Shoppin' for a Boomstick with J. R. Hikel (3xtC)
Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.
beat poet:But there is nothing else. Life is an obscure oboe bumming a ride on the omnibus of art.
AP Strange:Among the misty corridors of pine, and in those corridors I see figures, strange figures. Welcome back, my friends, to the AP Strange Show. I am your host, AP Strange. This is my show, and today's show is brought to you by S Mart. We're getting some really good corporate sponsors these days and S Mart is the perfect place to go especially if you're in the market for any manner of boomstick.
AP Strange:Boomsticks galore at S Mart. So go check them out. They have all kinds of other goods, housewares I'm told. So go check out S Mart for all your shopping needs. And if you want something a little spookier to shop for tonight's guest is a wonderful person to go see.
AP Strange:He's a local business owner local to me in Central Massachusetts. JR Haikel is the shop owner of JR Spooky Shack and a lifelong horror fan enthusiast and the guy that knows lots about lots of horror stuff and merchandise and I was in his shop recently met him and we got to talking and I'm like this guy would be fun as hell to talk movies with and I said JR if you could pick a movie and he had a couple options but he's like what about army of darkness and I said oh My eyes lit up and I was like, army of darkness. You got it. Let's do that. So welcome to the show, JR.
AP Strange:Hey.
J. R. Hikel:Thanks, man.
AP Strange:Yeah. Thanks for coming on.
J. R. Hikel:Yeah. I'm pumped to be here. I questioned about your sponsor though of S Mart. I went in there the other day and they had this whole setup of really cheap, gaudy plastic jewelry that they said would be really good to give to your girlfriend in a cabin in the woods. Any ideas on that?
AP Strange:I would probably just trust it. I mean, like, I'm not big on trusting, like, multinational corporate entities, but S Mart is supplying me with imaginary dollars this week, so I kind of am obligated not to be too disparaging about them. I have to say that the boomstick I got from them is working out rather well.
J. R. Hikel:There we go. There we go. Now let's trust a good cashier with a chin too, so you're in good hands.
AP Strange:Yeah. A chin and some scars on his face and only one hand. So yeah I'm glad you picked this one because for whatever reason for third time's the charm when I came up with the concept I'm sure I'm sure I've thought of army of darkness before as an option, but I thank you for suggesting it because I was like, oh, yes. Like, it's time to revisit that one in these dark times. Like, it's a great movie to watch.
J. R. Hikel:It is. It's just it's like a fun summary movie despite it despite, like, a subject matter. And it's not one you think about a whole lot when you think of a a third sequel because it feels so alienated and separated from the franchise despite the fact that all of, like, evil dead and everything that's come after army of darkness, it's all baked right into army of darkness, but you just don't it doesn't feel like a third one. It feels like it's own movie.
AP Strange:Yeah. It really does. It's a huge I mean, we've we've covered some movies that were kind of a huge departure as the second sequel like Halloween three but this one does it in a in a way that's veering away from horror almost altogether. Right. Where it goes straight into comedy but this last time around watching it I'm like this has everything though it's like a satire of swashbuckling adventure like ash himself becomes this like action hero come swashbuckling adventure slash leading man slash buffoon, like slapstick actor.
J. R. Hikel:You know? So It's it's funny you say that because each of those are their own separate entity, but each of those also exist within one of the actors who played the three stooges. I don't just mean Larry, Moe, and Curly. I also mean Shemp, Curly Joe, and Joe Vester. And Bruce Campbell does all six of those dudes throughout the movie.
J. R. Hikel:In Dale's, they're perfect. Like, it it's it's the best Three Stooges movie I've ever seen that wasn't straight at Three Stooges. Like, he's pretty much quoting Moe for half of his dialogue throughout the movie. It's wild.
AP Strange:Yeah. Actually, you're speaking my language now, and I can't believe I never put that together. So I'm a huge Stooges fan. But you're absolutely right because he's like, why? I ought to, you know, and he's
J. R. Hikel:doing that. Dude, the the fight with you and the three little mini games is this straight up Stoogey, including the my fair lady bit. That is, like, verbatim from the episodes.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah.
J. R. Hikel:And even like the it's a little bit of, like, Curly talking in beginning. I said, yeah. See? Yeah. He's going around with the gun.
J. R. Hikel:He's just one goofy voice away. Like, the more we watched it last night, all I could see was, like, Stooges references.
AP Strange:Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm thinking of, let's see. Like, after he pulls the fork out of his butt in the wind windmill scene after he gets hit with that, and he's doing he is kinda, like, like, almost crying. He's like, oh, you like, that's totally Joe Besser.
AP Strange:I can see that.
J. R. Hikel:He like, does the stooges I don't even like. I don't like Joe Besser. Don't like Curly Joe, but he's doing them. And even, like, the background bits are like, sword boy, come here. The guy just comes over and kneels to get the sword ready for him.
J. R. Hikel:That is absolutely something you'd see in the background of one of the episodes.
AP Strange:Yeah. That cracks me up this time around because, like, I I was like, I'm cutting loose. I'm watching this one, and I'm just gonna I'm just gonna let the laughs out watching it. You know? Because I've seen it so many times.
AP Strange:None of it surprises me anymore. Right. Like, you know, sword boy, and then he goes Great. Pull the sword. He just, like, kicks the guy.
AP Strange:Like, the guy falls over.
J. R. Hikel:Now was sir was sword boy also the arrow boy from later in the film? I didn't I was trying to watch it. Didn't catch it.
AP Strange:Yeah. I don't know. They didn't show him long enough. But
J. R. Hikel:They do mention arrow boy. I'm like, please be the same dude, but I'm a
AP Strange:Right. But yeah. I mean, overall, I don't think Bruce Campbell gets enough credit for the physical comedy that he does. And then maybe it's just so over the top that I mean, maybe he does. Maybe that's why he has such a cult following and other people love him.
AP Strange:But it's the the ability to do that. And I I was always more impressed by Evil Dead two where he's getting beat up by his own hand. Like, that's that's a really weird thing to have to pull off in, a low budget, like, kind of indie flick.
J. R. Hikel:Oh, yeah.
AP Strange:He does it really well. And, like, the the physics of it doesn't work. Like, how does he get dragged by his own hand or, like, pulled somewhere by his own hand? Like, where's the leverage? You know?
J. R. Hikel:Yeah. Candarian demons involved. The whole the whole idea of logic and physics are right out the window.
AP Strange:Yeah. Absolutely. But, yeah, I mean, that that graveyard scene with the eye pokes and the classic sound effect, of course, that's directly Stooges.
J. R. Hikel:Yeah. The whole thing.
AP Strange:And he does the Larry fine putting his hand between his eyes so that he can block it and has one come from either direction. And, the coupe de grace in that scene for me that cracked me up this time around is as he's pulling himself off the ground, he has a skeleton fist in his mouth and he's trying to pull himself up. One more hand comes out just to punch him right in the groin.
J. R. Hikel:And immediate vomit. Immediate vomit gag two seconds later. It was like the the timing of that movie was nuts. And like the the practical effects they did with were what was sorry. With what was quite clearly a shoestring budget is wild.
J. R. Hikel:Like, I know that KNBFX is one of the biggest names in effects, especially from that era, but I think that this was their high watermark. This was Greg Nicotero's, like, biggest, finest thing. I I would tie I would the only thing I'd put close to would be from dusk till dawn for their practical effects, but dollar for dollar, if you ask me for a good example of KNB, it's army of darkness all of them.
AP Strange:Yeah. And I mean, that was something where this is a movie I've watched since, like, my teen years a million times and never really, like, looked at the credits too hard. You know? Other than Bruce Campbell, it's like I never really looked into it too much. And you mentioned Greg Nicotero, and I'm like, oh, yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah. I didn't even realize that because, you know, pre Walking Dead, I didn't really know who he was. But
J. R. Hikel:Dude, Nicotero's credits pre Walking Dead are nuts. He was like Romero's right hand man for the longest time after Savini. Like, the, land of the dead had it was a good split between Savini's, like, super visceral gore effects and KNB's almost more fun, but still gross effects that they had at the same time.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, I'm starting to only just put together the legacy of of Nick Otero with that stuff because we got I covered day of the dead on this very show with with Brian White of the bring bring me the axe podcast. And he kind of mentioned we talked about him a little bit because he's in that movie, like, for a minute. Nick Otero's in it and gets eaten. Yeah.
AP Strange:So yeah. But, yeah, I was never really all that aware of him. I mean, I guess for a lot of horror and stuff, didn't really pay attention to the cast as much. And in this one, the most recent watch, the surprise to me was, wait a minute, that wise man looks familiar. And I had to look it up, and I I feel stupid looking it up.
AP Strange:I'm like, that's mister Pitt from Seinfeld. Yeah. The
J. R. Hikel:movie's full of such random little tidbits. Like, did you pick up on Bill Mosley being in it?
AP Strange:I never did until you mentioned it. See, this is what I'm talking about. I never I I've always just loved this movie and thought it was perfect and, I guess, had no reason to, like, question things.
J. R. Hikel:Yeah. Because it is. It is just fun. I I don't usually like the phrase turn your brain off fun, but that's kind of what this is. It's just it's goofy for the sake of being goofy.
J. R. Hikel:If you don't know anything about it and you watch evil dead, then evil dead two and then this, the chances that you're gonna briefly hate it are pretty high because it's such a stark departure from, like and I get it. Evil Dead two is a borderline comedy as well, but this is just, like, full tilt boogie opposite from the bleak, dark world of Evil Dead to the bright, sunshiny medieval mess, which while I'm saying the word, I'm thinking about it. The studio not letting it be called medieval dead is the dumbest thing on planet Earth.
AP Strange:Oh, man. Right? Yeah. But army of darkness is pretty classic.
J. R. Hikel:It is. Yeah. It is, but medieval dead is right there, man. Yeah. That is the lowest, easiest hanging fruit I've ever seen.
AP Strange:Well, what are you gonna do? I mean, I I I did an episode on the leprechaun series at one point. We called it the leprechaunathon. And then while I was recording it, sci fi had a leprechaun marathon, and they called it a leprechaun marathon. Right.
AP Strange:Like, a leprechaun binge or something. I'm like, leprechaunathon. It's right there.
J. R. Hikel:Right there, guys. Dude, that's a that series is a hard watch through.
AP Strange:It was. That's a hard one. I only made it to space. That was as far as I could go.
J. R. Hikel:And and you're talking to a dude who frequently watches all 15 puppet master movies, but the leprechaun ones, that's a stretch
AP Strange:too far for me. Yeah. Puppet Master is so much weirder, though. Yeah. Yeah.
AP Strange:I think it gets, like, weird points. I loved in your store the fact that you had some of the puppets, like, right up front.
J. R. Hikel:Of course, dude. You gotta represent right away. Represent right away. But, see, I can I can bring things back from a tangent going from the stop motion of the puppet master movies to the insane stop motion of army of darkness, unreal? That movie had no real reason to have such good stop motion that it did for the skeletons, and 90% of them were in, like, background shots.
J. R. Hikel:Like, clearly, homaging Ray Harry has it with, like, the Yeah. Jason and the Argonauts, but unreal for how good they were.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, Jason and the Argonauts was a big movie for me as a kid. Yeah. Because it an example of one of those movies that my dad saw when he was younger and he's like, Oh, you'll love this, watch this. And I knew that he had an affinity for it.
AP Strange:But then when those skeletons show up in Jason and the Argonauts, to this day, it's still one of the coolest scenes I've ever seen.
J. R. Hikel:Oh, yeah.
AP Strange:And army of darkness is doing it so closely to that that you can't help but but draw the comparison and feel the same way about it. Like, it doesn't feel derivative. It really does feel like an a tip of a hat. You know?
J. R. Hikel:Correct. It's it's an homage, not a rip off.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. And it makes you feel the same way that Jason and the Argonauts does, except you're laughing a little more too because there's funny stuff going on. You know?
J. R. Hikel:And, like, all that Harryhausen stop motion, that was ultimately my initial gateway into horror way back when I was little JR forever ago. My mom had rented me a copy of clash of the titans and, hey, dude, just so you know, there was some scary scenes in this. Woah. Okay. Cool.
J. R. Hikel:I got you. I hear you. And so I put it on, and I watched it. Like, that was really good, but I wouldn't call any of that scary. But if that's what a scary movie is, then nothing is scary.
J. R. Hikel:I'm fine. Then I put out my parents' copy of the exorcist on DVD and learned I was very wrong.
AP Strange:Yeah.
J. R. Hikel:There's there's a whole world of a difference.
AP Strange:Well, that's really funny because my backstory is the opposite, where my mother saw The Exorcist as a teenager, and it scared her so badly that she wouldn't watch anything horror. Like a horror movie came on she was afraid of the movie. She was afraid of watching the movie. To me growing up I always thought like, well you know if my mom is scared I should be scared you know my mom's the one that protects me from things you know so it took me I was kind of like a late comer to horror in some ways where where I was afraid to watch them because my mom was you know but yeah I mean well all right so that was one thing I did want to ask you is where your fascination with horror began and I guess it's at least in part the stop motion animation but I think I had read in an interview with you that part of it came from just like the forbiddenness of the Stephen King books that your mom was already reading.
J. R. Hikel:Exactly. My mom had the collection of all the Stephen King hardcover books and they always sat in the shelf, and the covers always got my attention, especially the ones that linked together, like desperation and, desperation and looking like a fake fan right now to you. What's the one that links to desperation? It'll come to me, like, an hour later, and I'll I'll
AP Strange:Is that one of the Bachman ones?
J. R. Hikel:It it the regulators. The regulators. Yeah. Yeah. Desperation and the regulators.
J. R. Hikel:Thank you. Those two covers linked together even though regulator says Bachman and desperation says, king, but by the time that one came out, the cat was out of the bag of who Bachman was. So, like, there there wasn't any, like, real surprise there. But anyhoo, the the covers for those got my attention as a kid so much, and I was told, no. You can't read them like it's those are adult books.
J. R. Hikel:They're a little too much for you. So sure. Shit. I read them anyway, but I didn't understand understand them. I I was too young to know what most of them meant.
J. R. Hikel:I was just like, woah. Killer clown in this one. Cool. Which it was not the book to read as a kid. I I had no idea what's going on.
J. R. Hikel:That scene toward the end, which if you've read the book, you know what I'm talking about. That's weird. And if anyone listening to this hasn't read it, do your own favor and read it, and you know what I'm talking about. You'll think, yeah. It's a little weird and exactly why it's been in none of the movies.
AP Strange:Yeah. Or you could like, you know, I'm sure there's whole Reddit threads about it. So
J. R. Hikel:Yeah. But reading it going into semi blind is more fun. Plus, the book is really good. Yeah. But just going from there and then eventually getting a little bit older and actually reading them and understanding the, like, the nature of what I was reading.
J. R. Hikel:And King is still, by and large, my favorite author. I ventured out and found obviously a lot more over time, but there's just something about the insane consistent output he had from the seventies. Well, pretty much the early two thousands that really stands the test of time. So getting into that avenue of horror and then kinda just finding more and more to watch. Like, growing up in, like, the late nineties, early two thousands, TV was littered with it.
J. R. Hikel:It was everywhere. So I would find, like, the the the Fox syndicated episodes of Tales From A Crypt, creep watching some random episodes of x files or puffy the vampire slayer. Like, horror was so baked into, like, that era of pop culture that I almost didn't that your two options were sports and horror. And I tried soccer as a kid, and during one warm up for a game, went to kick the ball, missed, and kicked a rock that was somehow on the field and broke my foot. Thought that was a clear enough sign that sports weren't the thing for me.
J. R. Hikel:So horror is what it turned into.
AP Strange:Nice. Nice. I had a similar trajectory with sports playing soccer where I got pneumonia once for playing a night game and not running around because I was a goalie, and my team was too good. So
J. R. Hikel:The clearest sign from whatever powers there be that maybe sports ain't it for us.
AP Strange:Yeah. That and I was never very coordinated at all. It's pretty obvious that I'm not athletic. So Yeah. But alright.
AP Strange:So as a corollary of that question, for this franchise, how did you just go did you did you watch it on TV because that that's kind of how I found army of darkness was I was telling my wife when we put it on I'm like when you get to that windmill scene as he like rips his shirt open and you see the the eye in his shoulder I mean that was my introduction to this movie I was flipping through the channels and like TNT I think was showing it and I was like what is happening and so that blew my mind when I was younger. I was just curious. So I think we take for granted how damn weird that part of the movie and the whole thing kind of is. But what how how did you come into the Evil Dead franchise? Did you start with Evil Dead, or did you did the other way around?
J. R. Hikel:So I started with the Evil Dead ones. Like, I grew up going to, like, Suncoast Video and Strawberries, Newberry Comics, and the one staple that was or I guess two staples that were all three of those were a shitty anchor bay copy of evil dead on DVD and dead alive slash brain dead and Peter Jackson. I kept seeing those DVD covers everywhere at each of those stores I would go to, and eventually said forget it. I'm gonna find a way to watch it. And so I did watch the first one and thought, wow.
J. R. Hikel:That was kinda fuzzy. I wonder what this one would look like cleaned up. Obviously, I've got I've grown on the first one. I love it a lot. Arguably, I favorited the three now.
J. R. Hikel:But then I found the able to add two from that. I'm like, woah. Hey. Cool. That's what they were trying to do with the first one.
J. R. Hikel:Like, obviously, I've understood them more over time, but I I watched those two a whole lot before even getting to army of darkness. I don't know why. I just it it wasn't one that ever popped up, like, on TV for me. It wasn't one that was immediately on my radar. It was years down the road where I sat and watched all three together in succession and kinda went, all really good, but all very different.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess I'm a little bit older than you. So I think A little bit. Army of darkness was still relatively new and probably the only one that ever really got shown on cable TV of the three.
AP Strange:So it was the kind of thing where I would have countered army of darkness first.
J. R. Hikel:Makes sense.
AP Strange:Like in the nineties. But yeah, yeah, I mean, to your point, like evil dead two acts as though evil dead one never happened in a way. It kind of overwrites evil dead one. Like, they're they're they're doing like a, like a do over. You know?
J. R. Hikel:Right. So there's there's kind of a cool Internet theory on that. I I'm sure that Sam Raimi has spoken to it at some point in time that Evil Dead one, two, and three are essentially a or Evil Dead one, two, and army of darkness are essentially a time loop where Ash beats the deadite in the first one, then it says fuck that, sends him back in time, changes things a little bit, which is why Evil Dead two is a little bit different and why he's a little bit dumber because his brain's being turned into scrambled eggs. And then it beats him again, so he re he changes the end of two just a little bit. Because at the end of two, he's immediately hailed as the savior when he lands in the past.
J. R. Hikel:Right. Versus the beginning of army and doctrine. Like, woah. Hey. Stranger with the weaponry.
J. R. Hikel:I'm not into it. So that I I kinda like the theory that the big bad deadite from the end of part two is just rewriting things and changing things a little bit. Because then you do get into a little bit of time travel when you get to, the third season or second or third season of ash versus evil dead, which also a fantastic show. Like, it's it's I think and obviously, it's all opinion based, Evil Dead might be the only franchise without a miss in it. One, two, and three, the remake, rise, and the TV show, all rock solid and the musical rules.
AP Strange:I haven't seen the musical.
J. R. Hikel:So Oh, you gotta see the musical. I've seen two different versions of it. One was put on with, like, an absolute shoestring budget by some kids with some puppets. Great. Second one was put on by folks who had an insane budget and had these massive screens behind them that they interacted with and played with.
J. R. Hikel:Also great. There's not a bad way to see.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I I feel like this is the kind of franchise that you could do whatever you want with it. And Right. As long as your heart's there, as long as your heart's in the right place as a fan, kind of like, you know, army of darkness doing Harryhausen.
AP Strange:It's like Yeah. It'll come through. You know? Like
J. R. Hikel:because you can play it pitch black like the twenty thirteen evil dead did, and that was that was a brutal movie. That is one of the glorious things on planet Earth. Or you can play it straight up for yucks like most of Ash versus Evil Dead. Like, that show also great, but one of the goofiest things I've ever seen.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think Evil Dead two is my favorite of the bunch. But Yeah. Sitting down to watch army of darkness, it occurred to me.
AP Strange:I'm like, you know, I take this movie for granted and and don't revisit it nowadays as much as I used to because it's like I've seen it a million times, but it's really all I ever want or need in a movie. It's got all of it there. It's like Well, because
J. R. Hikel:it's it's still more even though it's goofy and it it goes the extra mile for every single scene it has, it's arguably the most accessible of the franchise. It's the one that, like, anybody can, like, accept and like a lot. And my favorite example there is my girlfriend's son, the one who works at the shop with me during the week, he had grown up in a household also loving all this sort of stuff, and he had seen army of darkness a couple of times because it is goofy. It is slapsticky. It is family friendly enough if if if can kinda swing it.
J. R. Hikel:And then, what, like, years ago, five years ago, they rereleased the first evil dead in theaters for, like, one of those fathom events for whatever anniversary it was. I'm like, oh, dude. You gotta come with us. If you like army of darkness, you're gonna this too. And it didn't occur to me that he had never seen the first two, that he didn't really know about, like, the tonal shift between one, two, and three.
J. R. Hikel:And so I think he was expecting another equally goofy arm like Army of Darkness. And so when one hits, and it's just bleak. There's there's nothing actually fun about one. There's things that are goofy in hindsight, and there's things that you can make fun of in, like, a mystery science theater kind of way, but the movie itself takes itself very seriously. It's very dark.
J. R. Hikel:The whole tree assault scene is brutal.
AP Strange:Yeah. I kinda hate that. That's Yeah.
J. R. Hikel:That's totally fair. That's totally fair. It's super uncomfortable. It it it it tells you that nothing is safe and nothing is sacred in this movie. But when that hit, I looked over at him and just looked at his face.
J. R. Hikel:So what are we watching? Where is this washbuckling pirate king attack thing? I'm like, oh, my bad. Yeah.
AP Strange:There's not one quip in that movie. You
J. R. Hikel:know? No.
AP Strange:You know, you get so much of a
J. R. Hikel:But that's really about it.
AP Strange:Right. There's not even so much as a groovy in that one.
J. R. Hikel:No. That that is grim. Grim with a capital g.
AP Strange:That's what that's what got me too on this most recent watch of army of darkness is all of those little quips. Like, every little thing he says is so quotable. I feel like me and my friends would just say that shit to each other all the time. And it's something you stuff you hear over the years and but all of it is so ridiculous and over the top and
J. R. Hikel:Yeah.
AP Strange:And played so well by Campbell, like, so believably that that it's I don't know. I have a new newfound appreciation for it because I'm, like, trying to watch it as though I've never seen it before, but it's, like, yeah. Like, who wants some, like, the
J. R. Hikel:groovy The one that hit me last night was when he first comes back from getting the Necronomicon, he's walking through the throngs of people. And just kinda out of the blue, he shoves one guy out of way and said, get the fuck out of my face. It's just so deadpan from the rest of the rest of his, like, goofy deliveries. Like, what? It it hit me in the face.
J. R. Hikel:Like, it was so funny.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, he's he's almost kinda schizo
J. R. Hikel:that movie. You know? But I think it it's because he's playing all six of the Scooges at the same time. Like, that is a moe line and a half. Carly would be happy and bouncing around coming back, but all six of them are inside of him at once in that movie.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah, and I mean, it's like Bruce Campbell's uniquely equipped for this kind of thing too. Was saying to my wife, it's weird because he's a good looking guy that you think could be a serious leading man actor, but there's something about him, regardless of the fact that he's playing this role, you really can't take him seriously. Like you just look at the guy and you're like, well, he's about to do something funny. Even in the earlier ones, you know, like, even in Evil Dead because he's over the top and very expressive.
J. R. Hikel:I can't think of a single real dramatic serious role he ever had. Like, even him on burn notice, I get it was still goofy and lighthearted. I think that might have been the closest to his, like, kinda serious streak for some of the arcs. Mhmm. But barely.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, even if he's not given something explicitly goofy to do, just like the way he carries himself or something. Yeah. Mannerisms are goofy. He has like this this aura of goofball.
AP Strange:Yeah. I'm like, don't get it. He's got like the chin. He's got like chiseled features. He had great hair.
AP Strange:Like, he should just be like a like a suave guy, but for some reason, he's just not. He's like it's all bravado, and he could play that for laughs, but it's
J. R. Hikel:I take it back. There is one role that he plays very it's still a little goofy, and I can't believe I said that earlier. I I retract my previous comment. Hinda Sebastian Half slash Elvis and Bubba Hotep is so well done that
AP Strange:might be the
J. R. Hikel:high watermark of his acting career. If anyone listens to this and is like, this kid's an idiot in the beginning. I'm not. I remembered Bubba Hotep. It came with me.
AP Strange:Oh, well, I was about to get to that because that actually is a nice balancing act because he's given plenty of goofy stuff to do in Bubba Hotep, and and it is about the goofy goofiest movie you could think of. One of my all time favorites. Oh, But it is also for how stupid the plot of the movie is, it's profoundly moving and it's got like the serious bits, the parts where he does seriously act. And whether or not you buy him as Elvis, which you know that I think that was a problem making the movie is that he was being trained by an Elvis impersonator and the guy was like, he's never gonna get there. He can't do the Elvis thing.
AP Strange:But I mean, you buy it because he inhabits the role and you're watching it and you don't really care if he's doing Elvis right. You're like, no, this is Elvis for our purposes here. And it is like, he's talking about his pecker for a lot of the movie, but then like
J. R. Hikel:He was very
AP Strange:serious about it. There's so many moments in those dialogues or monologues as all of this where you're just like, Damn, he's really carrying the emotional weight here. So yeah, I absolutely take that point. You know?
J. R. Hikel:But I I would like to renege my entire previous comment that he did get a golden shot, a serious role, and he crushed it. I I know we're talking army of darkness and Sam Raimi, but Don Cascarelli might be the most underrated director in the game for, like, Phantasm one through four, that, John dies at the end. Dude deserves more credit.
AP Strange:He yeah. I mean, just taking the leap with those those, properties because they're all absurd. They're all crazy. Bubba Hotabs probably is very close to my heart as somebody that's kind of, like, always been all about humor, but also the paranormal and also, like, universal monsters and conspiracy theories and, like, The Weekly World News, growing up with The Weekly World News, this had, like, everything. You know?
AP Strange:Yes. Elvis is alive. JFK, the conspiracy. You know? Like Yeah.
AP Strange:The mother
J. R. Hikel:you distilled into one film.
AP Strange:Yeah. And it's perfect. Like, I if if there's anything that could rival army of darkness for perfection, it's Bubba Hockey.
J. R. Hikel:Yep. And it's a hard one to sell people too because when you explain, like, oh, it's a comedy, and you're like, no. It is. Right. It's black.
AP Strange:Well, I don't I mean, it definitely has lots of funny moments.
J. R. Hikel:Yeah. Cleopatra does the nasty being an outstanding line.
AP Strange:Yeah.
J. R. Hikel:Outside of the Evil Dead franchise, what's your favorite Samurai movie film?
AP Strange:Oh, I don't really know because I feel like I'm always maybe Darkman? I don't know. Like I
J. R. Hikel:was gonna say Darkman. Darkman rules. Liam Neeson has finest. You've got, oh, crap. What's the guy's name from, like, doctor Giggles in the Christmas episode tales from the crypt as the main bad guy?
AP Strange:Oh, man. I know who you're talking about. I could picture him.
J. R. Hikel:But Yeah. He's like that iconic, like, evil face and oh my god. That dude rule. Yeah. Darkman's exactly where I was going, and it ties in Bruce Campbell at the end.
J. R. Hikel:Spoiler alert if you haven't seen Darkman. Which go watch Darkman. What are you doing?
AP Strange:Yeah. Well, I mean, it's interesting with Sam Raimi because I feel like I've been disappointed by some Sam Raimi stuff. Because he did like the Spider Man movies. Right?
J. R. Hikel:Yeah. And Spider Man one and two are good. Spider Man two is arguably the best, like, Marvel movie. It's hard to sum up the MCU, but Spider Man two is arguably the best one. That and Blade.
AP Strange:Okay. But those aren't really MCU. Those were that was a Sony or one that you
J. R. Hikel:But now it's like the they tied in the whole Tobey Right. Topher sorry. Topher Grace movies. Right. Not Topher Grace.
J. R. Hikel:What's that? No. I almost said his name.
AP Strange:Tobey Maguire. Yeah.
J. R. Hikel:There's so much so many names in my head, dude. Yeah. The Tobey Maguire ones, they tied them into the MCU with, like, the newest Spider Man movie. So it's
AP Strange:still I mean, eventually, all of us will be owned by Disney. So
J. R. Hikel:And then Raimi himself came around and did Doctor Strange two, which was firmly okay.
AP Strange:Yeah. But that's the problem I have is that almost everything he does is okay these days. And I'm like, come on, man. Just go full Raimi. Do the Raimi thing, man.
AP Strange:Like, I've in Spider Man, the doctor octopus origin story that is classic Raimi. You're like, yes. He's back. But then he just kinda goes back to like, a normal movie. And you're like, oh, man.
AP Strange:And I was really looking forward to him doing doctor strange and there or there were a few things, like, he's fighting a cyclops monster and stabs him in the eye. And you're like, yep. That's my Raimi. Then it kinda turns into a normal Marvel movie.
J. R. Hikel:But I feel like what what real Ramie is now is things more like drag me to hell, which I feel like drag me to hell, you could see a 100 in doctor Strange.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. And didn't he he also did one that was, like, the boogeyman or something like that?
J. R. Hikel:I thought he I don't know if he because he produced that one with, like, the Dybbuk box, but I can't remember what the name of that one was. I don't think he had anything to do with the boogeyman. Every day, I don't remember it. And then he did the Oz the great and powerful movie, jeez. Yeah.
J. R. Hikel:It was bad.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Like, sometimes I feel like the ingenuity that has to occur to work within a small budget and the enthusiasm of young directors and getting their vision out there and working with what they have means so much more to me than anything that they could do with a bigger budget. Like you mentioned dead alive earlier and for listeners that are in other countries, it's called brain dead. Peter Jackson early on was doing a lot of really, yeah.
AP Strange:Really weird stuff. Really weird cerebral uncomfortable stuff. And then you give them a bigger budget. And, like, the frighteners was good, but, you know, you you end up eventually with, like, King Kong and the Lord of the Rings.
J. R. Hikel:I was gonna say, you can't skip right to King Kong, dude. You got the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy, which is gold. I think the biggest comparison point is Lord of the Rings to The Hobbit. I cannot stand The Hobbit movies.
AP Strange:Yeah. I never watched them because, again, we talked about this before the show in regard to podcasts where where if you see a podcast that's, like, three hours long, you it hasn't been downloaded. For me, it it was I found it insulting that a book I could read in an afternoon was being turned into, like, nine and a half hours of movie.
J. R. Hikel:With just so much unnecessary junk. It was I I don't know. And going from the Lord of the Rings movie, which are three of, like, in my opinion, three of the best movies ever made to just That's disappointing. And I I I think that speaks to the same thing you're trying to say with, like, directors kinda getting almost too comfortable in the excess and that someone should take away all his money and see what he makes again. I don't think he would ever make a bad taste or, meet the feebles again, but it'd be cool to see what he did with such a little budget.
AP Strange:Yeah. Well, I think dead alive was really the sweet spot. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was billed as the goriest fright flick ever made.
AP Strange:But as far as gallons of blood go, I don't know. I think, like, evil dead is probably on a par. You know?
J. R. Hikel:Even if it's up there, I always get bummed when movies try and say it's got the most amount of blood now because then you wind up with, like, technically, it chapter two from, like, 2018, when I whatever year that came out had that whole scene where they were, like, floating in it or, like, the sheer amount of blood that was in Evil Dead Rise. Although I did like Evil Dead Rise a lot. I I don't your competition mark shouldn't be we've got the most amount of blood because that's lame.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. But, I mean, that I that that was I think it was right on the DVD case for or the VHS case because I don't think I've ever gotten a DVD of dead alive. I haven't had VHS. But, yeah, I think it said, like, glory both.
J. R. Hikel:I'm to look over on my shelf. Yep. I got both. I got dead alive next to Evil Dead on VHS myself right now.
AP Strange:Oh, awesome.
J. R. Hikel:Crushing it.
AP Strange:And the evil dead was billed as, the ultimate experiencing ruling terror, I think. Right?
J. R. Hikel:Yeah. Well, because that too, like, that had the whole Stephen King kind of marketing behind it saying it's the scariest movie they've ever seen or whatever that first quote was, which is awesome. I loved how much Oh, yeah. His opinion carried back then. And now he just says he loves everything.
J. R. Hikel:He gave, like, that night swim or that night full movie, like glowing reviews, and that was a microwave dog turd. So I I can't quite trust his opinions at this point in time, but it used to mean something back in the day. What was the Clive Barker quote? I've seen the future of horror. It is Clive Barker.
J. R. Hikel:What a hard quote. That's awesome.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yep. Well, you know, coked up Stephen King was a straight shooter, and people believed him.
J. R. Hikel:Hey. Maximal Overdrive is the best movie he ever directed.
AP Strange:No lies. No lies detected. Actually That movie is batshit. I love it. Yeah.
AP Strange:And
J. R. Hikel:yeah. Ripe for either a a sequel or a remake now. Right? We're we're in this era of having cars that already drive by themselves. We are in prime territory for maximum overdrive, which to be fair, they kinda already deal with that weird child's play reboot.
J. R. Hikel:But
AP Strange:Well, you got the Megan movies too. Where that's kind of like a techno horror idea.
J. R. Hikel:But, yeah, you're right. You're correct. I'm just being a jerk.
AP Strange:Yeah. Well, mean, I recently did an episode about AI and where we're headed with that, but I think we're gonna see a lot more technical horror, like machines killing people sort of thing pretty soon because that seems to be the zeitgeist. So, yeah, it probably is time for a maximum overdrive revival, you know.
J. R. Hikel:That's a really good logical point. We I would expect to see a lot more of a techno horror. Because, like, in the in the for most of last year, we saw a lot of, like, the autonomy stuff with, like, immaculate and the first home, and both of which were incredible. And, like, those are the two examples of the top of my head, but there were a handful of other fear of losing autonomy, and here we are in this modern day and age where, yeah, it's kind of exactly what's happening. So I could see that next move being that AI won.
J. R. Hikel:Maybe hardware will get a resurgence. Do see that one, Richard Stanley? No. Oh, hardware is rock solid. Fantastic soundtrack.
J. R. Hikel:It's how I found both Gwar and Ministry back in the day. Shit. One movie. Yeah.
AP Strange:Well, that's one I remember seeing on the shelf at the video rental store, but I don't think I ever rented it. So yeah. I I feel like we're all over the horror map tonight, but I kinda had a feeling that would happen, and I'm totally cool with it. I I don't wanna lose lose focus on this movie, though, just because I feel like I imagine a lot of listeners are like army of darkness. Oh, hell yeah.
AP Strange:So I wanna hear about it.
J. R. Hikel:I'll dial it back. I'll dial it back.
AP Strange:I mean, to get back to the cast a little bit, you you mentioned Bill Mosley. Now we we know him from Texas Chainsaw two. Right? Yeah. Yeah.
J. R. Hikel:So he's Chopped Top in TCM two. He's Otis in Rob Zombies, House of a Thousand Corpses, Devils, Rejects, and three from hell. I like him as Luigi, though you're gonna think of his name, from Repo, the gigantic opera. He also has a couple of albums with Buckethead. The band name is Cornbugs.
J. R. Hikel:They're real weird if you haven't heard them before. They're a lot of fun.
AP Strange:Wow. Okay.
J. R. Hikel:Yeah. Cornbugs is sick.
AP Strange:Well, so he's an all around weirdo.
J. R. Hikel:Oh, yeah. Born and bred weirdo. He got his start doing a a Texas chainsaw parody called the Texas chainsaw tech Texas nail salon massacre, Texas chainsaw nail salon, something silly, where he was in a nail salon and some guy dressed his leather face came in his nails, and that's somehow somehow that weird short film got Tobe Hooper's attention, and that's how he became chop top. There there is some I hate that I can't remember the details. There's some story where he was kinda on the outs for a little bit with films, and this movie got him back in through, like, one of the of the unions.
J. R. Hikel:He was able to get back in and get his, like, license or something through that. I'm sure someone can hear this and say, no. The facts are this. Whatever. Close enough.
J. R. Hikel:And he's barely in the film. He is one of the lead deadites. Like, not he he's one of, like, the fleshy ones. He's not, like, the voice of a random skeleton. But you do hear his voice a couple times toward the end too, but it was just enough to get in the accreditation either for SAG or AFTRA or something like that.
J. R. Hikel:So it helped him get back into making movies.
AP Strange:Oh, okay. So he wasn't bad Ash then? No. He's I was thinking he was bad Ash.
J. R. Hikel:Yeah. So that that's still Bruce Campbell just under pounds and pounds of prosthetics.
AP Strange:Wow. Okay. Alright.
J. R. Hikel:But everyone a lot of people think he played the evil Ash, but no.
AP Strange:Oh, alright. Yeah. I mean, I that that's some pretty that's some innovations in in slapstick horror too with evil ash where you have, like, the rope going under the chin to hold his jaw on.
J. R. Hikel:It's awesome. It's awesome. Sally Farr. That's great. And even the practical oh, go ahead.
J. R. Hikel:Sorry.
AP Strange:Oh, I was just gonna say it makes more sense that that's Bruce Campbell, but yeah. Okay. Maybe that's why I never noticed Bill Mosley in there because he's you know, it is a smaller role, but I I had no idea until you mentioned it. Yeah.
J. R. Hikel:It's more his audio in the end. He's some of the voiceovers for the deadites toward the end. If you I think once you listen to those corn bugs album and you pick up one of, like, normal kind well, normal kind of voices, you'll hear them again next time you watch army of darkness.
AP Strange:Yeah. Okay.
J. R. Hikel:Yeah. Shout out corn bugs.
AP Strange:Well, speaking of music, I mean, that part at the end, you have a brief, a a brief bit of music from Danny Elfman because at that time, we're talking, like, what? This came out in '92?
J. R. Hikel:Yeah.
AP Strange:Yeah. It's like, you you had you had to get Danny Elfin if you could.
J. R. Hikel:Of course. We're legally required. The weird soundtracks that he pop up on are insane. He did the score for Nightbreed. I didn't realize until a very recent watch through.
AP Strange:I did not realize that either. Yeah. I mean, it's funny because it's like also, like, they probably I guess they probably couldn't afford him for the whole score, so they just got him to do, like, the march of the dead part. And then it just kind of seamlessly fits back into the the regular score.
J. R. Hikel:Which all sounds like royalty free music. I'm sure whoever did this score put a lot of effort into it, but they put a lot of effort and it sounded like royalty free music.
AP Strange:Well, you know, I on this rewatch, I kind of feel like there might have been some humor with that too where they were going for, like, the swelling, romantic music during the love scenes and, like, the the the driving music during the fight scenes and everything. And it's like they were trying to play it up like a like a bit like a like an I a big big budget action adventure, but using just kind of, like, the stock music.
J. R. Hikel:Yeah. Now with the scene of the cemetery where you're going to go pick up an Necronomicon and say the, there's three books there. What do you think happens with the other two? Because we don't even really know for a fact if you got the real Necronomicon. The other two, in my opinion, seem sentient enough.
J. R. Hikel:They can fuck with that old mystic dude and just kinda recreate whatever time travel spell they wanted and then cause whatever havoc after he's gone. But, like, what do you think the deal is with the other two books?
AP Strange:Well, since you mentioned the whole time travel time loopiness thing, I'm thinking that there's three separate dimensions, a multiverse of Evil Dead where there's three different hashes and those are three different economic kinds each attached to each individual story.
J. R. Hikel:I love that. I I absolutely buy into it, especially where, like we were saying, you can go in so many different directions with those movies. Evil Dead 2013 had, like, almost a plain looking economic kind. So that's my knowledge. It didn't really have a face.
J. R. Hikel:It was just skin. And so that easily could have been one of those three books. Just going for straight up pure evil, which sure could have been the vacuum one because that could have been pulling it into another dimension or another version of it exists at the other end of the wormhole. But that's exactly what I was thinking is that there are just at at least three, if not infinite number of timelines of those books just wreak havoc across cosmos, anything, everything? Get a little crafty in with it?
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, because, to your point about the end of of evil dead two when he's hailed as a savior, that doesn't look like medieval England. Yeah. He looked like know, because it's supposed to be an ancient Sumerian text. I always had the idea he got sent back to, like, Babylon, like ancient Mesopotamia or something like that.
AP Strange:But then the second movie, obviously, it's gonna be medieval England, I guess, like a fictionalized medieval England.
J. R. Hikel:Which I think is because he got too close going to actual ancient Samaria to the real Kandar or whatever
AP Strange:Right.
J. R. Hikel:And realize, no. Hey. Wait. No. Can't have them this close.
J. R. Hikel:This idiot keeps rolling that twenties. I can't have them this close to me. Let's reboot it and have them go over to England. We'll pretend it's the real me.
AP Strange:Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. No.
AP Strange:That makes sense. So watching this movie for the first time when you were younger, did you get the reference for the, clad two, Bilrada, Nick, though?
J. R. Hikel:Absolutely not. I saw Dailey Earth stood still way, way down the line, and I lost my mind when they said when when they said that to Gordon.
AP Strange:Yeah. Watch. See, again, that's another one that my dad watched as a kid. So And when I was younger, he was like, oh, watch this. You'll like it.
AP Strange:So when I saw army of darkness, I I knew the reference, like, right away.
J. R. Hikel:I wonder which side's better. You're like, oh my god. That's what they were talking about versus, oh, I know what he means.
AP Strange:Well, I mean, that's what's great about horror and sci fi specifically, I think.
J. R. Hikel:I
AP Strange:mean, media, really, all literature and all movies and TV shows is they love to be referential towards other things. Whether they're just stealing it or being gimmicky or paying homage or putting an Easter egg in, those are always so fun to find. I mean, mentioned Mystery Science Theater 3,000 briefly and it wasn't until, like, a year or two ago that I watched War of the Worlds, like, the nineteen sixties War of the Worlds. Nice. And there's a character named doctor Clayton Forrester.
J. R. Hikel:Yeah.
AP Strange:And I'm like, what the? I'm like, I watched this movie a million times as a kid. I was obsessed with Mystery Science Theater as a kid. I never put that together. Yeah.
AP Strange:Just funny stuff. Yeah. But, yeah, that graveyard scene, the books, that's amazing. But I think the windmill scene was always my favorite. And Oh,
J. R. Hikel:for sure, dude. That that is where it it starts off over the top, and then it just somehow exceeds it. The the three little ashes, the mirror alone, like, it's just it's absurd. That's the one mystery blind box I've always wanted was they did a series of army of darkness ones. I have a couple of plushes over here I'm looking at.
J. R. Hikel:And the the mystery chase I never got my hands on was the three little ashes holding up the fork. Damn it. One of the cool I one of the coolest scenes ever made into, like, a physical toy. Yeah. Yeah.
J. R. Hikel:It's out there somewhere. I'll find it someday.
AP Strange:Yeah. I mean, for listeners, because I know you know this, but there was the extended version or, like, Bruce Campbell versus army of darkness. Well, we talked about it, but I'm still not sure exactly what that edition was called. But
J. R. Hikel:I think that one is just called Bruce Campbell versus Army of Darkness, like the brown paper bag cover.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yeah. Yep. And that windmill scene is, like, at least two minutes longer. Like, they beat the hell out of Ash a lot more before the whole Gulliver Gulliver's Travels moment where he's he's on the on the floor.
AP Strange:But I mean, I feel I feel like also that scene gets that Sam Raimi style of of cinematography that I love so much and the other ones with the weird camera angles and zoom ins and all that stuff. Anytime he's being chased by whatever, like the nameless horror that you're not allowed to see, that stuff is great. But I mean, up to zoom in on his eyes and he's like, oh, what a terrible nightmare. Wait a minute. It's just I love that stuff.
AP Strange:But on the topic of other dimensions, so what's the the reason that these tiny ashes pop up is because he smashes a mirror when he sees his own reflection the mirror to me that that's like a thing that happens in all three movies that links them all but I don't think people talk about all that much. But I think in every movie, you have a scene where something really weird happens with the mirror. So maybe the mirror universe plays into, like, the Kandarian demon magic.
J. R. Hikel:Why am I blanking on the mirror from the first one? Because the second one is, I'm fine. I'm fine. You just cut up your girlfriend. You're not fine.
J. R. Hikel:But what's going from the first one?
AP Strange:I don't know, but I'm pretty sure there is one. Right?
J. R. Hikel:I believe you. It sounds right. I'm just like, wait. Am I am I am I getting this denial?
AP Strange:In preparation for this, I watched army of darkness again, but I did not watch all three.
J. R. Hikel:That's alright. We'll pretend that we are we'll we'll pretend we both remember it. I'm sure it's gotta be one in there. There's blanket on it. But, yeah, there is definitely something to be said about that multiple universe mirror effect.
AP Strange:I think in the first one, the the the surface of the mirror just turns into, like, water or it, like, ripples. Like, that's the only thing that really happens.
J. R. Hikel:Okay.
AP Strange:It's, something hits the mirror and it ripples like it's made out of water. And then so it's a subtle thing, but yeah. Okay.
J. R. Hikel:Still there. Still something to reflect upon.
AP Strange:Right. What a bum.
J. R. Hikel:What do you think I have an example. I have at least an example in my head. What do you think is the weirdest reference to army of darkness from the evil that universe you've seen in something that doesn't make any sense to be referencing it?
AP Strange:Oh, alright. I don't know, I never really thought of that. I mean, I feel like it happens often enough. And I know that I would reference it constantly with my friends. So it's hard for me to think of.
AP Strange:But
J. R. Hikel:In the twenty sixteen Duck Tales reboot, there is, like, an entire Evil Dead episode. There's a NecroDucka Comic Con. Daffy has the chainsaw. He's fighting an evil dead dead like ducks. It's the weirdest thing.
AP Strange:Wow.
J. R. Hikel:And I can't tell who it that's made for besides weirdos like me who still watch duck tales.
AP Strange:Right. Well, you're not alone. I have a very good friend that's always sending me clips from the newer DuckTales cartoons.
J. R. Hikel:It's really good. It's really good. I don't like the ending, but I like everything else.
AP Strange:Yeah. Yep. Well, I mean, in cartoons these days, man, they do a really good job. It's it's a great time to be a dad with with a younger one because you can watch these cartoons, like, an excuse to watch them. You know?
J. R. Hikel:Right. Right.
AP Strange:Like, Gravity Falls, what a masterpiece. That was a great show. Yeah.
J. R. Hikel:Perfect show.
AP Strange:Yeah. I stayed away from it for the longest time, and then my son convinced me it was good, and I ended up watching it with him. So
J. R. Hikel:It's funny you say that too. I had someone come into the shop last week, and they're looking at because I have a replica of an Echronomicon made by Trick or Treat Studios with rules. He's like, but how much is it? We talk back and forth, talk about the pages. He's like, oh, well, my grandmother made me a replica, but she didn't know what to do for the pages.
J. R. Hikel:And so she took pages from the, journal number three from Gravity Falls to put in the book. Like, that's kind of amazing.
AP Strange:Well, I mean, there is that that almost seems like a reference with the Right. The mystery shack in Gravity Falls and the book being a big part of it is yeah. It almost feels like an homage to Evil Dead. A lot of times
J. R. Hikel:people ask if that mystery shack is where I got the name for my store. It's not. It's my weird shed that I have on my on the side of my yard.
AP Strange:Well, I've always wanted a Mystery Shack just like well, in recent years. I'm like, this is my daydream. I'm like, I I want a Mystery Shack like Grunkle Stan, and I wanna be Grunkle Stan in that situate. I have a Fez now, so I'm like I feel like I'm halfway
J. R. Hikel:We're halfway there, baby. You got it. We're good.
AP Strange:I don't have a hearse like some business owners I know.
J. R. Hikel:Between the hearse in my driveway and the embalming table in my backyard, my neighbors know what's up.
AP Strange:Yeah. Geez. So in reference to your question, it's not the best answer, but I did bring it up in your story and I think it's worth mentioning here is the evil dead episode of the creep show series that they did for Shutter. For anybody that didn't ever get Shutter or check out the creep show series that they made it's worth it like even if you just get Shudder for a month just to watch like binge the Creepshow series if you like the movies it's a lot like that they're fun just big dumb fun and that one episode now you might know this. Was that did Sam Raimi have involvement in that beyond, like, giving his blessing and I guess, was it Ted Raimi that was in it?
J. R. Hikel:Ted Raimi is in it. He's playing the guy on, like, their version of antiques roadshow selling the book. But to the best of my knowledge, no. It it is not. There there is no mention of Sam Ramey in, like, the credits.
J. R. Hikel:I have yet to see it, like, accepted as, like, canonical to, like, the evil dud universe. But as far as I'm concerned and can tell just by watching it, it absolutely is. Like, it nails the vibe a 100%. I think if it didn't and it didn't have Ted Raimi, there might have been some, like, kerfuffle about it with how close it got. But as far as I'm concerned, that's an actual that that's an active piece of the Evil Dead lore.
AP Strange:Yeah. And for listeners that haven't seen it, it's essentially, Bob Ross versus the Evil Dead.
J. R. Hikel:And he kicks ass.
AP Strange:See, I like those unlikely heroes because, I mean, it's almost like, well, like a geriatric living Elvis fighting among me or Really? The preacher from Dead Alive. I mean, was can't one of ask for the Lord. Yeah. Because I mean, in my younger years, that was among the weirdest things I'd ever seen in the movie is a kung fu priest fighting zombies, you know?
AP Strange:And I don't know. I I I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing about my life that I've seen much weirder things than that since. But
J. R. Hikel:Well, like, everything we're talking about bouncing around from, I feel like army of darkness and the evil universe is kind of a centerpiece for it. Like, if those didn't do as well as they did, I don't know there would have been as open of a market for everything else that kinda came after it. Like, Ray Ramey has said time and time again that he would go to the drive in, hang out there, and watch movies, and watch the reactions of people, and based a lot of the first evil dead on what got reactions from folks that drive. Like, oh, we're do something like that. We're gonna do something like that.
J. R. Hikel:And so it distilled a lot of that late sixties, early seventies energy into a super gross eighties movie that then springboarded 18 bajillion more super gross eighties movies. So I don't think anything that we enjoy now would exist in the same vein or the same flavor if it weren't for Sam Raimi in the Evil Dead universe.
AP Strange:Right. Yeah. And I mean and just like the variety you get with the six stooges, you get a good a good spectrum of horror and over the topness between the three Evil Dead original movies. Exactly. And a lot of variations with stuff that came after from the remake to reboot, the musical, the TV show.
AP Strange:Yeah. Love the musical. Yeah. Well, I'm gonna have to see it now.
J. R. Hikel:You will. You will. I agree.
AP Strange:I'm not a big musical guy, but there's a handful that I feel like I I'm obligated to see. That one and bat boy, the musical, I feel like I'm I'm
J. R. Hikel:I wanna see Batboy. I wanna see the toxic avenger one. There's a Carrie one, but I'm not really big into period pieces.
AP Strange:Yeah. Oh, and we were talking in the story about how oh my god. I just missed that joke. I'm sorry. It's all been.
AP Strange:Oh my, I missed the pun, God damn it. All right. This is podcast host brain where I'm ready to pivot to a new thing, but all right. Well done, sir. Well done.
J. R. Hikel:Thank you.
AP Strange:The oh, well, as we were talking about in your store, the the the new adaptation of, Phantom of the Paradise, they're working on
J. R. Hikel:Yeah. That's gonna get a musical stage adaptation. But that in and of itself has a lot of musical numbers in it. So, like, I I I think that
AP Strange:already kind of a
J. R. Hikel:Right. I think that'll play really well into, like, the live musical stage adaptation.
AP Strange:Yep. Yep. But yeah. Oh, musical horrors. It's a it's a great great little niche market that we
J. R. Hikel:Well, Dude, horror nerds and theater nerds are two sides of the same coin.
AP Strange:Yeah. There's often a lot of overlap there for sure. Yeah. Good stuff. So, well, did wanna get into a little bit of your story as well.
AP Strange:Oh, my sure. It came up already and we keep biting right by it is how did you come to to have a spooky shack? Yeah. Do you So
J. R. Hikel:I I mentioned a little bit earlier, I grew up loving, like, Suncoast video, strawberries, Newbury Comics, and all I really wanted to do as a kid was work at a store like that. By the time it was time for me to work in, Suncoast and Strawberries were just about gone. So all I ever wanted to do at that point was work at Newbury Comics, which I did for a good eight years. I worked at this is where I get to regional for anyone who's outside of New England. Worked at the Shrewsbury, Massachusetts location until that one closed, then the Nashville one, Tampa, New Hampshire, Marlboro.
J. R. Hikel:I had a couple of brief stints selling Lemons during Natick, like doing, like, small individual shifts. But I bounced around Newbury for the longest time until all of a sudden, reached an age where I'm like, I should probably get a real job and make real money. And so I've been working in the same office job for the past eight and a half years. And they again, it it rules. It pays my bills.
J. R. Hikel:It it's taught me a whole lot, but I wanted something a little bit more, more in my lane. And so I combined my retail know how with some of the office know how with my, business degree from Nichols in Dudley, Massachusetts, and my obsession with everything horror and just wanted to make my own shop. But there's a couple other really great small indie shops around here. Scarce Autumnies is a huge inspiration to me. I'm good friends with their owner.
J. R. Hikel:Talked with him throughout the whole process of making this new shop. The Magic Parlor in Salem, I've been friends with that owner for years. His name is Rob Fitz. He does practical makeup effects for a lot of movies and TV show. He just worked on the new, walking dead show with Negan in it, the one that filmed in Worcester.
J. R. Hikel:So I just all sorts of cool inspiration on this area, and I pulled from all of that to create my own shop. I opened up at almost the First Floor of an office building for the past year and a half. It was itty bitty with a postage stamp size spot. I did really cool things with it. I really made it my own.
J. R. Hikel:I had a lot of signings in there. I had, like, Joe Bob Riggs as cohost Darcy. I had the Bouley brothers. I had Larry Fessenden, acoustic performance of Argyle Goolsbee. So I did a lot of cool things with it, but now it's it's reached this terminus point where it was either grow or give it up.
J. R. Hikel:And I found a really great spot now in the town next to me called Hudson where it's right on the main drag. It's I've been able to expand it and carry so much more stuff and just the sheer number of people that have come in now just learning about the shop, yourself included, where it's like, hey. This is something I do wanna check out now. It lets me meet so many more people. I can't even meet you and talk with you and do this show.
J. R. Hikel:Patty Dreadful, who's a local horror host in New England, came in to visit the other day. As get so many more avenues, and I've only been there for two weeks. And it's been Yeah. Right. Right.
J. R. Hikel:Right. It's just been an absolute insane two weeks where things are growing so quickly, and I love it. So that that that's the long answer to, I just like horror in retail, and I wanted to have my own.
AP Strange:Well, you opened up the current location on Friday the thirteenth.
J. R. Hikel:Of course. How could I not? I I had a Jason cosplayer there that was terrifying Main Street as he walked up and down around the area. I had my aforementioned purse parked up front. It's still there upon occasion.
J. R. Hikel:It's it's a bit of a beast to park there, but I make it work on it when I can. We just filmed the new little promotional video that I think came out great. If you go on to any of my social media, pages or onto jrspookyshack.com, you'll see that there. Shameless self plug, but the video is well, it also has the Necronomicon in it, so it's still
AP Strange:I know. I was about to say. I saw that today. I'm like, oh, how perfect. It has the Necronomicon right in it.
AP Strange:So Hopefully, you don't get sued by Sam Raimi.
J. R. Hikel:It's a licensed product that I'm selling. It's fine. Trick or Treat Studios. Check it out. Yeah.
J. R. Hikel:On sale, it's there at Spooky Shack and at S Mart.
AP Strange:Yeah. Exactly. Do do do you do shipping for any retail items, or is it all in store?
J. R. Hikel:Yep. I I I sell online all bunch too. The biggest thing that I had success with there is last year, I got an offer to do a store exclusive, cover for the Spanguly comic book. I'm not really a comic book store, but I'm a huge, huge personal Spangouli fan. So as soon as an opera came up to me, I took it.
J. R. Hikel:I had my good buddy Shane Murphy, whose online handle is Theater of Creeps. He does fantastic art. I had him do the art cover art for me. And when that was announced, those covers were flying everywhere. I I sent them out to majority of the country.
J. R. Hikel:I think I hit a good 25 out of 50 states. I never got a Hawaii or Alaska, which bums me out a little. So if you're listening to this and you live in Hawaii or Alaska, buy a comic book from me, Gus. Darn it. I'll mail
AP Strange:it to Yeah. Well, that was pretty great. Yeah. I mean, the comics aren't out of place. You have all the magazines.
AP Strange:Like, you had Rue Morgue up there. You had Fangoria. Just like all the good horror mags are there. Yeah. So yeah.
J. R. Hikel:Yep. And I try to carry the newest issues of those. I actually I'm just getting in a whole bunch of new Fangoria branded merch coming in, as we're recording this coming in tomorrow, so it'll be there very soon. So, yeah, Fangoria rules, Remorb rules, Horrorhound is incredible. There's an awesome local horror mag called Monster Mag run by the couple who runs the, Monster Expo conventions around here.
J. R. Hikel:It's definitely worth checking out.
AP Strange:Yep. Monster with a a h at the
J. R. Hikel:Monster with an a h, baby. Keeping it real New England.
AP Strange:Monsters, kid. Exactly. Yeah. That's all good stuff. So, I mean, listeners can can follow you online at any of those places and definitely check out your website for sure.
J. R. Hikel:Yeah. I'm on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. Dude, I don't know what I'm doing on TikTok, but I tried. It seems to do okay. So I'm there, posted into my heart's content.
J. R. Hikel:I've got the full website. I have a newsletter. I only send one email a month and I let's be real. I often forget to send it. I didn't send one for June for crying out loud.
J. R. Hikel:I had a lot going on in June, but I haven't sent one.
AP Strange:Yeah. Well, what are you gonna do? You were pretty busy. Sure was. Okay.
AP Strange:So if you were going to rate the Evil Dead movies in any kind of order, where would you place army of darkness on the on the list?
J. R. Hikel:I think that that rating can change daily. And I'd like to before I say my, like, ranking, I'd like to clarify there's not a single bad movie or TV show in the franchise that they're all great, but none of them actually belong at the bottom of the list, so it's hard. I'd probably and I feel like it's gonna be the default list. People are like, yeah. There's no surprise there.
J. R. Hikel:I'd probably go to army of darkness one, the remake, and then rise. And we probably put the TV show, if I were including that, in between the remake and evil dead one. So I like, rise is a great movie. It definitely does not belong at the bottom of the list by any stretch of imagination. And Lee Cronin, if somehow you ever hear this, I love that movie.
J. R. Hikel:It's perfect.
AP Strange:Yeah.
J. R. Hikel:But if I have to rank them, I have to rank them. This this guy's holding a gun to my head. There's no video, so you can't tell me I'm wrong. He's telling me I have.
AP Strange:Yeah. Mean, Evil Dead two, Dead by Dawn is very difficult to beat because I think it's weird enough, it's lo fi enough, but also convincing enough, it's scary, it's got the good scares in it, it's still goofy, it's got a lot of humor. I think it's just the perfect balance. But army of darkness is perfect in a different way. It's like I like them about equally, but yeah, evil dead two edges over it a little just because of the sheer weirdness of it.
AP Strange:Oh, and speaking of, we you mentioned a short film when we were talking about Mosley earlier, but do you know about or I'm sure you do, but have you seen the short film, The Helping Hand that, Sam Raimi did?
J. R. Hikel:Like a recent one? No. Because I knew that the film was like Into the Woods.
AP Strange:He this was like a student film that him and Bruce Campbell did before. No.
J. R. Hikel:I haven't seen it.
AP Strange:Oh it's basically it's basically the what is that branch the cooking brand that has a glove as a mascot.
J. R. Hikel:Oh hamburger helper?
AP Strange:Hamburger Helper, yeah. It's the Hamburger Helper, right, Helping Hand. It's the Hamburger Helper glove murdering people pretty much.
J. R. Hikel:I love everything about that. We have to check that out once we wrap up here.
AP Strange:You can find it on YouTube and yeah, you have to watch it because it's pretty much that, you can see where they got the idea for Ash to lop off the stand and have his hands run amok in the
J. R. Hikel:Hell yes.
AP Strange:That house. So, yeah. Yeah, definitely check that out. Yeah. This has really been a blast talking about this stuff.
J. R. Hikel:Yeah. I love getting to chat about this stuff. It's a good chunk of the reason why I opened the shop is to be able to have conversations like this. So I really appreciate it.
AP Strange:Well, I got that sense. And like I said at the top of the show when I walked in and I was like, I gotta chat this guy up because I had read, you know, I had read the Worcester magazine article when you first opened your other store, and I had always meant to get over there. But I'm a jerk, so I never did. Hey.
J. R. Hikel:Much like going from Evil Dead to Evil Dead two, the sequel has a lot of improvements with the new location. Alright?
AP Strange:Right. Well, I mean and then as soon as I walked in, I recognized you because I had seen you at Scarce Oddities with the Hearse. Shout out Scarce. People can follow them on Instagram as well because it's just a really cool oddities store that's local to us you know it's not all Salem people people think about Massachusetts they think about Salem and Boston but Central Massachusetts has plenty of weird stuff too
J. R. Hikel:So but
AP Strange:yeah when I started talking to you I'm like I know I could talk to this guy at least for an hour about random horror stuff and it would be a lot of fun.
J. R. Hikel:Is there?
AP Strange:Yeah. Alright, man. Well, thanks so much for coming on the show to talk army of darkness slash evil dead. This has been this has been about as much fun as I anticipated, perhaps even more. It was
J. R. Hikel:a really good time. Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it.
AP Strange:I didn't expect the Stooges stuff and I love the Stooges. Alright. I'll talk I'll talk to you next time I come to your store.
J. R. Hikel:Sounds like a plan, man. Look forward to it.