, and actually, the police would shut the whole area down

around 9:00 or 10:00 to fight the drug dealers,

and they would do a sweep

and get rid of all the lowlifes on the streets.

And that turned out to be a big problem

for Robert Vincent O'Neil when he was shooting the movie,

because if the sun doesn't set until 7:00,

you got an hour and a half to shoot on the actual boulevard

before it becomes a ghost town.

So what he would do is he would get master shots,

and then he would angle the camera away

from the stores on everything else.

And sometimes he had to resort to hiring extras

just so the sidewalks wouldn't look empty.

But he does a great job on it because every time they do that,

Hollywood Boulevard master shot like it's, hell yes!

They do some kind of music,

in the back of it, and it's, hell yes.

And, Darcy, you live there.

What is that like today at 9:00 or 10:00?

Hollywood Boulevard?

-It's pretty empty. -Really?

-Yeah. -No old cowboys telling stories?

-No, mostly just like rap artists selling their CDs

and homeless people.

-Okay, well, that counts.

That's street life.

I don't think it'd be a good idea to have elderly actors

out there brandishing weapons, though.

I mean, you know, Rory Calhoun on the Boulevard today,

you know, somebody screams "active shooter", and he's dead.

So he's an episode of "Forensic Files."

[Laughter]

[Static crackles]

-Really blew that.

-Time to pack it in.

Second time I had a scene like that in 15 years.

-What happened the first time?

-Come on, I'll take you in.

[Door opens]

Thanks a lot, Lieutenant Andrews.

I know.

I won't leave town without notifying you.

Isn't that the way it goes?

-Very good.

-[Chuckles] -I want to meet your mother.

-What? What, no!

Wait a minute, there's a law against illegal entry!

-Hey, this is really great!

-Why don't you go out and catch that killer?

You're not gonna find him in here.

-[Scoffs] I'm curious about something, Angel.

Or is it Molly?

That's your name, isn't it?

Molly Stewart?

Tell me something, Molly.

Why does 15-year-old straight-A honor student

who doesn't drink, doesn't take drugs,

never been arrested, and lives at home with her parents

work as a street prostitute, hm?

-You've been to my school, haven't you?

-Yeah, it's a good school. They think a lot of you.

-Yeah, well, I don't like people butting into my business.

-You work the street, you're fair game, kiddo.

Where's your mother? I want to speak to her.

-She doesn't want to speak with you!

She doesn't like cops either!

-In there, huh?

[Knocking]

Mrs. Stewart, my name is Andrews.

I'm with the police. I'd like to speak with you.

[Knocking]

Mrs. Stewart?

-Get away from there, you son of a bitch!

Haven't you ever heard of the Fourth Amendment?

-You mean the right of the people

to be secure in their persons against

unreasonable search and seizure shall not be violated?

Yes, I've heard of it.

Pardon me.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Pretty.

Nice.

I like the color.

Your dad?

How long has he been gone?

-Nine years.

-Where's your mom, Angel?

-"Molly.

Please try to forgive me.

I found somebody.

He's taking me to New York.

Don't think I'll be back.

Take care of yourself.

I'm sorry. Mom."

Knowing her, she probably got dumped in Cleveland.

It happened about three years ago.

One day I came home from school, and she was gone.

Just that note and a hundred dollar bill.

-You've been on the streets since you were 12?

-It was easy.

I just put on some sexy clothes and high heels

and went out and made a living.

-Jesus Christ.

-You still don't understand, do you, Andrews?

I was alone, I'm a minor!

They'd throw my ass in some court,

and then it'd be foster homes from then on.

I am not gonna be put in some foster home

or some institution or somebody else's home.

I am gonna stay right here

until my father comes back for me.

-Until your father comes back?

-Yes, damn it, until my father comes back.

-What makes you think he's coming back after nine years?

-My father will.

I know he will.

-So what are you gonna do now, lieutenant?

-I know what I should do.

I should turn you over to the juvenile authorities,

let them take care of you.

-So why don't you?

-I don't know.

Stay home, keep the door locked.

For Christ's sake, stay away from the goddamn street.

[Door closes]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-I've already made up my mind, Mae.

-I'm against it.

Dead set against it.

Somebody could get hurt, honey, you.

-You weren't there.

You didn't see the way that guy looked at me.

I'm not letting that freak get to me

like he did Crystal and Lana.

-Oh. -I don't know about you,

but I'm hungry. -Hungry?

How could you eat at a time like this?

-Watch.

-Whatever you got in that box would make me throw up.

Hm.

Oh.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Welcome to my home, ma'am.

-Wow!

This is really cool.

-[Chuckles]

-It's great!

This is where you live?

-Yep.

-What's this?

"Best of luck, Kit.

Keep them shooting irons of yourn hot,

especially the one in your pants.

Regards, Tom Mix."

Tom Mix? You really did know him!

-Well, you don't think I'd josh you

about a thing like that, do you?

Well, I'm gonna give you

a shooting iron lesson, little lady,

and I want you to listen real good,

'cause there ain't nothing to it.

First of all, you don't aim at all.

You pretend the barrel is your finger,

and you point it and you shoot it

just like you did when you was a kid.

[Imitates gun firing]

[Both laugh]

Well, that was the pretend part.

Now this here is the real part.

[Gunshots]

-I thought those were toys!

-What in tarnation would I be doing with toys?

These have got the firing pins in them and real bullets.

Now, these here are the bullets I use out on the street,

and they're fake.

-Oh.

-Now, let me see that pea shooter of yours.

Good God almighty. Hm.

♪♪

♪♪

-Lookin' good!

♪♪

-Whoo-hoo, look at those legs!

All aboard for beaver junction!

-I don't fuckin' believe it. Do you know who that was?

-That was Molly Stewart!

-She's a hooker.

-No shit!

-Let's pick her up.

-Hey, mama, I got what you're looking for.

-♪ Don't you agree? ♪

♪ Sweet ♪

-Come on, Molly. -Come on, hurry up!

-Let's go, Rick! -Come on!

-Go, go, go, go! -Wa-hoo!

[Tires squeal]

♪♪

♪♪

-Look, Rick, you've had your fun.

Now please let me go.

-Oh, you know, you're really one hell of an actress.

[Scoffs] You had us all fooled.

So sweet, so innocent. [Laughs]

-Oh, come on, Molly, show us your whisker biscuit.

[Laughter]

-Listen, you guys, if you know what's good for you,

you'll let me go right now.

-Oh, no, no, no!

We're gonna teach you a new meaning of gang bang.

-Please, wait, wait. You don't have to force me.

I'll do anything you want!

Look, I just don't want to get pregnant.

-Tough shit, bitch.

'Cause we don't use rubbers.

-Please, I've got some right here in my purse.

-Hey, Rick, maybe we should.

No telling what we might catch from this slut.

-Okay.

-I always keep them with me.

-[Giggles]

Ah!

-Go ahead, make your move,

but I'll blow his fucking brains out.

-Rick, don't anybody move!

Rick.

-Okay, you bastards, now get out of the car.

Get out of the goddamn car!

-Let's get out, Rick.

-She's bluffing.

-Oh, yeah?

[Gun fires]

[Screaming]

-Don't shoot, don't shoot!

-Please, please don't shoot me!

-Hey! -Don't shoot, don't shoot!

-Hey.

Look me up again, Rick.

When you're toilet trained.

-[Laughs]

[Static crackles]

-Okay, David, that's a very interesting Jason Blum,

but we're not going to show that to Jason, and I'll tell you why,

because we really want you to continue to make movies.

And I don't think we should really...

you know, we'll deal with this later.

-I'll take your advice on that.

-Okay, so we start to -- we're starting to see

the Angel who fights back.

You know, we have a great scene in the church.

And then, of course,

Rick the jock getting what he deserves when they try to --

they try to do a gangbang on Angel.

And also some very touching scenes with

the police lieutenant and with Dick Shawn as Mae West.

And all of this stuff was shot with a small Arriflex camera

that used a 400-foot magazine,

which means Robert Vincent O'Neil

only had a maximum of 3:20 20 seconds of film

in the camera at any time.

And he said it made master shots

on this thing virtually impossible.

And he was on such a low budget that he was, I don't know,

I've never heard of anybody doing this.

He would sometimes shoot all the close ups for future scenes,

something I've never heard of anybody doing.

But if he felt like he could, you know,

fake the close up in the location he was on.

But that way, he didn't have to break the lighting down later

and then rebuild it somewhere else.

So where did he learn to do all this?

He was on the crew of "Easy Rider."

The movie that made the Arriflex camera famous,

as well as the actors famous.

But even more amazing,

you know how we've talked about writers who become directors,

cinematographers who become directors,

studio executives that become directors.

Remember, "Hellraiser II" was a studio executive.

Special effects guys like Tom Savini who become directors.

Robert Vincent O'Neil is the only example I know of

of the prop guy becoming a director.

He was the property master on "Easy Rider."

But more important, he was the regular prop guy

for the director Richard Rush,

who is best known for "The Stuntman."

Actually best known to this audience for

"Hells Angels on Wheels."

But Robert Vincent O'Neil asked Richard Rush

if he could -- Robert Vince O'Neil

had been a still photographer, and so he asked Richard Rush

if he could look through the camera

when they were making a film called "Psych-Out",

which is a late '60s hippie movie.

And they developed a rapport.

And so he continued to learn from Rush,

and they also made a pretty good biker movie

called "The Savage Seven."

David, this had never occurred to me before this movie.

How important is the props guy?

-The props guy is essential in every way from

what the characters got to interact with,

what they've got in their pockets,

and then my own psychology.

Like, I send the props guy in for a lot of the dirty work.

Like, I work with this guy, Mick Flowers.

And he's done the last 10 years of my movies,

and he's like a resource of life

and like a guru in a lot of ways.

-Well, somebody has to take possession

of the Michael Myers mask, right?

Is that considered a prop or a costume?

-That is a special effects prop.

So it's two departments that handle the mask.

It's like we have our makeup effects

and our props department that will handle that.

-Does the mask change from film to film?

-It has changed between "Halloween" 2018

and "Halloween Kills."

It's got a little crispy.

-Oh, okay. -'Cause he got hot down there

in that basement.

But yeah, Christopher Nelson, our makeup guy,

does amazing artwork, trying to emulate the design

from the original film.

But it is a very sacred prop to have around.

-Oh, yeah, you got to have that.

How many masks do you have?

-Two. -Just two?

-Yeah, and you can't -- even the crew doesn't see it

until once the room is lit.

It's a very specific thing.

You don't want to see the mask outside of

its proper lighting environment.

-Okay.

After you've done with it, are you able to auction it off

for $100,000 or something?

-You can probably get a few pennies for that.

-You work with a lot of comedians.

What do you think of Dick Shawn in this movie?

-Oh, he's amazing in this movie. Yeah.

And just a very unexpected role and performance.

And again, I think with this ensemble of misfits,

it's just, he fits in there perfectly.

He's amazing.

-O'Neil said that Dick Shawn was allowed

to improv whenever he wanted to.

You let anybody do that on your films?

-Always. -You do let them improvise?

-Oh, always, yeah. -Okay.

Well, it caused problems on this movie because of the low budget.

He said, "Dick Shawn's brain works so fast

that he doesn't remember what he just said."

So he's kind of like Robin -- he was the Robin Williams

of his day, so they could never get him to do a scene

the same way twice to match the shots

because he had no impulse control

and he would always change it.

So he said he started shooting Dick Shawn with three cameras

just so he could cut it together later.

-But there's a tenderness to him, too.

Like, it's not just comedy for bits.

Like, I think that's the thing I find a lot in comedic actors

doing non-comedic work is that vulnerability,

because that comedy comes from a deeper place

than just wit, you know?

So I love, you know,

one of the great kills we have in the new "Halloween" movie

is this great stand up comic Lenny Clarke.

There's not a joke. I mean, I guess there is

like, one half funny thing he does,

but it's not about that.

It's just about finding the vulnerability that he has

that's so accessible because of his comic background.

-Right. Okay, David.

Well, this is a horror film,

I think, "Angel", because it's a serial killer story.

-Mm-hmm. -But it's mixing of genres.

So what would you call it? What genre is?

-I think it's a female vigilante movie.

So I'd put it with like "Peppermint."

-But you wouldn't put it with "Ms .45"

because those are -- that's a tough --

or "I Spit On Your Grave" or, you know.

-Would I put it with "I Spit On Your Grave"?

I might. -Really?

-Yeah. -She does turn,

and she does get mean,

you know, towards the killer.

Um, but, you know, such a petite little girl.

-And, also, I guess I'm also considering the franchise

of "Angel" because "Avenging Angel."

-Right. They get tougher. Betsy Russell gets tougher.

-Yeah, they switched who plays Angel, but yeah.

-All right. All right, David,

I want you to come back for our second feature

when we will really get into the meaning of Halloween

with your colleague from "Halloween Kills."

-This guy? -Who's depicted --

-This handsome devil right here.

-We will not be showing.

But right now, we're going back to the film.

So roll the film.

The executives at New World Pictures said

that Craig Safan saved this picture.

Craig Safan being the guy who did the music.

-Yeah.

-He was a last minute replacement, and so he had

to write record, mix, and deliver all the music

within about five days.

And he used a combination of synthesizer and orchestra.

He didn't really have to use the orchestra,

but he decided he wanted the synthesizer

for the Hollywood Boulevard scenes,

to get a hard sound, you know, like a danger,

perilous kind of sound.

But he thought you really needed orchestral music

for Angel at home and school,

because otherwise, you would not feel enough sympathy for her.

So he wrote that flute theme.

There's a flute theme for the character.

And then he assembled a small orchestra with strings

and brass and a few woodwinds to get the warm feel

that he wanted for Angel's moments of deep emotion,

one of which is heartbreaking and is coming up right now.

And so in the five days that he had to deliver this scene,

a lot of the time was spent writing out

all those orchestra parts by hand.

So pretty amazing.

Craig Safan is also known for his scores

on "The Last Starfighter",

"A Nightmare on Elm Street 4", and "Stand and Deliver."

But anyway, the suits at New World thought that

the picture would come off as too sleazy

without the Craig Safan score,

and they gave him a lot of credit for its success.

Of course, the other credit for its success should go to

Kathie Clark because she designed all those mini skirts.

[Laughter]

[Static crackles]

[Indistinct chattering]

[Giggling]

-Sarah, listen, did you hear about Molly Stewart?

-No, what?

-Rick Sawyer said she made it with all three of them.

-Oh, God, that's gross!

-Wait listen, that's not all.

He said, and I swear to God, she's a whore!

-Oh, no!

-Yeah, and she's hooking on Hollywood Boulevard.

-Oh, shit.

Oh, gee, I really liked her.

-Yeah.

-Miss Allen, I'm telling you what I saw is the truth!

-This is ridiculous.

I know this girl very, very well,

and what you're saying is absolutely impossible!

-Miss Allen, the girl is a prostitute

on Hollywood Boulevard.

-This is ridiculous.

-Molly, Molly.

-What is it, Wayne?

-I just wanted to ask you out.

-I told you, my mother won't let me out.

-No, no, no, look.

I've been saving this. It's $23.

It's all I've got.

Will it be enough?

♪♪

Molly?

-[Sobbing]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-I used to love going to school.

You know, I used to pretend

that I was just like everybody else.

Now they all know the truth.

You know, I've had sex with hundreds of men,

but I've never had anybody that loved me or held me.

I mean, not anybody that I wanted to be with.

I've never even had a boyfriend.

You know, I wake up every morning,

and I think, this is the last day I have to do this.

Today my dad's gonna come home.

-You still believe that?

-Nah.

Not anymore.

-You know, Angel, sometimes a guy meets a woman,

and he sees a new life for himself,

so he splits, cuts his ties with whatever he had.

Time goes by and comes a point

where he can't come back, no matter what.

It's not 'cause he doesn't love you.

-Then all I've done has been a waste, hasn't it?

-Nothing's a waste, kid.

Nothing.

-I feel so ashamed.

[Sobbing]

-Easy, kid.

Easy.

-[Humming]

What have you done to your hair?

Looks like an orangutan has been sitting on your face all night.

[Laughs]

Good, good, good.

Whee, oh.

Mm-hmm.

-[Humming]

-Grab it.

A queen, how sweet.

[Coughs]

Listen, kumquat.

I don't mind the smoke, but your breath is behind it.

Don't you ever inhale?

God.

-[Humming]

-What was that?

-What?

-This, you took this little thing

and moved it from here to here.

Now that's not nice.

It's called cheating, okay?

-How fuckin' dare you?

How fuckin' dare you, you cunt?

I don't have to cheat to beat the likes of you!

-You're not playing with blind Amy.

I saw you move the goddamn peg.

-You're hallucinating!

I'm gonna bite your goddamn falsies off.

Now play this game here.

[Mae chuckles]

You're stalling!

You owe me $147, see that?

-I owe you shit.

-Screw you, Lulu Bell!

-When I was a kid, my father warned me.

He said, "Rachel, don't ever play cards with a Jewish dyke.

They cheat!"

-Eat my puff, will you?

-Puff?

-[Bell dings] -Hello.

-One moment.

Look, unless you have an instant replay

and you can prove on that last move that I cheated,

you will continue this goddamn game!

-I don't need a camera. I have eyes. You cheat, cheat!

-[Bell dings] -Hello?

-Hold on to your jack jack!

Now listen, freeze everything there.

I know where every peg is!

I'll be right back.

What do you want?

-You have a Margaret Stewart here?

I'd like to see her, if you don't mind.

Molly Stewart is her daughter.

I'm her counselor at school, Patricia Allen.

-Yeah, well, now that woman's an invalid.

She don't see nobody.

-Yes, I understand, but would you ring her for me, please?

I'd like to find that out for myself.

-Ring her?

What do you think this is, a Biltmore?

You gotta wait till Molly gets home from school.

-I don't gotta do anything.

Now I would really like to speak to Mrs. Stewart.

What room is she in, please?

-Look, Miss hoighty-toighty.

The woman cannot answer the goddamn door

'cause she can't get out of her goddamn bed.

Is that goddamn clear enough for you?

-Well, if you give me the key,

then we won't have to inconvenience the woman now,

will we?

-You don't seem to understand, lady.

I can't just give someone the key to someone's apartment.

-Listen, fuckface.

I used to work for the city health department,

and you got so many violations in this flea trap

that one phone call downtown

will put your ass in court so fast

that you won't have time to wipe it,

let alone pull your pants up, do you get my drift?

Now you give me the goddamn key.

Thank you very much.

-Pssh! The fuckin' mouth on that broad.

-[Gasps] Oh.

-Hi, honey.

-Oh, um, I'm terribly sorry.

I didn't mean to disturb you.

I was looking for Mrs. Stewart.

I'll just check on... -Oh, no, no, no, no.

I am Mrs. Stewart. Please come in.

This is the right apartment. Lovely.

Now, I know what you're thinking.

All this talk about me being an invalid, you know?

Well, sometimes I am an invalid and sometimes I'm not.

It just comes and goes, and now it's all gone.

So won't you join me in sitting down

and a little conversation, please?

Thank you.

-Yes, the girls and I, I give a course on needlepoint,

and sometimes they get a little messy.

I must talk to the girls.

Now, what shall we talk about?

-Look, I don't know whose mother you are,

but you are definitely not Molly's.

-I'm not?

-No.

-You're right.

But I love her.

More than her mother ever did.

[People chanting, bells jangling]

♪♪

-What the hell?

Shit.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-We've got to get her off the streets.

We've got to find her a home.

-And soon.

Now, Mae, you know how much I care for Molly,

and I will do anything I can to help.

Now, you keep me posted, all right?

-Okay.

Here, let me help you out.

-Oh, by the way, what's your real name?

-Marvin.

Marvin Walker.

-Oh, well it has been a pleasure meeting you, Marvin.

-Thank you.

-I meant to ask you, that dress, Saks?

-I. Magnin's.

-Oh. Stunning.

-Thank you.

I got it on sale.

♪♪

[Dial tone beeping]

[Mae whistling]

-Who dyed your hair, dickface?

Hey, hey, now wait a minute now.

You got me all wrong.

I'm not a -- I'm not a girl, I'm a guy.

See this? What broad you even seen with hair like this, huh?

Look, look.

Phony tits.

You like impressions? I do a great Eddie Cantor.

How do you like this?

♪ You knew Susie like I know Susie ♪

Huh? Oh, before your time, of course.

Rock music, that's your bag, isn't it?

Listen to this...ah!

[Both grunting]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

My hair, my hair!

My luck, I got to get a bald head and fight him.

[Grunting]

Ah!

About your breath, ew, that stinks.

[Grunts]

[Dishes clatter]

[Grunting]

[Dishes clatter]

♪♪

Fuck with me!

Bitch!

[Both grunting]

[Canopy clatters]

Please!

-Oh, my God.

♪♪

Mae?

Darling.

Oh, no.

-Just my luck.

The last thing I'm gonna see in this world is your ugly face.

Christ.

-Oh, what are you doing?

-Dying, goddamnit, I'm dying.

Geez.

-You can't die, you owe me $147, you fuckin' faggot.

-Solly?

-What, darling?

-I don't want Angel to see me like this, okay?

Promise?

-Yes, I promise, you gorgeous broad.

-Thanks, baby.

-Oh, Jesus.

-Mae.

Darling?

Mae?

Sweetheart?

Don't go, darling, sweetie.

You gorgeous broad.

[Sobs]

[Static crackles]

-Oh, man, this movie just keeps topping itself.

That hellacious fight between the drag queen

and the fake hare krishna serial killer goes on for

a long time, and they break a lot of furniture.

They take some real hits.

Dick Shawn did all his own stunts in that scene.

He refused a stunt man, worrying the director

because he had a lot more scenes to shoot after that.

But to me, the sickest thing in the movie

or the lowest point in the movie,

even lower than the attempted jock gangbang,

is when nerdy Keith walks up to her and says,

"I have $23, it's all I have. Is that enough?"

And she just breaks inside.

She has nowhere to go, nowhere to turn.

All right, I haven't talked about Cliff Gorman.

Cliff Gorman is actually the star of the movie.

He's top billed above Donna Wilkes

and all those celebrity stars like Susan Tyrrell.

Actually, let's talk about Susan Tyrrell first.

Susan Tyrrell, who David mentioned earlier,

she was the go-to actress on stage and on screen

whenever you needed a dysfunctional character,

a really interesting whack job,

you know, a harridan, a gypsy, a grotesque, profane woman.

She could have played Aileen Wuornos

if the part had been available at the time.

She got an Oscar nomination for "Fat City" in 1972

as the lowlife alcoholic girlfriend of Stacy Keach.

Stacy Keach, played a washed up boxer, John Houston movie.

She was 38 when "Angel" was made.

She continued to work all the time into her 50s, really,

and then she got a rare disease that forced doctors to amputate

her legs below both knees.

But even after that, she had a writing career

and a painting career.

One of the really interesting character actors

of that entire era.

And Cliff Gorman, who plays Lieutenant Andrews,

was also an acclaimed stage actor.

He was a New Yorker who started out

in the American Theater Laboratory,

which was Jerome Robbins' outfit,

and his big breakout role was playing

the super flamboyant character Emery in

"The Boys in the Band."

He won an Obie for that.

And then he reprised that role

in the William Friedkin film version in 1970.

He was almost as famous for his one man stage show,

though, as Lenny Bruce.

He won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award

for that show on Broadway.

When they made the movie,

they gave his part to Dustin Hoffman.

So he did Lenny Bruce again in "All That Jazz",

if you remember that movie.

He played a lot of psychos and sleazes and tough guys.

He was really good in "The Bunker."

Anthony Hopkins was Hitler, and Cliff Gorman

was Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda,

the PR guy for the Third Reich.

Also great at comedy.

He was nominated for another Tony in 1977

for the Neil Simon play "Chapter Two."

Almost his whole career was on stage,

which is why he's not better known today.

Died of leukemia at the age of 65 in 2002.

Okay, we're moving on to the truly inspired

conclusion to "Angel."

And while you're watching, I'm probably going to

sledgehammer 10 or 20 of these pumpkins.

'Cause I've decided I don't really like the whole

jack-o-lantern thing.

I'm just doing it so we won't be totally lame.

And actually, I know what I'll do.

I'm going to carve Emmanuel Macron,

the leader of France, into this pumpkin,

and at the final break, I'm going to reveal

what Emmanuel Macron would look like after

he meets up with Navy SEAL Team 6

when we invade France.

If you know what I mean, and I think you do.

Okay. Roll the movie.

And you know what really brings back the memories

when I watch "Angel"?

All that hare krishna stuff.

You know, it's true.

You would see those bald headed guys in the saffron robes

with the tambourines all the time, everywhere.

I was never sure exactly what they believed in,

but they would offer you this book

if you talked to them.

Looked like a plaid unicorn threw up on it.

I don't know what was in that book.

I mean, just the cover of the book screamed,

"Never read this book."

And they would always be in hippie places, you know,

parks with a lot of weed sales, places like that.

And they had that hit song, "My Sweet Lord."

Remember George Harrison song. Remember that? George Harrison.

George Harrison went hare krishna.

And I don't think he ever shaved his head.

Maybe he did, because you never saw pictures of George Harrison.

But anyway, the hare krishnas lived in communes.

And the main one they put up was in West Virginia.

That is bold, man.

I wonder if they still have that green and gold book, though,

because that was brutal.

I was afraid of that book, and I love books.

[Laughter]

[Static crackles]

[Dial tone beeping]

♪♪

♪♪

-You don't want to go in there.

You don't want to go in there!

In the bedroom, officer.

Believe me, you don't want to see it, honey.

Just stay here.

You stay right here.

-Answer is 257.

-Angel!

Angel, Angel!

Officer?

Officer!

-Need a full team here right away.

-Officer, she's got my gun!

-Kit, Angel, you seen her?

-Oh, no, I haven't.

-She's on the street, and she's got a gun.

-Good lord almighty! -All right, you take

that side, I'll go this way. -All right.

[People chanting, bells jangling]

-Hey!

Angel, look out!

-Angel, hey, Angel!

[Tires squeal]

[Gun fires]

-Out of my trunk, asshole!

[Gun firing]

[Tires squeal]

[People clamoring]

-Get out of the way!

[People shouting]

[Gun fires]

[Screaming]

-Hold it!

-[Guns clicking] -Oh, shit!

[Gun fires]

[Guns firing]

-Kit, you okay?

-Help Angel.

[Gun firing]

-Angel, get back. Leave him to me!

Listen to me, kid.

Angel?

Angel.

-[Screams]

[Gun fires]

[Screams]

[Guns firing]

[Spurs clinking]

-It...

It hurts.

It hurts.

-♪ You've got something sweet ♪

♪ You've got what I need ♪

♪ Come to me ♪

♪ Can't you see? ♪

♪ You'll agree ♪

♪ We can make it, you and me ♪

♪ We can make it, yes, you'll see ♪

♪ You've got something nice ♪

♪ And you'll do something right, right, right, right ♪

♪ Come to me ♪

♪ Can't you see? ♪

♪ Don't you agree? ♪

♪ We can make it, you and me ♪

♪ We can make it, yes, you'll see ♪

♪ You make me feel so right ♪

♪ I'll make you feel so right ♪

♪ You'll make it feel so right ♪

♪ Tonight ♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪ You've got something sweet ♪

♪ And you've got what I need, need, need, need ♪

♪ Come to me ♪

♪ Can't you see? ♪

♪ Don't you agree? ♪

♪ We can make it, you and me ♪

♪ We can make it, yes, you'll see ♪

♪♪

♪ Sweet ♪

♪♪

♪ Sweet ♪

[Static crackles]

-And so Angel walks out of the alley with two fathers now.

Or I guess one father and one grandfather.

Two men who have actually suffered wounds saving her.

But she is a genuine final girl.

If it were not for Angel's determination to track down

the killer while everybody is telling her not to do it,

there would be no final confrontation,

he would continue with his hunt for hookers.

And I don't know about you, but a little girl with a big gun

chasing a hare krishna body builder all the way from

one end of Hollywood Boulevard to the other,

then watching him wither into fear and weakness

and die as he says his only two words of dialogue,

"it hurts", is what I call extremely satisfying cinema.

Also, did you notice on the credits,

the craft services credit?

Craft services means the guy who sets out the coffee and snacks

for the actors and crew.

That guy was Dave DeCoteau,

who would go on to direct 174 films,

but this was his first credit of any kind.

Dave DeCoteau directed

"Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama",

which we had on the original "Last Drive-In" marathon,

as well as three of the "Puppet Master" movies

untold ultra low budget gems.

Donna Wilkes, who played Angel, had an interesting career.

It's a little bit parallel with Angel's.

She grew up half in Spanish Harlem

and half in the Dominican Republic,

and her parents had divorced when she was 3 months old,

and at age 15, she moved to Los Angeles

and lied about her age to support herself

as a computer operator and a secretary.

So she started auditioning for parts,

and she got a few small parts,

and she ended up under contract to Norman Lear,

who put her in the series "Hello, Larry."

She was actually working as a recurring character

in "Days of Our Lives" at the time she was cast

in "Angel", and she gave up her soap role to make this movie.

She also posed as a hooker on Sunset Boulevard

so that she could meet the real hookers as research,

and she came across a girl who had been working

the streets since the age of 8.

She had stories that she told the writing team,

but they were just too horrific to put in the movie.

After this job, she starred in quite a few TV movies

before leaving the business in the early '90s

to raise her daughter.

Robert Vincent O'Neil would end up directing eight movies,

including the 1985 sequel

"Avenging Angel", which was not nearly as good.

Betsy Russell replaced Donna Wilkes as Angel.

There was a second sequel in 1988 --

"Angel III: Final Chapter", with yet another actress

playing Angel, and it was even worse than the second one.

So I should also mention Graem McGavin,

the actress who played Lana, the second dead hooker.

She was also in "My Tutor" and "Weekend Pass",

but she quickly left the business.

She only got into the business

because her dad is Darren McGavin.

And I almost forgot, the cinematographer on "Angel"

was Andrew Davis.

This would be his last movie as a camera guy

because he became a big shot Hollywood director.

He's the director of "The Fugitive"

and a bunch of '80s thrillers like "Code of Silence",

"Above the Law", "Under Siege",

"Collateral Damage" with Schwarzenegger.

He became the go to guy for Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal.

So "Angel" grossed $17 million on a $1 million budget,

but it only won one award -- Best Feature

at the San Francisco International Lesbian

and Gay Film Festival.

Okay, Darcy, come on. Great cosplay, Darcy.

Wow. -Thank you.

-Are you supposed to be Angel

on Hollywood Boulevard or Angel in high school?

That could go either way.

-A little bit of both.

-Yeah, brilliant.

See, that's why you're the best mail girl ever.

-Aw, thank you.

-Did you bring any mail?

-I brought mail and trophies.

-And by the way, have you been carving your pumpkin?

Because we're supposed to be carving these pumpkins.

-I have. -Yeah?

-Guess who it is.

-Vincent Price.

-No, it's Elvira. I love her.

-Okay, well, I was close.

-I guess.

All right. Well, remember the "Ah Scares" awards?

-Yes. "Ah Scares" being they're like, really lame version

of the Oscars.

-Really brilliant.

-I mean, the well, "Ah Scares."

To me, it indicates it's the horror version

of the Oscars, and we won a couple

of them last year, right?

And they're like the golden raspberries, though?

Isn't it a little ironic?

-No, it's nothing like that.

It's real horror fans honoring people in the horror world.

Just read this letter, sir.

-Okay.

From the Ah Scares? This is from the Ah Scares?

"To Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy the mail girl.

Joe Bob, last year when you won the Lifetime Achievement

in Horror Award, you joked about winning Horror Hottie."

Yeah, I remember I grabbed your Ah Scares trophy

and pretended that they sent to me the Horror Hottie trophy.

Okay. -Wow.

-"Well, people wondered why you didn't really win that award.

So this year, you were nominated and voted on

by the horror committee of the Ah Scares

a committee made up of many horror tubers,

horror podcasters, horror convention panelists,

horror authors and screenwriters and independent filmmakers.

You have been awarded Male Horror Hottie of 2020.

Congratulations and thank you for making "The Last Drive-In."

The hottest show out there.

[Laughter]

-Congratulations!

-This is an extremely -- oh, look.

Are you sure this is -- look at this statue.

This is -- Well, that's me at the club, you know?

But Ah Scares.

-It says "Male Horror Hottie."

-All right. All right.

-"Danny Nightmare and Gory B-movie,

the horror addicts.

Darcy, you were nominated and voted on by

the Secret Horror Committee of the Ah Scares.

And once again, you have been awarded

Female Horror Hottie of 2020.

Congratulations and thank you for making "The Last Drive-In",

the hottest show out there, two times in a row.

Danny Nightmare and Gory B-movie, the horror addicts.

The drive-in will never die.

And they're in Wenatchee, Washington.

-They sent blood that you have to pour over the statues.

-All right. -For the full effect,

-We're going to do that later. -No, we're going to do that now.

-Really? Okay. -Right now. Ready?

Horror Hottie of the Year! Whoa!

-Wait. Okay. You really have to do that?

You cannot be a hottie at my age anyway.

-Um, if they are hottie, you're a hottie.

It was voted on. -All right.

-Let's move on from this.

Please bring a real letter for the next movie.

All right?

-You aren't even going to thank the Ah Scares Academy?

-All right. Thanks. Thanks, guys.

You know, next time I'm out on the West Coast,

we'll go out for squirrel meat and craft malt liquor,

the next time I'm in Wenatchee.

Where is Wenatchee?

-I'll accept that, in the spirit of Halloween.

-Okay. What is the spirit of Halloween?

-We're the spirit of Halloween. This show.

-Oh, my God. Okay. Then Halloween's in trouble.

Okay, the next movie -- the next movie is going to

bail us out and --

-[Laughs] Will it?

-Yeah, yeah, I hope so.

And David Gordon Green -- will you take this, please?

-It's an honor.

-David Gordon Green will be back,

plus another luminary of the horror industry.

-Oh, man, I cannot wait for that.

-And in the meantime, this is Joe Bob Briggs reminding you

that if you ever start thinking you're a person with influence,

try ordering somebody else's dog around.

The drive-in will never die.

You know, there aren't that many good Halloween jokes.

-Good.

-Why wouldn't the bartender give the ghost a drink?

Because they don't serve spirits.

[Groaning]

-Right.

-What do you call two witches living together?

Broom mates.

[Groaning]

-See, I told you!

-[Laughs] You really did not have to prove it to us, though.

-Why don't vampires feed on retirement homes?

Everybody's on a blood thinner.

[Laughter]

-All right. -Y'all can't laugh at that one.

-What did the monster say to Dr. Frankenstein?

You complete me.

-[Sighs]

-See, sometimes you can overcome quality, though,

with just sheer volume, you know, rapid fire.

-You actually can't.

-What what is the witch say at

the Department of Motor Vehicles?

As a matter of fact, I candrive a stick.

[Laughter]

What do you call a teenage ghost who just lays

on the couch all day?

Paranormal inactivity.

Where does a ghost go on vacation?

Mali-boo.

-I think you've proven your point. You can stop.

-What is a panda ghost eat?

-Bam-boo?

-How did you know that? -I'm just good.

-You know the answer to the joke?

I mean, I guess I should stop.

-Yeah, you should.

-What did one ghost say to the other ghost?

Do you believe in people?

-[Laughs]

-What?!

You didn't like that one either?

-Got a fan over there. -Okay.

[Laughter]

[Static crackles]