Popcorn in the Pages - Episode 9: I Remember You

Summary

Popcorn in the Pages - Episode 9: I Remember You

Release Date: December 20, 2024

Hosts: Meredith Monday Schwartz and Kaytee Cobb

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Overview

In Episode 9 of Popcorn in the Pages, Meredith Monday Schwartz and Kaytee Cobb delve into the intricate relationship between literature and its cinematic adaptations. Focusing on Ursa Sigurdadottir's novel I Remember You and its 2017 Icelandic film adaptation, the hosts provide a comprehensive analysis of what works, what doesn't, and the challenges inherent in translating a novel to the screen.

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Previews: Understanding the Source and Adaptation [00:48 - 03:02]

The episode kicks off with Meredith and Kaytee providing background information on both the novel and its film adaptation. I Remember You is a 391-page crime novel originally published in Iceland in 2010 and translated into English in 2012. The story intertwines two narratives:

1. Three Friends Renovate a Remote House: Tasked with renovating a dilapidated house in an isolated location, the friends soon discover they're not alone as malevolent forces compel them to leave.
2. A Doctor Investigates a Suicide: Isa Fjorda, a young doctor, probes the mysterious suicide of an elderly woman, uncovering a dark obsession linked to his missing son.

Meredith notes, "This is a terrifying tale…" [00:48], setting the stage for the deep dive into the adaptation's fidelity to the source material.

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The Cutting Room: Comparing Book and Movie [08:05 - 24:17]

Pivotal Scenes and Changes [08:05 - 13:46]

Meredith and Kaytee examine key scenes from both the book and the movie, highlighting significant differences:

• Building Collapse: While both mediums depict a building collapse, the movie diverges from the novel in execution. Meredith appreciates the movie's tension-building despite deviations, saying, "It felt very closed in. It felt very creepy" [08:35].

• Discovery of the Body: The finding of Bernardus's body is a crucial plot point in both versions. Meredith comments, "…they did a good job building tension there." [08:35]

However, numerous alterations exist:

• Character Dynamics: The trio in the book differ significantly from their cinematic counterparts. For instance, the movie omits the previous house owner, altering the group's motivations and relationships.

• Setting and Plot Points: The movie replaces key locations and events, such as the vandalized church instead of the primary school, and modifies character backstories, leading to a disjointed narrative.

Impact of Changes [13:46 - 24:17]

The hosts discuss how these changes affect the story's integrity:

• Character Omissions: Important characters like Pooty the dog and Bernardus's brother are absent in the movie, stripping away layers of loyalty and familial tension present in the book.

• Plot Holes: Meredith points out inconsistencies, such as Bernardus targeting the trio without clear motivation, labeling it "a plot hole for sure" [21:25].

• Title Significance: The translation of the Icelandic title "en man pig" to "I Remember You" sparks confusion, as the hosts struggle to connect it to the story's themes of memory and loss.

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Casting: Bridging Icelandic and Hollywood Talent [24:25 - 35:30]

Meredith and Kaytee critique the film's casting choices, especially when considering a Hollywood remake:

• Johannes Hauker Johannesson as Freyr: Praised for his dramatic portrayal, Kaytee states, "He was phenomenal… he is my favorite" [26:07].

• Leaf's Actress Evaluation: Both hosts express dissatisfaction with Leaf's portrayal, feeling she lacked the charisma to convincingly seduce multiple characters. Meredith remarks, "I don't like it... she just crawled into the house and gave up" [14:02].

• Alternative Casting Suggestions: The hosts propose a list of Hollywood actors who could better embody the characters, emphasizing the importance of visual and behavioral alignment with the roles.

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Problematic Aspects: Diversity and Narrative Shortcomings [33:02 - 35:27]

Addressing the film's shortcomings, Meredith and Kaytee highlight:

• Lack of Diversity: "Everyone in Iceland is white and straight" [33:24], pointing out the absence of diverse characters, which limits the story's relatability and depth.

• Forced Romance and Male Gaze: The adaptation introduces additional romantic tensions that feel unnatural and detract from the core narrative, influenced by the male perspective.

• Omission of Critical Backstories: Key character motivations and histories are glossed over, leading to a superficial portrayal lacking the book’s complexity.

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Best and Worst Parts of the Adaptation [35:54 - 44:44]

Worst Elements:

• Character Arcs: Both hosts lament the underdevelopment and abrupt conclusions of pivotal characters like Catrin, who "succumbed to her fate" without sufficient narrative justification [35:54].

• Lack of Atmosphere: Meredith critiques the movie for not fully capturing the book’s eerie ambiance, stating, "It wasn't that propulsive to me… it still felt kind of disjointed" [36:26].

• Reduction of Creep Factor: The omission of elements like Pooty the dog and the streamlined plot reduce the story’s horror impact.

Best Elements:

• Cinematography and Setting: Meredith praises the visual portrayal of the Icelandic landscape, describing it as "very evocative" and commendable in setting the film's dark tone [38:19].

• Sound Design: Despite minimal use of a traditional soundtrack, the strategic implementation of ominous tones enhances suspense, with Meredith noting, "They did a good job there… building the suspense to have the silence" [38:12].

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Ratings and Final Thoughts [46:17 - 53:19]

Book Ratings:

• Goodreads: I Remember You holds a 3.83/5 rating based on 12,000 reviews.

• Hosts’ Scores: Kaytee awards the book a 3.5, citing its well-written segments but predictable elements [48:20]. Meredith assigns a 4, appreciating its creep factor despite feeling rushed towards the end [49:19].

Movie Ratings:

• Rotten Tomatoes: Critic approval at 89%, audience score—termed the "Popcorn Meter"—at 53%.

• IMDb: A 6.1/10 average based on 5,400 ratings.

• Hosts’ Scores: Kaytee rates the movie a 6/10, feeling certain changes hindered its effectiveness. Meredith gives it a 5/10, noting the lack of sustained creepiness and a disjointed narrative [51:14].

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Final Q&A: Ghosts and Scary Airbnbs [53:30 - 60:36]

In a lighthearted conclusion, Meredith and Kaytee engage in a Q&A segment discussing supernatural beliefs and scenarios that could make an Airbnb experience terrifying:

• Belief in Ghosts: Meredith shares personal anecdotes and remains skeptical, whereas Kaytee affirms belief in ghosts, citing family experiences [54:22].

• Scary Airbnb Scenarios: Discussing hypothetical situations that would compel them to leave an Airbnb in the middle of the night, the hosts agree on physical manifestations like secret rooms, disturbing discoveries, or malevolent presences as key factors [57:19].

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Conclusion

Meredith and Kaytee wrap up the episode by reflecting on the challenges of adapting I Remember You from page to screen. While the film shines in its visual representation of Iceland and strategic sound design, significant deviations from the novel's intricate plot and character development dilute its horror impact. The hosts express a desire for more faithful adaptations that preserve the source material's depth and suspense.

For enthusiasts seeking to explore the intersection of literature and film, this episode offers valuable insights into the nuances of adaptation, the importance of character fidelity, and the impact of narrative changes on the overall story experience.

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Notable Quotes

• Meredith: "We're gonna have a lot of fun speaking poor Icelandic preference." [01:23]

• Kaytee: "I do believe in ghosts." [56:50]

• Meredith: "This is our discussion of I Remember You. We're all done now." [60:36]

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Stay Connected

For more in-depth analyses and bookish conversations, tune into the Popcorn in the Pages podcast and join Meredith and Kaytee every Monday on the Currently Reading Podcast. Follow them on Instagram and their respective social media platforms for updates and more engaging content.

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May your popcorn be hot and your books even better than their movie counterparts!

Transcript

[A]

Hi readers. Welcome to Popcorn in the Pages. In this spin off episode series from Currently Reading podcast, we will be exploring book to screen adaptations and what makes them great or awful.

[B]

In each episode we'll tackle the book, the adaptation and the ways they complement each other. As always, we love a strong opinion and we definitely have them.

[A]

I'm Katie Cobb, co host of the Currently Reading podcast and I will read nearly anything but keep my screen watching to sitcoms and book adaptations.

[B]

And I am Shad Cascone and I read what I'm told like a good boy.

[A]

Unlike our regular episodes, these ones will be full of spoilers. Going to spill all the tea, so be warned if you've not read the book or watched the movie. This is episode number nine of this series, but you can listen in any order and today we are tackling I remember you by Ursa Segurdadotter.

[B]

Sigurdadottir.

[A]

Look, we're so good at saying it now. We're very proud.

[B]

I just landed. I say it randomly. Yeah, it's great.

[A]

Oh, yeah, this is now Shad's new crutch word. He just says it in the middle of a conversation.

[B]

Sigurda daughter. Nobody knows what to do, which is. Did not help me to pronounce any of the other names or places in this book.

[A]

That is definitely a problem. We're gonna have a lot of fun speaking poor Icelandic preference.

[B]

Yep. Yeah, we are not gonna do anyone justice. And we learned some things from the movie and hearing things pronounced there, but no, we're gonna get it wrong.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Sorry. We sure are sorry to Ursa Segurdata and everyone else. And all the. The 400,000 people who live in Iceland.

[A]

Oh, only 388,000. There's only a few people living there. Okay, let's start with our first segment, which is the previews segment, which is where we give background info about both of these pieces of content. The setup for this story overall, according to the publisher. Here's what they say in this terrifying tale. Three friends set to work renovating a rundown house in a remote, totally isolated location. But they soon realize they are not as alone as they thought. Something wants them to leave. Meanwhile, in a nearby town, Isa Fjorda. Is that what. Something like that?

[B]

Yeah, sure.

[A]

A young doctor investigating the suicide of an elderly woman discovers that she was obsessed with his vanished son. When the two stories collide, the shocking truth becomes horribly clear. So we only get one paragraph of setup here, and that's probably because they didn't want to write all the names or have anybody have to pronounce them.

[B]

To be fair, I mean, it was released in Iceland first. So I mean, she is an Icelandic author and it was like it was made into English, so.

[A]

Correct. It was translated is the word we use for that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So we're the ones, I guess, on the outside looking in like it's not like it was written for us.

[A]

Okay, fair. Let's talk about this book. So as Shad mentioned, it was originally published in Iceland in 2010, was translated to English in 2012, and it clocks in at 391 pages in the English version. I don't know. Kind of big if Icelandic uses more or fewer letters to say the same thing.

[B]

Well, you. I feel like Icelandic because you are learning Finnish, not Swedish, Svenish. And I feel like they should both be similar. Correct. They're both of that same sort of.

[A]

There were zero words that they said in the movie version of this that I was like, oh yeah, that's just like Finnish. Amazing. They. They did have swear words that were remarkably similar to English, but not Finnish.

[B]

They were exactly similar to English.

[A]

That was interesting. This novel won the Glass key Award in 2012, which is annually given to crime novels written by an author from the Nordic countries. It's a very prestigious and narrow, very niche award. It was also. This is very special to currently reading listeners only. It was featured in the January 2022 indie press list from Fabled Bookshop in Texas, which is not an international award. It's not an intern, it's not a nationally known award, but it is pretty cool. We love the indie press list.

[B]

Should we call it. Maybe it's like a regional.

[A]

We would call it just like a noteworthy mention. I would love to get one of the stickers that you can put on the front of a book, but it would be removable because I have very strong opinions about those stickers and it is that they are a defacement to the COVID art. I do not like irremovable stickers on books. So even if we had an indie press list emblem, it would be removable because that's just rude.

[B]

I like it. Yeah, very rude.

[A]

Okay. The movie. The movie was released in 2017 in Icelandic. It is subtitled in English. I could only find one reference to the budget in like the deep underbelly of the Internet. So I'm not sure if that's accurate because it could have been like, write.

[B]

It like on the dark web. Yeah.

[A]

It could have been like Joe in his mom's basement just making prognostications about this. This site said that it had a budget of over $2 million. What?

[B]

Dollars? So this is dollars. I was gonna say maybe in obscure Icelandic monies. I don't know. I don't know if they have.

[A]

But I did find 2 million.

[B]

No, I don't believe that. I'm gonna call BS on that.

[A]

It only grossed 728,000.

[B]

No, I'm not gonna. No. If. So that it was money. Not worth.

[A]

It's a big loser. Yeah. Because what would they have done for that?

[B]

But, like. Well, I don't know.

[A]

There's some cgi.

[B]

Okay. They made that building fall.

[A]

Well, they had, like, the dead child. They had.

[B]

I think that was makeup.

[A]

Really. The thing with a face bleeding out.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

I don't like that. Yeah. It was directed by. Here we go. Oscar. Thor, Axel's son. Not so hard. Who has 10 director credits on IMDb, all of which are Icelandic films and TV series. It was nominated for two awards. Here we go. We're going very niche again. One for best actor to the man who played Freire, and one for best cinematography. Both were Edda awards, which is Edda, and they are bestowed by the Icelandic Film and Television Academy.

[B]

So it's like the Icelandic Oscars, correct?

[A]

That's right. But it's like the Oscars and the Emmys put together because there's only 388,000 people there, so.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Which means each of Those people spent $2 to see this movie.

[B]

Oh, that's bleak. I mean, there has to be some crossover. Right. Like, there's, like. I would think.

[A]

You think that, like, you mean that some of those dollars came from the.

[B]

U.S. do any other country speak Icelandic? Icelandic?

[A]

I don't think so. I don't.

[B]

I. I'm looking it up.

[A]

I think you're gonna be disappointed.

[B]

Denmark, around 8,000 people in Denmark, they speak Danish. 5,000 people in the United States.

[A]

Okay. Those are people that speak Icelandic. It's not countries that speak Icelandic. I don't think they're making Icelandic movies in Denmark and the United States. It doesn't even make any sense.

[B]

That's weird that those are, like, the only ones that came up. I mean, America makes sense because we have all kinds here. But, like, Denmark, Specifically Denmark, they all went to Denmark at one time.

[A]

Well, there's, like, Leif Erikson. That was, I think, in the 1300s, though, so quite some time ago.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

Just a little while ago.

[B]

Just a little teaching history, talking books and movies.

[A]

The population of Iceland, we're going to bring that in as many times as possible. We got fun facts for everyone. Okay, let's go to the cutting room, because there's a lot happening with this. The movie is an hour and 45 minutes long. Like I said, the book is 391 pages. So that by itself, that's a lot of cutting. So the cutting room is where we're gonna go to tear it apart. Because that's what you do to a movie. Not necessarily to be mean to it, just because that's part of the process. You have to take it through the cutting room. So we're gonna start talking about pivotal book scenes and how they translated to the screen. Did anything rise to the surface for you first here, Shen?

[B]

So there was a lot that was left out of the movie from the book. They made a lot of changes, took some things out. After all was said and done, the only, like, pivotal scene that I could think of was the building falling. So I listed that one as mine. So I think that was one that was the building collapse. And I thought it was done even though differently from the book. I thought it was done well, especially, like, the aftermath where they were, like, dead in the rubble. Thought that was all very good.

[A]

Even though none of that is accurate to the book.

[B]

No, but we're talking about just pivotal scenes.

[A]

Pivotal scenes, Right. Okay. So for a pivotal scene that still stayed in the movie, even though it was very different, I chose the finding of Bernardus body, which is underneath a crawl space in the house. First, they have found in the book this child's finger bones underneath the porch, which is rotting when they arrive at this house. And throughout the story, it's revealed that they're missing because of frostbite. And then a fox took pieces of this child's body underneath a porch. There's a lot of detail around that, but the actual finding of the body under this crawl space is one of the high points of the plot in this book. It is differently done in the movie, but I do think they did a good job building tension there. And it felt very closed in. It felt very creepy. That was one of the creepiest, ickiest parts of the movie for me. So it stood out for both the movie and the book.

[B]

Okay. I like it. Yeah. No, I definitely think, like you said, we were like, there was a lot that was different. And so, you know, taking what they did with it. Yeah. And I think maybe they definitely added more to that in the book. I think while it was pivotal, it was kind of glossed over. You know, it was just kind of like they looked into it, they saw the bones. It was what it was. And they made it more of a plot point in the movie. So, yeah, I think they did a good job at that as well, which.

[A]

Is interesting because they condensed it by not having body parts in different areas of the house and finding them kind of piece by piece. But then they did make it bigger as well. So it's like a contraction and an expansion of one scene, which is interesting. Okay, let's do talk about how they are different, because there's a lot. So we're gonna start with changes from book to movie versus things that were left out or things that were added. So changes from book to movie. Okay, what do we got first?

[B]

So I. I mean, there was a lot and I. I did more. The bigger ones. Things that were like completely. I think central to the plot in the book that got changed for the movie. The big one I want to talk about was the fact that the. I just call them the trio, the main characters we have and who went to Hysteria. They were the ones that brought Benny there, which is completely different than what it was in the book. And it was because they left out the previous house owner. So. And with that, the timelines do not line up.

[A]

Yes. And the timeline's not lining up. That would probably be one of our biggest spoilers for the movie, which normally we don't care much about spoilers for the movie. We figure if you had time for either of these things, you're probably going watch the movie before you read the book. But that reveal in the movie is, I would say, the. The big thing, the most surprising thing about the movie is that these two timelines are not aligned. And in the book they absolutely are. These things are all happening concurrently in different parts of Iceland.

[B]

Right. And then because of that, it changes so many other things. It changes who brought Benny over to Hysteri. I always want to call it the island, but I don't think it is an island. It's just like an out jutting of a different part of Iceland. And it also changes the discovery of where Benny went. You know, they remove some of her plot's points about, you know, an affair that Freyr was having, as well as an accident he had and the. The guy he had the accident with. So it changes all of that as well.

[A]

Right. One of the biggest changes that gets revealed immediately from the book to the movie is that we don't have a vandalized primary school. We have a church that is vandalized, and there's a suicide in It. At the same time during the opening credits of the film. And that's not at all what happens in the book. We've got a primary school that is vandalized to the point that the children are all taken out of school and they have to go, like, play in the yard. Go play in the yard for a while.

[B]

Kids.

[A]

We gotta work out what happened in here.

[B]

It's only freezing outside.

[A]

It's only.

[B]

You live in iceland.

[A]

It's only 12 degrees. It's fine. So that entire start is very different. There's also just. On a very basic level, when they get to the house in history. History. I don't know.

[B]

Whatever that was. Italian.

[A]

They are. Yeah. Well, I don't know where we are right now. They're not. They're not tearing out floors and walls. They're. They're like, let's put up bottles and chandeliers.

[B]

It's like redecorating versus, like, renovating.

[A]

Yeah. It's very different. And they're also saying nobody's been here for 60 years.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Instead of three.

[B]

But everything's fine.

[A]

But everything's fine. We're just gonna, you know, put some paint on the walls. That's very weird.

[B]

It is. And then another thing that I wrote down, which I thought was big was the outcome of Leif and Garror.

[A]

They said it like Galadar. Like, I don't know what it was. The R becomes kind of squished in the mouth, like an L almost.

[B]

It's like Goladar, Catrin's husband and leaf. We'll just go with that. In the movie, they die from the building that collapses that falls on them, and that's their demise in the book. Grar. That's how I'm gonna go with it. Yep. It goes missing chasing after the ghost boy, and Leif survives an attack from the ghost boy, but later dies being transported back to the main town on the boat. So they changed that completely.

[A]

Catherine dies in both stories.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

Prior to the end of the story. And in this one, she, like, gives up the ghost to be with the ghost.

[B]

Good. Well, I didn't like that at all.

[A]

No. Okay.

[B]

Obviously, there were things that were left out of the movie and things that were also added. So we were going from changes from book to movie, and there was things that were left out, and I think things that were added to the movie was definitely the fate of Catrin, where in the book she was very much, I would say, like our heroine. The. You know, the story of, like, her. That part of this story was from her point of view. It was, you know, we were with her and she was a fighter. You know, she wanted to get out. She was dealing with a lot in the movie. She kind of just like, succumbed to her fate. I don't know. It was one of the things I did not like what happened to her.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Because she just gave up is what it. That's how it came across.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I don't know if it was supposed to be where we were reading into it. More like she gave in because she had no other choice or like she. That's what she wanted in some way, or he was controlling it in a way that, like, that made her do that. It just really felt like she just crawled into the house and gave up. I didn't like it.

[A]

Yeah, Well, I mean, along with things that were added to the movie that weren't in the book, there is this additional drama around pregnancies in the movie. So we do find out at the very end that Leaf is pregnant with Galda's child.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

And that is happening when they die, which Catrin finds out because she takes Leaf's phone to try and call for emergency assistance after the building collapse. And then there's also an additional storyline revealed earlier in the movie that Catrin had been pregnant and had a stillbirth. So there's definitely an element of she had been depressed. Leaf asks her how she's been doing. We're very confused listening to this part of the dialogue, because we thought that Leaf was going to be the one who was depressed because she was a widow and her husband had died not so long ago. None of that's in the movie?

[B]

Nope. Just in the book, they were just. I don't know. I don't know why they would change that. So that was one of the things. The big things that I did not like about the things that I called left out of the movie was just any explanation of the house and why they purchased it. Because in the book, it's very much explained that this was Leaf's dead husband's idea that he was camping in the area and, like, the town and then decided to buy the house and got.

[A]

There weren't enough BnBs there.

[B]

Right. Yeah. And so he. He, like, convinced his wife and his childhood friend that they were going to go buy this house and then he died. And it was. They were still wanting to do it. It was like, in the memory of him. But in this one, it's just. I don't know, they just bought a.

[A]

House randomly, the three of them.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

As friends. But really, the guy was having sex with his wife and the other woman.

[B]

Correct. Harem.

[A]

So it was his harem. And he bought a house with them.

[B]

Correct. So that was one of the things that I did not like. And they also. I mean, they left. They left a whole lot out, starting with just characters. I was really sad, and I know that it's dumb, and I get that it's completely expendable. Was that Pooty wasn't in it, which was the dog, because he was such a. Like, huge. He was such a big plot point. Like, he was everywhere in that story and then just took him out. Whatever.

[A]

Also, I think that's really important because there is website. This is important. There's a website called does the dog die.com, where you can put in the title of a book or a movie, especially if you're just getting started with it and you're worried that the author is gonna make you fall for an animal and then they're gonna kill it off. Because that happens a lot. And it is important to note that in I Remember you the book, Ursa introduces this dog. And at the beginning, you're like, I'm pretty sure everybody's gonna die. This is gonna be terrible. The dog survives. He adopted by Freyr to live a happy life.

[B]

Good for him. I want to be adopted by Freyr.

[A]

Sounds nice. That sounds nice. So to take out this one, like, joyful storyline of this dog who is faithful and loving and lies next to you while you're injured from a ghost that has pushed you down the stairs, like, all. I mean, that is so important to have that faithful companion. Especially when your husband is sleeping with a hooker that he brought with him.

[B]

Yeah, for sure. The other big main character that we lost again, because this is apparently something that we're just going to do forever now.

[A]

Big main character. Can we stop?

[B]

I didn't say big main character.

[A]

I just said rewind. Everybody rewind and listen to Shad say big main character.

[B]

We lost a brother again. Well, sibling most of the time. Everything so far has been sisters. Now we're losing a brother. Granted, it was a dead brother. Bernotis's dead brother who died with his mother in the book, was just not even mentioned in the movie 60 years.

[A]

Before the actual story takes place.

[B]

Correct? Yeah. But also, I guess siblings are just expendable. Expendable. That's what we learned.

[A]

Okay. One more thing that was left out of the movie that I thought was very important to the book is that we got to play along with this mystery of, did Leif kill her husband? We got to make our own suppositions about that. We got to get into Freyr's head a little bit as he's trying to put together this mystery of what happened to his son's insulin when he disappeared and this conversation he had had with Leaf while he was also doing the deed with her. This girl gets around in the book and none of that happens because her husband doesn't exist in the movie.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

So we don't get to know that not only does she sleep with her husband's best friend's and her best friend's wife. Like, there's a lot of relation there. And her therapist.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And she also killed her husband. Like, she has a lot of strikes against her.

[B]

Yeah. That was one of the things I mentioned to you when we were watching the movie, is that I really hoped that Catrin was going to be the survivor because it made sense that the boy was going after those two because they were bad people. We learned that they are not worthy of, you know, living. But then at the end, he goes after Catrin, and maybe it's. Maybe it's because she was pure. Maybe he wanted to keep her. I don't. It's like a Casper situation. I don't know. But it was something that I was hoping for and then was let down on.

[A]

Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, let's clarify something here, because in the book, to me, it feels like Bernardus is haunting this cabin. He was kind of awakened by the previous inhabitant who had been there to try and refurbish it. And he probably killed that guy, too. There's also the ghost of Benny exists because he died in that cabin as well, three years before in the septic tank. But he's a neutral party.

[B]

Yeah, well, he haunts his parents, but, like, really nothing else. There is a mention at the end of the book where she says she sees a different boy that doesn't seem as malevolent, but that was, like, his only mention in the trio's, like, whereabouts or their. Their storyline. So I think for him it was just like unfinished business, wanting to be found. With Bernotis, it was definitely. And he had. I mean, he had an ax to grind. He was bullied. Yeah. And. And it made sense that he went after the kids that tormented him. It did not make sense to me why he would go after the trio for being in his house. Like, I mean, you could explain away him disappearing, the original house owner, because it's inferred that it may have been because he was redoing the floors and putting in new floors over his hatch. So it was the possibility of him not being found. But with the other three, they found him. I don't understand why he was going after them like it.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Maybe at the beginning because he wanted to be found. So he was like making himself known. But Catrion was literally the one that found him. And then he offed her.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Makes no sense to me.

[A]

Yeah. And that's. That's a plot hole for sure.

[B]

Also, have we talked yet about the title and why I don't understand why it's called I remember you. Because I don't understand why it's called I remember your. Who remembers who? What are we talking about here? What storyline is this? I don't. There was definitely remembering, I guess, but it wasn't like. Is it Bernotis? Is that the you in the I remember you. I don't get it. Maybe it was lost in translation.

[A]

Yeah. And I mean, and Benny needs to be remembered as well because in the movie Freyr is concerned that he is forgetting his son. Right. That's why he's like plastered photos of him all over certain parts of his house.

[B]

I guess that makes sense. So I can buy that. I can buy into that.

[A]

Maybe. Maybe there's a concern about actually forgetting these children that were lost.

[B]

Okay. I would buy that. I like that. I just wasn't seeing it from that point of view then.

[A]

Yeah, it is in like. There's like in the Icelandic title because it said it right at the end of the film. And then I looked at it again today. It's like en man pig or in Pigman. And I was like a pigman. And then it shows it that it translates to I remember you. So I don't know.

[B]

Is pig I You peeg? I don't know.

[A]

I'm guessing the N is the I.

[B]

Oh, well, there you go. And then one of the other things that also concretes the bad people that were in the trio was there also was left out of the movie. This whole plot line were Groer. Grr.

[A]

Yep. I mean, we should just call him G, because people are not even going to know who we're talking about.

[B]

Exactly. Catrin's husband brought her out there to murder her for insurance money because they.

[A]

Had like run the coffers dry to buy this shithole of a house.

[B]

Right. In an abandoned town. Wailing old. Like old wailing town that is so.

[A]

Abandoned that there's literally no one there in the wintertime. They can just use the keys to the doctor's house and stay there.

[B]

Yeah. They definitely modernized it from the book to the movie. In the book, it's, like, desolate. They have to. They had. They need to collect firewood and the candlelight, and nothing works in the movie. There was electricity, a generator. Yeah. So maybe it was because it was the difference between 2012 and 2015.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

No. I don't know. They couldn't find that shithole of a town. Although they probably could have built it with their $2 million budget. Maybe that's what it was. That's where the money went.

[A]

Oh, yeah. They just went to an actual, like, isolated plane in Iceland and they built a whole town to make it.

[B]

I mean, it was. To be fair, we saw, like, three buildings in that entire set.

[A]

Right. That's what I'm. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

[B]

I love it. There we go. Figured it out.

[A]

Okay. That was a lot for the cutting room.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That was the next place we're supposed to go from here. If we're following our little yellow brick road that we usually lay out is casting.

[B]

Ah. I have some casting things. Okay, well, so Icelandic film, Icelandic actors. I did not do alternate casting in that sense. I remember when we did the Australian book, the Dry. The Dry. I did try to stay true and find Australian actors as alternative casting because it was easier, you know, like.

[A]

Right. This was a new challenge for sure.

[B]

This was a new challenge, and I did not rise to it. I decided what I was going to do instead.

[A]

There's only. There's only 383 other thousand people in the town.

[B]

Correct. What I did instead was I decided if they were to make this in, like, an English film, Hollywood, if Hollywood remade this film with actors that we know, who would they cast?

[A]

Okay, before we do this, we're gonna play one quick game, which is that you and I both agreed that the actresses who played Leaf and Sara should have been changed.

[B]

Correct. Cause Sara was pretty, was gorgeous. Yes.

[A]

And seemed more like somebody who could seduce a therapist and her best friend's husband and everybody.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Yeah. Leaf looked a little bit more like an unhinged mom who had already buried her son or lost her son. Like, it just. That part didn't make sense to us.

[B]

Yeah. Especially because she was supposed to be. It was like she was a man eater character. I mean, she was able to seduce a therapist and seduce her childhood friend and definitely fell short. We feel. This is the opinion of us as.

[A]

One more commentary on the current casting. Freyr Is played by Johannes Hauker Johannesson, and he is phenomenal.

[B]

He is. He is my favorite.

[A]

He's the one who had been nominated for a best actor award for this film. He's been in lots of English stuff because he speaks five languages fluently. Y'all hot. Good for him. So he's been in Game of Thrones, Succession, Valhalla, a lot of other shows. He is a famed, infamous actor. And. And he was great in this as well.

[B]

Katie and I were salvating. It's fine.

[A]

That was. That was a great part of this.

[B]

So I did is. I only did the. There was basically five main characters. There was Frere, and there was Donnie, who was the female police officer, and then there was the trio.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Catherine Leaf and Catherine's husband. That's what he's gonna be called now. So starting with the trio for Catrin's husband, I did actors that. I mean, I don't think he was supposed to be overly attractive, so I didn't want to go anything too, like, crazy. I did Jeremy Allen White, who you will know from the bear. He plays the bear. Oh, he was also on Shameless.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I also did Glenn Powell because he's real big right now, and I love him. He was in.

[A]

But he's hot.

[B]

He is hot, but I feel like he could have played it. I mean, the guy who played Catrin's husband in the Icelandic film was good looking.

[A]

He was attractive.

[B]

He was just. I mean, he was douchebag. You played that part well.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Catherine was definitely described in the novel as being a little more homely. I mean, she. At least she felt that way. So I also didn't want to give anyone too, like, overtly beautiful. The first one I picked, which I think would be a great for it, is Maya Hawk. She is the daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke. She's kind of just a tall, lanky, sort of awkward. I felt like she felt that type. I also just did Jenna Ortega because she's big right now. And then I would love to see Arby Aubrey Plaza in it because I'd love to see her in anything because she's amazing. You'll know her from Parks and Rec. Jenna Ortega, if you don't know, played Wednesday. On Wednesday. Next up is Leaf, who I definitely think should have been cast more pretty. So I did either of the Fanning sisters. Elle is definitely, I think, portrayed more as the pretty one. But if you saw the perfect couple, Dakota Fanning was amazing in that, and I love her for it Now I also did Chloe Grace Moretz, who Katie just made a face like she has no idea who that is. She. If you saw the movie Kick Ass, she was in that as a. Like a young girl. She played Hit Girl, more popular things. She was on 30 Rock. She's a great actress. I love her. And then also I did Sydney Sweener because she's big right now too, and I feel like she could play that role really well. What was that look for? You give me a look.

[A]

I don't know any of these people. I don't even watch these shows. I don't know any of them.

[B]

Sydney Sweeney's in Euphoria.

[A]

Nope.

[B]

She's real big actress right now. She was in that movie with Glenn Powell, but I can't think of the name of right now. But she's big. For Frere. I picked this first actor and I think it's perfect for him because every time I saw the actor who played for which by the way, I didn't even look up their real names because I'm not going to try to butcher their actual. The actual actors names. Every time I saw him on the screen I thought of Carl Urban, who.

[A]

I love Billy Butcher.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

I know who that is.

[B]

Like basically just substitute in for him. I also did Alan Ritchson because I love him. And then I did Tom Hardy because he kind of had like a little grit to him and I feel like Tom Hardy's really good at that. And then lastly, we have. You have no idea who these people are.

[A]

I. I know who Tom Hardy is. I don't know who Alan Ritchson is.

[B]

He plays Reacher on Reacher. He's like tall and amazing.

[A]

I've seen his profile on the picture of the still. For Reacher. Yeah.

[B]

That's all you need to see. Okay. Then for Donyi, I did. Every time she came on the screen, I was like, that's Toni Collette. Oh, yes, that is Toni Collette. So I picked Toni Collette because obviously she looks just like her. Judy Greer is like probably my favorite character actress of all times. I feel like she's four Alan Richardson probably too, because I love him. And then lastly, Dakota Johnson I thought could play Donnie. She was the 50 shades of gray lady. If you. She's also. She has famous parents. It's Don Johnson and somebody else is her.

[A]

I saw 50 shades of gray.

[B]

I did not. I don't even know her name. She's the 50 shades of gray lady for me. Okay. I have no idea. But she's also the one that if you watch anything online, she, like, people credit her for being the one that, like, basically got Ellen canceled. Because in an interview when she was on the Ellen show, Ellen, like, tried to make her feel bad for not inviting her to her birthday party. And then she, like, called her out on it. She was like, you were invited. And that, like, started the whole Ellen thing.

[A]

Oh, I didn't even know.

[B]

That's what I'm here for, guys.

[A]

Why Ellen got canceled more so she.

[B]

Was a bad person and alcoholic. But it's. That's what started the whole. Ellen's not as great as she seems.

[A]

Interesting.

[B]

This is why I'm here.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

This is what I do, guys.

[A]

Yeah, that's a. That's a lot. I. I don't disagree with anything there. I. I would say that Sara, the wife of Freyr, the ex wife of Freyr, is our other main character. Ish. The thing about casting is, to me, it felt like, as I was reading that these people were all mid-40s, maybe 50s, but they were definitely younger than that in the movie.

[B]

Oh, you think in the book? I thought in the book they were. Might be. I thought the trio could be in, like. Well, I guess no, because they were married for 12 years, so I guess that's probably the timelines pushed further for some reason. I thought I pictured the trio was in, like, their 20s and then fair in, like, his 40s. Really?

[A]

Yeah. I didn't picture the trio as being that young.

[B]

How are they described? Because I write down the descriptions of the characters. Catherine, it says barely over 30. I have that written down. Groer was barely over 30. Catherine's husband was barely over 30. So that's their age group. Fair is in his mid-30s. So. Yeah, I guess you're right.

[A]

Yeah, they just. When we started watching the movie, they all felt younger than I had pictured them in my head, but I'm not sure why, because it also says that Benny was 8 when he disappeared, and then it's been three years. So having an 11 year old and Freyre is in his mid to late 30s, you said. So then he would have had Benny at 23, 24, mid-20s. Yeah, I guess that makes sense.

[B]

Although he was a doctor, so shouldn't he be doing his doctorate things?

[A]

Okay, but we don't know how doctoring works in Iceland. Because he was like, yeah, it was a small town, so now I set bones too. Even though I'm a psychiatrist, y'all, that does not happen in the United States.

[B]

It's like you choose a lane, there's only 380,000 people. Okay. They have to cross train in professions.

[A]

They're just like, you know, you looked at a book about this once. Why don't you try.

[B]

We should set a disclaimer at the beginning that if you want a good drinking game to take a shot every time we mention the population of Iceland.

[A]

Yeah, we shouldn't. Because those 388,000 people are getting a workout in this episode. It has never been so important to an episode before. That will also come into play for the ratings and that part of things at the end because those are also interesting numbers. Okay, the last part of the cutting room is the problematic stuff section, which is when we talk about, is there anything that maybe. Maybe they should have done a little differently because we live in an enlightened society now. Hypothetically. And it could be because the movie is old. This one's not. It could be just because it's lacking something. All that I have to say about this is that everybody in Iceland is white and straight.

[B]

I wrote no people of color just because it's sexy.

[A]

I think that might be it. Because there's no sun in Iceland, so they can't develop color. They also don't have even. Like, this is like, reaching so hard to try for diversity. They don't even have the depiction of widowhood because, like, at least then you're like, well, that's kind of different for a lead character, being a widow.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Nope. They even took that out.

[B]

Yeah, they were like, screw that.

[A]

They had. What do they call it? Congenital diabetes, which is type 1 diabetes. Benny has type 1 diabetes, which is how he pride of why he died. Is that diversity?

[B]

I mean, if we're grasping it, we're reaching. Yeah. So I also. This is the other thing I wrote, and it was also with a question mark. Was leading Sarah to suffer in her own crazy. Is that something that's problematic? That he, like, abandoned her in her most dire time of being? Kind of did just like, I'm gonna save myself. You can just do in that. But. And then also, I mean, of course it was set. And I think this is more just the point of view. It was. I felt almost like forced romance in it. Like Frere's interest in Donnie or the way he described the nurse when he went upstairs. But I think it's just because it was from the male point of view. And it's like the male gaze more than it is problematic. That was the other thing I had written down, but I. I don't think it's an Issue. Because it wasn't, like, overtly gross.

[A]

And that's within the book.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah, because. Well, that's something they cut out was in the movie. Because there definitely is a relationship between Donnie and Frere prior to this whole story. They worked. They'd worked together in the past. He had noticed her. He knows, like, kind of stalkery, that she lives by him. But in the movie, it was definitely the first scene they had together. They, like, introduced each other, like, okay, so I guess that doesn't exist here.

[A]

Well, so they took out that sexual tension, but then they added Catrin and her husband having sex while Leaf was in the room in one of the first scenes.

[B]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. There was nudity. Do we need to preface? Partial nudity.

[A]

Preface. We're an hour in. No, we're 38 minutes in. Preface.

[B]

Sorry, guys.

[A]

We can, like, midiphyse.

[B]

Where.

[A]

Where are we? We're in the middle of the thing. Yeah. What kind of nudity? It's just. Oh, we do see his bum.

[B]

Freyr's bum and Catrin's boob in that scene where she's having sex with her husband. With his mistress in the room.

[A]

With his mistress in the room.

[B]

Yeah. Weird. Like.

[A]

Yeah, that's a no for me, dog.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Okay. Okay. All right. So our next section on this yellow brick road, because, yes, we have both seem wicked. Now is award season, so we're going to talk about our best and worst parts of the adaptation. The actors, the books, the characters, everything. Books. I'm just adding extra books here. So we always start low and go high. Let's talk about the worst parts of the adaptation.

[B]

So I've already mentioned it. For me, it was Catherine's fate and how she just gives up. She's just. It's. They took a character that I was rooting for and just ruined her. For what reason? There was no reason. I don't know. I didn't like it. That was probably the thing I disliked the most.

[A]

It is a pretty bleak horror movie in that and book, for that matter, because oftentimes within the horror genre, we have somebody that we're kind of rooting for that makes it. And that doesn't really happen here.

[B]

Pooty. It should have been Pooty.

[A]

It should have been Pooty. It's true. It's true for me. I said that the adaptation should have been scarier.

[B]

Yeah. You and I were also kind of making fun of it as we watched it. Yeah.

[A]

I mean, it just. It wasn't that propulsive to me for having it so honed in to cut it to only an hour and 45 minutes. It still felt kind of disjointed. So here's what I think they should have done. I think they should have. If they were gonna just cut randomly anyway, I think they should have cut the old storyline and made it that Benny was the ghost haunting. Like, they didn't have to have it be all of this. They could have been. Freyr is hunting for his lost child. At the same time, this group of people is restoring this old house that was abandoned for some other reason, but that's where Benny died. And have everything happening concurrently instead of, like, the church and the graveyard. Like, all this other stuff just makes it. I feel like it's just too scattered, and that is what takes away the scariness of it.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, it was done well in the book. I definitely.

[A]

I think the book was done well, too.

[B]

Yeah. So, I mean, it was more kind of like. Like a Da Vinci Code where it was like you were figuring things out, and all of a sudden, oh, this ties in there. And it all made more sense.

[A]

And the. The reveals are exciting in the book.

[B]

And so what they. They could have cut more. I agree with that. That they could have cut more in the movie to make it more streamlined and more suspenseful.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that would have been good. Okay. How about a best part of the adaptation?

[B]

Best part of the adaptation. I wrote the soundtrack, or lack thereof.

[A]

There's no soundtrack.

[B]

Well, there. There definitely was. There. There was, like, the ominous tones when things are supposed to be scary, but I think they definitely let it be silent.

[A]

Seven notes total, to build suspense.

[B]

I think that was a good job. They did a good job there. I mean, it helped with. To building the suspense to have the silence and to. To build off of that.

[A]

Okay. I liked the foxes.

[B]

There's, like. Is that a thing?

[A]

Many foxes?

[B]

Yeah, they, like, cut it out of the plot where the fox was. The dead fox was under the porch, but so they decided to put him in every.

[A]

So they had 87 other foxes who are uncredited, by the way. I also thought. I also thought they did a good job at just the Icelandic landscape. Like, it made me want to go. Not to be murdered by a ghost there, but, you know, the view across the fjord of this little town lit up on the water, the. Like, the prairie grass around these ramshackle old homes and this old mill. It just. It was very evocative. I loved the setting. I liked the way that those long shots pulled you into the action. I thought that part was really well done.

[B]

Watching it makes me never want to go to Iceland.

[A]

Oh, I totally want to go to Iceland. I just want it to be like, very safe.

[B]

Reykjavik. I would want to go to random Hysteria and other places.

[A]

No, it's a Fjorda.

[B]

Yeah, that place too.

[A]

Yeah. Hysteria, which sounds like Hysteria. Is that a real place?

[B]

Which I guess makes sense. It is. I looked it up. That's why I told you, like, I had to look up an ice, first off, just in general. I had to look up a map of Iceland just to get a feel of what the hell we're dealing with here.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And then I looked up hysteria, because that's why I said if you look at the map of Iceland, it's definitely. There's like a. An off jutting in the top left. And it's part of that. So it's not an island because everything is all connected. But it's definitely, like, across. Yeah, well, I mean. Yes, but it's not just like a straight line peninsula. It like juts out and then like, makes more land. Yeah, that makes sense.

[A]

Like a. It's like a Mohawk. Okay.

[B]

With that. Yeah. History was. Or is. Is a real place. I'm not sure how true it is to how it's described in the book, but an old whaling town, from what I understand. I think that was accurate, too.

[A]

Okay. I like that. And the other town too. Isa Fiorda or whatever.

[B]

I don't know, because I didn't want to spell it, so I didn't try that.

[A]

Yeah, harder. Longer word, harder to write.

[B]

I think it was, if I'm being honest, I think it was because it is. It is across the way. It's. Yeah, no, it is a real place too. Asaph Jorger.

[A]

Okay, what about the fact, like, Iceland, it's not that big.

[B]

It's only 388,000 people. Do you know that?

[A]

But repeatedly in the book, Freyr mentions, and then it happens at least once in the movie, that he just like jumps on a flight to go to Reykjavik. To Reykjavik or to see an autopsy. Right. So it's not like. Because to me it looks like it's the size of maybe Arizona, probably less. And you can drive across Arizona in a day. Like, why wouldn't.

[B]

Well, I think because it's. There's like. It's like a. Basically. Is it like a glacier?

[A]

I mean, it's not Greenland, but maybe.

[B]

That'S the issue is that there's just not enough or it's too perilous mountainous, not enough infrastructure. To like.

[A]

Oh, because there's only 388,000 people.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

You don't even have that many taxes to build roads. So you just jump on a flight, which I assume is like 12 minutes. It has to be to get from one side to the other.

[B]

So that was interesting. Yep.

[A]

Yep. Okay, let's go to actors. Who is the worst actor?

[B]

All right. The worst actor for me is I didn't really like because I. They dumbed down a lot of the storyline and they changed so much of it. There was definitely people I didn't like in the movie, but it was just a character as opposed to. I think anyone did a bad job. So I didn't. I didn't. I said they were bad characters, but everyone played them fine. I don't think anyone stood out for me. They didn't take me out of the plot or I thought anything about it. I didn't have any opinions.

[A]

Yeah, I put. I mean, I put Leaf because, I.

[B]

Mean, we hate her because we have to hate her.

[A]

But like, yeah, she's not attractive enough, funny enough, or flirty enough to have seduced all these people. Yeah, like, how did. How.

[B]

Yeah, but I mean, that's not. I don't think the actress did a bad job.

[A]

No. But I also didn't feel like she walked that line very well between, like, backstabbing biatch. And also she was like rubbing Catrin's back when she fell. It just felt like maybe she had a split personality. Like, it didn't feel authentic to the fact that she is also sleeping with your husband and is pregnant with his baby and is pretending this, this and this. It just didn't work for me.

[B]

Yeah, I'm down with it. I'm down to hate Leaf. Okay. Fuck Leaf.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

By the way, while you were doing that, I did look it up. It is a 45 minute flight from Esofjorder to Reykjavik and you can drive it in five hours and 35 minutes.

[A]

Oh, that is a long drive, though.

[B]

So there you go.

[A]

You'd be driving all night if you wanted to be there at 8am okay, are we gonna be in agreement on this? Who is the best actor?

[B]

Best actor. And I didn't get his name because I'm not trying to do that. But yes, the best actor was fair and not even just because I think he's hot and I love him. But he did a good job. I mean, he was very dramatic. He shook an old lady. He. No, he shook a child and face. Grabbed an old lady.

[A]

An autistic child.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

At that also added to the movie, so.

[B]

Yeah, I thought he did. The actor. His name is something something. Joseph. No, Joseph.

[A]

I've got it here. I got it. It's Johannes Hauker. Johanneson Johannes. So his dad is also named Johannes.

[B]

I thought he did a really good job. He was my favorite.

[A]

Yes. And also he's tortured, he's angry, he's hot, he's distraught. He's everything that you could need.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

In a, you know, Icelandic man. And he has a nice bum, as we pointed out.

[B]

Yes. You also, because you get to see.

[A]

That early on in the movie.

[B]

Just gratuitous, too. Like, there's no reason for it. Absolutely.

[A]

Why? Yeah, it doesn't. Nothing comes of that.

[B]

What was the rating?

[A]

Just like a little peek through the curtain.

[B]

Is that a thing that happens in Iceland? Do they get rated for American audiences?

[A]

It's here in the us So I think it's rated R. That makes sense.

[B]

I mean, there was scary things that happening and gratuitous nudity, so.

[A]

Because it's scary. Oh, it says not rated. Eggman Pig. E, G, M A, N, P, I, G. Eggman pig. Okay. Worst character in the book.

[B]

Worst character in the book was Leaf. I like. Absolutely. And because in the book, she's so much worse. She's like this prima donna bitch who's just awful. She doesn't think about anyone but herself. Every story comes back to her. She's. I mean, she doesn't help them, like, bring stuff into the house. She doesn't help.

[A]

She's totally useless.

[B]

Yeah. Complaints all the goddamn time about everything. Only thinks of herself. She is absolutely. She's not even just the worst character. She's just a horrible person.

[A]

Mm. Yeah. Starting. Starting from page one. Really.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And. And she's seasick at the beginning, but then she just lays there on the dock, like in the fjord.

[B]

Yeah. And you could tell. I mean, even her dog doesn't like her. Her dog takes an affinity to Catrin. Yeah. Because dogs are great characters of people. And Leaf is awful.

[A]

Okay. Another very awful person. And I mean, you're supposed to hate him. It's Bernardus's abusive dad. He is a horrendous person. And basically all of this horror could have been avoided if he had not been as bad as he was. Oh, is that where he made it? Not just horrible for his own child, but for, I don't know, one third the population of Iceland at this point.

[B]

There's only 388,000 people.

[A]

There's only 388,000 People, there it is. He's just horrible. And then in the movie it becomes. I mean, like seeing these flashback scenes of him carving, branding his son into his child's back. Ugh.

[B]

Do you think the theme here is bad dads?

[A]

We do have a lot of those.

[B]

Fair is also, like being punished. I'd say maybe.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

By his son disappearing because he was horned around when he shouldn't have been.

[A]

Okay. I think it might be. I think putting those two in the same camp of like, all bad dads go to hell is not quite.

[B]

Abusive alcoholic man whore. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. Like physical. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Best character in the book.

[B]

Okay. I don't. I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but Pooty.

[A]

No, you totally can. I've chosen.

[B]

I chose a backup as well. But yeah, Puti, because, I mean, he. He was loyal to Catherine. And of course, I already described her as our heroine and he was by her side and I. I didn't think he was just. He was loyal and great and I loved him. But the other one I chose was Donnie and I think she was great. She kept her cool. She was a good straight man to frere and, like, what he was doing. Good intentioned, rational. I mean, didn't put up with shit, but, like, was willing to listen to his rants and his crazy. And I think she was it for me.

[A]

Yeah. I actually, I had Donnie in my two as well. I think she has a lot of steadiness to her. And in a book like this, having the police detective storyline, that's like, this is where even Keel is. Don't forget that the real world still exists is such a good reminder. And it just feels like, okay, this is where we can breathe again. Right. I think it adds really a lot to the story. And then I like Catrin. I like that in that side of the storyline where inside her head. It's an interesting writing technique because it's not third person omniscient. It is third person, but it's also omniscient to Catrin's point of view only. So we get her thoughts and feelings, but we don't get everybody else's. And I think it's really well done. And I like the way she portrayed that part of the story.

[B]

Yeah, I definitely like. I like the book was very well written. I liked it. We'll talk about that when we go into ratings a little bit more. But I, I did. I think it was a great job. But yeah, I. Those I like people pick Johnny for sure.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah, I like that. Okay, that is where we're going next. So, book flick energy, these are our final thoughts. We're going to score things. Let's talk about the book as some background info. This book has a 3.83 out of 5 on Goodreads, which is a little lower than some of the other books that we've read. It only has 12,000 ratings, which is, you know, one fifth the population. I don't know, 4%? I don't know. It's. It's a very small number.

[B]

Did you cover, like, how many have been sold? How many copies of the book have been sold when you.

[A]

No, I didn't. I didn't. Because I did not find a lot of stats about any of these.

[B]

Okay. Yeah, because I would imagine. I mean, it was popular enough to be written and to be translated into English, so I would imagine. And you guys had it as a IPL.

[A]

Yeah. So that's at least 100 copies right there.

[B]

But for me, I. I was kind of in line. I gave it a three and a half. Not gonna lie. I thought it was well written. I liked the short chapters. I thought that kept everything moving. I liked the. Every chapter. Other chapter was a different. The other story. So I like that it flipped back and forth, but I just felt like it did feel predictable at times. I. There. There was a lot of things in here that it was like, oh, okay, that makes sense. But I also, like, I could. I knew that Bernou's brother and mother were the ones that were on the cross. And, like, there was things that I called real early that I just felt like wasn't. Maybe not well written, but it just wasn't as exciting for me. So three and a half, you know, a little bit more than a three, but I don't think you got a four.

[A]

Okay. Yeah, I did give it a four. I gave it a four when I first read it. And this time I felt the same. It got. It has some good creep factor to it. There's a lot of tying together in this that happens. That feels slightly over the top to me by the end. Like, it's so many pieces that she's trying to put all into one puzzle that it felt a little bit much by the end. And that's where I'm taking some away.

[B]

And it felt a little rushed at the end to me, too, when these revelations were happening. And it was just kind of. We didn't get to expand on some things where I'm just kind of like, okay, well, that was there for. Felt like shock value as opposed to being part of the plot. That makes sense.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. And it. It also felt like there was a lot of tying together, but there were also some unanswered questions. Oh, yeah, like, but why did this have to happen this way?

[B]

Why didn't he haunt the trio? Why did Catrin have to die? And why is she now haunting the house? And.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, all of that.

[B]

Maybe she's setting up a sequel.

[A]

Well, it's been 14 years and that hasn't happened yet. Although she does have quite a few other books. This is considered one of her best, though. How about the movie? Let me give you the numbers here because I have something fun to tell you here. So Rotten Tomatoes two scores, right? First is the critics on the Tomatometer gave it an 89% approval rating.

[B]

Wow. Icelandic critics.

[A]

I don't know. Maybe the audience score has a new name. It's highlighted on there. It says, this is now being called the Popcorn Meter. Is this from us? Did we make this happen? Did we manifest this in the world? It's us.

[B]

Did we copyright things? Are we copyrighted?

[A]

Gosh, we should be. That would be great. Okay. Popcorn Meter. They only gave it 53%.

[B]

Yeah. Wow.

[A]

So the audience did not appreciate this movie very much.

[B]

I thought it was out of 10, so I gave it a six. So a 60% is where we're at.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And I even wrote my. Maybe it could be better in English because I don't like some of it. I mean, maybe it was lost in the translation, because I think there is some of that. That always plays the effect. And of course, we don't.

[A]

I don't.

[B]

We don't know well enough to know. But I think maybe it could have been better. I mean, but there was the way that it was put together as well, with the cutting of certain things, and the way it was directed, I think leads into it as well. But I also wondered if maybe some of it was lost in translation.

[A]

Yeah. So on IMDb we see the same thing. 6.1 average out of 10 stars. 5,400 ratings. That's like 1/1000th of what we've seen for some of the other.

[B]

We did some meaty projects to start.

[A]

I mean, yeah, this is the lowest number we've ever had for sure. I myself gave the movie a 5 out of 10. There were just so many things that did not meet expectations for me. I did get creeped out a few times. There was one time when I reached over and I grabbed Your arm last night when we were watching where I was like, okay. But mostly I didn't get the creep factor that I was hoping for here. I did think it was interesting how little music and score they had. It felt desolate, dark, and cold, which was transportative. It just. There's like, the only big reveal is that these timelines are not concurrent. Nothing else feels.

[B]

Yeah. Like a revelation.

[A]

Yeah. So it kind of fell flat.

[B]

It lost that. Yeah. Because the book definitely had that. Whether or not you predict it, which I did. Like, there was some of them where I was like, oh, my God. But it was like Leaf was the one that he had the affair with, and that was the reason he was laid. To get like, that was just like, oh, my goodness.

[A]

And then the. The insulin pen missing, like, all.

[B]

Yes. In the book, they never directly say that she killed her husband. Right. Like, we're just.

[A]

But I kind of like that because she assumes that we're smart enough as readers to put that together.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because Freyr doesn't know that Leif's husband has died. Right. So he's not going to put that together for us. And so the only other way to do it would be like Leaf saying to Catrin, oh, well, you know I killed my husband. Right. In order to be able to run off with yours.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And she just assumes that we're smart enough to put it together ourselves.

[B]

In the book, there is something at the end. I'm just now remembering where I believe when he finds Leaf and she's all out of it because she's dying. I believe he says that he. That she said to him that he deserved it. Speaking of her husband, because he was trying to ask her about the insulin, but, like, without, like, actually saying it. And we could have been anything. I mean, he could have deserved. You know, I mean, it doesn't directly.

[A]

Right.

[B]

About her husband, but I think that's what we were supposed to.

[A]

Right. Right.

[B]

To assume.

[A]

Yeah. I thought those parts were really great in the book and they're just. They didn't have that kind of, like, oh, cool stuff happening in the movie.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. Excellent. Our final section, our actual final section is the leftover kernel. The little unpopped popcorn in the bottom of the popcorn bag. These are just like, little fun Q and A questions. Shad, what is your single pressing question that you have?

[B]

I have a couple. I have a main one and a follow up, and then we'll see how that goes. If I have another one, I can save that one for later. But do you believe in Ghosts.

[A]

I do not believe in ghosts.

[B]

And this is weird that I don't think I know this about you. Okay, so the follow up question was, have you ever had something supernatural happen to you?

[A]

I. Okay. When I was in fifth or sixth grade, I had a journal that I kept handwritten in little baby Katie's handwriting where I. And the title of the journal was it's the ghosts. And I would write down stories in it.

[B]

Creepy and like.

[A]

But it was just stupid stuff. Like once I heard a door slam and you know, I just. I don't. I do think that we've had a conversation like this before because my mom, who is a very level headed person.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Tells me that she has seen a ghost. That when she was young, there was a ghost that came and sat on the end of her bed. It was not a malevolent presence. It sat there and waited for her to fall asleep. And she is over 70 now and she still is. Like, that happened when I was a kid and it's been the same story always. It's never been like, well, maybe I wasn't. You know. She's never backtracked on it. I've never seen anything that makes me think that that is a real thing.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Do you believe in ghosts?

[B]

I do, absolutely.

[A]

Have you had something supernatural happen to you?

[B]

I have not that I can think of off the top of my head. My mom has as well. We like. Well, no, actually that is not true. So we have a presence that I think follows my mom that we believe might possibly be her father who died when she was young. And I think that little kids can see ghosts because there are definitely things that kids do that are creepy. When my nephew Harvey was little, my sister and her wife lived with my mother when he was born. And he would often like look in places and things and talk about grandpa, which was like grandpa Don, who was my mom's husband, my mom's father. Never met him, I never met him. But like, he would point at his picture and like say grandpa and like knew him also. The houses my mom lives in have always had weird things that happened, including one that I lived in with her. There was. I would often wake up. So the two bedrooms that me and my sister were in were across each other in a hallway. And I would often see something move out of my room and it would like go across the hallway and into her room and she would also feel the same thing. So we don't know. It was never like anything with the.

[A]

Doors open or through the doors. Okay.

[B]

With the doors Open. So it was, like, out of the corner of my eye. And it was consistently enough that it was like, this is weird. Why would I always see. It felt like someone moving, like, walking out of my room and into her room.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

So, yeah. Yeah, I believe in ghosts.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Absolutely. I think they. I think they have the power you give them.

[A]

Right, right. Okay. Yeah, I could see that. Okay. My question is similar and also not at all. Which is. So the premise of this entire story is that they're fixing up this house in order to make it into an Airbnb. So my question is, what would make an Airbnb scary enough for you to leave it in the middle of the night to find somewhere else to stay?

[B]

I think like, a malevolent presence. Something like a ghost or noises or things. Because in this. In the story, they.

[A]

Okay, would that just be a feeling or would it be like. And then there was a blood stain that appeared on the ceiling. Like, what?

[B]

Yeah, it would have to be something physical, I think. So with this one, you know, we have the shells, we have the wet footprints, and then, of course, they see the hands and the weird shit. Yeah, that would be. Absolutely. I'm out. Yeah. I think any kind of feeling, you just turn on the lights, you know, I mean, be done with it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, I've definitely, you know, woken up from a bad dream and slept with the lights on or things like that. So I think I could get over anything that was just, like, a feeling. It would have to be something physical.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Felt there and awful.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

What about you? Would you.

[A]

I think if I found a secret room.

[B]

Oh, well, you're going that way.

[A]

That had weird shit in it. Like medieval weaponry or a doll collection or red walls or, like, not just, like, an owner's closet where the owner was inside, which would make me leave in the middle of the night. If I found the owner somewhere. Somewhere in the rental. But if it was like, oh, there's this weird crack here, and then you, like, pushed on it the right way and it opened into another space, I would be like, we're getting out. Nope. Nope.

[B]

What if it was like. Like a secret sex dungeon?

[A]

Yeah. No, I don't. No.

[B]

Any kind of secret rooms. Katie's out.

[A]

I don't want any secret rooms in any place I stay.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I would like to find a secret library. That's it. That's the only secret room you can have in an Airbnb. And I'll stay there.

[B]

I like it.

[A]

I also think, like, there's. There's other like more practical things like, like the, the plumbing doesn't work or the front door doesn't lock.

[B]

So I, I have a, like, like a fear. But like, I also think about. Because it's someone else's house, what if there's hidden cameras or things like that. But I mean, what are they gonna. I don't give a. What they see. Like, I'm not doing anything crazy if.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

They want to watch me addressed you.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. And none of those are like, they're not like scary enough to make me leave. They're just like practical concerns where I would be like, this is not going to work for me.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So. But because I don't believe in ghosts or paranormal things, I didn't even think through things like what if I looked up and there was a weird red stain that looked like it kept expanding throughout the course of that first day we were there. I don't know, that might be enough to make me leave because that would be very strange and I would not like that.

[B]

Yeah, well, because you don't believe in it and so it'd be like extra strange for you.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Do you believe in aliens?

[A]

No. I definitely think there's. There's life out there. Like, I do not think that there is a. An entire universe where we are the only.

[B]

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay.

[A]

Intelligent creatures. Like, that doesn't make any sense to me. There's something that lives out there for sure. I don't think that there's. What is that? Encounters of the third kind, like alien probing of bum holes. I don't think that's a thing.

[B]

Well, what about like, so do you believe because you are. You go to church. So what about the demon possessions or things like that? That's supernatural.

[A]

Yeah. No, I mean, I think I've seen my children do some things that are very concerning, but I think there's a lot of things that we could look at and be like, that's definitely a demon. And most of the time that's just people just being weird.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

That is our discussion of. I remember you.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

We're all done now. Both the book and the movie. We are so happy that you joined us for this. Our show is produced and edited by Megan Putamong Evans, who can be found on Instagram at most of Megan's reads.

[B]

This was great. Our next episode will be in approximately two months time. I do apologize. We were a little late with this episode. Things happen. But we will focus on Erasure by Percival Everett and the film adaptation from 2023 called American Fiction. Which you can currently stream on Amazon Prime Prime. Super excited for this one.

[A]

Yes, I'm excited too. If you want more Bookish content, we'd love to have you join us every Monday for the Currently Reading Podcast where I am joined by Meredith Monday Schwarz to talk about everything we've been reading lately. You can find the show at Currently Reading Podcast on Instagram. Super fun. Follow. You can find me at Notes on Bookmarks and Meredith is at Meredith Monday Schwartz on Instagram as well.

[B]

For me, you will find me in the Bookish Friends Group on Facebook, Facebook.

[A]

And in my DMs sending me ridiculous things. Yeah, we cannot wait to chat with you next time on Popcorn and the Pages. Until then, may your popcorn be hot.

[B]

And salty and your book be better than the movie.

[A]

Happy reading Shad.

[B]

Happy watching. Katie.