A Matter of Taste The Taste Testers

SPOILERS FOR HALLOWEEN (1978) & HALLOWEEN (2018) Listen: http://archive.org/download/amot102/AMOT102.mp3 In this episode: Halloween is one of those rare examples where the first real demonstrable example of a genre also codifies it. Halloween and John Carpenter have the audacity to just have Michael Myers just standing there in the middle of the day. The parallels this film draws between Laurie and Michael are really intriguing. The new Halloween strikes an interesting balance, as one can’t just pretend that 40 years of movies don’t exist. This is the Song Exploder episode that Ian is talking about. http://songexploder.net/halloween We have a pretty lean season for horror this year.* This flick has a lot of complicated, complex thoughts on the notion of legacy. Halloween 2k18 strikes a nice balance in paying homage to the original without clinging to it too tightly. The interplay and complexities of the generational relationships in this flick are pretty interesting to examine. We have a brief discussion about what we’re hoping for out of these sequels. The sense of normalcy and realism is key to what makes the Halloween films work. THERE'S ALWAYS AN ADDENDUM: Managed to get this one out on Halloween! Just in time for everyone to be out at Halloween parties and not have any time to listen to it, natch. *Somehow The Lighthouse was not on either of our radars when we had this discussion. Music: Intro: "Full Moon Fever" - Ramshki Alley | STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES | Outro: "This is My Design" - Ian Doherty | Bandcamp |

SPOILERS for everything IT (book, miniseries, movies, etc.) Listen: http://archive.org/download/amot101/AMOT101.mp3 In this episode: TW: A Lot of Suicide Talk (Comes up briefly at 54:30, then we tangent a bit and get back to it from 1:10:00 - 1:17:20) Man we take a while to get back into a Matter of Taste. Also FUCK this episode is 101, we couldn’t have scripted that absence. Also FUCK our 100th episode was Fire Walk With Me? Hella. Hey, only a couple minutes in we announce that our discussion will involve SPOILERS for a story released 33 years ago, then again then again like 29 years ago, then again like 2 years ago, and then again like early September. Ian brings up how important the visual consistency and coherence is to selling the emotional resonance of the story Oh boy, let’s talk about the Ritual of Chud I talk a lot about the way that Pennywise’s existence has bled into the town of Derry, but I want to emphasize that I don’t think hatred, racism and homophobia are supernatural forces, I understand that the existence of Pennywise in this small-not-small, prosperous-not-prosperous small town is a metaphor Let’s talk about Pennywise and IT and how the different interpretations reflect the priorities of the flicks versus the movies. THERE'S ALWAYS AN ADDENDUM They’re apparently considering a prequel which is f****n wild. I have an idea for the best version of these movies, but I don’t know how you cut it together with all they’ve done with Native American stereotypes and throwing Mike under the bus So the good news is that we’ve been out so long that there’s a ton to cover. Stay tuned for updates! Music:Intro: "Full Moon Fever" - Ramshki Alley | STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES | Outro: "This is My Design" - Ian Doherty | Bandcamp |

SPOILERS FOR TWIN PEAKS SEASONS 1 & 2 and TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (1992), including THE MISSING PIECES (deleted/extended scenes from the film). In this episode: IMPORTANT NOTE: This episode was recorded BEFORE Twin Peaks: The Return began airing, so you won't hear us discussing anything from the new series (besides the casting news released a while ago)--for better or for worse. We return to the world of Twin Peaks for our 100th episode! Listen as we discuss the 1992 prequel movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, and all the weirdness it has to offer. The weirdness is pretty dense in Fire Walk With Me, giving you a much more concentrated dose of what you get throughout the series. Ian gets a bit into the expanded content and additional material on the Blu-ray Entire Mystery box set. We dance around a bit talking about the kind of ineffable, cosmic horror parts of Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks is very likely a weirdness magnet in the same storied company as Derry, Maine and Gravity Falls, Oregon The show/film is incredibly esoteric in the way in attempts to communicate meaning and does little to alleviate that. Fire Walk With Me doesn’t quite function as a single unit, it needs to come after the series to stand on its own. We don’t always understand where Lynch is going with things, but we trust him to do it well. We talk a little bit about shades of interpretation and the how the number of people involved in a film production can change the reading of a character. Ian wants it to be known that he’s not an expert in Zen Buddhism Sheryl Lee and Ray Wise are amazing together. Twin Peaks is effective because it’s so focused. We want to learn more but learning more about that world would dilute the focus. THERE'S ALWAYS AN ADDENDUM: Apologies for the lateness of this episode once again. I (Ian) just got a new job, so editing fell to the wayside for a bit. I also have watched the first four episodes of the new series, and holy crap, is it David Lynch-y. As we mentioned on the episode: THIS IS NOT THE END! We already have ideas for upcoming episodes. Keep an eye out for them! Music: "This is My Design" - Ian Doherty | SoundCloud | Bandcamp | http://archive.org/download/AMOT100/AMOT100.mp3

SPOILERS FOR RESIDENT EVIL 7 & 4. In this episode: We're back this month to discuss Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. Fio's a long-time RE fan, and Ian got to play both the demo and the game on PSVR, so there's quite some ground that gets covered. It’s good having someone doing something in the style of P.T. since Konami has no interest in games anymore, apparently. While there are definitely complaints to be made about some samey-ness in the monster design, the Baker villains were all very well crafted and they exude character in their appearances. The setpieces in this game are really strong, especially the house. As mentioned the Bakers are also really strong/well-realized monsters and characters. The story, to be charitable, is not so much. In the opening act of the game, uh, you get f****d up bad. You get fucked up real bad. This game is just really well paced and plotted and all around a solid outing, which is definitely refreshing after the mess that was Resi 6. We talk briefly about competing philosophies in terms of how developed your main characters should be in games. Ian found a cool couple of Behind the Scenes featurettes on YouTube (SPOILERS): Part One: Beginning Hours Part Two: Welcome to the Family THERE'S ALWAYS AN ADDENDUM: Next is our 100th episode! Also...just about...our five four year anniversary? Daaaaaaamn. Also, the first teaser for the new adaptation of Stephen King's It was just released, and we're both excited. Music: "This is My Design" - Ian Doherty | SoundCloud | Bandcamp | http://archive.org/download/AMOT099/AMOT099.mp3

   SPOILERS FOR YOU'RE NEXT (2011), THE GUEST (2014), AND BLAIR WITCH (2016). In this episode: WE'RE ALIIIIIIIIIIVE! And back to discuss three movies from director Adam Wingard: You're Next (2011), The Guest (2014), and Blair Witch (2016). You're Next (2011) The home invasion genre and the ways it clashes with the usual American horror flick philosophy We discuss the relative groundedness of You’re Next. It’s probably up to your own threshold of groundedness interpretation. I (Fio) start off talking about Home Invasion flicks having a kinship with Japanese horror and then take for-goddamn-ever to get back around to what I mean. Man, how good was 10 Cloverfield Lane, though? The Guest (2014) Thanks to podcast listener Kate for recommending this movie to us in the first place! We start tackling The Guest and the Politics of Handsomeness. Also, Ian desperately hopes this was a werewolf film. Again, we get into a discussion of the relative groundedness of the film and how many steps we are away from our own universe in this film. Blair Witch (2016) Everyone in the Blair Witch movies is in film school. Just make peace with this from the get-go. We compare the slow-burn, unscripted nature of the original Blair Witch to the slicker, more “hollywood” Blair Witch 3. We get our Doug Jones jokes out, but rest assured they come from a place of love. Ian talks about Resident Evil 7 for a few minutes while Fio desperately tries not to die. Also: listen to the end of the podcast for "Trespasser," a song from Ian's recently released solo album, Stepping Stones! THERE'S ALWAYS AN ADDENDUM: Apologies for the long, unannounced hiatus. We plan on being back on a monthly basis for the foreseeable future. We're approaching our 100th episode! Let us know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see us do for it. From Fio: My sneezing and sniffling is goddamn disgusting. Our hideous meat bodies are truly a blight on this planet. Nothing to do with the podcast, but sniffling while I’m listening to myself sniffle on the recording and having them line up is a really bizarre experience. Music: "This is My Design" - Ian Doherty | SoundCloud | Bandcamp | "Trespasser" - Ian Doherty | Bandcamp | http://archive.org/download/AMOT098/AMOT098.mp3

SPOILERS FOR STRANGER THINGS SEASON 1. In this episode: We discuss the first season of Netflix's Stranger Things, including the casting, the writing, the influences, and holy crap this show is so much fun to talk about. We open with our first impressions of Stranger Things and overall thoughts on the series. We spend a good bit talking about and speculating about Season 2 just in time for io9 to publish an article telling people to stop talking about Season 2 lest they ruin it, so that’s killer timing. We start talking about DnD, which could have really dominated the podcast but thankfully we winged away from it really quick. Another aside about Haven, but only to illustrate how well Stranger Things handles the characters’ handles on its various supernatural elements. We talk about the different stories being told in Stranger Things and the successes and pitfalls of that particular approach. The show never loses sight of its humanity, which is definitely one of its strengths. Next month: WITCHES, including (finally) our thoughts on The Witch (2016). THERE'S ALWAYS AN ADDENDUM: From Fio: I misspoke when I said that the party in The Mummy is composed of a Ranger, Wizard, Paladin, and Bard, it’s clearly a Ranger, Wizard, Fighter, and Bard, Brendan Frasier doesn’t multiclass until the sequel. Music: "This is My Design" - Ian Doherty | SoundCloud | Bandcamp | http://archive.org/download/AMOT097/AMOT097.mp3