The Manitou w/ Jessica St. Clair

Summary

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How Did This Get Made? – “The Manitou” (1978)

With Special Guest: Jessica St. Clair
Release Date: June 5, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this comedic breakdown, Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, June Diane Raphael (absent for this episode), and guest Jessica St. Clair plunge into the 1978 horror oddity “The Manitou.” They dissect the baffling plot, wild choices, dated aesthetics, and star Tony Curtis’s “man boobs”—all with their trademark blend of affection, confusion, and hilarious exasperation. The movie, a cult classic blending exorcism tropes with Native American mythology, prompts the hosts to ask: Who greenlit this? Who is this for? And why does a demon fetus emerge from a woman’s neck?

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Main Topics & Key Insights

1. The Incomprehensible Plot ([00:45–04:47])

• Paul opens by attempting to describe “The Manitou”: A woman, Karen, discovers a lump on her neck that turns out to be the reincarnation of a 400-year-old Native American demonic spirit. Her ex-boyfriend, a fake psychic (Tony Curtis), and a Native American medicine man try to help.
• Jason sums up: “An hour and 16 minutes of the movie really could just go out the window and you could just watch the last 30.” ([02:29])
• Jessica admits: “I was obsessed with Mrs. Hers. My favorite sequence of the movie...her herky jerky movement, her floating down the hallway...” ([03:09])

2. Tony Curtis: Protagonist or Walking Source of Discomfort? ([04:47–08:39])

• The hosts riff on Tony Curtis’s character: a scam artist psychic who wears a fake mustache, robes, and sits in a dentist chair in his apartment.
• Jessica’s horror: “The most upsetting part of this whole movie for me...is his boobs...I can see your nipples for 99% of this movie. That’s the thing that will haunt me the most.” ([06:40])
• Paul’s chilling reveal: Tony Curtis is “one year younger than I am currently” when filming this. ([08:21])

3. Seventies Tropes and Aesthetics ([09:07–13:36])

• Obsession with set design: Yellow “lab coats,” orange shag carpet in hospitals—hosts debate whether this was real 70s décor or the result of a director mid-acid trip.
• Jessica: “I thought lab coats were always white...they are mustard yellow.” ([11:05])
• Jason: “Hospitals were not fully computerized like that...it’s a punch card!” ([31:35])

4. The Film’s Narrative Illogic: Characters, Structure, and Pacing ([13:40–20:13])

• Characters are introduced and discarded: Like the sexy neighbor, the séance crew, and doctors.
• Jason: “Another character that seems significant...then completely abandoned.” ([18:06])
• Jessica on the script: “They must have been on some drugs, like some heavy, heavy drugs.” ([26:59])

5. Medical Malpractice & Horror Setpieces ([16:00–24:32])

• Laughing at procedures: Karen’s tumor gets checked in a “finished basement” and she’s sent home for a hot soak.
• Seance and psychic tropes: The séance sequence stands out, but witnesses are never seen again.
• Memorable moment: The attempted surgery scene, in which a possessed surgeon slices his own wrist: “He’s doing it where you put the watch face.” ([23:52])

6. The Manitou Mythology and Representation ([32:35–34:05])

• Paul and Jason: The film’s mishmash of Native American spiritualism is both confused and often offensive. John Singing Rock, the “medicine man,” feels inauthentic and is paid in cigarettes.
• Jessica parodying a key line: “You still got room for a South Dakota Indian with a bag of tricks?” ([34:20])

7. Tone, Genre Mash-Up, and What Works ([35:16–38:43])

• Uneven tone: Schlocky horror meets deadpan comedy, Exorcist rip-off by way of The Love Boat.
• Paul: “It’s like Exorcist for Dummies.”
• Praise for effects: The “birth scene” of the demon from Karen’s neck is cited as genuinely creepy. ([47:14])

8. More Bizarre Highlights

- Sex and 1970s Social Mores ([41:18–43:57])

• Hilarious detour about “sand jobs” and sex in front of fireplaces.
  • Jessica: “You try to give one hand job on a beach and you find out—game over.” (43:06)
• The ambiguous nature of Tony Curtis and Karen’s relationship.
• The possibility that the budding demon on her neck made it a “three-way.”

- Clumsy “Science vs. Old Magic” Themes ([50:08–53:35])

• The hospital is filled with NASA-scale computers so that, by the end, Karen can channel technology into shooting “topless lasers” at the demon.
  • Paul: “All that stuff needs to be there in order for ... [Karen] can shoot topless lasers out of herself.” ([32:17])
• John Singing Rock: Why is the medicine man a villain? Why do we never try and communicate?
  • Jason: “The theme is...there’s a lot of mixed themes.” ([53:35])

- Indulgent Pacing and Viewing Advice ([25:56–26:17], [75:51–76:13])

• Jessica and Paul recommend: Watch at 1.5x speed.
• Paul: “Watch it at 1.5 speed… a lot of it moves slow. So speed it up until it looks like it’s good.” ([75:51])

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Jessica St. Clair [06:40]: “His man boobs...I can see your nipples for 99% of this movie. That's the thing that will haunt me the most.”
• Paul Scheer [08:21]: “1978, Tony Curtis is one year younger than I am currently. That is chilling.”
• Jessica St. Clair [14:38]: “Fact colon: This actually happened to a boy in Tokyo.” (Referencing the movie’s absurd final claim)
• Jason Mantzoukas [30:51]: “Why all of the interior spaces of the hospital have NASA level computers full of screens and knobs…?”
• Jessica St. Clair [34:20]: “You still got room for a South Dakota Indian with a bag of tricks?”
• Jason Mantzoukas [50:08]: “He throws a computer printer at him. And he says…‘It’s a shame that we can still have this medieval medicine man attack us.’”
• Jessica St. Clair [43:06]: “You try to give one hand job on a beach and you find out—game over. Dangerous.”
• Jason Mantzoukas [66:47]: “It looks good. It is shot well, but it is a mess.”
• Jessica St. Clair [73:07]: “The scenes that worked for us were the ones in which somebody was viscous. Somebody was wet.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------|------------| | Introductions & Summarizing the Movie | 00:45–04:47| | Tony Curtis Character Dissection | 04:47–08:39| | ’70s Aesthetics and Set Design | 09:07–13:36| | Plot Illogic and Disposable Characters | 13:40–20:13| | Medical Malpractice Highlights | 16:00–24:32| | Computers, Science vs. Magic, Hospital | 30:51–34:05| | Psychic/Séance Sequence | 35:16–38:43| | Sex Trends and Social Commentary | 41:18–43:57| | Showdown, Lasers, and the Finale | 50:08–53:35| | Hosts’ Final Thoughts + Recommendations | 75:49–76:13|

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Second Opinions & Listener Reviews ([68:41–72:16])

• Jason reads: “I like a movie where I have to make the choices.”
• Jessica: “Necessary plot is left to the imagination…I think we’re doing a lot of the legwork for these screenwriters.” ([69:43])
• Amazon and IMDb reviews: Mixture of nostalgia, bemusement, and confusion.

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Critical Take & Conclusions

• The hosts agree “The Manitou” is slow, schlocky, at times offensive, but also never boring—especially if watched at high speed or with substances. Despite (or because of) the chaos, it’s an oddly compelling watch.
• Paul’s final word: “It’s well done…this is bad, it’s so slow at times, but I was like, this is nonetheless a movie which I’m very into.” ([64:47])
• Jessica: “I never felt like I was in bad hands.” ([65:43])
• All wish the focus was on Karen (the woman suffering through the horror) rather than her sleazy psychic ex.

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Final Recommendations

• Watch for: surreal 70s horror, wild effects, strange setpieces, and accidental comedy.
• Best enjoyed: with friends, at faster speed, and/or under the influence.

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Bonus: Most Memorable Running Joke

• Jessica St. Clair’s “sand job” story ([43:06]):
  “You try to give one hand job on a beach and you find out—game over. Dangerous…I’m not saying my nickname became Sand Job for the rest of the summer…”

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For listeners, this episode is a riotous romp through baffling cult horror—with plenty of sidebars and zany asides that make “How Did This Get Made?” a must for bad movie lovers everywhere.

Transcript

[Paul Scheer]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

Your support helps the Feeding America Network nourish every child's potential.

[Paul Scheer]

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[Jessica St. Clair]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

Let me tell you something, people. When you have a bad hire at your job, it wrecks everything, okay? It costs you time, it costs you money, it costs you momentum. And when you're a small business, you. You can't afford that. You need a good hire and you need it right away. But finding great talent isn't easy. So that's where LinkedIn's new hiring pro can screen candidates for you. So instead of sorting through applicants, you spend time talking to the right ones. Get started by posting your job for [e-mail] valuable terms and conditions apply. Panawici Salah II Panawiczi Sala 2 we saw the Manitou. So you know what that that means. How did this get Made? Hello people of Earth, and welcome to how did this Get Made? I am Paul Scheer. Today on the show we are talking about the Manitou, a film that came out in 1978 about a woman who finds a lump on the back of her neck and then that is determined to be the reincarnation of a 400 year old demonic native American spirit. She is aided by her quote unquote boyfriend who's a phony psychic and a Native American who will help battle this evil spirit. We'll get into it, but first let me introduce my co host.

[Paul Scheer]

I mean really, even just trying to explain it is almost impossible.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I was really trying to like that's the simplest explanation. I will tell you this much. An hour and 16 minutes of the movie really could just go out the window and you could just watch the

[Paul Scheer]

last 30 because most of the cat, I mean, like, like, like. This is a movie that introduces and discards characters constantly.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

By the way, that is Jason Mantzoukas. Welcome, Jason. And today on the show, sitting in how did this get made? All star, someone who is afraid of dumpster fires. And in this movie, you didn't get Any of them. Please welcome the one and the only Jessica St. Clair. How are you, Jess?

[Jessica St. Clair]

Good. What if instead of me, it was the actress who played Mrs. Hers? Remember? I would love it just expired.

[Paul Scheer]

I was obsessed with Mrs. Hers. I knew you were Mrs. Hers is my favorite sequence of the movie. I was obsessed with all of her herky jerky movement, her float when floating, her floating down the hallway. But then when Mrs. Hers gets, quote unquote, thrown down the stairs, and it is just a burly man, a stuntman in a gray wig, who she is. Mrs. Hers is an elderly woman who's, I'm going to say, like in her 90s. She's old as hell. She's teeny tiny bird bones.

[Jessica St. Clair]

She's got bird hollow bones.

[Paul Scheer]

She falls down the stairs with so much strength, it takes out an entire row of like, Of a. Of a banister. You know, like all of the crazy.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Like, they were made of Popsicle sticks. It was the craziest shit. But when she started lifting up, I know we're jumping right in. But when she started lifting up and levitating, that's where I was like, oh, we. This is bed knobs and broomsticks.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, yes. When you saw her feet off the ground. I mean, this whole movie. I mean, this movie is kind of like Exorcist for Dummies in a way. You know, in the sense that there is a demonic spirit and they're kind of fighting off the demonic spirit. But this side story where she lives, the old lady, is one of my favorite things. Because Tony Curtis is a phony psychic. And you open up on this moment where he's in this apartment and he has eerie music on. He has a mustache. He's reading tarot cards. A fake mustache which is revealed in such a great way. Like, why is that even an element of his phony psychic? That the psychic is more believable in a mustache? Or does he not want to be recognized out on the street? I can't quite tell.

[Paul Scheer]

I could go into just the establishment of Tony Curtis. This one. Two of you meet him in a scene in which he's exactly as Paul said. He's got the mustache on. He's wearing, like, a kimono. I think he's doing a tarot card reading. His whole thing is tarot. And he does tarot for elderly women in order to make money. Okay, great. Then the woman exits. He takes off the mustache. He takes off the kimono.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He.

[Paul Scheer]

His apartment is decorated with, like, medical equipment.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like, he's sitting in a barber chair.

[Paul Scheer]

Dental chair or a barber's chair. Yes.

[Jessica St. Clair]

And honestly, Jason, that was a bit Jason coated.

[Paul Scheer]

I was like, I. Well, you know, I tried.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Yes, you're immediate.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay, so I just tried to buy the entire contents of a dental office.

[Jessica St. Clair]

That's my point. Wow.

[Paul Scheer]

Including chair. And I bought all the X ray boxes, but I didn't buy the chair.

[Jessica St. Clair]

So before you throw stones at Mr. Tony Curtis, turn the mirror on thyself. Because you are literally like, I bet I thought to myself, oh, that your dream was reignited to get that chair in your house.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

My issue with that chair was it's facing inward to the apartment instead of outward to a beautiful, like, bay window. Like, right. So he pours himself a glass of beer in a champagne glass, which is an like, the way that they're setting up his character is like, the minute she's. The old lady's gone. Cause he's a scammer. Like, he puts on like, some hip music and takes off his, you know, robes and he's a cool dude. And then the minute he pours the beer into the champagne glass, I'm like, well, not so cool anymore. Just drink it out of the. Just drink it out of the can, my friend. But he sits in the barber's chair facing inward.

[Paul Scheer]

What are you at all into the apartment.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Inward. Yeah. Meanwhile, behind him, beautiful bay window.

[Paul Scheer]

San Francisco.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

San Francisco. But nope, he's just stare at his kitchenette. That's it.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Something I just wanted to point out. The most upsetting part of this whole movie for me, and this is not a joke, is his boobs. His man boobs. And how they are not just like, okay, I get like, men back then, we didn't do a lot of, you know, working out. We weren't like, well, he's also a

[Paul Scheer]

older man at this point.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Fine, but you're not even giving him an undershirt. And I have to watch you in a thin tissue, thin T shirt. And then another tissue, thin button down, so that I can see your nipples for 99% of this movie. That's the thing that will haunt me the most.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Jess, I'm going to say something here that might be controversial. I think he thinks I'm in great shape.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, you need to see what I'm going to say. Here's what I'm going to say. I need you to understand, sinclair. This is 1978. This is the most fit man in America for 1978.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Also, this was a time, and I'm just getting this from my husband who said, you know, this was A time when kind of more like romantic stars of the past who had sort of peaked, like past their prime, they would do these horror movies.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[Jessica St. Clair]

So like Tony Curtis, right? We were meant to kind of think he was like a. Like a swinging guy back in the day. He bagged women, Right. He bagged Marilyn Monroe. Was that him?

[Paul Scheer]

But he also. Janet Leigh. He is Jamie Lee Curtis father. He was with Janet Leigh. Yes.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Got it. So we're.

[Paul Scheer]

Can I say. Can I say something that is fucking so upsetting?

[Jessica St. Clair]

Sure.

[Paul Scheer]

In 1978, when this movie was released, Tony Curtis is one year younger than I am currently.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, my Lord.

[Jessica St. Clair]

I thought he was in his late 60s. Mid 60s to late 60s, at least.

[Paul Scheer]

That is chilling.

[Jessica St. Clair]

At least.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But by the way, I gotta tell you, he carries himself like this. Like he is doing jokes like he's Teflon in this. Like, it is a funny thing. Because the movie makes a lot of choices, and I would argue all of them wrong, but every choice is made with a hundred percent commitment. It would be like, hey, you know what? I thought the Exorcist was good, but it just needs a couple more jokes. Like, why are we being so serious about this?

[Paul Scheer]

We're jumping in on the Tony Curtis of it all. And without a doubt, he is like the main attraction. But the movie starts not with Tony Curtis.

[Jessica St. Clair]

That's.

[Paul Scheer]

The movie starts with Karen, right? Karen, yes.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Which I had read. Which I had read somewhere was a. Was Susan Sarandon?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, wow.

[Paul Scheer]

No, no, no, it's Susan Strasberg. Strasberg.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The whole time you're waiting.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jessica St. Clair]

I'm like, is it Susan?

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, my God, not Susan.

[Jessica St. Clair]

But then I'm like, where does Susan come in? And then I had a whole thing like, thank God they're setting up these doctors as such fucking idiots. So Susan Sarandon could come in.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, my God.

[Jessica St. Clair]

And give, like the pit level proof.

[Paul Scheer]

I would love that, by the way, if Sarandon had shut. But we open with these two doctors who are trying to figure out what is growing on the back of Karen's neck.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

And they are having a conversation that makes it seem as though, at least to me, these are the main characters of the movie. It's. These are. It's. This is a medical mystery movie. And here we are. We're gonna figure it out. And they even have inside jokes with each other that when they're like, be a doctor, don't be an administrator. Which keeps. Which comes back. They've got, like, bits and banter and.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And they also are dressed in the height of 70s fashion. It looks like they're renting cars at Hurts or they've just won a golf tournament.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes. Everything is. Yes. Yellow. And the hospital. The entire hospital has orange shag. Carpet, Carpet, Carpet. What is going on, guys? We cannot do this.

[Jessica St. Clair]

We can't go back in time. We don't have the great space coaster to go back in time and see.

[Paul Scheer]

But is that your preferred time travel method?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I was going to say is the great space coaster. I never knew that that was a time traveling device.

[Paul Scheer]

My understanding is that it only travels through space, not time. But I'm so curious. Tell us more about the great space coaster, Jess.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Well, my point is, I was two years old when this movie came out, and everybody making those TV shows and movies were coming off such an acid trip that had lasted, like, 10 full years. So to them, all of this makes sense. But as a, like, historical record, my question is, I thought lab coats were always white. That. That's. But they made such a crazy choice that they are mustard yellow.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes. As if they're Caldwell Banker agents or whatever.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Did that happen?

[Paul Scheer]

Century 21. Century 21.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This whole movie basically takes place in a hospital. And I feel like they built the hospital, but that hospital is way too colorful. I actually was like. I kind of like it. It feels very like Stanley Kubrick in a way. Like, it feels like we're seeing these, like, very, like, shining, level images.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Right. And color schemes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes. I don't think hospitals were ever this carpeted. Well, they definitely were not carpeted.

[Paul Scheer]

They can't carpet in 19. There was so much. Imagine, like, all the blood pouring out of someone onto the carpeted.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Just anything. Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

What's going on?

[Jessica St. Clair]

That's a horror movie.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I also think that these doctors are not fully versed in how to treat people. When they are having this conversation about this woman looking at the X rays, and then they go out into the waiting room, like, oh, just take down your shirt. Let's go figure it out. Like, there's no room.

[Paul Scheer]

They don't even want to bring her room.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No, they're just doing it in, like,

[Jessica St. Clair]

a public waiting room that straight up looks like my finished basement that they're in. And they're just like, take off your blouse. And I was literally like, this is an unsafe situation for her sexually.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, absolutely. When the one doctor said, I've looked through every tumor book available, I was like, what book? And I love that the only way they can kind of have any insight or any thought as to what's going on is because there's a medical chart on the wall behind them. That is the gestation period of from embryo to fetus.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yet they are tumor specialists, not.

[Paul Scheer]

Not lbgyns.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I mean that. I will say this. I have two thoughts, one being the great space coaster only went to Coasterville. It was not a time traveling device.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Is Coasterville in space, though?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It is in space.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. But do we know, is it out of time at all? We don't know. Maybe time works different.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's just a habitable asteroid floating in space. Now, now.

[Jessica St. Clair]

I was in the space coaster.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Come on board the news. Gnuz Gary Gnu Gary G. Good canoe.

[Paul Scheer]

No canoes. No new gaze with Gary Ganu. Guys, we're having a great time.

[Jessica St. Clair]

The original Tucker Carlson. Gary Ganu.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, my gosh.

[Paul Scheer]

All right, well, anyway, I think that might be Stan the eagle.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So we know that these guys are tumor specialists, but they have this, like, OBGYN thing on the wall. And then I was like, it doesn't make sense to me that it's growing on the back of her neck. Put it in her belly, make her pregnant, and make the pregnancy weird.

[Paul Scheer]

Why is this done like this? Why aren't you?

[Jessica St. Clair]

I actually think that was a great choice. I think for somebody who gets really grossed out really easily, who's scared of everything, having a fetus grow on your upper spinal cord is quite nasty. Disgusting. And also, as we learned in the final shot of the movie, a fact that this had happened to a. First of all, boy. Okay, first of all, from Tokyo, fact colon.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay, first of all, the fact colon.

[Jessica St. Clair]

That's what it said. It said, fact colon. This actually happened to a Tokyo. A boy in Tokyo.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The. The movie ends with what maybe should be at the beginning, which is like, in 1969, in Tokyo.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

A young boy developed this on. In his chest, right?

[Jessica St. Clair]

Oh, it was his chest. Oh, okay.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I'm pretty sure it was his chest. But now, any research into this, there's no history of that. That is not a real statement. So that this.

[Paul Scheer]

My feeling is like, couldn't this have been this true case? An instance of, like, a vestigial twin that didn't grow? And there's. There's something in the body, but it's not. It's not gestating. It's not growing and gaining size. And like, that's the other thing about what's happening to her is the fetus that's on the back of her neck is growing so fast that it grows into a man. Like, spoiler alert, A man is birthed from her neck tumor. In the third act of the movie. That's what we're doing.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Which, by the way, I will say it's on the level of the best scare tactics I've ever seen. They do this multiple times in scare tactics where a woman is going into labor. They bring somebody in, and then, you know, and then somebody pops out and covered in blood, just like this. This is the premise of, I would say, 25% of the best scare tactics episodes.

[Jessica St. Clair]

It was so disgusting. But I would say this. So, so much malpractice going on because she comes in, she gets examined in somebody's finished basement. Then they're like, you know what? Go home. First of all, they don't tell her that they think it's a terribly malignant tumor. They're like, go home. You got a fetus on your neck, possibly. Go home and have a night of it. Okay. When she come back in the morning,

[Paul Scheer]

it feels like it's moving around to get more comfortable. I was like, guys believe women.

[Jessica St. Clair]

And their answer was, go have a hot soak and we'll see you back for surgery. Yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

There's nothing they can do about it. All right. They got like, what? Have a drink, go out on the town.

[Paul Scheer]

Her first call, Tony Curtis, amateur psychic,

[Jessica St. Clair]

who they're not even dating at the time. She's like, you're the only person I feel like I could connect with. But they haven't spoken in months. And then she sort of, like, sleeps on the news that. That thing is, like, moving around in her. And then they have, I think, sex in front of her.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, they both are in robes. They. They go back it hard cuts to them back in his apartment in robes. And you think it's post coital, but it's not. Because he then suggests something that is like, they're about to have sex. So, like, they went home and just changed into bathrobes. Well, that's the way.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's the seventies. Just, like, why?

[Paul Scheer]

I guess, like, get.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Get into shorts. Get it, you know, or get into your. You know, just get comfortable. By the way, I will say that just as we're talking about sex, Tony Curtis is. It's established that he lives next door to a sex worker because as he's, like, letting out his old lady, the sex worker's like, huh, still doing this.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Another psychic, I thought.

[Paul Scheer]

I thought it was another psychic, because

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I thought she was dressed in a way, she was provocative. And then when he said to her, well, I heard your act last week, I was like, well, business is slow for this sex worker. If she's only doing it weekly. But maybe you're right. Maybe it's house. Psychic.

[Paul Scheer]

House of psychics.

[Jessica St. Clair]

No, yours makes a lot more sense, Paul, in a lot of ways because she was dressed in like a see through negligee.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Bodysuit.

[Paul Scheer]

But perfect example of another character that is introduced. Seems like she might be significant to Tony Curtis's character. Then completely abandoned. Another. When Tony Curtis seeks out the help for the seance of his. His old friend and her husband with the beard, he goes to the. The store that sells nautical equipment and occult gear. That's. I was like, what is this?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This is. I love those two.

[Paul Scheer]

This is all ship stuff and occult stuff. What's the store here?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, you know, look for. Because niche markets, you can't just.

[Paul Scheer]

You gotta combine.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You gotta combine. You gotta. You gotta get in there.

[Paul Scheer]

Those characters arrive, they do a very dramatic seance, which we should talk about, and it's terrific. But then never heard from again.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Never see them again.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Not important to the plot. I mean, again, the movie goes on for an hour and 16 minutes. We meet Burgess Meredith, who.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, right.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Who might have gotten the same memo as Tony Curtis that this is a comedy. Because he's playing like he does a bit in this movie that made me laugh so hard.

[Paul Scheer]

Like, can I guess?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

Which is when they all come in, they all sit down. And after they sit down, he said, please have a seat.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Wait, which one is Burgess? Who is.

[Paul Scheer]

He's the. He's the professor. The old man professor.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Oh, God, he was really eating up that scenery.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp. Chomping it.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Chomp. Did he. Chop, chop.

[Paul Scheer]

By the way, thank God they were chomping it up because otherwise I think we would have been very bored.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, yes, yes.

[Jessica St. Clair]

We needed a change of location for sure. But whoever put up those cobwebs, oh, my God. Their set design class from fucking Paul's Halloween decorations outside his house.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I'm taking that.

[Jessica St. Clair]

You could have done a better job. You could have done a much better job, Paul, on the set design.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, it was 78. We didn't have the technology. We didn't have 15 foot Jack Skellington.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah. Oh, my God. I could have gotten in there. But that, like, this is what is so interesting about the movie. The movie basically is saying, hey, there is a thing on this.

[Paul Scheer]

That's the. The voice of the movie is like, hey. It is more like, hey, hey, this is the world.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I was out last night drinking. I was out last night drink. I'm a little messed up. Hold on. All right, so. All right, so. Hey, hey,

[Paul Scheer]

hey. The Manitou calling. What's up?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Today's podcast is brought to you by our friends over at Squarespace. You know, I love Squarespace because with Squarespace, everything that you need to succeed online is in one spot. From claiming your domain to building a beautiful website, promoting your work and taking payments. It's all there. Whether you're just starting out or ready to grow easily, create a standout site using designer templates or AI with drag and drop editing. It makes everything so easy. I have so many sites. The dinosaur site, the how did this get made site, the Paulshear.com it's all. And they're all completely different because Squarespace allows me to adapt my style for each one of those sites into a format that they make look good. Does that make sense? I make sense to me. Look, whatever you want to do, offer services, book clients, get paid, it's all in one place with Squarespace. Right? You can even do scheduling invoices and they have email tools built in people. It's great. I love Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com bonkers for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use the offer code bonkers to save 10% off your first purchase of a website.

[Paul Scheer]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

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[Paul Scheer]

does have a. I would love to know. Rewatch Malignant with Sinclair.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Malignant is a person on the back of somebody that said, but this movie is this wading water for an hour and 16 minutes of just like, huh, huh. Now, the moment that got me, though, early in the film was they're trying to operate on the cyst. And in the middle of the operation, the surgeon's like, this is early on. He's like. And he cuts the wrong side of his wrist.

[Jessica St. Clair]

That's true.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He's doing it where you put the watch face.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, my question was he's sawing through bone, actually. Yeah. I was trying to figure out if he was trying to stop himself from being able to do the surgery.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

If the man two or the. The medicine man, who. What we later find out is the medicine man is reaching out and. And making the surgeon unable to perform the surgery. Same hand gets then bitten by the spirit alligator or lizard, rather, when it comes out. And the same doctor is like, hypnotically drawn to put his hand out for the lizard to bite. You know, like there's something about it wanting to destroy his ability to do surgery or something.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But that's why they have to bring in the lasers.

[Jessica St. Clair]

I love that interpretation. But again, I feel like anytime you're putting an extra layer on things, you've got to actually, like when you go. When a woman gets dressed, you know, for to go out, you always take one thing off. Okay? So know that look in the mirror.

[Paul Scheer]

All. All. I mean. And my preference would be the bra, of course.

[Jessica St. Clair]

And by the way, we should talk about those boobs that were shown to us.

[Paul Scheer]

Whoa. Oh. Incredible. That's when the movie really got. I was like, thank God we're finishing strong.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Less of Tony Curt his boobs and more of that woman's boobs. Why do we wait so long?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That woman's boobs and the Manitou's lump where his penises were equally bulbous and beautiful and shiny.

[Paul Scheer]

I mean, that man, this movie does the thing which every. Because we don't always, do we? Not that we don't always. We very rarely do 1970s movies, you know, and it reminded me, especially a 70s movie like this that's kind of schlocky and not great. It reminded me of the thing. And it always happens, too, when I watch old 70s and 80s TV shows, how much time it takes to do everything. They show cars traveling down. They show so much. Just interstitial business. You'd be shocked.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

How would they get there? We need to see them get in the car, drive here, get out of the car.

[Jessica St. Clair]

I don't want to admit this. You put it at 1.5 times the speed.

[Paul Scheer]

This is a Paul Sheer special right here.

[Jessica St. Clair]

It's normal.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's normal.

[Jessica St. Clair]

In fact, I kept checking. I got to speed this thing up. But when they're going, Pana Witchy Pana 2, like, we need to pace it up. If I was the director, I'm going to pace up the dialogue.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That was the thing. Whenever I see, like, a movie where I don't notice the difference at 1.5, it just. You're like, oh, something has gone wrong here. Like, they are stretching it now. I will say this. This Manitou is based on a popular book, and the script was written in three days. And apparently all the dialogue was written verbatim from the book.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Oh, my God. Oh. Because I thought Tony Curtis might have done his own pass with some of his bon mots.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I'm imagining that Tony kind of put it, like, juved it up a little bit. Yeah. Like, I. You know, but I feel like this was just shat out super quick. I mean, three days and it written by three people.

[Jessica St. Clair]

And they must have been on some drugs, like some heavy, heavy drugs.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you're gonna write a whole script in three days, you're not sleeping. This is a. I'm certain this is a cocaine.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I mean, this guy is kind of like the guy who wrote it. William Girdler is

[Jessica St. Clair]

bringing the girdler. He'll fix it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Girdler got it quick.

[Paul Scheer]

Batman, the girdler.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Give me Girdler on the phone.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He is a guy who's making schlocky movies. He was sued by Warner Brothers that his film Abby 74, was a ripoff of the Exorcist 73. You know, he also. He made the movie Grizzly. We did Grizzly 2 here on the show. Like, he is a guy, you know, he's just a guy who's like, I'm following the trends. Sadly, he passed away before the movie came out. He died in a helicopter accident while scouting locations for his next film. So brutal.

[Paul Scheer]

Disappointing.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Yeah, well, maybe the manitou got him. You know, honestly, you don't want to open up that dark magic.

[Paul Scheer]

I was just going to say it might have been dark magic.

[Jessica St. Clair]

It might have been.

[Paul Scheer]

That was one of my favorite quotes. Doctor, do you believe in dark magic? I'm going to ask every doctor I have now if they believe. I wish before I got my back operated on, I'd said, doctor, do you believe in dark magic?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, Jason, I don't think you would have gotten your back operator on if you knew that there could have been a manitou vent.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, that there could have been a feat penis growing back there. What's going. What's going on?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's why your back was messed up. You got a little man back there.

[Paul Scheer]

I got a little. I got a medicine man gestating in my. My lower vertebrae.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

By the way, they. They say something so funny where like, you're. You're trying to figure out, like, how does this medicine man attach to somebody? And the only excuse given is, yeah, she must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. That. That's it done.

[Paul Scheer]

I couldn't figure this out at all.

[Jessica St. Clair]

For me, I'm like. For me, I'm like, okay, they find a virgin, you know, sure. Something, something. There has to be logic to.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You went to a museum, you looked into a.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Like, like the eyes of something.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You did.

[Paul Scheer]

You did a thing. You. Some transaction has to have. We see meaning. We see the transaction.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We.

[Paul Scheer]

The audience.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right.

[Paul Scheer]

You know, but that just happens off screen.

[Jessica St. Clair]

It can't happen off screen.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

She must have done something. She must have been at the wrong place at the wrong time. Is to me, it's so, like, lazy. Like, it's like, just have an opening scene where they're walking in a museum. I'll buy it. I'll buy it.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Then there's so many ways to do this. But there's also something about the actress who's playing Karen. The woman afflicted with the neck fetus is so charming and lovely and gregarious and she's never suffering in any way.

[Jessica St. Clair]

She's really trying to make the best image.

[Paul Scheer]

She's not. Yes. She's like, I'm sure it's nothing. Let's hang out. Let's have A good time. She's just, just hanging out. It was just so funny.

[Jessica St. Clair]

We're led to believe that she and Tony Curtis like have a role in the hay while she's got a fetus on her neck. She's cool with that.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Imagine nuzzling up to someone's neck and then feeling it move. Move to get more comfortable. Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh man.

[Jessica St. Clair]

But that's how down. That's how game she is for a good night and a good time.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

She is fun. And that's why at the end when she fucking starts shooting her own lasers out like life is. You get that anger because this brings up another.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm very curious to talk about one of the things that I couldn't make heads or tales of in this movie, I guess until the very end obviously is why all of the interior spaces of the. Of the hospital rather have what I would term NASA level computers. Like gigantic wall sized computers full of screens and knobs and readouts and because I, he says himself, I'm a tumor specialist.

[Jessica St. Clair]

I think a mid-1970s maybe there was one computer that took up a building and that was like. And that was located and the military had it. I don't think anyone else had access to this type of robotics.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's so clumsily like put in locations. Like he is in a wood paneled office. The doctor, he's sitting behind a nice big desk and where you would normally see like behind the doctor photos and books, whatever it is, a giant computer. Like Jason is saying, like a giant beep, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop.

[Paul Scheer]

You know, you're like.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's so like, yeah, put it here. Put this giant and that. I believe that that computer has no screens on it whatsoever. It's just buttons and lights.

[Jessica St. Clair]

It's a Doppler. It's a Doppler 2000. It's like a Doppler 2000.

[Paul Scheer]

But I'm saying it's wall size. It's like it's easily six feet tall.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

And eight feet across. It's so big that you would think it would have to be referenced. He would have to say this machine does this.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And also the first scene of the movie, they're looking at X rays and on the back wall it's like those reel to reel tape like computers. Like again, most hospitals are not fully computerized. There's no reason for them to be fully computerized like that. Like that's like a punch card. Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like they're not running, they're never running experiments through them.

[Paul Scheer]

So then my Understanding is. I mean, I'm doing this is. I guess the logic of the movie is all that stuff needs to be there in order for. At the end of the movie. Yeah, the Manitou, to say, the manitou of all these machines needs to be able to course through her so she can shoot topless lasers out of herself.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Now, the Manitou, just so you. There's not the evil character in this. The Manitou is a true thing, a spirit. Right. It translates to the Great Spirit in several Algonquin languages. And if you're wondering, Algonquins were not on the west coast at all. That's another big change, as this movie surmises. Yes, the book takes place in New York. They moved it to San Francisco. But yes, he's a supreme being, a creator of all life, a vital source of spiritual energy. And at a certain point in the movie, the Native American man that is brought in to salve, who is not. Not Native at all. It just seems like he's John Singing Rock.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Is that.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, John Singing Rock. It looks like he put a little bit of paint on himself. But John Singer has a. Yes, everything has Manitou. Guns have Manitou. Your sandwich has a Manitou. Like, all of a sudden, like, everything is Manitou. Everything is Manito.

[Paul Scheer]

My favorite thing in that scene where we meet John Singing Rock, where it's like. So they go in Act 2, they go in on this, like, journey of, like, we need to find out what is what. Right. So, yeah, they go to. That's when they go to Burgess Meredith. They go to a professor. That's when they. They. They. They're trying to get information. The doctors, Burgess Meredith. And they end up with John Singing Rock. And John Singing Rock is, like, working out in the back, and he's moving like a hoe in the dirt. So not engagingly at all. He's do. And they keep cutting back to it. Like he's busy at work and he's not.

[Jessica St. Clair]

No. And it's very. It's very Law and Order coding.

[Paul Scheer]

Very.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Like, he's not gonna stop doing his. His duty of pushing tiny pebbles around, you know, in a. In a sandbox to. To address this guy. The other thing that that guy said, that was the best line, I believe, of the movie.

[Paul Scheer]

He said, terry, you still got room for a South Dakota Indian with a bag of tricks?

[Jessica St. Clair]

He was forced to say that.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I mean, there are some things here. He also does it for an absurd amount of money, right?

[Paul Scheer]

Like $100,000, right?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes. And, like, where is that money coming from? We Never established. Because at the end of the movie, he just gets a pack of cigarettes.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Which is also, like, so offensive. So offensive.

[Paul Scheer]

Awful.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He says. He says that when they ask him, like, hey, look, this great evil is coming. He's like, well, Normally I wait 3 risings of the sun before I take on a job.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Oh, come on, man.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, there was some really tough stuff in here. I feel like they did him dirty. They did Karen dirty. For me, I do want to be. Before we get totally down the road of that, the seance that includes the old woman. Like the old white haired woman. Who was.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Who was that? I thought, was she somebody that we saw earlier? I'm like. Because there were so many old ladies like this. It's Karen's aunt.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, okay.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Is what we're being told.

[Paul Scheer]

But we've never met her. We don't know her.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

She looks a little bit like Shelley Winters.

[Paul Scheer]

She looks like Shelley Winters because they

[Jessica St. Clair]

said we have to go have a seance where she lives, where Karen lives. So now we're meant to make the leap that Karen lives with her elderly aunt.

[Paul Scheer]

I believe that maybe that is it. I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But then they're also living in, like a weird old mansion, which I loved.

[Paul Scheer]

This is the part of the movie that I was like, oh, cool, I'm interested in this. And. And then I really liked the effect of the. The spirit coming rising up through the black liquid as if the table was liquid. I thought that looked cool as hell. And I was like, oh, all right, now we're. Now we're getting somewhere. And then none of that ever happened again. None of those people ever came back again. That location never comes back again. None of that goes like the rest of the movie. We're in the hospital.

[Jessica St. Clair]

That. That head, which you thought was very cool, but I thought looked like a jelly mold. It was like. Like a gelatinous. It wasn't speaking anything that we could understand. So it doesn't give us any information. It pops up and then pops back down before we get any story.

[Paul Scheer]

Right.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. I just liked it as an effect that like, oh, this is. Oh, this is.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I've never seen that kind of a thing where the table becomes liquid and a spirit comes out. But again, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm like, why the hell did that old woman get possessed?

[Paul Scheer]

Why? She's like. And why did, like, the whole room. And then the room explodes to a degree that would absolutely have killed every single person in the Room? Yes, the whole. Like the windows. Glass shatters throughout the room. There's wind whipping around the chandelier. Like, I was surprised. That's it. I was surprised how few fatalities there were in this movie. It seemed to me everybody should be

[Jessica St. Clair]

dead who died, except for that old woman. Mrs. Hers is the only one.

[Paul Scheer]

Somebody in the hospital. Somebody in the hospital?

[Jessica St. Clair]

Who? The frozen woman. That woman was great.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, that woman's dead too. Definitely. No, no, I'm talking about there's a. Like an orderly or there's somebody in. Or another doctor in the room that. That dies and is like, I think skinned or something like that.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Well, that was his fault because he fell asleep while that. He was supposed to be guarding that guy and he fell asleep.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

They're like, hey, nurse, you. Like, they don't call the cops. They just let an. An orderly who. There is a. A man. There is a. There is a little person covered in blood who has come out of someone's neck and he can't even struggle to stay awake as can you imagine if you saw that?

[Paul Scheer]

And we're like, ah. And. And the. The medicine man, now birthed, covered in blood and viscera, is the only thing that's stopping him from wreaking havoc is a circle of. Of sand, like a ceremony that John Singing Rock has done. And so that's keeping him contained. So they say to the guy, hey, you watch this guy to make sure he doesn't cross that line of sand. And if.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And we'll go have a meeting in the other room.

[Paul Scheer]

We're gonna.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right across the line chat.

[Paul Scheer]

We're gonna go sit, we're gonna go hang out out in the area where the guys are passing out cigars because they had a baby. Like, he.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Eyes on that thing, everybody.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The most violent creature has just come forward into our world.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, you. And this guy falls asleep. This guy falls asleep.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Honestly, he had it coming. That's. We don't give a shit. And I don't know why he was still alive, but he was also a version of him. Skin.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, I think he gets reanimated. I think that's the thing is like, the. The medicine man, I believe, can like, possess or take over people. So I think while the man is dead, the medicine man is able to take over his body and puppet it to do stuff.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You know who I feel bad for? That fucking nurse. That nurse who was left frozen.

[Paul Scheer]

Nurse.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah. They're like, hey, take. Take everybody off this floor. Well, there's only one person on the floor. It's her And. And you think, okay, they're gonna clear the floor. Nope. They leave one nurse and she's like, she's like frozen mid.

[Paul Scheer]

They go up someplace and then when they come down, that entire floor of the hospital looks like it is now on Hoth.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

It is a frozen tundra of a hallway and there is like ice and webs and like the woman is frozen. So.

[Jessica St. Clair]

But they're not concerned at all about her.

[Paul Scheer]

Zero. No, no.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No one even goes, oh my God. So and so.

[Paul Scheer]

Nope, nope, nope, no. Her life is meaningless. We gotta save Karen.

[Jessica St. Clair]

And also, by the way, Karen, we should have said long ago, is a lost cause because she's a pile of. Of skin.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Once that thing comes out of her, she seems to be just a Saran Wrap, like, glad trash bag of a person. Let's let Karen go.

[Paul Scheer]

No. She is somehow the most. We need to save her above all else. And the reality is everybody keeps saying she's not gonna live through this. Let's be clear. She is likely not to live. And Tony Curtis is like, you're wrong. And I don't believe in their love. I'm not like, on board. I mean, I appreciate that he's fighting for Karen, believe me, but he won't

[Jessica St. Clair]

even say that they're girlfriends. They like that He's. They'll say, how do you know it? We know each other. It's like, okay, is that really talking about more the 70s and how people were all about having multiple partners and nobody wanting to.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Let's not put a label on it.

[Paul Scheer]

Let's not put San Francisco in the 70s, baby.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Yeah, like, he wants to keep it.

[Paul Scheer]

I've got a dental chair in my house. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm mixing it up.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I mean, I will also say. And maybe I'm just so wrong on this, but Tony Curtis reads very gay to me too. So I'm also like, I'm not like, I'm not even buying that. Like, he's got tons of girls. Like, I feel like, yes, he's wooing, like, older women. Like, he's got this other thing going.

[Paul Scheer]

Let me ask you this. Do you think. So we all assume that that night they have sex.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Sex.

[Paul Scheer]

Tony Curtis and Karen. Do you think that the presence of the medicine man makes it a three way?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, yeah, of course.

[Paul Scheer]

Do you think the presence of the gestating medicine man on the back of her neck makes it a three way?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, that. I think that that is. That's why he's committed. He's like, wow, that was the best sex we've ever had. And he wants to. I think there's a secret part of it where he's like. When he goes down to fight the medicine man, I think he's like, you know what? Maybe we can find a different way.

[Paul Scheer]

The.

[Jessica St. Clair]

The amount of people that were having sex in front of burnt, like, roaring fires in the 70s is something that is such a trope. Like, that was ev. Did everyone have a fireplace, like, in their bedroom? Or was everybody opting. And this is what I think. I think we've done a couple movies where this happens, where people are like, we could have sex in the bedroom, but instead, why don't we do it on the floor? Of course, on a. On a bare skin rug or something

[Paul Scheer]

in front of a fire and just

[Jason Mantzoukas]

on that nice hard floor where it's really going. Everybody.

[Paul Scheer]

I think that's meant to be like, you know what? Everybody has missionary sex in bed. That's what sex is now. So in order to, like, establish. This is the seventies, this. This is the counterculture. This is San Francisco. It's like. It's like, no. People who are really adventurous, they do it on the floor.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I mean, honestly, there are certain things that you realize, like as you get older, when you're a kid, you're like, oh, I just thought that all, like, good sex was happening on the floor or in the kitchen. On. Or.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Or on sand.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes. Every. Like, it was never. Never a bed. Never a bed. Bed was for losers. It was like, yeah. It was like, you got to get. You got to get this person in

[Jessica St. Clair]

a weird spot and you try to give one hand job on a beach and you find out, game over. Dangerous.

[Paul Scheer]

Shredded.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Dangerous. I'm not saying that happened to me. I'm not saying that my nickname became Sand Job for the rest of that summer.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wow.

[Jessica St. Clair]

I'm not saying that that boyfriend. Ex. Boyfriend. Ended up telling my husband at a wedding that I was famous for giving a sand job, but I'm telling you that this is a PSA that's gotta go out to the youth of America.

[Paul Scheer]

People need to know people. Now, some would argue that somebody should know that just. Just in general.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Just wipe your hand off, Jess. Like, just like, you don't have to. It seems like you grabbed a handful of sand and use that as, like, lubricant.

[Jessica St. Clair]

I know what one loose grain. One loose grain of sand is gonna cause a whole lot.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, my God. Let me just.

[Jessica St. Clair]

If it takes one grain of sand to make an. A pearl in an oyster, imagine what that does.

[Paul Scheer]

That poor guy is just picking shell fragments out of his urethra.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You know, And. And I will also say you never, never jerk off in a, in a lobster trap. Like, I, you know, sometimes, you know, I. You. Sometimes you mistakenly grab those lobsters and it really. Yeah. Boy, oh, boy. Have you ever, I don't know, put off replacing your glasses for way too long? I mean, I do this all the time. They're falling off my face, and I don't know why. I'm just not, not simply getting another pair of glasses. I need them. But guess what? It's a process.

[Paul Scheer]

I gotta go to a store.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I gotta get the prescription, I gotta mail it, I gotta fax it. Look, I just want to live my life. And I also don't want to spend a fortune. And guess what? I realize I don't have to do either of those things because Zenny Optical is an online shop that fixes all of that with affordable frames and lenses. You can switch it up whenever you feel like it. Okay? And you can try on your zennies virtually. Just upload your prescription and then you can get them shipped right to your door. Let me talk to you about this virtual try on. I'm able to make choices. I'm like, I don't like that one. I do like that one. You really are able to see what looks good on your face. And here's the best part. You don't just need prescriptions. You can just get regular sunglasses, which I did. And why? Because the price is right. Okay? So if your glasses are overdue for a refresh, now is the time. Go to zenni.com podcast and use code podcast15 for 15% off your first order. The styles sell out, so don't sit on it. That's Z-E-N-N I.com promo code podcast 15 confidence.

[Jessica St. Clair]

It's listening to your gut. It's moving forward, even when the path ahead is unclear. For nearly 160 years, Pacific Life has helped people keep their promises, building confidence for generations. Whether you're confident in your financial future or just beginning to envision it, we're here to help ask a financial professional how. Pacific Life, the power of a promise Pacific Life Insurance Company, Omaha, Nebraska. And in New York, Pacific Life and Annuity, Phoenix, Arizona.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

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[Paul Scheer]

I will say, I thought the. For lack of a better term, the birth scene was great.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Was. Was. Was. I thought, really creepy and weird and I, you know, like, it was hell. It was. I thought it was good. I was like, oh, I wish this movie was more of these scenes and less of the languid talking, you know?

[Jessica St. Clair]

Yeah, more hands. Now when that hand reaches out of her. Of her saran wrap back, I really thought, oh, here's an opportunity for the. The manitou to. To choke her.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, it looked like.

[Jessica St. Clair]

So I thought, oh, that's Finish her off. Like, why don't we just finish her right now?

[Paul Scheer]

Great. Wouldn't that have been awesome for stakes?

[Jessica St. Clair]

You know, it would have been great. But again, we have to make it all about Karen. So we leave her as a skin suit, which.

[Paul Scheer]

And thank God she didn't get killed because we get to see her boobs in a couple minutes and they're dying.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Thank God. Yeah, they're. Thank God. So much of the movie. She has to either have a gigantic bow around her neck, which, honestly, if you talk about anything that's gonna be in danger of killing her, it's that. Yeah, you know, she's hiding those treasures for most of their life.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

A short story I remember. This is a kid where a Girl wore, like, a neck. Like a neckerchief around her neck, and then when they undid it, her head fell off because she got her head chopped.

[Jessica St. Clair]

That sounds right. That sounds right.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah. I will say this. I was shocked that when we finally do see the manitou, it is a person of short stature who. Who appears because it's not a baby that has come out. Right. It is a fully. Like, it is a fully realized.

[Paul Scheer]

And they say that. That he. He grows into adulthood rapidly and is born. But again, I just was shocked that she was able to provide enough. Do you think there's an umbilical cord that goes to the back of her neck?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, that is what I. That how I feel like. Yeah, he doesn't need something. I guess he's going supernaturally.

[Paul Scheer]

So curious. Why the back of the neck? Why not have it be the wound? Why not have it be the womb?

[Jessica St. Clair]

I just really don't think we would have been that freaked out by a pregnant woman. It's on the neck. On the top of the neck. Gross.

[Paul Scheer]

But what if it was a pregnant woman? Maybe you're right. But if it was a pregnant woman, but it was moving as quickly as this, like it was growing to full term and now is like a. A. Like becoming an adult.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Well, you're gonna have to see the manitou come out of her vatch and that.

[Paul Scheer]

I don't think I'm interested.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Keep talking, keep talking, keep talking.

[Paul Scheer]

Don't you think she would have rather had a vaginal birth than a neck birth?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I mean, I think if you're passing that manitou, any way that you're passing that mana to is going to be painful. I actually think she would. She would never be able to walk again if that. If that process came out.

[Paul Scheer]

You know what? I don't want to do it natural. I'm having a neck section. I scheduled my neck section so that I can control it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I like where this movie goes because the manitou, when he is out, he first is in stasis for a very long time, just frozen. He gets powerful. And then what they realize is because Tony Curtis, in a moment of desperation, throws a computer printer at him.

[Jessica St. Clair]

And we've already established with his man boobs that he doesn't have a ton of upper body strength. But he seems to have no problem lifting what should be the world's heaviest computer computer and throwing it at him.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Just throws a computer printer at him. And he says at one point, we're surrounded by all this technology and all these amazing inventions. It's a. It's a shame that we could. That we can still have this medieval medicine man attack us. Like, well, no, that would be the one thing that you can't control. Like that. Like. Like technology will not help you again.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Well, wait, now I'm thinking, is this movie really an exploration about, you know, our primary forces versus technology? And that's what I think they're trying to shove in.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And I don't understand how it works.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Technology wins, I think.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, I do think that is what it's saying is like. Like. Like it is looking backwards or looking forwards. It is the technology of the future is going to kill the superstitions of the past or whatever.

[Jessica St. Clair]

So basically it's you. These computers will destroy you.

[Paul Scheer]

Part of me was like, why does the medicine man have to be a villain? I don't get like. I don't get why he's like a bad guy.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right.

[Paul Scheer]

You know?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, that's what Burgess Meredith is like. He's like, I would like to meet him. Wouldn't it be cool to meet him?

[Paul Scheer]

Exactly.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And we actually. The truth is we don't know if he is good or evil because we never give him a chance. They're just trying to kill him the entire movie.

[Paul Scheer]

They immediately are trying. It's like if aliens arrived and you just tried to start killing them. You know, like he arrives and nobody is like, hey, what do you want? What's going on?

[Jessica St. Clair]

What's here about? Let's take him out, let's hear him out. And also, doesn't Tony Curtis say on his way out when he's saying goodbye to John Singing Rock, he was sad that he didn't get to know him?

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, yeah.

[Jessica St. Clair]

And I'm like, okay, well, the first thing you did was throw a printer at him. So, like, that's a terrible first impression.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Did you.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, there was. I couldn't figure that out. Like, why didn't they ever try and communicate and. Or find out what did he want? And maybe it's in there and I just missed it. But I never understood what the. There was no exposition for what did. What was he? Or why now he actually wants to.

[Jessica St. Clair]

The eighth life. If he gets to the eighth life, then he gets to ascend to the next level.

[Paul Scheer]

That's it. Okay.

[Jessica St. Clair]

And every life, he gets stronger, quote and stronger.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay, so did this life count even if he's around for a little bit?

[Jessica St. Clair]

Interesting. Well, yes, because you know why he said the manitou still alive, which I believe was this shitty screenwriter's idea to have a manitou oh, we got it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Manitou. Japan.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jessica St. Clair]

And we write that origin story, and we probably would have had he not died in that helicopter crash.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wait, technically, the ending is a prequel, right? Because Japan happens.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah. Ten years. Oh, yeah. So we could go. We could actually bring. We could bring it back.

[Paul Scheer]

I feel like the movie.

[Jessica St. Clair]

I'll go top. I'm ready. I'm ready to rock.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Shoot lasers out of your boobs. That's how we really improve it.

[Paul Scheer]

The lasers were incredible. That was some nuts stuff. Yeah. I really felt like I could not make heads or tails of what this movie was really about.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right. There's no. Like, the theme is there's a lot of mixed themes.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Cause he says at one point, John Singing Rock says, love really is the best medicine.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jessica St. Clair]

So then I thought, when Tony Curtis decides to go toe to toe with the manitou and go, hey, hey. I don't like how you treat.

[Paul Scheer]

That's my girl.

[Jessica St. Clair]

That's my thought. Oh, okay. Are we gonna show?

[Paul Scheer]

That's my girl. But we're not monogamous. I just want you to know, you guys can do mouth stuff, but anything more, and she has to okay it with me.

[Jessica St. Clair]

I mean, like, that's. And then. And then quickly, we're like, tony, what the are you doing? You're not gonna be able to, like, just tell them off like you would like a bad taxi driver. You know what I mean? So that's not it. But, yeah, people put. Put forward lots of them.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes. I also thought that for sure, somehow Tony Curtis's tarot card slash psychic abilities were gonna allow. We're gonna become. We're gonna become. Cause, you know, there's that moment where he gives Karen a reading, and the exact same cards come up, and it seems very prophetic. It seems like it's really. It seems like, oh, maybe Tony Curtis does have some sort of.

[Jessica St. Clair]

It's the same card that kills Mrs. Hurd.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's a ghost, right? Isn't it? Ghost? Like, that idea that Goldberg is.

[Paul Scheer]

So I was like, why doesn't he have. Why aren't you. His powers helping him communicate with the medicine man or helping him. You know, whatever it is, he, like,

[Jason Mantzoukas]

shut that off, and he now, like. But there's a. There's a line in it that really makes me laugh because, you know, John Singing rock meets the. The medicine man. Right. You know, or the medicine man's frozen after he freezes him, and then at one point, there's an earthquake that just rocks the hospital, and they're like, whoa, that was Some earthquake. It's like, well, no, it's clearly this medicine. Like, it wasn't an earthquake. It was a medicine man. And he goes, I was no earthquake. That is the Great Old One. And they go, who the hell is he? He's a devil. Lucifer, Satan, Prince of Darkness, doesn't matter. Like, wait.

[Paul Scheer]

Like, wait again.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We're just like. That's the first time we're hearing this information.

[Jessica St. Clair]

So who gave. Who. Who climbed out of his back is not the Great one, Is not Lucifer.

[Paul Scheer]

It is, it is, it is.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But when you just are hearing that

[Paul Scheer]

for the first time, it's the strongest of the medicine men, you know, of the devil.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Yeah, you're right. That's not at all what we were told earlier.

[Paul Scheer]

He's comparing him to a devil. He's saying. He's like. It's basically saying, oh, it's a bad guy, not a good guy. You know what I mean?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right. So I guess, like, his thought was, okay, if I freeze him, I'll be able to, like, figure it out. Yeah. Check in on it and figure.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, we'll get. We'll get a sense of. We'll get a lay of the land before. So he can't take off, you know, Wait a second.

[Jessica St. Clair]

So why does the. Does he turn it into the planet of Hoth?

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, for sure.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

To freeze everything.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And then. And then. And I loved this because the movie's just doing it all. So they come back down, and it is now the Hoth planet. The hallway is Hoth, right? It's frozen. It's icy. The nurse is frozen in place. She's dead. It is ice and cold and glacial. And then they open up the door to Karen's room, and it is the cosmos. It is just outer space. We are now inside the stars. And this is where I was like, what the fuck? And everybody, Nobody. Nobody says, what the fuck is this?

[Jessica St. Clair]

Yeah, yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Nobody says, explain this.

[Jessica St. Clair]

And he just thinks it's an illusion. He does say, John Singing Rock said, this is an illusion. But to me, it looks like the opening credits of 3, 2, 1, contact. You know, it's just like, wow.

[Paul Scheer]

By the way, great space coaster. And Three, two, one, Contact is the reason is the do for everything happens. Contact is the. Oh, my God, I can't believe you just said 3, 2, 1, contact. That is triggering.

[Jessica St. Clair]

No, that is like found footage from a Carl Sagan documentary that were being shown.

[Paul Scheer]

Truly. But, like. And I understand why John Singing Rock is like, this is fine. This is. I understand what this is. Is Tony Curtis should be, like, tearing his eyes out. He should be like, it's 1978. I'm 52, which is younger than Jason Mandukas is now. What is happening? I don't understand the world I'm in. I've just heard Led Zeppelin, right?

[Jessica St. Clair]

Am I going to fall into space? Because what I would think is, like, don't go a step further because you're going to fall into the great abyss.

[Paul Scheer]

This is a. This is a year after Star Wars.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

All I'm gonna say is it goes back to a night of great sex. This man has lost his mind. He's going to face the manitou by himself. Like, he's often putting himself in harm's way. He's like, let me go by myself. And he has no plan ever.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. And I also don't believe he loves her. I mean, I know he. I mean, he cares about her, but I mean, enough. The movie has not made me feel like this is the love of his life. He needs to see save her.

[Jessica St. Clair]

You know, it's just like a friend who. They meet up for a walk in the park and have casual sex. That's all it is. I also would ask, why is John singing rock willing to put himself on the line for a pack of tobacco? It's clear that, like, he is going to most likely perish trying to fight this. But we never hear why. Why does he take it on? Here's the other thing. If this bad guy, the. This witch wet. This wet gummy bear that comes out, is. Is he going. Is he going to destroy the world?

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, that's.

[Paul Scheer]

We don't know what. We don't even know.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We don't even. We don't even know he's the devil until somebody just says it casually.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Like if John. So then I understood John Singer's like, listen, if this guy comes out, he is going to destroy ultimately the world. So we really have no choice. I'm the only one who can do this. Then I get it.

[Paul Scheer]

I think that is maybe. I mean, that's giving a little bit of work for the movie, but I think that is what I think. You're right, Jess. I think he thinks I'm the only person that can maybe stand go toe to toe with. With this character. Yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Far be it from me to rewrite a script written in three days, but I would say this make her a person who is a, you know, somebody who studies Native American culture. She has studied too much. She's gone in there and she understands. Oh, my God, I've been cursed with it. This is gonna bring on the end of the world. It's a line. It's a simple like.

[Jessica St. Clair]

And she's trying to tell people, you have to listen to me. Or we go to the bumbling professor and he's like, here's the thing, guys, this is going to bring about the end of days. You gotta get him to convince him.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But meanwhile, they're like, oh, you know what it is? That the fetus is actually clamping onto her spinal cord and she's going crazy. We got to get it off. But, like, that's the. That's why they don't believe her. And then. And then all of a sudden, you know, Tony Curtis is like, I believe her, you know, because, you know, maybe I'll get a little bit of action on this. And then. And then, you know, and then they defeated and they go home.

[Paul Scheer]

But Tony Curtis is in it just for the rescue. Pussy. Yes.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Honestly. And really, she is just a bag of skin at that point. So, like, really, what's he fighting for?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But now she has lasers, by the way. How does she get those lasers?

[Paul Scheer]

Not just lasers. She's shooting fireball. All sorts of stuff. And I love that they do all the laser sounds, which make no sense. Make no sense.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

She is. And then they don't really check in with her at the end. Right? Like, she doesn't really have like a. Like, oh, thank God we. We saved the day. It's like.

[Paul Scheer]

It's like. And like, it. We know we don't see, like, him and Karen walking in the park now, you know, is her of slenderness, neck, you know? No. No fetuses in there. Nope. They are just.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You know what she should say? I'm pregnant. And then it's like, oh, shit.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Manitou.

[Paul Scheer]

Too manitou.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And then, by the way, my favorite moment is when that lizard bites off the doctor's hand and Tony Curtis takes out a handkerchief and just drops it. Like, just throws.

[Jessica St. Clair]

It's a dinner napkin. He literally takes out. And that's it. And then we see him with the dinner napkin wrapped around. Like, that's going to help you find all of your digits.

[Paul Scheer]

I also felt like I can imagine Tony Curtis at this time, again, 52 years old, which is one year younger than I am currently shooting this movie. And being like, I don't understand what are you saying? And they're like, we're gonna composite a lizard in here that's gonna bite the hand. And he's gonna be like, cool.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Cool.

[Paul Scheer]

How?

[Jessica St. Clair]

Where?

[Paul Scheer]

Where Is that, like. Imagine him reckoning this is, like, Tony Curtis. He's in, like, Some Like It Hot. Like, this is amazing, incredible career. And now he's like. So he puts his hand out and we all pretend like a lizard bit it.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Well, here's the thing. I think we have to understand that not just the writers, but probably everybody in the cast and crew are also on cocaine. Because I had a very old hairdresser who was like, 105, and he used to do Jack Nicholson's hair.

[Paul Scheer]

That explains a bunch of your haircuts. That explains why you had a Dutch boy haircut for so long.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Truth. But he was on the set and he would say, listen, I used to do Jack Nicholson. He would come in after being up all night doing cocaine, and then he would lay down in the chair and we would do him, like, do his makeup and hair while he was unconscious. Then he would wake up, get on screen, and he goes. We'd. Jack would be doing a take, and Beverly d' Angelo would get behind the camera, take her tits out, out, and shake him to, like, distract him. And I thought, that's fun. But that's what was going on then. We were all high on drugs.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I thought you were gonna say. I thought you were gonna say, to create a better eyeline for him, like, he's a dog. Like, you know, we gotta show them. We gotta show them boobs. We gotta show them boobs.

[Paul Scheer]

No, they're having fun. I remember doing a movie that was so off the rails, such a disaster, such a mess. And I went. I was sitting in hair and makeup, and the hair person was like. I was like, how's it been going? I'd been gone for a few weeks. And they're like, oh, we are. It's officially off the rails. This. This movie is now Heaven's Gate. And I was like, which is a very famous off the rails movie production. And I was like, oh, my God. And he was like, and, sweetheart, I worked on Heaven's Gate. And I was like, oh, my God. And he was like. He's like, the only difference is here we're miserable, and on Heaven's Gate, we. The reason we were off the rails is because. Because there was a one trailer that was just cocaine and booze, and we all spent all day in that trailer.

[Jessica St. Clair]

That's fun. So if you think people were stopping to ask continuity questions, they were. Because they were out of their minds.

[Paul Scheer]

Out of it, out of it. That and a movie like this makes sense, I guess, to them, you know,

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But I will Say that Tony is, like, giving a performance. Like, he is not, like, not phoning it in. He seems like he's there. I mean, you know, and.

[Paul Scheer]

And I'm gonna say everybody is doing a good job. This is a Unsuccessful in so, so, so many ways, but.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But beautifully.

[Paul Scheer]

It's a. It's. It's well done. It's a movie. I was like, I'm. This is bad. It's so slow at times, but I was like, this is nonetheless a movie which I'm very into. Yes, it is.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's not even so bad. It's good. It's just. It's confidently making a movie that has made a lot of wrong choices. And I think that that's a different type of film that is fun to watch. It is. It looks good. It is shot well, but it is a mess.

[Paul Scheer]

Did the. And forgive me if you're about to say this, Paul, but no. Did the person who made this movie make any other movies?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, he died before it came out.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, he died before this came out. Did he do any prior. I mean, like.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, yes, he got sued for that one. That was like. He was like a kind of a grizzly.

[Paul Scheer]

You said grizzly. One grizzly.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And then he did an Abby 74. Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Because this is. This feels amateur, but it is. It's very watchable. You know, that's what's.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah.

[Jessica St. Clair]

I never felt like I was in bad hands.

[Paul Scheer]

No. Like, it's like.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, actually, it was funny in watching it, I was like, I'm just enjoying this. It feels like a. Like the first hour. I'm like, oh, I'm. I'm here. It's like. It's not overtly bad. It's like. It's just. It's got a 70s style to it.

[Paul Scheer]

It.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You know, it kind of sits in that world of like. It feels like the zaniness of, like, a Love Boat episode mixed with, like, a little bit of, like, a cop detective.

[Paul Scheer]

It's almost like a. It's almost like a Fantasy island episode.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes. Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

Which were always a step weirder than the Love Boat.

[Jessica St. Clair]

It was like an episode of television. That's what it was.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

A Buck.

[Jessica St. Clair]

It had Buck Rogers vibes.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes, 100%.

[Jessica St. Clair]

My first sexual awaken. Buck Rogers.

[Paul Scheer]

Aaron Gray. Was it to Aaron Gray? Or was it to Gil? Was it to Gil. What's his name?

[Jessica St. Clair]

It was to that robot.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, it was to Twinkie. Twinkie the robot.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I remember I was so excited because I was like, wow, I can't wait. I was obsessed with it. As a kid to get to the dates that were in TV shows and movies. And I think Buck Rogers did take off in like 1986. And I was like, oh, we're almost, we're almost there.

[Paul Scheer]

We're almost at Buck Rogers. Wait, what was his name?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Gil.

[Paul Scheer]

What?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Gil Gerard.

[Paul Scheer]

Gil Gerard. Thank you, Jesus.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Now that's a guy who probably didn't have a lot of upper body strength, but they put him in a thick fabric and that's why it is right.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You cover it up a little. Just cover it up in great shape for Superman. And that is like primarily his body, but they're also padding it a little bit.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Pad it, pad it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Just a curious thing.

[Paul Scheer]

Paddington.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Paddington.

[Paul Scheer]

Paddington. It's j. Paddington. The next Paddington. Written by Armando Iannucci. Paddington gets Jackson act. That's a big part of it. Paddington's doing steroids for it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He's look maxing bone breaking on his

[Jessica St. Clair]

face, changing his snap gigantic chin.

[Paul Scheer]

It's just Paddington becomes. Paddington becomes part of the manosphere.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh my God. Well, I'm, I'm excited to see Paddington just, you know, on Joe Rogan and talking to Theo Vaughn.

[Jessica St. Clair]

He's anti vaccine.

[Paul Scheer]

Paddington is on Iverman. I'm not even kidding. Which works better for him because it's a horse dewormer, so it works on bears.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Paddington does meth before he works out because it helps him slim down. All right, so here's the thing. Obviously we had an opinion about this movie, but there are people out there with a different opinion. It is now time for second opinions.

[Paul Scheer]

Paul and Jason and June talk a lot about what makes a movie good or not, but everyone knows they're actually full of shit. We need a second opinion. Someone that knows what they're talking about. We need a second opinion. We need a second. Oh, give me a second.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We need a second opinion. Thank you. Wolves of Glendale the Manitou on Amazon. It has 395 total reviews. Okay, 78% are five star reviews. This is a kind of beloved film and I would say that some of the five star reviews not even that interesting, but they're kind of fun. Midwest hacker writes in 2024. I've been looking for this ever since my homemade VHS copy died. I consider this one of the last great skin crawler movies of the era. I'm into the days of letting your mind form what might happen next. Plus I like Native American hero characters. Five stars. That's an odd phrase. I'm into the days of letting your mind form what will happen next. So thinking what thinking?

[Paul Scheer]

I think what they're saying is they leave in this movie, they leave some stuff to the imagination. They show you everything.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Like plot.

[Paul Scheer]

Like plot, yeah.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Necessary plot is left to the imagination, I think. So we're doing a lot of the legwork for these screenwriters.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I like. I like a movie where I have to make the choices.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes. I like a movie that is poorly written, so I have to try and make sense of it.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The other thing was this is not really review as much as it is just a statement. BL out of San Diego writes Manitou Frightening movie which stars Tony Curtis. Five stars. Well, that is true.

[Jessica St. Clair]

It does star Tony Curtis.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah. And then this one kind of takes a different issue with things. This is just from an IMDb review. We actually had to move off of Amazon from Halle Devlin. Hallie writes, the whole idea itself was great, although the whole growing on her back bit was a tinge too dodgy.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I mean, we're getting into that. Dodgy.

[Jessica St. Clair]

What unbelievable is it? She's saying it's unbelievable. Okay, but.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But. But then finishes by saying, this one is worth remembering for the look on Manitou's face when Singing Rock figured out it was the devil. Priceless. There you go.

[Jessica St. Clair]

I don't remember that. I don't remember.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I don't remember Manitou really emoting much in that film face.

[Jessica St. Clair]

No. He really seemed trapped in, like a prison.

[Paul Scheer]

I feel like this movie, okay, 1978. So David Cronenberg has already started making movies like this. To me, this movie is like a body horror movie. But before we really dug in on body horror, you know what I mean? Like, there's a way in which this could have been like, really electrically unsettling. But it kind. Tony Curtis's presence is a look back to classic Hollywood and being like, no, no, no. This is like the Exorcist. It's just with all this body horror stuff. And boy, if it had been wetter and grosser and more conanbergian, this movie would have been, I think, incredibly fun to watch.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

By the way, just start it earlier and just make more crazy happen. But they clearly are like, they got four sets. They shot the out of them. I mean, like, it's just the difference

[Paul Scheer]

in the hospital, the difference would have been. And I think this would have made the movie more interesting if the movie had simply been about Karen. The fact that it's about Tony Curtis makes no sense. He is.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Well, we couldn't have a movie about a woman at that point.

[Paul Scheer]

Right? A woman who's undergoing this Horrible experience.

[Jessica St. Clair]

We feel. We hear almost nothing about what it's like for her. And I think that's interesting.

[Paul Scheer]

He is a casual.

[Jessica St. Clair]

There's no her story to this. Okay? There's. There's only.

[Paul Scheer]

The lead character is the friends with benefit of the person who is going through the transformation.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Exactly. And whenever Karen talks for three quarters of the film, it's through the voice of the manitou. We don't even get to hear her say, this is tough.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You know what I mean?

[Jessica St. Clair]

Like, hey, guys, could I get some painkillers?

[Paul Scheer]

Hey, Harry. This is pretty weird. Hey, do you still think I'm sick? You still want to go to. Do you still want to go to Napa next weekend, guys?

[Jessica St. Clair]

What I hear you guys saying, though, is that. That the scenes that worked for us were the ones in which somebody was viscous. Somebody was wet.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wet, viscous. Hands are being bitten off.

[Paul Scheer]

Digits are being like things more wet. The psychic powers, the. The stuff. The. The seance, the. The. The wet head coming out of the table.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Again, though, we keep coming back to the wetness.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That is the only exception is old lady being thrown down. The. More of that. I would have taken that. Yeah. I would have more.

[Jessica St. Clair]

I think more bodies being thrown up against things thrown across the thing. You know what I mean?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

More splurts and splats. Exactly. Instead of beeps and bops.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes, yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Now, I will say this, that the ending of the book is a little different because the creature attacks New York City. So that's a little different.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, wow.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So I think it's like a Stay Puft Marshmallow man kind of ending in the book.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, he goes, so no happy ending?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, I don't. Yes. And I don't know how it ends. All I know is that that's what the ending is. It's a. The Attack City guys.

[Jessica St. Clair]

That makes more sense than what happened.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I agree. And in the book, Karen is 21 and Harry is in his 30s, and she only hears about Harry from her aunt. But they never have met before the events in the book. So that kind of.

[Paul Scheer]

That little sex, that makes sense because he treats all. He's a reader for all the old women in. So her aunt would know him. That's. I like that so much better than them having some sort of ambiguous sexual past that is never really explained.

[Jessica St. Clair]

So he's just like the Jeff Goldblum scientist that's called in to, like, because he's a tarot reader.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's just.

[Jessica St. Clair]

That's just the worst. The aunt says, let's Find the worst tarot card reader we can to deal with this very.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Or I know that the nan could be like he. I mean, that's the. That should be the thing. I go to this tarot card reader. We need to bring him. But she doesn't realize that he's a phony and a fake. And then he gets wrapped up in the world like that to me. Because doctor, you know, or I would

[Paul Scheer]

have loved him if he is a phony and a fake. And then. But turns out that earlier it turns out that he really is able to connect with the medicine man.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Geez. I'm so sorry, guys. David Ellison is just texting me. Oh. De just says we can. We can make this. We can make this.

[Jessica St. Clair]

We can make it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We got the ring light. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's. He's listening now to all of our podcasts as we are.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Actually, I've got to go get a boob job. I'll be right back.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's. And by the way, he said he has a great person.

[Paul Scheer]

Guys, guys, I just got. I just got an email from Ellison too. And he said, great news. Robert Kennedy wants to be the Tony Curtis part.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, I thought you were going to be the manitou. I thought he would be the manitou.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, you want him to be. He wants to be the manitou.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[Jessica St. Clair]

He is so rfk. He is so manitou coated.

[Paul Scheer]

He really is.

[Jessica St. Clair]

That's exactly what we were thinking about.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

About. All right, so final thoughts, everybody. Do you like it?

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I mean, we've. Yeah, here's the thing.

[Paul Scheer]

I do agree. You should watch it at 1.5 speed. It's an hour and 45 minutes and a lot of it moves slow. So speed it up until it looks like it's good.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Then go back to normal 12 or an hour 16. Then you're going to want to enjoy it in real time.

[Jessica St. Clair]

When I say speed it up to 10 times, take some cocaine and then it'll slow down to what. What makes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's the way we do it.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Upper and downers. Uppers and downers.

[Paul Scheer]

One last question. Just. And I've weigh until the entire. The entire episode has gone. Jessica, are you aware that your camera is cutting off your face at your nose? And so we are. We have spent this entire process looking at your ceiling.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Looking at the ceiling the entire time.

[Paul Scheer]

Can you see that? We can't see your face.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Guys, what was that old graffiti that had like a nose down like a.

[Paul Scheer]

Guys, that's what it has been. The whole. There she is.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Is.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, well, well, well. Welcome to the podcast.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I noticed Jason taking a picture at a certain point. I was like, I wonder if that's what he's doing? And I loved it.

[Jessica St. Clair]

So much lower body work, guys. While we were doing this podcast, I turned to some in my top spot.

[Paul Scheer]

This is what it's been.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That is truly wonderful, Jess. Where can people find you guys?

[Jessica St. Clair]

I'm gonna be shooting a Nancy Meyers film. Nancy Myers.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Me too.

[Jessica St. Clair]

So just so you know, I'm gonna be in A Hundred Shades of Beige. That's my memoir. Fifty Shades of Beige.

[Paul Scheer]

I love it.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Yeah, we'll let you know when that comes out. But otherwise, you know, just deep. We're on the deep dive. We got a special going on for the summer for our Academy of Significance. 50% off your first month. So come join us. It's really where we shine is the summ.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I love it.

[Paul Scheer]

I love it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That is a wrap. I want to remind you that we have a new way for you to leave us a voicemail. Just go to speakpipe.com hdtgm that's all I got. We'll see you next week on Last Looks. Bye for now.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And just a special side note, this film was actually a movie that Avril Halley picked for us. We've been sitting on it for a little bit of time, and we wanted to do this episode right now because we are launching a very special memorial shirt for Avril. It is in our store. Just go to hdtgm. Re.com and it is a shirt that was created for her memorial, and all the proceeds are going to breast cancer research. We love the design. We love Avril, and we wanted to do something that kind of combined her and obviously her amazing taste in films. So. So thank you, Avril, for this last pick, and I hope you enjoy an Avril shirt or a sticker or a mug, whatever you want. You can celebrate Avril. All the proceeds will go to breast cancer research, and we'll let you know how much money we raise in a couple of weeks. Again, just head on over to hdtgm.com or hdtgm.dashre.com

[Paul Scheer]

hey, what's going on over there?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's me, Trevor.

[Paul Scheer]

Noah. You know me. You don't know me.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, you do. I was worried there for a second.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, if you know anything about me, you'll know.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I love having interesting conversations, conversations where

[Paul Scheer]

we scratch beneath the surface, like what's really going on in the news? Or what is that celebrity really thinking

[Jason Mantzoukas]

about that scandal that they had or

[Paul Scheer]

what's the worst way to be a parent? I mean, you want to find that

[Jason Mantzoukas]

out so you can be the best parent, right? Well, regardless of what it is, this

[Paul Scheer]

podcast is all about figuring that out, talking to interesting people who have interesting ideas that give us an interesting perspective on the world that we are living in. So make sure you tune in. Check out what now with Trevor Noah,

[Jason Mantzoukas]

available Now on the SiriusXM app.

[Jessica St. Clair]

Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co founder of Angie, and one thing I've learned is that you buy a house, but you make it a home. Because with every fix, update and renovation, it becomes a little more your own. So you need all your jobs done well. For nearly 30 years, Angie has helped millions of homeowners hire skilled pros for the projects that matter, from plumbing to electrical, roof repair to deck upgrades. So leave it to the pros who will get your jobs done well. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find a pro for your [e-mail].