Cutting Deep Into Horror | Wind Chill (2007) – Emily Blunt’s Snowbound Christmas Ghost Story

0:00 It's so cold out here. I can't believe you brought me all this way and you took some some short cut off of the Interstate in snow, coming down like this outside of the Pocono Mountains. Well, no, see, I know it sounds crazy, but I got a good feeling about this, because you know. That's good, because I have no feeling at all. That's how cold I am. Let me just turn the heat up in the car just a little, I mean, just turn it up a little bit. Great, the cracked window isn't helping. You can you can? Uh? I mean, here's some duct tape.

0:43 You can patch it up. I'll patch you up. So why why why would we get off the highway? Because this way, middle of winter? This way we can avoid all the traffic. You know what traffic. No one lives in the Pocono's but we want to. This this way, we can just take it like a straight straight shot and we can just stop. Straighter than the Interstate, which is literally a straight line. Just trust me on this. This is gonna be I don't think I can. I'm really really cold. And how long are we supposed to sit here before somebody comes? The road hasn't even been plowed.

1:24 It'll happen eventually or Horri will die. Oh my god, what is that? It looks like a group of people. Oh hi, everybody. They're not waving back. No, they look disfigured. Oh I'm gonna go hang out with them. You you are lame as hell. So no, sorry, we gotta go, bye bye bye. This podcast is about why Horse airs us, what deep, dark, secret scary cinema shines a light on. The discussions are frank and involve conversations about abuse, trauma, and mental health.

2:12 There are also spoilers, so keep that in mind too. Now, sharpen your machetes and straight raisers, because this is cutting deep into horror. Hello, my spookys, and welcome to this first of at least a couple Christmas time cutting deep into horrors. I'm, of course, your host, Enrique Kuto, here with my cutting deep into horror co host and fledgling improv actress Rachel Ridolfi. Rachel, how are you?

2:54 I'm doing all right? I need to work on my yes has well. I mean it was a risk having you be the person who drove us out there, but here we are so but tonight we're talking about the two thousand and seven film wind Chill, which I have been a huge fan of for as long as I can remember, well, I mean, give or take. I think I saw this film, and I would say it was probably two thousand and nine was when I first saw it. Man, I've always thought it was a great film, and it's one of those though it's definitely underrated because every person I talk to who loves this movie will be like, well, you know about wind Chill, Like that's a great movie. So I think that alone suggests it is very much a kind of a under the radar cult gem. Yeah, what do you say? What say you?

3:48 I mean, I haven't heard very many other people talk about wind Chill. Yeah, it's yeah, it definitely kind of came and went. Yeah. But is super duper available to watch, by the way, so if you've never seen the film, you may want to give it a watch before we spoil everything while we talk about it. You can find it on Netflix with your subscription right now, which a lot of people have Netflix. But if you don't have Netflix, it is free on two B and free on the Roku channel. So I mean there's excuse or if you know you don't like advertisements, and you don't like Netflix, you can rent it on Amazon Prime, you can rent it on Google Play, you can rent it on YouTube, you can rent it on Apple TV, and of course fan Dango at home. So it's basically wherever you rent your movies, that's where you could see wind chill and it's a pretty Yeah, it's a pretty fun, very wintry, very I won't say very christmas y. It's more wintry than Christmasy, but it is set at Christmas time. I'm just saying.

4:53 It's not like we're maggoty with lights and stuff, but it is a Christmas time movie is set on Christmas Break, the beginning of Christmas Break. The long short of the plot is basically two college students go on a road trip to what was it to? You don't remember, do YOUA? I remember them talking about Delaware? Yeah, to Delaware, That's what it was. Yeah, they're other way to Delaware and they end up crashed on the side of the road. But also one of the people, the driver, may not exactly be who he said he was, And when you watch the trailers for this movie, they play that element up a ton a ton. So, but I feel like the movie is much more about the fact that they're very clearly on a haunted stretch of road, and the way that the ghosts are depicted is not super common in a really fun way. So I really can't recommend wind Chill enough for that creepy, spooky vibe vibe.

6:01 I'm a big, big, staunch believer in the ghost stories and horror movies for Christmas kind of deal. I mean, ghost stories at Christmas is a very old tradition, and I think Christmas horror is just is just kind of where it's at. I mean, I think Christmas movies are where it's at because it's the only time of year where everything is different, where everything is you know, decorated or what have you. It's just, yeah, it's just different, is one way to put it, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, And I think it makes things feel more special, more specific to your experience. You know, when you watch a movie and its set at Christmas, you're like, oh, yeah, that time of year. So yeah, and this one ranks highly for me of kind of underrated Christmas time movies.

6:44 And then of course, I my other favorite movie setting is snow, which this has a lot of a ton of snow for mid to late December in the Poconos. It's a lot of snow. Actually, yeah, so, but yeah, I don't always get that. You don't always get both. You know. Sometimes you get a snow movie and there's no Christmas. Sometimes you get a Christmas movie and there's no snow. You know. So, but this is both. This is both and unlike I think it was last year, was its no? Last year? I think we did better watch out. It was the year before I think was when we did Silent Night Deadly Night, yes, or or maybe it wasn't, or maybe it was last year. I don't remember exactly, but the year before. Okay, wow, we've been doing the show that long.

7:25 Yeah. Wow, Well, I mean that was a great episode because I have a million things to say about Silent Night Deadly Night, and you should be watching that people out there. And by the way, for those who really enjoy Cutting Deep into Horror and have just joined recently, you could head to Weekly Spooky dot com and there's a drop down where you can see every episode of Cutting Deep into Horror listed out, nice and easy for you to binge listen as needed. Yeah. So, yeah, but when we get back, we're gonna dig into a little bit more of the details of windnes Chill and maybe Rachel will say something no right after this. So, as we mentioned, wind Chill made in tooth Well, released in two thousand and seven. It's directed by a guy named Gregory Jacobs, who I don't believe has directed that much else. He directed Magic Mike XXL in twenty fifteen, which makes sense because Stephen Soderberg was a producer on wind Chill. Yes, and Soderbergh was the director of the original Magic Mike. And before that, he did a movie in two thousand and four called Criminal, which has John c Riley in it. I had not heard about it but or heard of it, but yeah, oh, and it was also produced by George Clooney and Soderberg, So there you go on that. And then he did a movie, well,

8:56 he wrote a movie in twenty fifteen called Blackway, which actually had seen. It's pretty good little thriller. And it looks like he's been producing way more. Oh okay, yeah, he's been producing a ton more. He produced Logan Lucky Edge of Tomorrow, which we both are fans of, the movie Dog, which I really liked. Magic Mike's last Dance Black Bag, which is Soderberg movie that I really liked about two a married couple who are both in intelligence. Oh they're both spies. Basically, that was super good. I caught that in the theater and really really liked it. But yeah, so this was his second film as a director, so not his debut, which is too bad because that always makes movies more charming when you hear it's like their directorial debut. Althways from Harrington Park, New Jersey. So no wonder he wanted to set it in the Poconose. So, and it's written by Joe Gangemi and Stephen A. Katz, who let's see, they worked on Shadow of the Vampire and they were mostly short story writers. Mostly it looks like so fun.

10:03 I was looking up little factoids about Windchill and apparently Stephen Katz is just Joe Gamme's pseudonym. Really yeah or Joe Yeah. Katz wrote the first draft under a pen name to separate this project from his screenwriting work on Shadow of the Vampire. Really, that's wild because they both are credited on IMDb as well as individual wild people. Well, this could be this could be wrong. Where'd you get it from? I'm chatch ept Oh did you ask it to see if it was telling the truth? No, I didn't. Because I am pretty sure they're not the same person. Like, I'm pretty sure that they're both in the Yeah, they're they're two different people. They're both in the making of Windschill sitting next to each other.

11:00 Well, never mind. Joseph is an American screenwriter and novelist from Wilmington, Delaware. Yeah, and uh. Yeah, there the Delaware there you go. Jeez, what what what? What did you do? I'm awful. Why'd you got to do that? I'm sorry. See you were like, I'm going to help, and I was like, oh no, this is going to hurt so much more. Hell is coming with you be in Hell for breakfast. But but no, So, I mean, it's a it's a pretty uh solid excuse me, a pretty solid little team that came together. Apparently the concept came about because Joe Gengemi and Stephen Katz came up with the idea of people stuck in a car and called it the tiniest Haunted House. That's what I recall. There isn't an American Blu Ray release that is not a three pack.

11:55 By the way, if you want to collect this. You either have to buy the Australian copy, which I'm debating trying to grab one, or you can get a three pack alongside Perfect Stranger and Straight Heads, which is what I have currently. But I just watched it on digital. Anyway, I'm getting into the weeds. I also was trying really hard to see if anybody was claiming Stephen Katz and Joseph can get me with the same person and so far No, no, I mean it's still no, It's really not possible. No boy howdy No anyway. Well anyway, boo, I tried it. Boo, this woman boo.

12:36 But no. So what we have here with Windchill is a very taut, very simple, although I would say big in scale for a film that mostly features just two people. Yeah, not solely two people. There are other characters that pop in and out, but for the most part we're in the car and around the car with them after they've crashed on State Route six oh six in Pennsylvania. Yeah, and from what I understand, they filled it in Vancouver and it was very very cold. It looks very cold. Yeah. So yeah, and that's one of the things that I love about this movie is how oppressively cold it is throughout.

13:25 There are some snow movies where you get like moments of reprieve they go someplace where it feels kind of warm and cozy, but there is none of that in this movie. No. No. They're stuck on the side of the road and there's like a legendary cold snowstorm coming through and they expect wind chills to get as low as a negative thirty, which I have worked in a negative twenty. Roughly, it was like fifty to twenty degree winchell, this is fahrenheit and it was hell. Ah. I was operating camera and if you don't have gloves on your fingers, just they started. They frozen ached immediately. It was It was vicious. But the worst part was because it was the wind chill that was that cold. You could stand there and just be a bit cold, and then the wind would gust and you would be it would be like ten degrees fifteen degrees colder in that gust yep. That polar vortex is for real.

14:22 So no, thank you. But now, as far as the cast worth mentioning, no characters in the film have names. Yeah I love that. Yeah, nobody's ever named, which which is not a totally unheard of concept. One of my favorite films They Live, starring Rowdy Roddy Piper. Everyone has a name except the main character. He never tells anyone his name in the entire film, so they actually credited him as Nada because he didn't have a name. So I do appreciate stuff like that. I also, you know, it's it's funny because usually you want to like give people names, their characters' names to help them connect with the character more. But in this one, there's such a degree of like anonymity. Yeah, that is kind of interesting. But what we have the lead in this film is a very young Emily Blunt, who went on to become one of the biggest names in Hollywood. Yeah, I mean, she's still a pretty damn big name in Hollywood. This would have been right before she went on to do like The Devil Wears Prada and stuff like that. Trying to find like an exact time frame of her acting credits for that, but I mean she's you know, obviously, let's see so she did.

15:38 Oh no, this was right at the same time she did The Devil's Devilwar's Prada. Oh wow, So I'm guessing it was before it was before it came out or before it became a huge hit. But she was in Germo del Toro's Wolfman. She was in Gulliver's Travels in twenty ten. She was in the five yearing Engagement Looper Edge of Tomorrow. Yeah, it all comes back to the Edge of Tomorrow. She was in Sacario. She was the lead in Cacario, which is phenomenal, one of my favorite movies. I mean, I'm just picking little ones, like she was obviously the lead in A Quiet Place, In a Quiet Place Part two, and then she was an Oppenheimer. Man.

16:19 She's been in so much and oh yeah, and she was just in The Smashing Machine, the UFC biopic that I saw in the theater. Man she was so she was like unrecognizable as that character. She she transformed herself in very much to play that character. Oh wow, So, I'm guessing you don't know who Emmon Lebland. Is off once you once you started listing some of her credits, I was able to kind of remember what she's been in. Oh yeah, yeah. Well we're gonna take a quick break and when we get back, we'll talk about our leading man with the name guy right after this. Playing guy is Ashton Holmes, who you might recognize from a History of Violence, very polarizing and intense film by David Cronenberg. He was also well known for being in the mini series The Pacific on HBO, on the CW action thriller series Nikita, and as Tyler Beryl on ABC's Revenge. So he had a pretty decent career himself, although I mean Emily Blunt is like a one in a million career. Yeah, just insane, how how much work she's done in such a twenty some year period of time. She's also married to John Krasinski,

17:50 which I mean that A Quiet Place was like their passion project they did together. So yeah, very very cool, very interesting. It's always wild to see somebody start. I mean, this is not the tiniest movie they I think the budget was a little like maybe five to ten million dollars. It's not published anywhere, but it's probably in that neighborhood. So it wasn't a you know, a super cheap affair, but it was a smaller movie. Her character is definitely like a showcase for her. Oh yeah, she gets to have a lot of emotions, she gets to be funny. She gets to be you know, she gets to be the hot girl, she gets to be the mean girl, she gets to be the scared girl, she gets to kind of do everything.

18:31 Yeah. The range that she has throughout the entire movie, well both of them though. Oh without a doubt. I'm just saying. I mean, she's the lead. Oh yeah, So I mean the ending when she's crying and stuff is just really I mean, it's it's all her, you know, she's just running with that ball. Yo yo yo. So the first time I saw this film was it was I believe it was two thousand and nine when I moved back to Ohio. The first year maybe, and some change that I was here was pretty depressing. I didn't have a job, I didn't have much of anything, and I had been living in Jersey for three years and I had to get rid of most of my stuff to make the move back and dah da da da. But one thing I refused to do was allow like holiday seasonal depression to get to me.

19:28 I was very adamant that I wouldn't let that happen. So I I was on a mission to find Christmas movies, and in particular Christmas horror movies that year, and I was watching them every single night, and almost exclusively new ones to me. In fact, that's how I discovered all of the Silent Night Deadly Night movies, because I'd only ever seen the first and second one because those were very readily available. Yeah. I was pretty broke back then, so I was pirrating like everything. I just I was unashamed at that time, and I managed to get like all five Silent Night Deadly Nights. I remember because I literally watched the first Silent Night Deadly And at like eleven am on Christmas Day and then went to dinner and then came back and just was watching them all in a row. I watched all five in a day.

20:18 As one should. As one should. It was not a terrible Christmas. I mean I came home with a giant plate of devil eggs and just shovel them into my head. Yeah. Yeah, my mom's devil eggs are special. So yeah, she used to make me a trade just for me that were like separate from everything that had my name on them. So that's but so in that I discovered wind Chill just from googling like Christmas time horror movies. That's it. So I believe I downloaded it. Maybe maybe it was on a streaming service, but in nine I barely even had Netflix yet. Yeah, so I remember watching it, really being floored by it, finding it so creepy. I didn't even have a television. I was watching everything on my iMac next to where I slept, like I would turn it to where I laid to sleep. A very depressing time.

21:17 I mean better than when I was living in my car, but like it was, it was pretty depressing. But I love that one. I thought that the earnestness of the characters was really solid. I thought that the setting was super engrossing. And I think setting an atmosphere can do so much for a horror movie. So this one, having the snowy, the snowy atmosphere, you know, really pulls you in. Mm hmm. I agree. Well, the first time I saw it, you showed it to me. Of course, I feel like that's most people in the world. Yeah, yeah, you you single handedly helped introduce it to the whole world. It feels like it sometimes, but no, we uh, it was one winter and you and I we love to watch snow movies. When there's a snowstorm.

22:04 Oh there's nothing that beats it. Yeah, there's It's like one of our favorite things. So there was one time where there was like gonna be a big snowstorm. So I came over and uh, I think I like spent the night with you and hunkered down. Oh yeah, probably I probably made I probably made soup. Yeah, that's usually my move is to make soup. Come over, I'll make soup. Do you remember that time there was a giant snowstorm coming on Friday, and and uh, I think I can't remember. I think you were there. It was a long time ago, but there was a huge snowstorm coming and Dave was going to come down to hang out, and I convinced him, like rush down ahead of the storm and then just hunker down and we'll watch we'll watch movies. And I had stuff. I was like, I'll make I'll make soup the next day. So Dave and I ran out and got Bruin Bruce pizza while the snow was pummeling down.

22:58 And then yeah, he ended up like because he was like try up here till like Saturday night. Yeah, that was what the cars were or the roads were plowed. No, I I had nothing beats getting snowed in as long as you have enough food and heat and everything you need. Yeah, and toilet paper. I guess that falls under everything you need. I would say, so, yeah, so you showed me, uh so, Yeah, you showed me wind chill, and you'd been hyping it up for quite a while, and when we finally got like the perfect snowstorm, we watched it, and I was just blown away by the atmosphere, by the pacing, by how tense it was without being like full of jump scares.

23:42 Sure, it's got a few, it's got a few. But it's it's not like your classic. It's not like a slasher movie. No, not at all. It's it's very much a psychological thriller, kind of slow Burn, which you said, And and it was one of those movies that I just kept thinking about for like several days afterward, because it gives you a lot to think about, and watching it this second time, I feel like there was a few things that I had missed the first time around that I was able to catch this time. Yeah, and. Just really gave me a even better appreciation for such an underrated movie. Hmmm.

24:24 I don't know if I believe you, but but no, No, it is a really great one to put on and get you a hot bull of soup or a pizza or something and just take it in. And because of the time that we're recording this, were actually recording this right before Thanksgiving because I've got my work cut out for me in December. This was the first Christmas movie of the season I've watched, so which I'm not mad about. It's just kind of funny that it turned out that way. It worked out that way so well, We're going to dive into the concepts and the story beats of wind Chill right after this. So we go to a college.

25:14 It's actually Pennsylvania University. Ooh pu, I'm sure that has never that joke has never happened before. I can't pretend that I know. I can't pretend I know on that one. But I will say that every time I watch this movie, I seem to forget it's set in Pennsylvania, and I figure it out, and then as soon as I figure it out, I remember that I figured it out that way last time. It's almost like you're stuck in a time loop. WHOA, WHOA, WHOA are you trying to bring up? Friggin eternal recurrence maybe, which which technically eternal return or eternal recurrence, by the way, is the the concept Nietzschee was exploring apparently.

25:59 Yeah so, but but we'll get into that more later. But so we meet girl I believe that was her credited name. Yeah, girl, Girl and guy. I couldn't. I thought it was two g's Girl and guy two g's. But but we we see them on the college campus and this opening, I think maybe this is another reason, you tell me, I think this is another reason the movie feels really comfy and cozy. The opening where we're at the college campus. It's just nostalgic as shit. I mean, the funny thing. It's funny now thinking I watched the movie for the first time in nine when it was basically then. I mean, O seven and O nine are not that different from each other. No, it is wild.

26:44 Did you how did you feel the first time you saw a movie and noticed that they were showing cell phones from like two thousand and eight, and you realized it felt different, like a different time than now, but that was the time you lived in, Like what was that like? Yeah, yeah, it was. It was probably the Big Short. The Big Short was the one for me where I was like, oh man, they really well and breaking Bad because Breaking Bad takes place in like I think nine or twenty ten, and then the whole thing, even though it took like eight years to finish, is like eighteen months. Yeah, so they had to keep everything with the old phones and stuff like that. But it's funny because society and trends, they they they are not as aggressive to change now as as they were. Like if you look at the difference between nineteen eighty one and nineteen ninety one, it's pretty pretty big. Yeah, nineteen ninety one to two thousand and one huge, two thousand and one to twenty eleven decent, twenty eleven to twenty twenty one A bit, yeah, it's but at that point it's almost all utilitarian. It's like, well, the phones are different, yeah, clothes aren't that different. Although I think some of that some people say that's like a symbol that we're like losing our collective like identity. They're not collective identity, or maybe that's kind of a way to put it, but like we're losing that that that thing, that oomph that makes us different from generation to generation. I kind of disagree I think that it's the opposite. I think we're losing the trend chasing. I think trend chasing is way

28:18 less common now in the East, in America, where we are, I think trend chasing is way less common now. So only the most you know, vapid are chasing whatever is cool in that moment. I think the average person just can go can pick a pair of pants they like, can pick a shirt they like, and we have a million options too, So it's kind of like, to me, it's almos. It's almost like like extreme individuality has has like an over like a cloaking appearance of homogeny, when in reality it's it's not. It's just if everybody's wearing exactly what they want, then that just kind of looks normal. Yeah, you know, because we don't have the baggy jeans. You know, we don't have the the the junko jeans and the wallet chains anymore. Like that's what we grew up people were, you know, we don't have the navel rings. Rachel had a naval ring. She was a two thousands kid who wore a naval ring. But you're the one who admitted it to me. That's your own fault. So but but no, So, so that was a little bit of a tangent. But I really do think that there's something to that. But that being said a movie in two thousand and seven, especially when that's shot in two thousand and seven, but not literally in or not pretending to be in two thousands of not set in two thousand and seven, it just is Yeah, I think that, Yeah, there's a coziness to it. You know, everybody's like in college. I ever went to college, but like they're all young and like they've got their phones and they're like T nine texting, which if you if you know what that meant. When

29:51 I just said that take some more, I'd be profrom for your back. I need it too. But but no, So there is that cozy vibe of like this is like for us, for our generation being millennials. Yeah, it just feels familiar. It feels familiar, but it can really for us, especially put us immediately into this sense of like it's winter break, you're a kid, and now all this bad shit's about to happen. So it's scarier in that it makes you identify with everybody absolutely in that way. Absolutely, So I. Also want to mention Emily Blunt. I had to check because I was like, how old is she now? Because if she was playing a college student in two thousand and seven, we have to be somewhat somewhat close in age, and Emily Blunt was I just had it. She was born in like eighty four.

30:37 Oh okay, so very close. I want to say it was eighty four or eighty three. Wait eighty three. So she's like forty two right now, you take So she's a little she's three years older than me, about three and a half years older than you, somewhere in that neighborhood. And yeah, so she was playing way younger than she was. And for the most part, I don't think it was I think it was convincing, is what I'm I mean. I don't think it looked unusual at all. I think they both are excellent, excellent casting. Absolutely. So she's in a lecture hall. She's texting instead of listening because tomorrow, tomorrow's winter break. Yeah, chairs, let's get out of here. Oh man, man, man you you because so you were homeschooled, you only had winter break when you were in college.

31:23 I mean, I'm assuming you had some kind of breaks in homeschooling. Yeah, like we might get the week of a big holiday off, but in general, like we were going all through the winter. We well, in school, we only got the two weeks off. Yeah was it two I don't even think it was two weeks. I think it was just one week. Was it really for Christmas season? No? No, we had a winter break. No, we had a winter break that was two weeks. Okay, so it was like the week before Christmas and then we came back shortly after New Year's. Okay, that makes sense. So yeah, would we would take a break like basically a few days leading up I mean depending on when Christmas fell, a few days leading up to Christmas, and then like the week between Christmas and New Year's and then pretty much right after New Year's we'd get back at it. But see, the thing is we we we didn't take like a ton of breaks.

32:19 We would do like schoolwork in the summer to kind of like keep up on it. But Mom would like when my dad got home from a trip, we would always like take a few days off to spend with him. Or Mom would always the first day of spring that was really really nice. She'd be like, get get out of my house, go outside, play outside. Yeah there's flexibility. Yeah, they're the bosses. That makes sense. Well, this young woman needs to go home to Delawre, Delaware. Every time I think of Delaware, I think of the Wayne's World's get We're in Delaware. No offense Delaware, no sales tax in Delaware. I don't know if that's still true.

33:00 Used to be good for them, but she needs to get to Delaware. She's texting with her friend, and her friend's like, how are you going to get there? And she types in bus, which tells you everything you need to know about her mood. Because I don't think you've ever went on a long bus ride. No, I've taken a Greyhound bus twelve hours each way. It really wasn't that bad. I mean, there were moments that weren't great, but like the most of the trip was easy, especially if you're traveling that far, because it's like just in the major city, the metropolitan areas, you're gonna be like the bus is going to be packed, and you might have a chance at running into some people who are rude or being crammed or whatever. But when you're going from like Eerie to Rochester, New York, there's like seven people on the bus, okay, and eight if you count the Canadian and I sat next to the candy. Well, we were like near each other. It was pretty funny. Actually, she got along great. He had a lot of like like kind of like this was like two thousand and four.

34:00 We get a lot of like negative things to say about America, like but that we're like friendly because he's Canadian. And then I was like, ah yeah, And I was like, so if Canada is so great, why are you going to upstate New York to meet a girl? And he was like fairpoint. He was very very cool, like we had a great time. We were not like fighting. We were like making each other laugh a lot. So but so she says bus. Well, then she is told, like, why don't you check the ride share because at this college end, at a lot of colleges people who are going somewhere. We'll just put up a thing saying, hey, I'm going to Camden, New Jersey. Anybody else need a ride to Camden, New Jersey. We could split the fare or the cost, not the fair because you know they're driving.

34:40 And she goes over there and finds one little haphazardly written note with some you know, phone numbers you could rip off. That says going to Delaware. So she grabs the piece of paper and we're off to the races, and we'll dive into the beginning of that trip. Right after this, we walk up to the nineteen eighty six Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, which even in two thousand and seven is an old car, very beat up, twenty one year old.

35:25 That car is old enough to drink. And that's where we meet guy who is a real Would you call him unassuming? Yeah? I would. I would call him unassuming. Like as a as a woman, what would your threat assessment be when you'd made plans to go on this trip home for the holidays or whatever, and you walk up and see this dude with like his you know, kind of you know, nappy mapa hair, and he's not dressed badly or anything. He seems like he takes showers. He's a what's his name, Michael Cena type. Michael Sarah, Sarah Sarah. You're think of John Cena and Michael Sarah, which would be horrifying. I see that horrifying combination.

36:05 I don't. I think he's actually kind of a handsome, Yeah. He's it's not necessarily that he looks bad, it's just that his composure is so mild. Yeah, nebbish. I love the word nebbish. I use it all the time. Uh. So, threat assessment on a scale of one to ten. Three three, Yeah, is three on the general low side. Yeah, with ten being the highest and like one being the lowest. Well, I mean I don't could you ever have a one on it with a stranger? No, not really, That's what I was getting asked. So I was like, I feel like three is probably as good as it gets with a total stranger. Yeah, because if the stranger was a baby at that point, I mean, you really don't trust him. But no, So yeah, I just thought that was a helpful way to get across that, Like, yeah, he seems like he's probably harmless, nice enough guy. You know, you go to the same college that helps a little.

37:01 He's a little he's a little messy. Oh well, his car is just full of stuff. Well, in his defense, the car is a mess, but it's also crammed full of all of his dorm room shit. Yeah. He does reveal a little later on that he moved out of his dorm room slash kind. Of got kicked out. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, he does mention that it's kind of a passing. But yeah, yeah, well and usually during certain breaks and stuff, people are pulling shit out of the dorms. Yeah, so yeah, he guy does not. He does not appear to be heavily enjoying his college experience necessarily, not necessarily, unlike girl, who is enjoying it quite a bit. She's got a lot of friends, but she's also I mean, she one thing I'll say that this movie kind of does that's kind of cliche, although I think it's a good cliche, is she is the popular, hot girl who's way deeper than people realize, Yes, and much smarter. She is extremely smart, I think that, But I think she came off as smart.

38:04 She did, yeah, really from the beginning, although she comes off as smart because she comes off as cynical, which but I think that's just her her boundaries, you know, her barriers to kind of protect yourself. So as they're packing the car up, she is already complaining because the car is old and beat up, and he's kind of dorky. She's you know, being bitchy right away. And they just start gathering everything up and as they drive away, Oh, he tells her to grab some stuff. I think, yeah, And as they drive away, we notice a bag full of groceries just sitting on the side of the road, and I feel like, if you're watching wind Chill, you likely know that this is a car like a stranded car movie. So that is extra like ah, because it's like that's like your lifeline. There's like food and stuff in there you need it. I often think about sometimes when I'm cleaning my car out or you know, going on a trip and I have to throw some trash out or whatever off and think about like I'll look around and be like, oh, crap, I drank the two bottles of water I always keep in my car. She really put new water up on the side of the road.

39:09 And sometimes I'll be like, man, I should really put some protein bars in here, just just to be safe. But then I'm like, yeah, yeah, just put fucking food all over the bottom of your car. Stupid, that's how you That's how your car got so messy in the first place. Dumb. That's that's me talking to me. But anyway, so they get out on the highway and she's. Just not she's not into it. She almost anything. Yeah, she almost immediately gets on her cell phone and calls someone up and just starts talking. Yeah, her friendly she was texting with earlier. Yeah, he's like right there, like like in the middle of their conversation, just looking around like uh yeah. Yeah, she's talking like he's not even there. She even talks about him a little bit.

39:50 Yeah, and she's kind of rude about it. Yeah, And she also mentions in passing that she was supposed to go to Cabo for Christmas, but you know that didn't work out well, I mean, who would pick Cabo over Delaware? So but as he kind of tells her, like, you know, it's kind of you know, he's like looking upset. I don't think he says anything yet. She snaps a picture of him and sends it to her friend and she's like, that's just evidence, you know, in case you turn out to be a psycho or something, and he's like, uh okay. And when she finally gets off the phone because she realizes she's upset him, he tells her, you know, that's what we're doing. We share everything, you know, we split the gas and we split the whatever. And she's like, well, I didn't realize I was supposed to be your entertainment.

40:40 And I gotta say, as a person who's went on I would say like ten to twenty times my share of long car trips. I think I probably drive more than like a travel more than like twenty percent like a high probably the highest twenty percent of travelers. Yeah. I don't travel all the time, but I travel quite a bit. It's not, you know, nor unusual for me to jump in my car for ten hours. Yeah. It is absolutely your job to entertain the driver. That is super important. In fact, I'll tell you a story about why you should always keep the driver amused and awake. Right after this, you should always what are you looking at?

41:34 There's a hair on your control board? This hair? Yeah you want it? Oh no, you. Can eat it? No anyway, But I was I was going to say, so you are supposed to keep the driver awake. Absolutely, it's really important. I was once on a I have a couple of stories about this. I was once on a road trip with a woman who I thought we got along okay, you know, and no joke. I was exhausted and she knew that I was very, very tired, and I had told her at one point, I was like, you've got to like help me stay awake, like you gotta talk to me. And she was the worst conversation starter I've ever witnessed. She would ask you questions and you would answer them and be like, what about you, and she'd be like, I don't know, Like I don't do that whatever. I'd be like, if you wanted to be a conversation you need to ask something that you have an answer to, because then you have something to say too, because it's not helping me stay awake to just be flooded with one sided questions. It's just confusing me. But so, when I worked in professional wrestling, we never traveled super far for work, but we would travel sometimes two three hours away, and there was a very stern rule because people ride together all the time.

43:00 Your job is, your entire job when you're the passenger in a car, is to keep the driver awake. That's it. And I heard so many stories about pranks and scaring the living hell out of people because they fell asleep. One of my favorites was hearing about how guy fell asleep and the guy was driving just took both his hands and slammed them down on the dashboard as hard as he could to make like an incredibly loud sound, and then when the guy next to him woke up, he like swerved the wheel and then got really Dodgedy was like what and he was like, what happened. He's like, nothing happened. What do you mean? And then basically, like over the course of an hour and a half of that drive, like slowly revealed like that he hit a roadworker and like he better keep his fucking mouth shut or real kill him. And these guys barely know each other, and then eventually he found out like, no, I just was teaching you, like you don't fall asleep, and he was like, yeah, from that moment on, anytime I'm in the pastor's steave of a car, my eyes are wide open. Yeah, so don't don't fall asleep unless you want to reap the penalties, especially if you're working in the wrestling business.

44:11 But anyway, so she basically tells him like, if i'm your entertainment, you're screwed, you know, which is now she's being self deprecating. Yeah, and you know, it's clear that this is going to be a quite a trip. It's going to be a long They have six hours. I believe something like that. I think they said six or eight six. I couldn't have been eight. Eight's really far for Delaware. Okay, so I think it was six. Six is still pretty long. Yeah, that's still long. Yeah. Yeah, that's a long drive. And it's a December twenty third was the day on the calendar. So also when she's asking him questions about where he's from up by in Delaware, and I should mention Delaware is a very small state. That's why you wouldn't put the city.

44:54 You just go like, are you going to Delaware? Because you could pretty much drop somebody off in Delaware and it not put you out more than maybe half an hour. So you just say Delaware? Where are you at Delaware? But so his answers are all kind of vague. Yeah, do you notice that? Yeah, Now he never answers anything directly or head on, and and a lot of times he'll be kind of like, ah, yeah, it's like this, but anyway, let's change the subject, you know. But he does seem really into what she's talking about. Mm hmm. She's obviously not into what he's talking about. And then she starts painting her toetails and just kind of doing whatever else and telling him, you know, the classic thing that you should always expect when you're chauffeuring a woman around, which is stop of the next gas station, I need to peek. Yeah, I always got a pee, always got a pee.

45:46 So well, and at that point, because as they're getting to know each other a little bit, they start talking. They start talking about going to school, going to classes, and it turns out they have a class together. And she even kind of says like, oh, well, I never noticed you, which isn't a nice thing to say, but then again, the classes are like two hundred people. Well, he seems unsurprised she didn't notice him. Yeah, he doesn't have a very good opinion of himself. No, he's he's very self deprecating all the time. Yeah, and she makes she makes a joke because he's like, yeah, we you know, we were in like a philosophy class together or something, and she makes a joke about, oh, yeah, I couldn't stand that class, all the Eastern religions types, and he's like, yeah, my my major is.

46:32 No, no, no. She asks him what his major is and he says Eastern religion, which which I'm on her side, like, what are you gonna do with that? Really? What are you going to do with Eastern religion much as your major, I mean teach Eastern religion? Congrats? Yeah, because she was in the philosophy class to get an easy credit, a humanity's credit. So that gets them talking though about reincarnation versus eternal recurrence. Well it's not versus she he mentions eternal recurrence and she thinks it's like reincarnation. Yeah, and he explains like, no, they're they're totally different things.

47:15 Yeah. And and there's been a long history of different concepts for eternal return or eternal recurrence, but they're referring mostly to Nietzsche's Frederick Nietzsche's version, which is one of the central concepts of philosophy of his philosophy, although the idea is not original itself, which that's just Nietzsche for you. But yeah, I wish I could give like a good rundown. I'm not like an expert on Nietzsche. I'd have to read something out loud and it's very long, but basically the idea that that things will happen again and again oka for forever. Yeah. For lack of a better term, I mean, what, what was your take on it?

48:00 I mean, it just seems like everything is cyclical and so like once things end, it just goes back to the beginning. I haven't done a ton of research on it, so that's kind of what I just gleaned out of the movie. Hmmm. Yeah, it looks like Nietzsche's understanding of it was the idea that you just relive everything exactly as it was again, and if you were aware of it, wouldn't you want to die? That sounds like Nietzsche. That sounds like freaking Nietzsche. But now as they're trucking along, they find a gas station, although a whole new challenge has occurred because the gas station came up really soon, and girls, it's so funny that names her toenails are not finished being painted or drying rather, and she's like, I didn't know we were going to find a place so fast. And I love this rest area restaurant gas station by the way, Yeah, because it I know this was shot in Canada, but that play really reminds me of the kind of places in New England and in some parts of the Poconos where this is taking place, where they just have these big, weird. They look almost like family restaurants, but they're absolutely built into a gas station.

49:16 And when they come in, because her toes are. Wet, he gives her a piggyback. He coerces her to jump on his back so he can do that for her so they can get into the store and then she can walk around, which is pretty cute that he's like, but it becomes very clear he's trying very very hard to win her affection. So she heads over to the bathroom, which, as is always the case, is through the restaurant. Of course, that's my own experience every time I've stopped anywhere where there's a restaurant and a gas station is the bathroom is through the restaurant, and some odd things happen in the bathroom, which this is a scene I don't always remember right away when I'm remembering the movie, and we'll talk about it right after this.

50:14 So, as the guy and the girl are approaching the gas station, she kind of mentions off handedly that she's going to be getting corrective eye surgery. Well, he starts by talking about how horrible it is, like that yeah, he does Discovery Channel thing, and that it was really like heinous. He's like, it's awful. I'd never do it. I don't know why anyone does it. I don't know if they'd want to do it if they knew about the part where they peel your right Oh yeah, because she says she your eyes peeled for a gas station? Yeah yeah, Why would anyone do that? It's so gross. So she mentions that she's going to get corrective eye surgery, and he kind of gets disappointed. He's like, why would you do that? You look so cute wearing your glasses.

50:54 Now note she is not wearing glasses. She has not been seen wearing glasses. And she gets rather disturbed because she only wears her glasses in her dorm. And she even asks like, when have you seen me wear my glasses? And that's when he's like, oh, I see a gas station. Let's pull over here, you know quick, you know, quick diversion. This is great. Oh yeah. So he gives her, you know, the uh awkward piggyback ride, and she walks through the restaurant and gets to the bathroom. And it's very interesting because you were you mentioned that you forget about the scene until you see it, and you find it interesting and I find the scene interesting as well, because the first thing that she does when she gets in the bathroom isn't actually go to the bathroom, it's stop at the mirror and take out her glasses and put them on and see how they actually look on her face, which I think is interesting, not just because you know, it's kind of revealing, like, oh, he really does know some things about her that it's weird that he knows, but also that she's not immediately writing off his opinion. She still holds some you know, some value to it. So she goes to the bathroom, and you know, things feel kind of tense because it's a dingy, gross gas station bathroom. But when she gets out, the like main door that we'd lead back into the restaurant

52:27 is locked and she can't get it open, and she's like banging on the door, and it seems like like she can hear the clerk and she can hear guy talking, and she's you know, yelling and screaming, but they don't come to help her. So she finally manages to like push the door open and get it open, and she storms over and she's asking why they didn't help her, and they're acting kind of confused, like they don't understand because they didn't hear her. So she kind of lets it go and guy had like an armful of water bottles. As they're leaving, and the clerk says, you know, you'll you'll be fine. Just remember stick to the main highway, the highway. You'll get there just fine. And this worries girl.

53:14 She's like, are we lost? And he's like, no, we're fine. I've done this drive a million. Millions, a million times. It's fine. So well before we before we leave the gas station, though, yeah, I mean, I'm sorry if you had no, no, no, what what did you take from this scene where she's stuck in the bathroom and can't get out? Like do you think there was some reason that had happened? Do you think that it was just the door was stuck and for some reason no one could hear her? Like do you think it was like what do you? What do you? What do you take from it? Well? I you know, it's it's hard when you first see the movie to kind of place it. But to me, I feel like the gas station is kind of like the place where the time bubble begins. So to me, it feels almost like fate trying to keep her from entering the time bubble, or maybe she was already being affected by the time bubble and that's why the you know, the clerk and guy couldn't hear her because she was already being affected by it but they weren't. Or maybe they were being affected by it, but she wasn't, you know, so she wasn't on the same timeline as them at that point. Okay, that's kind of what I think.

54:33 Yeah, I'm not sure. That's when I think one of the reasons I forget about it is I don't have like a neat and clear image of how it fits into the horror that we're about to come up on. Yeah, no, it I mean, And that's one of the reasons that I like it as a scene, because it starts setting the tone without totally revealing what's going to be going on. All we can glean from that scene is just that there's going to be this sense of isolation, and that continues throughout the rest of the movie and keeps amping up throughout the rest of the movie. Is that feeling of isolation, of being so close to help but not being able to reach help.

55:18 I didn't think they were very close to help during most of the movie. Oh well, they mentioned that they could have at they could try to get to the gas station, like the gas station is kind of. But they didn't have a concept the concept of how far away it was. No, I mean not literally how far away was they knew it was way down the highway or the freeway rather. Sorry, I'm not trying to challenge you on it. It's just I don't remember that part. I don't feel like it was ever well, I mean until right at the very end. I don't feel like they were almost escaping very often. That's fair. It's not a great analogy. Yeah, really geez. But no, So they get back in the car and they start heading out and immediately they turn off of Interstate four seventy, which is uh or for eighty. I think it was. Yea, it was four eighty, which is when I always remember the movie is in Pennsylvania.

56:12 When when I see that, I'm like, oh, they're up by the Poconos. That's where they are. I've driven that road so many times. But they take a turn onto what appears to be State Routes six oh six, and it is not plowed. It is covered in like a in a very fresh inch of snow, maybe two inches of snow, and they just start driving down it. And as as they're driving, they even pass like a pair of wooden crosses on the road side, which is never a good sign. I mean, those are everywhere though a fair I mean, I see them all the time. Yeah, I mean, but it is a symbol that somebody has died, yeah, near there, So I mean it's not a not a great omen necessarily.

56:58 And she's she's pro testing. She doesn't like the fact that they're going down this this smaller road. And you know, he just keeps insisting that is a scenic route. Well, he said no, he says it's a shortcut. Oh, that it's a short it's a scenic route. That's later. That's later when he finds out, when she finds out exactly what his deal is. That's they have a cute moment talking about Christmas and Santa Claus and uh. He mentions that he grew up in a Dutch family, So he grew up with Dutch Santa Claus who has. A center Claus Ciner clause. Instead of living in the North Pole, he lives in Spain. Yes, and he's scary, and he has an enforcer named Black Pete, who calling him an enforcer is a nice thing because he's he's Santa slave Center. Claus's slave is Black Peter.

57:54 Oh great, so that's fun. And he's called black Peter because he's black. Oh yeah, Europe kids, Yes, it's great, It's great Europe. And then she immediately well, she makes the mood even better because she says, yeah, she just has to had to learn how to have Christmas with divorced parents. Yeah, two dinner, two turkey dinners or twice is twice the turkey dinners twice, the twice the gifts you have to exchange for store credit. Yeah yeah. And at that point they see a car coming down this very thin, skinny lane freeway and it seems like it's not going to move. She's telling him pull over to the shoulder, or she says, a pull over and let the asshole through, and he's like, where there's no shoulder, and the car hits them. They fling through through the road, hit a bank of snow and we'll find out more right after this.

59:08 So she wakes up in the car. It's dark, they're trapped in the snow bank. Yeah, and because right before that car came, it was just becoming dark out. Yeah. One of the things that I like about the movie is it will occasionally have like time stamps. You know, it'll say, like, you know, five thirteen pm, and I would have to go back and rewatch the movie. But I think that actually plays into, especially toward the end, it plays into the time loop thing, because I think the time stamps start getting mixed up, and that's if you're paying attention, you can realize, like, oh, this scene happened chronologically, you know, in a different time. But that's that's just an interesting little note. So she wakes up and he's still like unconscious in the car. So she gets out of the car and gets out her cell phone and is trying to find a cell phone signal and she's kind of like wandering around and then he just appears behind her. And it's one of those really effective like mild jump scares where you know, she was so preoccupied that she didn't even you know, notice him, notice him coming. But again, that kind of plays into later on in the movie what's going on with him?

1:00:30 And they just start they start like discussing what happened, and he points out that he can't even see tracks from the other car. Yeah, there's no tracks on the road. So that's very unsettling because to them at that point, that just kind of confirms that they've been here for a very long time. They thought maybe like the snow may have covered everything. So they they try to find some indication of like where they are or how they can get help, but they can't find anything. So they go back to the car and they want to try and get it like unstuck, but they can't get it unstuck from the snow. She's trying to like steer it while he pushes it, and they can't, you know, they can't get it to budge. And as they're trying to get out of the snow drift, she's getting increasingly upset because she feels like he engineered all of this to keep get her trapped here.

1:01:36 Yeah. Well, the more they talk, the more his story kind of falls apart, and he seems to know an awful lot about her and she knows zippity DooDah about him. And what really like the lynchpin for her was kind of realizing she was talking You mentioned how Delaware is a real small state you're gonna know if you're from the if you're from Delaware, you're gonna know the landmarks. And she starts mentioning like the places she was looking forward to visiting in Delaware, and he didn't know any of them. And that's when she kind of realized, like he never has even been to Delaware, let alone is actually from Delaware. So as as they get there, you know, arguing, she locks him out of the car because she doesn't feel safe with him, and she even calls her friend and like leaves a voicemail just in case, you know, they anything more happens. She's like, this is evident, you know, further evidence of who I'm with and what's happening, and you know what you did to me. They finally calm down, and this is why I was saying, like help always felt like it could have been close, because this is the point when he says, like, Okay, well, I'm going to try and get help from the gas station. You know, that's the last place we saw people. We know that it's you know, it's down the road, but we we know it's there. So he's going to try to go there, and he tells her to stay in the car, and

1:03:08 again it's a busted up old car and it's got a busted window. So he says, if that, if the wind gets too bad and you can't handle the busted window, you can just patch it up with some duct tape. And that is even more incriminating to her because why would you just be driving around with a whole bunch of duck tape. She's also just being like snippy. Yeah, she's being quippy too, because like duct tape is a common tool. It is. But when he said there's duck tape, actually I bet there is. It's pretty funny. I drove around with duct tape a lot, but that's because the bumper of my car was falling off, so it was I have a new car now, so.

1:03:53 I mean the bumper in the old car probably is still falling off. It probably is. Wherever it may be. So but so he starts walking back from whence they came. I also want to mention because it slipped my mind when we were talking about it. But right before the car crashed, the radio kicked on briefly and we heard the beginnings of rocking around the Christmas Tree. Yes, which plays into a lot going forward. But after being gone for not very long, he comes back to the car and he says that the gas station was closed. Yeah, which doesn't make any sense. Yeah. She's like, those places are open twenty four hours because you're in the middle. We're kind of in the middle of nowhere.

1:04:35 Andy's got a little bit of blood on his face, yeah, which and which he just totally writes off. And she's like, wait, what happened And he's like, no, it's. Well, I mean they were in a really bad car accident because and is scalps bleeding, you know, so, I mean, yeah. He's a little beat up. And while he was gone, she you know, she was in the car and she thinks she sees a figure in the woods and and she kind of like waves at them, but they don't do anything or say anything. She just sees, you know, a shadow off between the trees. So when he finally gets back to the car, she's been you know, kind of stewing on him and who he is, and she keeps grilling him, and he finally breaks down and admits that he lives like two miles from the school.

1:05:27 He lives in a place called Glen Falls, which she says is twenty minutes from school. Yeah. Yeah, so he has been misleading a lot, and that's that's worrisome, especially when they're trapped out there. Although when she accuses him of planning this whole thing, he's like, what, the guy who ran me off the rover is in on it too, And he's like maybe it's like, I mean, you're pretty, but you're not that pretty now to come up with that that much of a conspiracy, but yeah, so now the truth is starting to come out, and it turns out that he's had a crush on her for the whole school. Year mm hmm, and he'd been asking around school to get information about her, and that's how he really you know, he had learned that she was going to need a trip back to Delaware, so he he put up the sign that he was willing to give her a ride, and he even says he says this several times, where you know, he figured that this would all work out, because this was going to end up being just a funny story that they'll tell someday.

1:06:35 Yeah, he thought that if they just had a chance to get to know each other, like in five or six hours of uninterrupted road travel, that maybe, yeah, maybe they would really like each other, and he not quite the best laid schemes. So but now we're in for a bigger problem, which is they have no help the cell phone. She has a phone, he doesn't. Her cell phone is not getting reception. It's getting colder by the minute, and they're hearing reports on the radio that it's going to be severely cold. So I guess we'll have to find out what happens next after this.

1:07:28 So they're in the car. It's been a very long time. They're getting very hungry, and he's the guy's talking about like, well, he brought food. He knows her favorite foods, which is very unsettling. Well, yeah, we didn't even mention he brought like that was sixty Now, this is two thousand and seven sixty dollars worth of groceries. That's that was a lot of money on the groceries. And he hints that he bought all kinds of fancy crap she likes. Yeah, but that was the bag that she left on the side of the road that she was supposed to pack up. So they don't even have any food, you know, they only have the bottles of water that he brought.

1:08:10 So he kind of gets in the back of the car and starts rummaging around, and he finds a candy bar, and it's it's a great moment because he's like reaching into the upholstery of the car and starts screaming, and she panics, and then he just pulls out a candy. Bar, and she's not trusting him. She's holding the scissors from the little kit with the duct tape like a you know, as a weapon to protect herself. I mean, but you can't blame her. It again, the going back to the threat level, now, his threat level is at a steady six. I would say that, Wow, I. Thought it would be a lot higher since you're in a life or death situation.

1:08:50 But okay, well, I mean, yeah, you gotta head your bets too, because better in safety and numbers. That's isn't that the phrase? Sure? Sure it is. So they share the candy bar, you know, he splits it in half. But as they're eating the candy bar, the car starts to sputter, and then the engine just dies. Yes, so they don't even have like the heat of the car. And they get out look and examine and realize that like the fuel tank busted and it's just leaked gas everywhere, so there's no salvaging the car at all. So they get back in the car because at least then there's not wind, and again he's moving all of his earthly belongings.

1:09:41 So he just gets out like a whole bunch of clothes and starts layering up and has her layer up. Well, well, he tries to, because she didn't pack any clothes, no gifts, Yeah, yeah, because she's like, everything I need is in Delaware. Yeah, so she's ripping open gifts and and putting on scarves and stuff like that because they really really need to try to stay warm because without the car heater, this could very easily become fatal. Yeah, very very easily. But the problem is that she's layering up is having a tiny lady bladder. She has to pee again, of course, so she goes outside and kind of you know, wanders out into the woods, and as she's squatting down, she sees a group of figures in black and just further out in the woods just walk past, and again she tries to call out to them, but no one responds. They don't even seem to notice that she's there, So She runs back to guy at the car, and he you know, tells him that she's she's seen people. So they go out and run after them into the woods. But she's very unsettled by all this, So as he's running out into the woods to try and contact these people, she goes back to the car,

1:11:14 where you know, it's not windy at least it's a little bit safer. He stays outside searching for the people, and as he's walking through the woods, he starts coughing. And at first it's just like a little cough here and there, and then he's hacking, like his whole throat and lungs are irritated, almost like he's inhaled something. And as he's walking through the woods, there's a burned down, abandoned house and it looks like it's been there for a while, like a very good long while. And he explores inside. I mean, the the walls are gone, they're charred.

1:12:02 There's just like boards and and and stuff. And he starts exploring inside of it. And as he's walking around, a black figure passes behind him and he's looking around and comes to like a dark corner and there's a frozen body and as he's looking at it, it just moves its head to look at him. Yeah, which which is one of the most outwardly scary moments. Like this movie is mostly very subtle, but that is not It gets me every freaking.

1:12:45 So he he uh. Back of the car, she sees someone outside. And this is this is why the movie, like, even though it's mostly just these two, it still feels well popular because the ghosts are coming in and out so consistently. Now she sees someone outside, so she you know, gets out and she's yelling for them, trying to get help. She approaches the figure and even gets like really close and looks down and sees that his feet are kind of like bound, and she tries to she reaches out to like touch him to get his attention, and the moment she touches him, her hands like freezes like frostbite. Instantaneously, he turns and he looks around at her, and his face is all bloody and marked up and scarred up, and he opens his mouth and an eel just falls out.

1:13:51 Of his mouth and falls on the ground flapping. And there's there's an actual credit in the movie for the eel puppet here, Yes, which was great so that's scares her. She kind of jumps back and turns around and there's two more bloody figures behind her. We kind of cut and guys coming back. He finds girl huddled in the snow and she's absolutely delirious and her one hand is like really seriously frostin. So he takes her back to the car. They use the duct tape to patch up the window.

1:14:34 Well, I should mention a small thing. When he was in the burned down house, he found a small fire kit which which included some old newspaper. Yes, he used to start a fire in a fireplace. I just want to mention that because that place a lot here in a minute. So then we get another time stamp. It's now eleven seventeen PM, and he. Has purposely not told her about the house full of dead, frozen people he found. Yeah, he just told her there was nobody up there. Yeah, there's nothing there. But that really might be the least of their worries.

1:15:14 When we return, so it's eleven seventeen pm. Girl has retaped the window crack using some of these old newspapers, and now there's a knock at the window, and wouldn't you know it, I mean, you know what they say, there's never a cop around when you need one, right. Oh, and it's it's one of those moments where you start to feel relief because there's not many times you would want to be approached by a state trooper. But I feel that when you're stranded on the side of the highway in a snowstorm and your car is busted down, that might be the one time.

1:16:14 I mean, spoken like a real person who doesn't travel really long stretches all the time. I mean, state troopers are like your lifeline for most things, because there are a lot of times you're on these roads and they're the only people that always go up and down them. Yeah. You know, you have no guarantee anybody else will ever go up that stretch of road, but a state trooper might. Yeah. So a state troopers at the window, and you do notice that his car looks kind of old. Yeah, it's out, it's out in the background. But yeah, when we get a good look at it is clearly a fifties era car. Yeah, and his outfit also seems. Oh, it definitely seems antiquated. Yeah, but he he knocks on the window and then informs them that they can't park here.

1:17:01 Yeah, but not in a hilarious way that guy on YouTube or on a TikTok or whatever it is that you can't park here to crash cars. Yeah, he just but he's like dead serious. He's not being funny, he's not being cute. He's just like, you can't park here, Yeah, you can't park here. And and girl is like, this is a shakedown. Yeah, And she basically suggests that he's probably partners with the person who ran them off the road, so now they'll have to pay this guy off. So she tells guy like, how much money do you have on you? How much cash? And she starts working with him to you know, come up with a little pile of money. Yeah. Well, and it's clear that, by the way, we didn't really mention this, but it's very clear Girl is definitely from a more affluent background than guy, Like without a doubt. I mean, girl's talking NonStop about you know, ski trips. Because there's a reference at some point where when they're talking about their free frostbite and she knows how to treat it, and she says ski ski camp or what that's where she learned everything about frostbite. So it makes sense. But yeah, so she's clearly from a more affluent background than he is, and she clearly has way more money in her wallet. Although this is two thousand and seven and they were going on a road trip because I think he said he had like almost forty or eighty dollars on him, I can't remember which. Yeah, you you needed to have some cash on you in case back in those days. Oh yeah, nowadays you can get away most places take a debit card, but like back then.

1:18:26 It was real hit or miss sometimes. Oh yeah, My mom was so old school when I would go when I first started traveling all the time, she was like, you need to have one hundred dollars. And I was like, Mom, that's insane. I have forty dollars or sixty. I'll have sixty dollars. Yeah, sixty dollars carry one hundred dollars. Man, what if I lose it? Yeah, then I lost one hundred dollars. Yeah so but yeah, so they she pulls together the money and insists that she'll take care of this because she's sweet talked her way out of a lot more speeding tickets than he has. And he's like, yeah, okay, So she goes up to the cop and you know, tries to give them the money and he what did he say? He said, uh, oh, yeah, he said some weather we're having, Yeah, which is so creepy because it's like it's literally like a horrible, devastating store and we can all see that we're all very cold.

1:19:22 Yeah. This is not casually comment kind of bad weather. This is real bad weather. So yeah, he says, what bad weather we're having, and then he says awfully bad Stretcher road here, which yeah, okay, and that's when she starts explaining. She's like, yeah, we can't move our car. Our cars broke down. And he says, yeah, you're you have to move your car. You can't park here, awfully bad stretcher road here. You mean you need to come with me, and he starts insisting that she needs to get in her in his trooper car. They start arguing fighting over it, and he's like dragging her and pushing her to the car. He opens up cargo.

1:20:09 He says this whole thing about we have to come up with some kind of arrangement. Yeah, he's saying, like I can overlook this, but we have to come up with an arrangement, and he says, I should mention. He says that this road has all kinds of trouble, like kids, drag racing. He uses the N word. Oh yeah, he says, you know, N words, hauling booze across state lines, lady drivers breaking down and no one ever sees them again. So now you you realize, like this guy is clearly out of time and something is seriously not right with him. Yeah you know, yeah so, and then he starts trying to get her into the car. But I just want to mention because the whole thing where he says, like he says kids are running or drag racing, and I mean using the N word alone, that is very shocking.

1:20:59 In the fifties, it would still be pretty inappropriate, but like, you know, you'd be like, Okay, I guess you're just one of those fucking people. But uh, but it's saying they're hauling booze across state lines. I mean that's not modern, not the current era. No, so, yeah, he tries to get her in the car. He tries, he tries to get her in the car, and that's when guy gets out of their car with like a big baseball bat. I think I think it was an. Or something like that, some some big long tool and whacks the cop in the head, which causes a ripple.

1:21:42 That's the only way I can describe it. It causes a ripple, and everything kind of distorts. And then suddenly they're both back in the car and one of his hands, the hand that was like holding on. To yeah, both of his hands, yeah, holding onto the crowbar. It was a crowbar. Crowbar. They're totally frozen and like dangerously frozen. And then that's when she mentions, like, okay, I know what to do from ski camp starts warming him up on her on her stomach. One thing about the patrol car, though, the patrolman that was worth mentioning too, is when he's telling her to get in the car, he tells her like, come on, we've got an audience. And up on the hill all around them are those black those figures all dressed in black.

1:22:33 Oh that's right, Yeah, they're all watching, which is very ominous, but also tells you like, okay, this is all kind of tied together. And obviously you and I, I mean, we've seen this movie a bunch, so we know what's going to happen, and when to some extent, But the way this movie unfolds in front of you is very it's very what's the term, like it intentionally disorients you, yes, and then kind of reorients you to play with you. Yeah. So now that they've been back, they've realized, now we're noticing, like, you don't want to come in contact with whatever these things are. They appear to be ghosts. You don't want to come into contact with them because they freeze you. Yeah, but also if you hurt them, it just kind of resets the sloop at some point. M So that's a spicy meatball. And now they've got to figure out, well, what do we do if we have a ghost cop after us on top of the possibility of hypothermia after this.

1:23:50 So they're huddled up in the car trying to stay warm. I do like, although this didn't happen immediately at this point, at some point when they were in the car, there was a great moment by the way where he says, you know, there's a better way for two people to conserve warmth, and she says, dream on. But then I love they linger on her and she likes smirks a little like she's amused by him, by him pulling that, she's kind of like, na, He's okay, you. Know, yeah, that was so smooth. So they're I mean, they're obviously getting along, yeah, to some extent. And that's what I like so much is this isn't This isn't a black and white. He's an evil, evil person who was trying to ruin her life because he's a stalker.

1:24:40 It's not. He's just this awkward guy who like got a stupid idea in his head. Well, in his words, he doesn't have a game, he doesn't have a line. Yeah, he doesn't know how to meet girls, as. The kids say, nowadays, he doesn't have any riz. No riz no riz detected. So she's rummaging through the car, trying to find stuff to help them stay warm, to like patch up the window or you know, extra blankets whatever, And she finds the papers that he brought from the house, and she finds a newspaper describing an accident from December twenty third, nineteen fifty three, and she starts to realize that this road, on this night is all tied together. All of these accidents are tied together, and now they are tied with it, and so she thinks that they need to take turns through the night watching for these apparitions. She wakes up in the middle of the night like she'd like she'd accidentally fallen asleep, and then just kind of was startled to wake because she senses something. The radio turns on and it's playing Rocket around the Christmas Tree.

1:26:03 Which we had heard right before the cop showed up last time. Yeah, so she turns it off. She thinks it's just a glitch, and then the window beside her shatters and someone reaches in. Then suddenly we're in the past. It's presumably the fifties based on how everyone is dressed, and I love it because the film is much more grainy. They do a totally different exposure. Well, and it's daytime, and it's daytime, whereas everything else is mostly night. And again it's that state trooper reaches into the car window and pulls her out and throws her into the patrol car.

1:26:46 But now she's some blonde lady and there's people in black watching them in the woods, just like moments before when the cop when the state trooper was trying to pull her in, there was people all around them. Then back in reality, guy wakes up and girl is in a trance. Almost looks like she's having a seizure. Yeah, I really like the effect. What it looked like they did is they had her act out like she was sleeping and they filmed it, but then they sped it way up, so she's twitching. Yeah, really weird and it's very eerie. He tries to wake her up. He's like shaking her and not not quite yelling at her, but like raising his voice at her to wake her up, and she won't wake up. And then again the radio starts and stops, and then this deadly cold air starts seeping in. It's so cold that like it's almost like steam.

1:27:53 Yeah, it's it's it's insanely cold, like bizarrely cold. Yeah. And this is as we're seeing the cop like ditching bodies basically. Yeah, because back in her dream, the cop has taken her into the woods, throwing her in a hole in the ground, different woman, and burying her in the woods. She finally wakes up and he embraces her, but someone's like pawing at the window, and someone else is rocking the car, and there's loud noises all around them. Suddenly it all stops and they think that they're safe. It's five point eight am. They're talking and he asks what happened to the guy that she was supposed to go to Cabo with, And this is where she kind of gets really vulnerable with him, and she says that she messed it up, and she thinks that she's just a difficult person and that she doesn't blame him for calling things off, and guy kind of like says like, well, I couldn't. I wouldn't be upset with you. I don't think you're a difficult person and really tries to lift her up, but not in that not in a disingenuous way.

1:29:16 Now it seems like he really is he has enjoyed spending time with her, not just because he's some crazy fanatic, but he does actually enjoy her company. She as she's talking, she's like going through all of their stuff, trying to take stock of what they have to survive with, and she finds a water bottle and at first she's kind of grossed out because it's filled with pea, but then she also realizes it's not just urine. There's lots of blood in it. Yeah, there's some jam in the lemonade. That means things are not okay, and that's when we start to realize he's not doing well. And earlier, by the way, when he was coughing, when you mentioned he was coughing, I saw him cough up blood. Yeah, so he's revealed that he's been coughing at blood. That that's why he didn't make it to the gas station. In reality, was because he couldn't he realized how bad he was feeling. We start to notice he's looking really pale. He's not doing so good. He's probably got severe internal injuries from the car accident, and he's obviously been keeping it from her because he doesn't want to scare her, make her worry or what have you. And that's a pretty you know, a pretty hefty reveal that he's not entirely, you know, a selfish actor. You know, he just is a guy who doesn't know how to talk to women, who just

1:30:46 had a wild idea and decided to go for it. Because you know, it's like that's saying every frozen dead body you see on Everest was a was a motivated and determined individual. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's kind of what we have here. And unfortunately, things are not going to get much better, but we'll have to talk about that after this. I do want to let it be said. I meant to say this earlier, but I do want to make it be said. Let it be known. In my opinion, the first thing they should have done when the car crash was head to that gas station. Yeah. Yeah, I just want to put my two cents in. That would have been the first thing I would be like, no, we got to get out of here and go do that. Yeah.

1:31:41 I just want to mention that because like, as far as survival goes, that would have been my first thought would be, like, one of us needs to go to that gas station because it wasn't super far away. No, but I also Devil's advocate could understand why they would just stay in the car. I mean, it's really really cold, neither of them is dressed particularly well for it. And also they just maybe four miles ago got gas, so if the gas tank hadn't been cracked, in theory, they would have been able to sit in the car and run the heater all night. Yeah, So that's worth mentioning. No, I get that because that was That's always been my thought is when you know when you're in an emergency situation like that, it's good to stay with the car because it's much easier to insulate the car and keep the car warm than it would be to keep yourself warm outside.

1:32:42 Yeah, but they are on a major road, true, so like it's not like they would have to know, like it would be difficult to know how to get back to that gas station. Yeah, because it's pretty much just follow the road back. Made be follow the road and then make a left or whatever, because they made it right onto there. Because as far as I know, they only made one turn after the gas station. And it's really up to interpretation as to how long on six o six they were on because it was, you know, a minute or so, So my guess would be like less than five miles six miles, Yeah, maybe maybe much less. But you're also out by the Poconos, so you're dealing with mountain roads and they twist and turn and zig and zag and do all kinds of things. Nature's fun like that, yay nature.

1:33:26 So she's realized, however, that staying in the car is not wise, but he's not fit to leave. So she at first she has this thought of like, well, she'll just go to the gas station and she'll get help and he can stay here. But he's really worried about the weird ghostly apparitions they've been seeing and that. Cop who is clearly up to and an out for a woman looking for a female victim.

1:34:07 So that's when she gets the idea. She's looking around, taking stock of what they have at their disposal, and you know, again, they're on a main road. There's well it's Pennsylvania, but a bum. There, and there are you know, electricity poles, there's telephone poles, and she realizes there's a junction box like right there on the telephone pole, and guy having packed up all his earthly belongings and this being two thousand and seven, some people still had landlines and he has an old landline phone.

1:34:48 She's like, I remember seeing in You're Junk a phone. Yeah, So she digs through and sure enough, in a shoe box, there's a telephone, a landline, there's. There's the there is the chance for their salvation. And this is a good example, as you were mentioning of her being smart but also being motivated. Mm hmm, because it's not that she was dumb or lazy. I really do think that a lot of it came down to, Like, Originally they were stranded on the side of the road at night in the freezing cold with a full tank of gas. Not great, but not the scariest circumstance. Ever, then it becomes they could freeze to death. Scarier but still like, maybe they should just huddle together, wait till the sun comes up and see what happens. Because it is a major road.

1:35:38 Yeah, someone will come by eventually. Somehow, probably, you know, or at the very least they can get around. It'll be warmer during the day. They could try their best whatever. Now you know, they've got these weird ghost like apparition things happening. That's encouraging them to stay in the car as well, although the car doesn't see. Although it's scurrilous as to if the car could actually keep them safe, it's better than nothing. Yeah, But now that he is very, very ill, he's not well and he needs medical attention, she's ready to just freaking get this shit done. Yeah, and he. Is not okay with her heading to the gas station.

1:36:18 She also knows that that might be really dangerous, so she comes up with this plot to climb the phone tower in the frigid cold. Remember wind chills negative twenty or negative thirty was what they say in the movie. That's really rough. Yeah, but she heads out to climb that thing that a phone poll, and I've never wanted to climb one. Every time I look at them, I'm like, no. I had a neighbor years and well, at my old babysitters house years ago, they had one of those TV antennas that's way up in the air, but not on the house. It's to the side with the little bars. Oh yeah, and me and other kids we used to like dare each other see how far up you'd climb it.

1:37:00 And I'd always chicken out after, like I got maybe seven feet up because it would go I mean it went really, I mean I was a kid. I bet it went up eighteen feet. It feels like it went up thirty feet because I was a kid. Yeah, short, but yeah, I would not want to climb that. But she's climbing this thing. And their plan for this to work is that he's in the car waiting and listening for that the Christmas song because that always plays when the cop is around. Yeah. Well, and you forgot the sweet moment that they had very briefly before she goes out to climb the telephone pole because as she's as she's getting ready, they are kind of having a heart to heart and she tells them, you know, just listen to the radio. If you hear the song, that's when we know that the state trooper's coming. So let me know. And and she kind of asks what he would do different if they could do all of this over again, and he's that instead of coming up with this whole scheme, he would just walk up to her after class and say hi, Like, yeah, that's all it took. There wasn't some big secret thing he had to do. He just had to say hi.

1:38:15 They get her along just fine, and then they kiss. They have this really sweet kiss. Well, and what I love about the kiss is it's not a big fat movie kiss. They bring their heads together, she kisses him on the forehead and then on the cheek, and then they kill like it. It feels very natural. It doesn't feel forced. Yeah, I know, it is a really it is a really sweet, bitter sweet moment because when he says he would have done that, she's like, that would work, yeah, you know, But you know, at the same time, she's also really gotten to know the kind of person he is in a lot of different ways, you know, because you can learn a lot about somebody by how they act in the worst situation.

1:38:58 And this is a not a great situation. It's up there, it's up there, and she's about to climb up that pole and hopefully reach out and touch someone right after this. Okay, So she's on her way up the phone pole. She gets up to the junction box. This is one of my favorite moments because there's a lock on it and she's like nervous about it, and she grabs the scissors hits the edge of the box. It wasn't even locked, which I just love that moment because why would it be locked. It's literally a junction box in the middle of nowhere. What are you protecting?

1:39:45 Who's going up there? Yeah, So she plugs it in and she dials nine one one and the connection is not great. No, and she's talking to a dispatcher from nine to one one, but they keep saying like I'm having try hearing you, I'm having trouble hearing you. She yells, you know, we're on route six o six, six o six, like we need help. We need help. It goes dead. Hopefully somebody heard something, but. She can't be sure. And to make matters worse, while she's up there, she hears the radio in the car start to crackle and it starts playing Rocking around the Christmas Tree. So she hustles down as fast as she can off the pole, and when she gets down onto the snowy ground, she's confronted by this woman who's all bruised and battered and barefoot, and the woman just kind of looks at her and goes off on her way.

1:40:57 Girl gets back to the car and is hopeful, confident that she's gotten through. She starts celebrating with guy, trying to talk to him, trying to tell him like, I think I got through. I think I got through to someone. I think we're gonna be okay, and then realizes he's gone. Yeah. It's five forty three am and she's pulling him out of the car. She sees headlights approaching, but she can't get back into the car. You know. At first she thinks it's the state trooper, but then she realizes that she didn't hear the song and it's a truck. It's not a you know, true patrol car, snowplows, it's snowplow.

1:41:45 So the snowplow guy he heard her call and he's come out to get her. Well they I'm sure that dispatch got sent him. Yeah, he wouldn't hear it. I mean he didn't he try. And he was looking on at her when she went through the grow the uh not grocery, the restaurant at the Oh yeah, which is a nice touch too, was he was one of the like four people that were in the restaurant. I totally didn't catch that, you did. Yeah, yeah, he totally looked on at her a couple of times, which I wondered if that was meant to make us one wonder if he was like suspicious or something. I don't know, but uh, but yeah, he was totally there in the gas station. Oh cool. Well that makes sense if he works out there. That's one of like the only places you could like hang out and grab a bite.

1:42:28 Yeah. Yeah, no, that makes makes complete sense. So the still plow driver he helps her get guy's body into his truck and he radios out about her, you know, says, you know, get ready, I've got this survivor and she's gonna need help. And he starts starts driving her into town, and he begins explaining the history of the road and he says that it's been a bad stretch of road ever since the fifties. Yes, and back then a state trooper would bring people out here to dispose of them.

1:43:10 And then at one point he killed a couple teenagers, a young couple because he was drunk and driving and he just walked free. And a family frozen their car. And she even asks, like, what about what about the priests, and he says, oh, yeah, there was the priests that lived on this road, their houses in the woods. Yeah, winter of sixty one, and they all froze. Today we're all found froze to death in their beds, which in hindsight, I think might have been the doing of the cop. Oh you think so, because why would they.

1:43:51 All freeze in their beds? I mean it could it could be that the uh, the winter just got to them. But I don't know, not in sixty one. I mean, they know where they live, they built there. So and did you mention I'm sorry I missed the did you mention it was it was a house for retired priests? No, I didn't. Yeah, that's that's what it was, a dormitory for retired clergy because he mentions that they had those priests had been very active on that road. They had found people who crashed cars and like, uh and uh braved inclement weather to deliver the last rights for them and stuff. And we so we're like, okay, so there's a lot going on here. Yeah, but the way the snowplow driver's talking, this strip of road has been kind of a legend around there, yeah, because he's been hearing about it since he was a child.

1:44:39 Yeah, and everyone apparently everyone talks about it. Everyone knows about it around here. And as he's explaining the history of the road, his radio turns on and it's planned rocking around the Christmas tree and they see headlights approaching head on and he picks up his radio receiver and kind of jokes around and says like, oh, this must be you know Tom, I'm gonna radio into him. Let him know that, you know, we're right in front of him. He needs to slow down. Well, you know, he just said it must be Tom. He's just all smiled. He's like, hey Tom, Yeah, And one of the most badass moments of the movie is girl just clicks her seatbelt and goes, that's not tom.

1:45:25 I thought that was such a love an awesome moment. They get they hit into the car, they go flying, and that that plow truck gets freaking demolished. I mean, like all the windows are gone. Yeah, but it lands ends up somewhat upright. There are days and there are days. And it is not over yet after this. So she's in the wreckage of the plow truck and the plow truck driver tells her to stay in the truck.

1:46:11 He's gonna go check on the other driver. And she's pleading with him because she knows a little bit now and you know, says, don't do it, don't don't leave, don't leave the truck, don't go to the other car. It's not safe. And he won't listen to her, No, not at all, because he doesn't he doesn't know, and he's out here to rescue people. So he's gonna do is gonna do his job. Yeah. The first thing he has to think about is I have to find the other driver. But much like before, there is no other there. Is no other driver. But then as he's wandering through the woods, he does find a burning car. There's burning wreckage of a car and she begs him to leave it alone and he won't listen.

1:46:57 And it's a cop car. It's a cop car. It's an old retro fifties cop car. And she gets out of the truck, gets onto the road, turns and looks and there's guy's car. They didn't get any further. She has been transported back to the car. She runs over to the guy, to the plow truck guy, and tells him to stay away from the cop car. It's definitely not safe now. And then we start hearing rocking around the Christmas tree coming from the cop car, and it gets louder and louder, and then we start seeing tons of people in the woods kind of surrounding the car. The priests come and they take the radio receiver from the cop car, and the cop reaches out and he's he's burning and he starts screaming that everything was legally done. He did this all legally. He's totally enveloped.

1:48:17 They have no right to judge him. Yeah, no right to judge him. And it's so spooky the way he's completely frantic about being in the right, but not completely frantic about being on fire. Well, yeah, I mean he's surrounded by flames, and it becomes very obvious that these priests have witnessed all of these atrocities with no power to do anything, you know. I mean, well, first of all, priest aren't They don't fight, that's not their deal, you know, their theirs, conscientious objectors and pacifists. But on top of that, you know, what would they do. Who do they report him to? He's the police in the area, he's this, that, and the other.

1:49:05 So the idea that one fateful night he flipped his car, got himself, you know, stuck, and then the priest showed up like they do every time there's a wreck on that road that they go and see. This time they see him there. So they just rip the receiver off the radio so he can't call for help and leave him. It's the only way they can stop him. But it's also why I wonder if maybe that was what caused them to freeze to death. I don't know that that'll be known, yeah, or that we can know that from what the movie gives us, But like, why else did they all freeze to death in their beds? You know? I mean, it could be that the weather's just that bad, but I don't know. Yeah, but after they leave him in there and he's screaming the monks or the monks they look like monks because they're all dressed the same.

1:49:53 H The priests all leave, and we think things are gonna cal mm down. But then the cop jumps out and grabs tries to get girl, grabs the tow truck driver, and that's when we see what happens, because he grabs the tow truck driver and he freezes. He just holds onto him and he freezes entirely head to toe. Yeah, he just freezes solid. So and that's why I was like, maybe that's what happened to the to the monks, now that you mention it, he could just have frozen each of them. But it's also it's very murky because if you haven't picked on on it by now, the concept of the ghost is that they're repetitive. They're doing repetitive things. Yes, they're they're on a kind of a cycle, but it can be slightly altered.

1:50:37 Mm hm. So I don't know if that means that the that the ghost can actually go for revenge or not. Maybe they maybe it was just a freak accident. But the other thing is the uh, when he goes and finds the When guy goes and finds the priest area, it's all burnt down, but that never happened. Yeah, And there is no good explanation of why that area is all burnt down. In that one part, because later when she goes through there, it's not burned down any Yeah, it's just extremely abandoned, like it's in you know, total disrepair. There's almost no roof. Yeah, but it's not burned down. So but who knows. I mean again, different things could be happening because it's only once the loop is broken too much that it resets.

1:51:21 Yes, so yeah, it is. That's why I like it though, is because they don't lay out this perfect rule for the loop. They just give you enough information of the loop is there. Once you're stuck in the loop, the only way to get out is to break the loop. But you can't break the loop while you're still in the loop. It's kind of like this catch twenty two. Yeah. No, definitely. And also the idea that the ghost or any of the ghosts could freeze you to death, considering most of the incidents that happen post the fifties and sixties. Are people freezing to death because of the weather.

1:52:02 Mm hmm. It's like maybe it's the elements, or maybe it's a combination. Yeah, and it could be, you know, the ghosts keep you there so that you do freeze to death. But I also like that, and and this is this is getting a little ahead of ourselves, But I like that the ghosts in this movie are not totally malevolent. I wouldn't necessarily say that the priests are actively trying to help girl and guy, but there is no point in like there's once we figure out that the priests are the priests. They're spooky, but they're not an oppressive presence.

1:52:42 They're not like the state trooper that seems like a threat. Well, it's also important to keep in mind, I mean, they are trying to help girl and guy, just like they tried to help everybody else. Yeah, because they what could they do. There were a bunch of old men, yeah I've never fought in their lives, you know who, who are completely at the mercy of somebody like that cop. So I think I mean, just them watching that was the only thing they could think of to deter that cop from doing things was they would watch him and make it clear like we've seen what you're doing, which, in a way I'm sure made him feel paranoid or or made it more real. Yeah, he was doing bad things. That's why. That's why when he's about to burn to death, he's more concerned with like, I never did anything wrong.

1:53:29 You know, why would you be yelling that if you don't want to burn to death, You should be worried about that, not defending your morality. That's because you're worried about your morality. Yeah. So, but now we're back to just girl. Yeah, and she's got to figure out how to survive all this all over again, all over again, well sort of after this, so. Girl all alone now she's only she's really only got one option. She goes back to the snowplow, to the big truck and tries to get it started because she knows that guy's car is totally dead. So that as yeah, well that too, I'm sorry. So her really her only option to get out of here is that truck. But when she gets to the truck, she you know, tries to start it, it won't turn over, and the state trooper all burned up, comes after her again, and he starts grabbing at her, just like he did earlier in the movie when he was trying to grab at her and push her into the trooper vehicle. But as he's grabbing at her, which we know is we know now is going to be fatal, Guy comes and whacks him

1:55:02 in the head with a tire iron with a crowbar, and time resets again and everything shifts. She's back in Guy's car and it's morning. She sees someone outside the car and it's Guy. He starts walking away. She gets out of the car to follow him, and he he starts repeating things that he's said already, but he's saying it with so much sincerity. I would have told you everything eventually. It would have just been this sweet, funny story we'd have, is what he says. Yeah, and he's leading her through the forest. She follows him through the forest and he leads her through the old house, which again now it's not burned down, it's just really old and decrepit.

1:55:56 Yeah, there's no corpses everywhere everything. It's just an old, abandoned house. So she doesn't even see like the full history of it like he did. She follows him back through the snow. They kind of go through this beautiful journey. Well, and one thing I noticed this viewing is when she's going up after him, there's no footprints. Oh yeah, yeah, footprints in that in the in the wide shot when he's way ahead of her. Yeah, which is a beautiful, beautiful touch. So he leads her, and as we follow her through the woods, things slowly start getting more familiar. The road is less snowy, and she kind of walks around like a wall and comes out from behind the wall and there's the gas station.

1:56:54 Yeah, and that's a big reveal that I blew my mind. They didn't know how close they were. I remember I was talking about the roads that wind and they kind of go and go. But there's no way they could have known, no, because they didn't have a map or anything. And also it would have been very dangerous to just hike straight through those woods not knowing where you're going. Yeah, so they would have they were going a long way by taking the road around and blah blah blah. So now she's right back there, but also it's very fitting right back where they started basically. Yeah. Yeah, so now the place is full maggot emergency vehicles. They're taking care of her snow burned hand.

1:57:37 Yeah, it is just we see a corner. Yeah, taking away Guy's body. And then she looks at her phone at that picture she took of Guy in that moment, and now that photo means everything. Yeah, because without him she wouldn't have survived. And without Guy's ghost or whatever you want to call it, the the echo of who he was, she would have still been stuck out there. Who knows if she would have made it a lot. Yeah, she could have gotten stuck in the. Loop with him possibly. Yeah, And to me, that is just so the movie, to me is kind of about redemption. It's also about choice because the reason she is able to get out of the loop is because Guy made a choice to change his behavior and you know, help her. Not only did he directly confront the state trooper, but then he approached her to help her get out. Yeah, he didn't just keep playing you know, games or charades. He actually, you know, you know, did did something on the level.

1:58:52 Well, and that falls into if you want to go a little bit deeper into the Constant's concept of recurrence as she saw it, Nietzsche believed in eternal Well, he believed in eternal recurrence as a thought experiment, basically stating that every decision you make from the day you're born until the day you die, you will make again and again and again. Every minutia will be identical again and again, even though in this moment you feel like you're making it for the first time. Hmmmm. Therefore, a way to guide if you are living a successful life is would you be okay with that? Or would that bring you sorrow? Would you be upset if that were true?

1:59:46 Hmmm, that's interesting. So it's a motive to make good choices and to be a better person. That's not the worst reasoning I've heard of. I mean, you know, niets she is whatever, But but no, that's that's basically the long, very short long of Nietzsche's recurring recurrence whatever you call it. But but yeah, and and in many ways, I mean there this movie is about a person taking a chance and trying to do something you know that they would never do, so that they could have some memories they would like. And there's even a part where she says like, would you live this again? And he's like yeah, yeah, So you know, there's a beauty in the in the sadness of it all.

2:00:39 No, I agree, it's a it's a very beautiful film. It's a perfect Christmas ghost story. Yeah, like, I really can't recommend enough adding it to your holiday watch list. No, I I absolutely agree. It's I wouldn't say it's one of the it's not like Silent Night, Deadly Night where we try to watch it. Think well, well except maybe the remake when it comes out in a couple weeks. So wind Chill. It's not one of the ones where we have to watch it every single year. But it is certainly one of those movies that once either one of us suggests it, we're both super on board to watch it because it's such it's the atmosphere is wonderful.

2:01:28 I love the soundtrack. The musical score is great, very very compelling and helps really drive home the snowy atmosphere without being too christmasy. Yeah, I get you. But yeah, just just a great movie. So definitely check that out. I know you'll like it. Wind Chill from two thousand and seven, and next time when we come back it'll be about a week or so. Who knows, we'll be talking about a film another Christmas Road Ghost Story, a movie that is bizarrely like wind Well, Windchill is bizarrely like it, but there are a lot of deviations. They don't have the same ending at all or anything like that, but they are very similar movies, to the point where I was describing wind Chill to somebody and they thought I was talking about dead End, and I was like, oh, no, I've seen that, though.

2:02:26 I like dead End. And that's two thousand and three's dead End, another Christmas horror ghost travel movie. You can watch it free on two B Pluto TV, Amazon Prime Video, and Plex, or rent it wherever you rent movies. So, kids, that is your holiday homework. Give dead End a watch and we'll be talking about it real, real soon. And yeah, that's really what it's all about. That and eternal recurrence. Yeah, so thank you all so much for tuning into another epist sort of cutting deep into horror. If you want to send us email, recommend a movie, tell us what you think about our thoughts on the movies, you can send that to Weekly Spooky at gmail dot com. And if you love what we're doing, head to Weeklyspooky dot com.

2:03:11 Slash join for as little as one dollar a month, you can become a part of our Patreon and get over five years of Creepypasta readings, audiobooks, and two bonus shows every single week. So thank you guys again so much for tuning in and giving us an excuse to rewatch Windchill. But now it's time to make like a present and wrap this up, So Rach I'll give you the final word. Stay on the main highway. It's safer that way. We'll see