The Cloaked Tatters

Murder and Myth in "Oddity"

• Sandi and Candy • Season 1 • Episode 15

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Explore the darkness and twisted minds and as we discuss the movie, "Oddity".

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Candy:

Hi everybody and welcome to the Cloaked Tatters. My name is Candy.

Sandi:

And I'm Sandy we're going to be discussing a film today from 2024 called Oddity. But before we get into that, we wanted to share a little bit of an update on something that Candy and I did together a couple of weeks ago at the Colorado Festival of Horror, their fourth annual. So we presented at the Colorado Festival of Horror a couple weeks ago and we had panels on both Friday and Saturday and there was a lot to see and a lot to do and our panels went really great. We had a lot of involvement and we had a really good fucking time and I'm hoping that we continue to have a good fucking time next year and the year after and the year after that. I love this festival. The people are so kind and so warm and so fun and a little bit twisted and I love everyone for it. It was amazing. I had presented at the festival the year before in 2023, and that was incredible. And I think what we did this year was even better than what we did. So the more we do this, the more we sort of fine tune and figure out what is it really to get people engaged and what do we need to change? But I think this year went really great. I got a lot of positive feedback. So what were your thoughts about COFOH this year?

Candy:

Oh, I loved it. I loved it. I think it needs a bigger venue is what I think.

Sandi:

Working on it.

Candy:

much going on and the, the panels themselves. it was such a blast talking about the 1st 1 was, uh, what was it? Trauma and horror

Sandi:

Yeah,

Candy:

was

Sandi:

trauma and horror. Mm hmm.

Candy:

Yeah. Talking about. Our, our favorite horror movies or our comfort horror movies and why we go to them and how they relate to our own trauma.

Sandi:

Yeah.

Candy:

Yeah, it was a lot of fun to talk about. my favorite part was doing the, the little. Flow chart of how to turn your trauma into art,

Sandi:

Yeah.

Candy:

The, word association. I loved that part of it. It was a lot of fun because the audience was engaged and having a good time, even though we're talking about emotions. that can be very difficult to deal with

Sandi:

correct. Correct.

Candy:

and the trauma by them, but people were still laughing and having a really good time and I fricking loved

Sandi:

Yeah, it was great I we should have mentioned this at the very beginning when we started to do a little bit of a COFOH recap But Christina Bergling I think I have Christina's last name correct, but she also joined us for both panels And she, she was a lovely addition to our duo. So now we hopefully have a trio that we can maybe do more work and expanding. Um, and she's an author and a mental health advocate and she's, she is good people. So we had a great time together.

Candy:

awesome.

Sandi:

One of the experiences that I wanted to share for upcoming podcast stuff is that I had the very amazing pleasure of meeting an actor named Alex Esso, Alexandra Esso, but she goes by Alex and I went to her talk on Saturday, which was about an hour and then went to the film screening on Sunday. And it's a film called Starry Eyes, which I've probably seen about 14 times now. And I had just watched it a couple weeks ago, just because it's sort of on my rotation of comfort movies now. And we had a pretty awesome conversation. I asked some questions and talked about some things in her talk. And just being in her presence was amazing. To listen to her talk about how she brings characters to life and what inspires her. And we got to talking after her, uh, talk at the screening on Sunday and I went up to ask her ever. So, would you like to be on our podcast? And before I could even get the word podcast out of their mouth, she grabbed me and gave me a big hug and said, Oh my God. Yes. So we're going to have Alex as a, as a guest on our podcast at some point down the line here, hopefully before the end of the year. Um, but I don't know what her schedule is. And obviously, you know, she's working and working actor, and we want to respect that, but she was incredible to meet. And it's one of the films that has just really, really Touched me on a number of levels, and then I have become obviously more interested in knowing a little bit more about her film repertoire and all the things the work she's done. And so, I finally got through Midnight Mass, and if you haven't seen Midnight Mass, It's beyond perfection. So, put that in your brain bucket, folks, as we go through having something else to look forward to as far as, guest spots we're excited about.

Candy:

That's so exciting. And I have to watch both of those. Cause I haven't. I got, I got nothing. Dang

Sandi:

Yeah. Starry eyes is great. Oh, my God. And I can't believe it's 10 years old. And I saw it when it came out and I'm like, how is this movie 10 years old?

Candy:

I got to take a look at

Sandi:

It's

Candy:

this.

Sandi:

a crazy movie. I love it. Love it. So, so much.

Candy:

Oh, just the pictures. Okay. Horror slash fantasy. That's what they've got it as.

Sandi:

Yeah.

Candy:

yes, please.

Sandi:

And it's, it's, uh, you know, cult type stuff and falling into the trap of Hollywood. There's, there's so many different things to talk about with this movie and it's fucking great.

Candy:

okay. Okay. Oh, how exciting. That's going to be fun.

Sandi:

So something to look forward to. Um, not that we're not looking forward to doing it without guests, but that she, I think she may be officially our first guest. So go us.

Candy:

Right?

Sandi:

Very cool. Um, okay. So back to Oddity Candy, where do you want to start with Oddity?

Candy:

I just want to take a moment to let everybody know that there are going to be spoilers as we talk about this movie today. I'm having a lot of fun picking apart these movies that, you know, we've been, since we've friends, talking about them from yeah. Standpoint of like, what's the, what's the trauma going on here or what's, mental health issue going on here as a result of trauma? What kind of trauma do you think they went through that they're acting like this? Lens, right, the first thing that came up for me was the othering in there and how the views of some of the characters really make clear that they think they're better than somebody else, or that this person is like, uh, they're a little weird. So, I look down on you kind of attitude, know, as far as. Wait, which one's the, which one's the wife? Darcy's the wife.

Sandi:

Dani's the wife,

Candy:

Dang it. Dani's the wife.

Sandi:

Darcy's the sister.

Candy:

Got it. Like how Darcy is just off. The way the doctor like treats his patients, he's like, okay, you're, you're pretty kind of thing. It was just something that struck me, you know, like Ivan, the orderly when he comes out and he chases the guy back inside, it's just the way like him looming over. Like there's this hierarchy. so to speak, throughout the movie. And everybody thinks that they're a little bit better than, or above the, the other person,

Sandi:

Uh huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I remember the scene that you're talking about. And for me, as a counselor who has the utmost respect for just humanity in general, and the fact that no one is no better than anyone else. But there are lots and lots of people out there who think they are better than other people for whatever reason. When I was working in the prison system, and then specifically in community corrections and halfway houses, there was a lot of that that I witnessed being a clinician. And seeing how the people who were incarcerated and trying to improve their lives by working their program and going to treatment and getting a job and trying to improve themselves and stay out of trouble. How much those people often got harassed by, like, medline, I would see people shutting down a medline and then like laughing at the patients who couldn't get their meds. There was a lot of stuff that was really unethical and the way that many of the case managers, I think they call them, they sort of like manage their programs, right? So you're in this halfway house and you're sort of the bottom of the barrel and most of my caseload came from the section that was like, Okay. Considered the worst of the worst, if you will, not by me, but sort of in the facility and they were sort of constantly in trouble, right? And they violated parole or probation multiple times. And it was just, it was really, it was, it was a really hard crowd, but a lot of these people that I worked with, either in community corrections or at the state level, who are on parole, they were highly traumatized individuals.

Candy:

Mm hmm.

Sandi:

So, when we go to that scene where the orderly is looming over this guy who's out there on a stoop, looking out at the sky, getting some fresh air and sketching, he's like, what are you doing out here? Like he's doing something wrong, but get back inside in this very kind of paternal finger wagging kind of bullshit. And that's not how you get people to heal. And that's not how you get people to change. So that scene stuck out to me too. I mean, Ivan's, Ivan's a dick. Let's just be

Candy:

God.

Sandi:

really clear about that.

Candy:

Seriously. And when the other one, he's praying on the side of his bed. I think he was praying on the side of his

Sandi:

Yeah.

Candy:

It's just the same, the same thing, I think it's a different patient.

Sandi:

Yeah. It's a different patient. It's the one it's, it's, I think it's Olin. and he's the one who allegedly killed his mother. That's the, the story of him. And the orderly goes in and he's literally harassing, well, you know, you're like a mother killer or he says something like that. And I'm like, That's disgusting. Like we don't, we don't throw those things back in people's faces. So we have this sort of structure where it's interesting to me because like, there's like traps in the house and then there's all these traps in this facility where this really corrupt power hungry piece of crap psychiatrist works.

Candy:

Mm hmm.

Sandi:

It's gross.

Candy:

Power. Hungry. Yeah. I was going to ask you about him.

Sandi:

Ugh. He's a dick, too.

Candy:

He is. He is.

Sandi:

He's not a good person.

Candy:

yeah. Yeah.

Sandi:

So Candy, going back to, I think you said the othering?

Candy:

othering? Yeah.

Sandi:

Where else did that show up in the film for you? Like, maybe other, other scenes?

Candy:

A lot of it was how they treated Darcy. They set us up for that too, because in the beginning, the very beginning conversation where she finds a little cubby that she's got a signal on her cell phone and she's talking to her hubby and. Uh, she mentions her sister and, and her needing regular checkups, you know, and he's, he's like, and he is so dismissive throughout the whole thing. He's very dismissive of everybody,

Sandi:

True story.

Candy:

and that screamed narcissists to me

Sandi:

Yes.

Candy:

And so they set us up, there's like, oh, there's something wrong with her sister and this doctor has offered to check on her. And since he's a doctor, you know, she might be okay with that. And they, so they just like, leave these little nuggets and then she appears. And you can see the condescension from Dr. Timmis towards Darcy. And then even when his girlfriend is stuck in the house. With her after she's come to visit the way her conversation with the doctor after she can't find her keys and she has to tell him that she's saying, you know, she's like, she's saying really weird things and she's weird and, um, It's, it's the weirdness, like, Oh, that person's weird. And so we're going to dismiss what they're saying or how they're feeling, you know? and so like a ton of that, and even going back to the patients being treated that way, they're so weird and different. I mean, I wouldn't say murder is like weird, but can make just it all together in one category of just weird being other.

Sandi:

Right. Well, and I love, I love how Darcy's character, I mean, she's strange from the get because she owns an Oddity shop that was gifted to her by her mother. And we'll get into why that is in a bit, but, um, that idea that, you know, she is not phased at all when the doctor is like, I brought you the eyeball.

Candy:

Yeah.

Sandi:

she unwraps it and she's having this moment of connection with this eyeball and you're like, what's in the box? You know, she unwraps the handkerchief and you're like, Oh, that tracks like, this is already weird. And, and I love weird, you know, I'm a big fan of weird. I've got all kinds of, I own all kinds of weird shit because horror and you know, all the things. Um, but I, I loved that idea that she's like the, the, the gatekeeper of all the strange and unusual. And she's being exactly condescended to and very dismissed about her powers. And I, I, I love the fact that, you know, the narcissist character comes in and the doctor and is basically like, well, you know, I believe in rationality and I believe in fact, and I believe in things. And then.

Candy:

wrote that down. Yeah. He's like science and logic.

Sandi:

Yeah. And you're like, you're like, but magic can be science. Let's go back to our podcast where we talked a little bit about like alchemy, right? Um, there are factual ways to understand magic and he has no magic. I mean, that man is not, he does not have what I would call like the human juju because he's so cold and dismissive and careless. Yeah.

Candy:

piece of walking broccoli or

Sandi:

Yeah. I mean, he, yeah,

Candy:

got no personality.

Sandi:

yeah. He has the personality of a wet thumb. Yeah. You know, he's just kind of squishy and kind of like, but he thinks he's hot shit. And obviously he's risen in the ranks and he's, there's the other part too, where he talks about the other doctor. Because the, the girlfriend is saying, well, I don't want to sleep here by myself and I can't believe that you leave me alone and I'm still not sleeping and he's like, oh, I'm just waiting for so and so to retire and then I'll be, you know, top dog and then I can be home with you at night, just so dismissive of her feelings of being weirded out sleeping in a house where his wife was murdered. Like, this guy clearly doesn't give a shit.

Candy:

Right.

Sandi:

he's a mental health provider on some level because he's treating people with severe mental illness. Ick! Wah! So I, I almost want to say like, and I don't know if the, the director is, I don't know what their thoughts were, I haven't read much about it, but it makes me wonder if, is there a message in there about abuses of power and systemic abuse and control issues over people who are incarcerated or wards of the state? Thank you. Is it social satire on that?

Candy:

Right. It's funny that you mentioned that because there was one thing that made me pause the, the pictures, taking of the pictures. You know, at intervals, you know, and that's in the beginning and it gets explained and then at the end the cameras back watching it the second time. It made me think of how I remember things in my life events. It's like a Polaroid. It's a little snapshot. You know, and especially the trauma from my

Sandi:

Yes.

Candy:

it's either a real or a little snapshot and it made me think of that. And then my brain went down this rabbit hole of, I wonder if the director or the writer, uh, had a similar thing in mind. Like, is it symbolizing some, is it symbolic? That would be the word. Is it symbolic of a similar thing? Because I know I'm not the only one that takes little snapshots in their brain. You know, just a little place. My, my head went when analyzing all the things in the movie.

Sandi:

Interestingly enough, I can't, and I had forgotten about this. I read one article about this film right after we had watched it because, you know, you go and you're like, Oh, and I remember, and I can't tell you where I read the article. I can't tell you who wrote it, but it, it was an interview with the director. I think, I think it was the director and he was like, Yeah, I didn't really have a plan for that and not all this stuff has to be explained and like he does it. And so I think that when we look at films through this lens of, you know, psycho psychology or psychoanalytic, you know, theory, the. We're, we're, we may be making more of it than what the director implied, but

Candy:

Absolutely.

Sandi:

lens is totally different than our lens. Mine is a provider and a trauma survivor. Yours is a trauma survivor and in being in a process of healing, he may not know what he doesn't know. And sometimes we just throw some shit in there and then we let people make of it what they make of it, which I think film is really good at generally. Right?

Candy:

Yeah, it is. It is. And I've done that in my own art. Like, I'm like, I just, I like this shape. I know what I see, but I don't want to add detail because I want the viewer to be interpreting it, you know, and we're going to interpret things subjectively anyway.

Sandi:

that's right. Yeah. Everybody has a little bit of a different slant on what the meaning behind A, B and C is in any kind of film. So,

Candy:

Right.

Sandi:

I kind of liked that. I kind of liked the idea of like, let's just throw it all out there. Um, and the other thing I think I read in the article that I remember is that they sculpted the clay man. online together via video. So whoever's working on the sculpting was the director was like, okay, take the nose off. No, put the nose back on. And he's like sitting there at live time sculpting in front of the director. And then apparently they took this sculpture to a film festival and people were like, reverent. Of the sculpture. They weren't like, you know, being jackasses around it. I think that sculpture really freaked people out,

Candy:

Interesting. It's, it is pretty fucking freaky.

Sandi:

you know, it's got the elongated mouth with the open scream. So you've got this large gaping dirt, open ma that you're just waiting for, like. a snake to crawl out of it or something, but like nothing actually happens physically to it. It stays in the same static place, but it, yet it has all these powers, because we've drilled holes in the head and shoved shit in there, like all of our little spell casting stuff, but apparently when they took it to the film festival and displayed it, it was literally sitting there and people were like, Almost hesitant to like approach it and when they were taking pictures, they were very serene and respectful And I think he read I think the director says gave the example of like yeah There were like no jackasses like going around and like putting it in a chokehold or doing anything obnoxious I think people were genuinely freaked out about that

Candy:

That is really

Sandi:

hmm.

Candy:

that. I'd like to know the psychology behind that,

Sandi:

which which part?

Candy:

well, what exactly is it about this? That like, I'd be curious to know what, what people. Would find reverent about it. Like, why are they being so respectful of this space that this creature is taking up opposed to a fucking, I don't know, statue of a unicorn or something, you know

Sandi:

yeah. Well, I almost want to say, like, it's, it's a mirror of ourselves. It's a human body, and it's sort of stuck in this suspended animation, and it's sort of in pain because of the facial expression. It looks tight and terse, and then the mouth is open, like there should be something coming out of it. And, and I, yeah, yeah. And, and I mean, I wonder too, if it goes back to like, if it's made of clay and it's this sculpted thing. Um, Oh, the other thing that was interesting when I, now it's coming back to me, that article, I'm like pulling the file cabinet out. Cause you know,

Candy:

Yeah.

Sandi:

brain. And he said that it was weird cause it felt cool to the touch even when it was in a warm room. And I'm like, well, if it's made out of clay, there's a certain degree of moisture in there, which would,

Candy:

Yeah.

Sandi:

being cold, but almost like you're touching a corpse. Like, that's what it made me think of. Like, when you touch like a dead body and they're sitting there in the casket, you know, like when I pushed him, when I took my dad to the crematory, you know, I'm holding him and I'm touching him. And he's been in a refrigerator for two fucking weeks and You know, he's cold to the touch and you're like, that's not normal. And so I think that playing with that sensation, perhaps of like, this is this mirror image of me as a human. This thing looks human. It was modeled after a human body, but it's really inhuman. And there's something very unsettling, perhaps, about that.

Candy:

Right. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Sandi:

I want one.

Candy:

It would be fucking cool to have a little,

Sandi:

Yeah, I was, you.

Candy:

I want to go into your thoughts, uh, while watching the movie, like where did, where did your mind jump to as far as, Just overall and like analysis wise.

Sandi:

I think for me, I have one foot in science and one foot in the land of woo. And when she was being, when Darcy's character, she's clearly a witch, clearly identifies as someone with psycho, you know, psychological skills and skills that are intuitive in nature. And I identify as an empath and I can read people like that and I can soak up and understand what what happened here. What is going on? And so there's this sort of almost like a sixth sense type of thing. And one of the things that I kind of felt when we were watching it, that almost kind of upset me. is when people try to deny the gifts of someone who's intuitive and they make them feel like a crazy person.

Candy:

The gas lighting is heavy. In there

Sandi:

That invalidation of knowing things that perhaps you can't, this person, other over here, can't know. And I found that to be really bothersome to some place deep in my soul.

Candy:

Yeah, there was a lot of it.

Sandi:

It's the whole movie, you know? Dani, to some degree, I think her character sort of sits on the edge of like, I believe my sister. I'm also worried about what she might do, but I think she had enough evidence because it's like she was in that in the beginning of the movie when she's got the tent, which I thought was really weird, but I loved it. I was like, I would love to be in a big giant stately building made of stone and sleep in the fucking basement in a tent. Like, yes, sign me up.

Candy:

no, that's how you die. That's like, that's like prime setup. You can't see around you. You have no idea where the monsters are. Forget it.

Sandi:

Yeah, I would have loved it. I would have absolutely loved it. But when she's snapping pictures and the camera's going off and you hear that, and that she's capturing orbs and stuff, and she tells Darcy at some point, well, I've got the camera set up and I've only captured orbs. And so there's, like, this curiosity there of, like, that other side of things. So she doesn't absolutely discount it, but she's, she, she doesn't really shame her sister. I don't think.

Candy:

Right.

Sandi:

everyone else in the movie does. I don't like that. That hurts my feelings.

Candy:

No. Yeah, I get it. And it's, it's interesting cause I used to be the person that would be like, you're just fucking crazy, you know, cause I was not in touch with my own empathic nature or I'm a magical being and I was just denying it this whole time, but I did, I was that person judging other people because they were weird. I did other people. Myself, you know, before I learned better and got knocked down a couple hundred pegs, you know

Sandi:

Yeah. Right, right.

Candy:

like, who the fuck are you? Um, and so God. And so when I see that, oh, in a movie, it hits the guilt button just a little bit. I'm like, oh, I used to be like that. And so it just, it feels like a big slap in the face, know, cause I, I. see myself in that behavior. so it's more striking, you know, when I'm watching it.

Sandi:

That stuck out to me, the witchcraft element and the immersion in magic and, and knowing, and, and having objects that sort of lend to, like, you hold the object and then something happens. Something that is. inexplicable, right? Um, you know, like go back to that when Darcy unwraps the eye and you look at the eye and you're like, that absolutely fucking tracks. Like what's she going to do with the eye? And then she sits there and you can, and when I watched it again, knowing that we were going to do an episode about it, you can look at her face and the way she sits back in the chair and you know that she knows something's wrong and she recognizes in that instant It was not this man who killed her sister

Candy:

Yep.

Sandi:

I think that's where her revenge starts to sort of cure and go, I'm going to get this motherfucker and how am I going to do it? I think shortly after there, I think that's a scene where she's sitting at the table and then she leaves and in her leaving, she pauses and she looks at the trunk.

Candy:

Yes.

Sandi:

Like, that's, I'm coming for you. Get ready for the clay man in the box. This is creepy and bizarre and I loved it.

Candy:

Oh, yeah. The whole scene with her kneeling in front of it like they don't what it is you know, it's after she sees the eye, she goes, she leaves her apartment, she goes to the shop, uh, and then, you know, there, then there's this curio cabinet like shelving of, of all these homages to other horror trinkets, you know? and then she kneels in front of this and there's, and you, you know, that it's, Something important, but you don't know what it is how it's going to present itself. And it was just, there were a lot of really good scenes like that, that established the feel of the moment and ramped up the tension. It was so good

Sandi:

Yeah. It reminded me of when I took a Gothic fiction class because I was a literature major first before I was a therapist and thought, I don't know what I thought the, I was going to fucking do with that. But, um, you know, here we are 20 years later. The, the house itself would live there in a heartbeat, could never afford to live there, but I would live there in a heartbeat and I clearly know how you feel about it already, but it reminded me of when I took a gothic fiction class in at a community college before I got my bachelor's. And that, I have a book on gothic fiction and in that are stories That people maybe wouldn't recognize as being gothic in nature, but gothic horror and gothic terror is very much about time and place and setting. So it was sort of, to me, like the quintessential haunted house movie. And it's dark, and there's lots of shadows, and it's sparsely lit, and we don't have a lot of food. I mean, we don't even have a lot of food in the refrigerator, according to the girlfriend. She's like, well, we don't eat here. I'm like, bitch, what are you doing? She is kind of a bitch, but at least she leaves. At least she's smart enough to leave and dump the narcissist, right? I applaud her for that.

Candy:

Yes.

Sandi:

house itself is this sort of large, empty, oppressive being. So it's like the personification of all that's to come, the dastardly things that are hiding in the shadows. And then you've got the crazy guy outside the door going, someone's in there with you. Someone's in there with you.

Candy:

I loved that. That whole fucking setup was beautiful.

Sandi:

Yes.

Candy:

was beautiful. And then you get to see the truth, like the whole, you're getting the whole conversation. All sides of that moment. Oh, it's so good. Like, that was the other part of the othering too. Like the guy has one weird eye, you know, um, that looks like he painted himself, you know, like he made himself. This eye, and you've got the, the female all alone in this big house and it's dark outside there's a knock at the door. And of course, as the viewer, you're like, don't fucking answer that. Don't even open the keyhole thing. Like what are you doing?

Sandi:

Yeah.

Candy:

Oh, or not a keyhole, but the peep hole. They set it up really well for him to look like, Oh God, Oh, Oh, you know who my husband, are you one of his patients, you know

Sandi:

Yeah.

Candy:

And so we should be really nervous about it. She's nervous about it. And it's fun how it sets up the scene based on our expectations of how we think it should go.

Sandi:

I'll be honest. Part of me wanted to let him in.

Candy:

Oh, totally.

Sandi:

me was like, I believe you. Like, look at this. Look at this house. Like, I am here by myself. I barely have cell service. There's no electricity. I'm sitting here in the dark with my fucking tent in the basement on a cement floor. Like, there's something very wrong inside this house. And then, so you've got the quote unquote insane guy outside the door. And looking inside to where the real insanity is going to take place because we have the orderly bent on destruction of the wife who also wants to sexually assault her and tries to convince the husband of that. I was so disgusted by that conversation.

Candy:

Oh yeah. It was raunch and, and well crafted though

Sandi:

right.

Candy:

Like it makes you hate Ivan. You're like, Oh, this guy is really nasty. He's bad

Sandi:

Yeah. Yeah.

Candy:

We can't trust him.

Sandi:

And I think that watching the two male characters, the doctor and the orderly together, I, I had some, like, I don't want to say flashbacks, but some memories of when I was working in the corrections facility and it was actually an old, Um, remember what it was, but it was an old building and it used to be, oh, I think it used to be a Syna... Synagogue. I think it was a Jewish synagogue, but at one point it was a hospital and it was a, it was by all. definition, creepy, quote unquote. And I was just like, I love this. Like there's history in these walls. Let me just touch everything and like poke around here and all the cabinets and the weird rooms and the archways. It was a very weird place to have a halfway house, but just it reminded me of that like abusive power that I'm literally in a clinical hallway of one wing of the building. trying to help people who have been othered and who are being harassed and who are not treated well because they have broken the law or they were doing drugs or they were whatever else was on the rap sheet and I'm sitting in this wing trying to help people and it was like the one sacred wing. And then the rest of the building was like, not a safe place for humans

Candy:

Yikes.

Sandi:

and seeing those scenes in the halfway house where everything is dingy and it's poorly lit and there's, you know, literally like the guy who was doing the art who had the, do you think he had visions of the monster?

Candy:

that's a really good question.

Sandi:

Because his art. If you look at the art, because the doctor at one point pulls the file out

Candy:

Yeah, that's right,

Sandi:

is reflecting through and looking at it and he finds a picture that the guy sketched and it is the clay man.

Candy:

Yeah, like, he had done those drawings before the Golem came to kill, uh, what was his name? Olin? Olin?

Sandi:

Yeah.

Candy:

Um, that's a really good question. And now I'm wondering if I missed something.

Sandi:

I think it makes me wonder if the point of that is. is that regardless of who you are as a person, it doesn't matter if you're in a halfway house or you killed your mother or you did, you know, you have mental illness. There's, there's, there's some kind of knowing quality of like being, especially when you've been on that side of the fence, if you will, like you know stuff about people and you can read people pretty well. And it makes me wonder if that was sort of like, is this patient having psychosis, but psychosis that's informed from the reality of the magic.

Candy:

Oh

Sandi:

I don't know how to answer that question, but it is something that it made me think of.

Candy:

well that it definitely lends to the I want to say like the mystique of the movie with the magic'cause And it would, it would balance balance out the film as like thinking of it as an art piece where you have Darcy, the witch, right? And you've also got this other guy who has some sort of clairvoyant ability of some sort

Sandi:

Yeah, he knows shit.

Candy:

know, and it kind of, it adds like a little drop of that in this place, in this institution to make the film film feel less heavy on this end where Darcy is, you know, Oh, I have to watch it a third time and think about that. That's a really fun thing to think about.

Sandi:

I think the other interesting thing is that Darcy was blind. But she's the one who sees the most.

Candy:

right, like, especially when, oh I forgot, Yana, the

Sandi:

Yeah, the girlfriend.

Candy:

when she's pulling the shit out of the golem's head and she's standing there and she's like, put it back! Like, bitch, how the fuck do you know what I'm doing?

Sandi:

Yeah.

Candy:

because she's connected to it, obviously, but still, like, you are blind, whaaa...?

Sandi:

Right.

Candy:

thought she was getting away with something and then she was caught red handed by a blind lady. Which leads to the, the whole mysterious, what kind of magic are we dealing with in this movie

Sandi:

Yeah. Yeah. I, I loved some of those scenes with Yana, the girlfriend, and Darcy alone at the house. And Darcy makes reference to, I thought it would be nice if the three of us spent time together.

Candy:

Right.

Sandi:

like, ooh.

Candy:

Which three?

Sandi:

Because husband has gone to work. You know, the boyfriend has gone to work. The psychiatrist has left the building. And now there's three of us here. And I, I love the idea that Darcy sort of has this knowledge. And it, and it does, it, it harkens back to me of like, Films like the Wickerman, um, and films that depict the Gollum from Jewish folk Folklore like the Gollum was originally designed or made by Jewish mystics to protect Jewish people. And there's all kinds of variations on golems, and there's multiple, there's golems from like tons of different cultures and countries. I think there's like a Danish one and a Finnish one, and there's all different kinds of incantations of this golem type character, and the golem is, Although he looks monstrous, he is, uh, a symbol of protection

Candy:

Right.

Sandi:

and sometimes in order to protect people, take a couple out.

Candy:

Yep.

Sandi:

Dr, Ivan, they kind of deserve it, you know, let's be honest.

Candy:

totally. Dude. Yeah, like, can I just make note here real quick, randomly, about how clever it was for him to put the phone on the other side of that pit? And open it up and then call

Sandi:

Yeah.

Candy:

that was fucking genius.

Sandi:

Yeah.

Candy:

saying

Sandi:

Yeah.

Candy:

I'm all oh, oh, I like that trick and fucked up, of course

Sandi:

Of course.

Candy:

it was really cool in the end when they showed her connecting Did you notice her hands

Sandi:

Yes.

Candy:

the five holes

Sandi:

Uh huh. Yep.

Candy:

like

Sandi:

It's like she it's like,

Candy:

I didn't notice the first time

Sandi:

oh, you didn't yeah when she when she's ran when she's reaching up and Darcy has fallen through the hole and cracked her neck open. Um, oh, and there was something about the neck. I can't remember. I was thinking about it today, and there was something about the neck. Oh! Darcy died of the same type of injury that the bellboy died of. Did you miss that?

Candy:

I did.

Sandi:

Remember she tells the story of the bellboy in the beginning?

Candy:

Oh my god.

Sandi:

Yeah.

Candy:

And you know, she rung that bell cuz she was fucking ready to ring it when numbnuts walked

Sandi:

Right, right, right. Mm hmm.

Candy:

her fu.... She was a little hovering making love to this bell and she was getting ready, you know,

Sandi:

So the, the, go ahead.

Candy:

no, no. No, that's that's fun I totally missed it,

Sandi:

Yeah. Cause they, she tells the story about the bellboy who, um, is taking a drunk patron to his room and then the patron gets pissed off or belligerent or whatever, cause he's fucking drunk. And he shoves the bellboy down the stairs and he breaks his neck. So she, so she dies under a very similar circumstance cause she falls down and she's clearly, There's, there's an injury here, and there's a bunch of blood behind her head all over the cement, so she probably cracked her skull. And, and there's a part of me that, like, opposite of you, I thought, yes, that's a good way to kill someone who couldn't see, but how did she not know? How did she not anticipate?

Candy:

I would say that maybe she did she did not I don't think she went there to survive

Sandi:

I don't think so either, but I don't, so, and that makes me think, were, was the golem her eyes?

Candy:

Oh, yeah,

Sandi:

You know,

Candy:

totally. Yeah,

Sandi:

it had to have been it would had to have been yeah, so these I don't know I I I didn't think it was the best movie that I've ever seen But I I've watched it a few times because I looked forward to it because when I saw the previews for it I was like, that's a Gollum What's gonna happen here? Um And then, of course, The Witchcraft Bent did not, did not disappoint. I, I'm all for that. Um, and, you know, weaving spells and casting and, and doing all of that. I was just kind of like, oh, this is so interesting. Woo!

Candy:

Oh, it's fun. It was a good time. It had a good amount of like the jump scare quality, the setting up the ambience with not only the going back to the actual house, which I find it's cold, it's dark. And it's hard.

Sandi:

Love it.

Candy:

I need some fucking sunlight in my life

Sandi:

Yeah.

Candy:

I

Sandi:

met me. Yeah. No.

Candy:

do the dark all the time, but they set it up not only in the, light level, you know, which helps set the tone, but even with the soundtrack and the sound effects, I was listening to it. This afternoon and I had my headphones on and the first time when she's looking, I think, for her keys, uh, Yana is looking for her keys and she's standing next to the Golem and it was the first time I noticed in the background underneath all the other sound effects, like a male kind of moaning sound. And I don't think I would have heard it without, you know, having the sound right here in my skull, but there were so many of those that just added to it and it wasn't a way where the scene relied on the music or the score, the soundtrack, sound effects, which I fucking hate. I hate when a music relies on those to set the tone. Only it just rounded it out You know, it's like, it's like it packaged it, like, wrapped up your gift in a bow, but you already know what it is, but it's so pretty that. You want to watch it again, cause it, has a way of kind of getting in there.

Sandi:

Yeah, it sure does. There were, there were lots of fun things about this movie, and again, not probably one of my, you know, top favorites of the year, um, that, that's certainly Long Legs for sure, and we may or may not do something about that, but it's, I just, I can't, I, I still haven't figured out all of the mythology of that. But, I, I liked it, and I, I would watch it again. I would absolutely watch Oddity again, um, because now I own it, because I meant to, and it's, it's a fun, it's a fun movie, and again, that gothic, quintessential haunted house theme, and stuff's gonna go down, but the villains are not who you think they are.

Candy:

Right.

Sandi:

love that about films, like this,

Candy:

I love me a good kind of twist.

Sandi:

yes, for sure.

Candy:

Deception. Deceive me, baby. Deceive me

Sandi:

Well, that's what we think about Oddity. Um, maybe you guys want to watch it. Maybe you don't. I don't know. But if you have things to say about it or the movie makes you think, give it a watch. I think it's, I think it's a reasonable thing to spend, you know, an hour and 45 minutes on.

Candy:

I would agree. Well, that's all that we have to talk about today. As far as Oddity goes, it's definitely worth a couple of watches.

Sandi:

I agree.

Candy:

We hope you'll join us next time. And until then, happy watching!

Sandi:

Happy watching folks. Have a great, great weekend.

People on this episode

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Candy Fantastic

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Sandi Labo

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