They did it again. Adam Green and Joe Lynch not only managed to sit down and podcast for 48 hours straight, they shattered last year’s 14,000 record for donations to Save a Yorkie Rescue by raising just over 22,000. Last year’s 48-hour marathon was amazing. I got to interview with Green and Lynch to help promote it and then did my own write-up of the events, which you can find here. Listening to that for the first time was a one-of-a-kind experience and I don’t even think it was clear they’d be doing this again until the very, very end of that first 48 hours when they announced how much money they had raised.
As someone who listened to almost everything last year, I queued up the broadcast on the ArieScope site and started listening about halfway through the pre-show and didn’t stop until it all came to a close on Sunday night, trying my best to stay awake the whole time (failing only once) and generally having no idea how they managed to pull this off.
After listening to last year’s marathon, I sort of knew what to expect, but I was surprised to find myself enjoying the broadcast even more than last year’s fantastic show. More than that, I was just as surprised to walk away thinking that they beat their impressive first annual marathon on just about every level. Of course, they weren’t podcasting for 48 hours for their health. The success of this year’s marathon should entirely be based on the amount of money they raised. That’s where they really knocked it out of the park. Joe, Adam and everyone who donated really did an amazing thing this weekend and saved a lot of dogs and that is what really matters.
But that entire 48 hour stretch, exhausting as it was, was also a great goddamn time. They made that clear right out of the gate with comedian and everyone’s favorite stoner Doug Benson stepping in as the first guest. It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, given that he does host Doug Loves Movies, but it was pretty awesome to hear that conversation simply turn into a candid discussion of film, what they’ve seen, what they were disappointed by, what they loved. In that regard, there really couldn’t have been a better guest to kick off with. It’s only a surprise because he sounds like he barely knows where he is half the time, but Doug Benson really knows his shit about movies.
After that, they hit the $5,000 mark for donations. For every $5,000 they made, they played an unreleased song by Green’s (now reunited!) band Haddonfield.
Alison Haislip then came in for what really turned out to be a great conversation with Joe Lynch about their G4 days. As someone who’s also covered plenty of press events, but is still relatively new to that world, that was a moment of the show I really wound up taking to heart. In general, just seeing what they’ve gone on to accomplish, it was great to hear where they both started and where they are now. But that’s sort of one of the best things about The Movie Crypt in general.
Ace Von Johnson and Britt Lightning joined the broadcast for a really insightful discussion of life as a working musician and how vastly different that is from being a quote/unquote “rock star.”
After that came a fantastic commentary for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 with star Caroline Williams, who delivered some great anecdotes about working with Tobe Hooper, working with Dennis Hopper, and in general it was riveting and often hilarious, not unlike the movie itself.
Joe Knetter then stepped in for a great interview about writing and working on co-authoring the I, Survivor book with Adam Green, as seen in the upcoming Victor Crowley. He also gave great insight into traditional publishing vs. self-publishing. I’ve done both and agree with much of what Knetter said and really hope any aspiring writers got a chance to listen to that. Anyone who’s met him or heard him on the Brainwaves podcast with Steve Barton knows that Knetter is pretty much a one-of-a-kind experience, so having him on in general was a treat. The man was clearly meant to be a horror author because just about any time he speaks, he leaves images in your head that are impossible to get out.
Then came the return of one of the very best segments from the previous year, “Princess Story Hour.” Last year, Casey Hempel read stories from Clive Barker and Joe Hill that were hilarious as read in her typically sweet-and-sugary voice. This year went a step further as she read stories by none other than Knetter himself.
Laura Ortiz then came in for a commentary on one of my favorite episodes of Holliston, “The Holliston Hobgoblin,” which is a hilarious riff on The Blair Witch Project as the gang take to the woods to investigate the truth behind a local legend, while Adam gets just a little creepy with Corri and Joe pisses his pants.
Andre Gower came in to talk about the legacy of The Monster Squad and the upcoming documentary Monster Squad Forever, which sounds incredible. Hearing that it will be broken down into basically three sections, covering the three decades since the movie’s release by looking at the time after it came out when it was considered a failure, how everyone kind of moved on to other things, then looking at the past ten years or so in which Monster Squad fever has hit a peak—that really sounds like the perfect approach and I can’t wait for the chance to check that out.
After Andre Gower came Ashley Laurence, one of my favorite guests of the whole weekend. Admittedly, I’m a die-hard Hellraiser fan and Kirsty is one of my favorite characters in the genre (which I wrote about at length here) so just hearing her on the podcast was a treat. But there’s very little Hellraiser talk. Instead, they examine and try to name some of Laurence’s amazing artwork, as well as talking to her about painting—a passion she obviously shares with Clive Barker—and acting. In general, she has an amazing worldview that made her one of the most fascinating and engaging guests of the entire marathon.
We got treated to more music after that with a song by Jokerr, and then Aithen, Jokerr himself, as a guest. Once again, that was a really insightful peak into a corner of the entertainment industry that I was less than familiar with.
Bryan Fuller came in to talk Hannibal, American Gods and many, many other things. Hearing them praise Don Mancini and what he’s done with the Chucky franchise was awesome, as was hearing some of the lineup of writers for Amazing Stories, including Patton Oswalt, Jane Goldman and Kumail Nanjiani. Fuller apparently went directly from the studio to the Star Wars premiere, which was something they kept referring back to throughout the rest of the weekend.
The Friday the 13th Part VII commentary was a treat, especially when director John Carl Buechler (a surprise guest that Joe didn’t even know would be coming) went into his plans for a sequel to Part VII, which he feels could even be made today. It includes Tina having been in an institution since the original, the survival of Dr. Crews and Jason appearing as a “normal” human being after being resurrected by the lake, only to degrade into “classic” Jason when he is returned to its waters.
Cinematographer Will Barratt, a previous Movie Crypt guest who has shot everything Adam Green has directed except for Victor Crowley, then came in for a discussion, followed by Derek Mears and his improv comedy group, The Resistance. This was another absolute highlight of the weekend. Planning to do a two-hour horror anthology, they instead wound up improving an entire slasher about a killer in an elephant mask who can only make elephant sounds, although that winds up being entirely unrelated to the fact that he’s wearing an elephant mask. Spoilers.
Graham Skipper came in next, followed by the commentary for Krampus with Dave Parker and Spooky Dan Walker. The Krampus commentary was one of the things I was most looking forward to and was also the thing I completely blacked out during. I passed out a half hour in, right as Krampus makes his first appearance. It was a shame to miss out on most of that, as Dave Parker and Spooky Dan clearly came prepared, bringing extensive notes and some serious Krampus knowledge.
Rob Pendegraft came in for a makeup demonstration, then came actor Yuri Lowenthal, and after that came the best example of just how tired everyone was by this point in the weekend: the Sleepaway Camp commentary. While the commentaries are usually released later, I don’t see that being the case with this one as it’s impossible to detach this from the rest of the marathon and, more than that, it winds up having very little to do with the movie. Felissa Rose and Joe Lynch put on their crotchetiest old New Yorker accents, which occasionally slips into Lynch’s Scottish Salma Hayek.
After that we got a tarot card reading with Holliston producer Sarah Elbert, then live music from Jason Charles Miller, more improv from Kelly Vrooman and Lauren Pritchard, leading into the Dawn of the Dead commentary with Tony Bouba, Pasqual Bouba and John Harrison. Joe Lynch has mentioned time and time again what a seminal movie this was for him and hearing he and Adam geek out with the creators for two hours was fantastic. That was a great commentary, even as incredibly tired as they were at that point, and I hope people will get the chance to listen to that one later.
Mike Mendez came in not to talk about his impressive career, but instead to play with action figures, which was amazing to watch via the Facebook Live video because of how Green and Lynch’s faces just lit up as they opened up those toys. It was also the perfect lead-in to the final guest of the weekend: the return of Santa Claus himself.
Hearing the boys and Mr. Claus wrap up the weekend, see how much they raised and then announce that they were putting this month’s Patreon earnings—$4,000—into the charity as well was the perfect, emotional sendoff to the whole weekend. These guys didn’t need to be doing this. In fact, as industry professionals trying to earn a living, this was probably the last thing they needed to be doing. But it’s the season of giving and this weekend, Adam Green, Joe Lynch, everyone who came to help them out and everyone who donated practically redefined that term.
This wasn’t about putting on a great show, even though that happened anyway. This was about helping out a small rescue and because of the amount they raised, a whole lot of dogs are going to get treatments and surgeries they may not have gotten otherwise, are going to find homes and are just in general going to live happy and comfortable lives.
This marathon made that possible. Star Wars is going to make a hell of a lot of money and a lot of people very happy, but it didn’t save lives. No single movie, game, whatever, really gets to say that. But these guys do. And they didn’t do it for the recognition or the bragging rights, anyone who’s listened to the podcast even once knows that. They did it for the dogs. That’s who Adam Green and Joe Lynch are. They’re incredibly talented, incredibly humble people who put in the work and bend over backwards to not only make their art, but to do things like this. They’re the Movie Crypt.
