Keith reviews:
The Devil's Bath: 0:35
A Quiet Place: Day One: 4:32
The Movies & A Meal Podcast
The Devil's Bath & A Quiet Place: Day One
(upbeat music) - Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Movies in the Meal, a podcast where we talk about movies and other things while we eat. I'm your co-host, Ben, and as always, I'm joined by Keith. - Hey. - And Brad. - What's up? - Okay, two movies that we're gonna talk about, we're gonna talk about the Devil's Bath and Austrian Horror Movie. And then we're gonna zip to the major movie this week, and that is Quiet Place Day One, starring Lupita Nuongo, it is a prequel to the successful horror franchise, The Quiet Place, but I wanna go and knock out that Austrian horror movie first, and I'm gonna kick it over to Brad for a somewhat complicated summary. So, Brad. - Well, I believe we shortened it, but this is one of the weirdest summaries, so go ahead, Brad. - It's just not written well. - Yeah. - It's not complicated. It's just choppy. - It says choppy. - You'll hear it. - Yeah. - It says choppy. - Anyway, summer courtesy IMDB, Austria and 18th century. Four surround villages. Killing a baby gets a woman's sentence to death. Agnes readies for a married life with her beloved. - So, you said it was choppy, that's a weird summary, but that's okay. You know, I went into The Devil's Bath, they've been looking for a great movie to watch on Saturday night, in this own twisted way, this one you can stream on shutter, certainly delivers. But like Ari Aster's mid-summer, it's a movie so disturbing, I'm certain I can only watch it once. Set the scene for what you can expect in The Devil's Bath. And I'm not really spoiling too much because it's the first scene. A severely depressed woman throws her infant down a tall waterfall and then instantly confesses her crime. Then her beheaded body, with her head in a small cage beside it, becomes a monument, truly unsettling monument to the community. And this Austrian countryside tells you all you need to know going in. And the team of Veronica Frans and Severin Fiala previously made the seriously scary horror gem The Lodge. Based their script here on real events documented in the 17th and 18th centuries. And the bleak, muddy Austrian landscape perfectly reflects the unforgiving nature of this devout, deeply superstitious community. At the outset, our heroine Agnes, played with a grim but enchanting style by Anya Plosh, is happily getting married to fellow villager Wolf. But we quickly learn things aren't quite what they seem. Though her principal goal in life is to have a child, Wolf has a bizarre notion of carnal relations that certainly compounds things. And worst of all, they're constantly washed over and nagged by her mother-in-law. The woman Cecivier, she would deny an extra piece of stale bread to a pregnant woman. One of the real treasures of the devil's bath is, though it does turn into a descendant to madness story, the audience is largely left to figure out for themselves what's truly going on. This is the case with all the best horror movies. The Austrian countryside here is beautifully filmed to add to the remote atmosphere that Smothers Agnes as much as it does the viewer. And it pays off in the movie's most striking scene where we find out what this community does with a suicide victim. And it's the lore of death as a way out of impossible situations that gives the devil's bath all of its intriguing but disturbing appeal. But none of this would work without the amazing performance of Plosh, also a musician who performs under the name Soap and Skin and created the movie's score. You can't take your eyes off her throughout the movie if she pulls you all the way into a troubled world. It's a real accomplishment for the mostly musician making her feature film acting debut. Though the devil's bath can be a slow burn, and like I said, it's so disturbing I probably won't watch it again, I still hardly recommend it for fans of Deeply Psychological Horror to watch it. I still hardly recommend fans of Deeply Psychological Horror to watch it on the shutter. And for that, I'll give it a solid three stars. - All right, Keith Ron tomatoes, critics and audience. What you thinking? - Well, I know, I didn't look at the rotten between us, but I know the critics like this, I'll go 80. And Brad, you tease me a little bit, the fans were a little colder on it, but I'm gonna be optimistic and say, at least 65. - I'm almost, I'm a little colder. It's just, there's less than 50 reviews for the audience. So, and I usually like to give a number, but I couldn't find a, a steady number. - That's okay, that was. - But critics, 89%, 47 reviews, audience, 91%, less than 50 reviews. - Wow, Gemma sir, so I thought you told me that I was in like it, that's good. - Yeah, so. - I think here, even with a small number, you know, you have to be a true horror fan to like this movie. - Yeah, it's a weird one. - And it actually went down because, I checked it yesterday, it was actually at 100% for the audience. - Oh wow, okay. - So it went down a little bit, so. As the credits consensus, courtesy of Rock Tomatoes, a squirm-inducing period piece that locates the horror, and in both mind and spirit, the Devil's Bath might be Severian Theolas and Veronica Franz most chilling directorial effort yet. - I agree, they made some great horror movies, but this one is true. - Okay, so let's go to Quiet Place day one. Like I said, this is a prequel to the Quiet Place four series that was originally started by John Krasinski and Emily Blunt. This one though is, like I said, a prequel, kind of describing what happened the day before these aliens showed up. And as far as LePu Niongo, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolfe and Giamon Hansu, who, you know, friend of the podcast. Not friend of the podcast, but. - Patre's saying. - Patre's saying the podcast, for sure. And there's also a cat in this, so. But let's, and I have a trivia on the cat thing first, but let's get Brad to talk about what this movie's about. - Alright, some of you are always courtesy IMDb. A woman named Sam finds herself trapped in New York City during her early stages of an invasion by alien creatures with ultra sensitive hearing. - Okay, now that's how you're out of somebody. But anyway, you know, going into a Quiet Place day one, I knew two things. On the downside, it's a prequel that on paper, at least probably shouldn't exist. But on the big upside, it has LePu Niongo, easily one of my very favorite actions is working now. Thankfully, along with Furio said, it makes an extremely strong case that we should forget over all our fear of prequels and at least embrace them with an open spirit. 'Cause if you do, while Quiet Place day one isn't the best movie I've seen this year, that is even in that conversation is the biggest prize. And even better is how it gets there. Wisely, writer and director Michael Sarnoski, best known up 'til now, is creator of the truly bizarre movie Pig. Knowing that we're now, by now well familiar with the creatures that wreak havoc in this universe, instead turns, turns to a character driven, and in the end, even touching movie, in all the best ways that I was not expecting. This time out, as you know, we're in NYC, and we first meet our heroine, Lupita Sam, who is a weary poet who has terminal cancer and is living out for final days in the hospice. There's a likely sardonic poem she shares in a group therapy session about her surroundings, establishes Sam's character quickly and pretty perfectly. Hospice plans a field trip into the city to watch a puppet show, with Sam Lordelong only by the promise of pizza after work. And of course, he gets interrupted by our invaders. I will say the only way that day one disappoints is the monsters, while still terrifying, really don't reflect much destruction at all in the city. However, we've seen that plenty of times before, and what Sarnoski is really interested in here instead, is a tale not so much about survival, is about making the most of the precious time you have left. And in that, once we're on the run, Sam gets the perfect partner in foil, and just queens Eric, a law student filling all alone while his family is back in England. Their dynamic was Sam taking the lead as Eric often just quivers as a joy to watch. And Quinn is already one of my favorites, from Stranger Things and Small Axe. Jim and Hansu is back again. They small roles you have, like, in the second Quiet Place movie, slightly bigger, but this one has a really big impact. It was nice to see. What really made day one stand out for me and works so much better than I expected, is how the bond between Sam and Eric plays out in the final 20 minutes or so. When the pizza comes back into play, and they bond in ways that constantly surprise me, as an unfolded firm so far, the best ending of a movie I've seen this year. But at its heart, a Quiet Place day one is all about Lupita Noongo. And Sam's quest to simply live out her last few days on Earth the way she wants to. Here's this, all its power. For that, and it's overall a great story. Even without this being much of a creature feature, I'll give it three and a half stars. - Hats off Lupita Noongo, apparently, is definitely a scared of cats. And when they wanted to do this, she wanted to see if the character would be rewritten without the cat. - Oh, wow. - They said no, and then they tried to do a CGI. - So not a lot of them, just scared? - No, it says here that she's definitely afraid of cats. - Oh, wow, interesting. Well, in the credits, Frodo was played by two cats, so apparently this was a taxi roll. - Sure, sure. - Okay. - I'm sure. Okay, so, what, I don't know, what, oh, that's more. So, Brad, do you want to do your thing? - Yeah, right, tomatoes, critics and audience. Keith, what do you think? - Oh, I know, the critics like this a lot. I'm gonna go high, I'll go 90, and if it's two, or why loves Lupita, I'll go 85. - Critics, 84% 158 reviews. Audience, 73% 500 plus reviews. Critics consensus, courtesy of raw tomatoes. Grounded in raw humanity by Lupita Noongo and Joseph Quinn, the sideways entry into a quiet place finds fresh notes on a fright to play amongst the silence. - Agreed, it's more of a human story, though, which really surprised me, but it was great. - Okay, so, we can-- - The box office. - Yep, weekend box office week. Quiet place day one finished in second, $53 million, in one week. - Oh, I know what number one is probably, right? - You can probably guess number one. - Three time champion. - Three time champion, inside out two. 57.4 million dollars this week. - Well, it came close. That's the best of a good number for day one. - It is. - Three week total of $157.4 million. I mean, this box office, this summer so far, has been pretty good, I mean-- - It's solid. - Yeah, so. - And in context, my quiet place day one, they said the estimated budget was 67, so it's almost made his money back in one week, so it's-- - Yeah, and this is the world body. - It's, it's, it's, now granted it's had good movies, but I mean, it's been, this summer so far has had movies that have made 40, 50 million dollars opening weekend, so, unfortunately, number three on the list, Horizon in America's Saga, chapter one. Not so much in it's opening weekend, $11 million. - Well, it's not the rich hour western. - Yeah, it's gonna be, that's gonna be four parts. - Yes. - It's a really, wow. - That was, they finished third and it's opening weekend. Another summer movie that's done well, Bad Boys Ride or Die, finished in fourth at $10.3 million. - Oh good. - Four week total of $165.3 million. And number five, surprisingly, a Indian movie called Kalki made, and I might be butchering the name of it. - Are you saying you spelled it? - It's K-A-L-K-I. - Close it, I'm sure it's closing, right? - Made five to six million dollars in it's opening. - I'm looking at the list here, we normally get those Indian movies, but we didn't get it, so that's curious. - That's the, we hit box office inside out to the reigning three time champion. - Wow, true. - We'll see if it holds true next week. - That's good. - I think they're great, so I'm happy. - Okay, well, I think that's it then. So why don't we go ahead and wrap this episode up. So Keith, you got the plugs. - Sure, you can reach the movies in a meal, OG@gmail.com, movies in a meal on X slash Twitter. And listen on Spotify, I have a podcast, wherever you find your podcast. - Okay, so for this episode of Movies in a Meal, I'm Ben. - It's Brad, host. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [MUSIC PLAYING]