
The Saints That Serve Podcast
Welcome to The Saints That Serve Podcast!
Where each week, your hosts dive into the crossroads of faith, culture and the unknown.
Christ is Lord and the Kingdom is now!
We are The Saints That Serve!
The Saints That Serve Podcast
Episode 56 - Faith & Children’s Horror
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What if the “harmless” scares we loved as kids shaped how we see horror today? In this episode of Saints That Serve Podcast, we explore children’s horror from Scooby-Doo to Stranger Things, Goosebumps to Harry Potter. We compare lighthearted frights with deeper stories like The Lord of the Rings, Watership Down, and The Secret of NIMH, asking: do these tales build courage or blur the lines with the occult?
We tackle Dungeons & Dragons, Ouija boards, and the rise of occult aesthetics, offering Christian guardrails for parents and families. If spooky season has you nostalgic, this conversation gives practical tools for watching with discernment. Our goal is to help families enjoy stories while staying grounded in faith and wisdom. Whether you’re a parent, mentor, or fan of classic kids’ horror, you’ll find encouragement and guidance here.
#ChildrensHorror #ChristianPodcast #SaintsThatServe #Goosebumps #StrangerThings #HarryPotter #LordOfTheRings #ScoobyDoo #ChristianPerspective #SpookySeason #FaithAndCulture #FamilyFaith #ChristianParents #DungeonsAndDragons #OuijaBoard
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Welcome to the Saints That Serve Podcast, where each week your hosts dive into the crossroads of faith, culture, and the unknown. Christ is Lord, and the kingdom is now.
SPEAKER_02:We are the Saints that serve.
SPEAKER_03:We're in spooky season, but I sorry, I'm going to interrupt you. When I said you're it's your turn to introduce the podcast, I meant to do it spooky-wise. No, we'll let's keep let's keep going. Let's do this.
unknown:Alright.
SPEAKER_02:Welcome to the Saints and Serve Podcast. It's spooky season, everybody, and we are on episode 56. Last, well, let's go ahead and start this off with an apology. We're sorry that we did not release an episode last week.
SPEAKER_03:Someone with thick. I was sick. I didn't well I wasn't gonna call you out. It was gonna be like a Braveheart uh I am Spartacus, you know. It was gonna be a Braveheart, I am Spartacus. What is it? What is it? I am okay. Maybe I'm being wrong, but isn't there a scene in Braveheart where like they're all standing in unison saying like I am so and so?
SPEAKER_02:I'm William Wallace. That's his name in Braveheart is William Wallace.
SPEAKER_03:Is there not like a because I know that like I am Spartacus, they're all standing up say like in unison saying like, no, I'm the person you want.
SPEAKER_02:Like so so that like I've seen both Spartacus, like the original movie in Braveheart, and I can't think of what you're talking about. But you know what I'm talking about, where it's like everyone's claiming to be the guy.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I was gonna give that to uh you know, saying Well, everyone has no I was sick. Everyone had a 50% chance of getting it right or wrong. But no, I was sick and No, I am sick. Okay. We had a lot going on the week before, and it just got away from us from that.
SPEAKER_03:I'm not gonna give say it away, like give away or dox your family, but that that Thursday we were doing something for your family member. We can say it. It was a wedding.
SPEAKER_02:This is true, it was a wedding. Julie and Delone have both been on the podcast and they're both married now. Oh, so we can say it.
SPEAKER_03:All right, so their address is Yeah. No, so it was uh had their rehearsal that Thursday. Yep. The wedding was Friday, had one of your child's birthdays parties Saturday. Saturday, and then there was something else Sunday. I can't remember what it was. It was just uh well, you were I can't remember what you were doing, but you guys Oh, I had that dinner, lunch, barbecue for uh for my boss. Yeah, that's what it was. So it was like we was something every single day for like four or five days straight of like nonstop. We got to be doing something. So we DJed, we were the saints that swerved wicky wicket at Julie's wedding, Julian Dylan. Yep. And uh it was awesome. We had a fun time.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks for letting us do that, Julie and Dylan. Hey, thanks, guys. So, anyways, that all happened. And then I got sick, and then I was out of town for the weekend, and we just didn't get to do it. But we're here now. We're here now, and we're continuing with the season of spookies. Mm-hmm. And what are we talking about today, Jarriss? I was curious. Name us spooky. Name us spooky? Yeah, since we're in the season of the spookies. Uh I'm gonna say Dracula. Dracula is a spooky? He is a spooky. I think that there's I think they there could be two categories. There's cryptids and there's spookies. Mm-hmm. And vampire seems to like interpret.
SPEAKER_03:There is like, if you have the Venn diagram, there is like a crossover between spookies and cryptids. Yeah. Uh, I would say uh my uh a really good spooky. My favorite. No, a really good spooky is you when you're not wearing your makeup. I love getting scared the most by Jonathan not wearing his show makeup. I don't wear makeup ever. I said it's not a video podcast. He said, I've got to look good for the podcast.
SPEAKER_02:I've gotta look good for the sound equipment.
SPEAKER_03:So, anyway, before we get started, do we have any announcements?
SPEAKER_02:We pray for you every single Friday.
SPEAKER_03:Every single Friday.
SPEAKER_02:So make sure that if you pray for anything to reach out, you can email us at SaintsThatserve at gmail.com. And coming soon, swaint saints that swerve gmail.com. Uh you can also use the link at the bottom of the episode description. Uh takes you to a direct messaging and then any social media. We're on all of it. We're on Instagram and Facebook and X, YouTube, threads.
SPEAKER_03:Not on Zanga though. Not Zanga. Do we have a threads though? Yeah, we got threads. That's crazy. I've never even looked at it. Yeah, there's nothing happening there. Yeah. I get advertisements for threads all the time and no one ever uses it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It's like, you know what would be cool is if instead of Instagram we had something where you could just post a text. You're like, you mean like Twitter and Facebook? You're right.
SPEAKER_03:So everybody just wants to be that new same thing. Yeah. So anyways. Real quick, I want to do a quick let me apologize. Oh, okay. We just get a lot of them. Yeah. So not, but maybe three or four minutes ago, I said that John wears makeup. And that's not true. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you want to look ugly all the time. Oh, thanks. Without your makeup. You know what?
SPEAKER_02:I forgive you. Thank you. And on that note, I need to apologize because everyone went to see the episode last week and saw that there was none. And they went to social media to see what the update was, and there was none. And that's my fault. Because I run the social media. No, I run the social media.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02:I am Spartacus. So, anyways, yeah. Sorry, guys. That there was no information. We'll do better. Yeah. Alright, let's go ahead and just get into it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. What are we talking about tonight? Uh, so uh, because it's spooky season, we are talking about Tyler. This is your transition into. I don't know. What are we calling this? Uh oh, you know what? We're talking it's the world of children's spookies. There you go.
SPEAKER_02:My sheet my sheet says something different, but I don't know if that's the Saints that serve spooky season. When scary was for kids, the world of children's horror.
SPEAKER_03:I I think spookies is a better word than saying horror.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, probably, but that's what I looked up was horror.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, it's all children's horror. Yeah. So yeah, we're I guess we're talking about children's horror. It's an interesting thing to talk about to me, because it's like there are things made out there out there that are made for children.
SPEAKER_02:The target audience is children.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. And so you have so many films and media games and I'll I'll and a very specific board game. Yeah. That it's all made and targeted towards children. And I kind of want to talk about those. Yeah. And say, was this actually appropriate for your children? Yeah. Versus was this just a gateway?
SPEAKER_02:A conditioning mechanism.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that kind of thing for your children just to be uh, you know, made to get a hold of your children in this with this demonic property early on.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You know, just a tool of the enemy to try to just get a hold of your children way too early.
SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah, I mean, the tool of the world, you know what I mean? Like if it's not of Christ, it's of the world, and and Satan is of the world.
SPEAKER_03:Mm-hmm. And that's what we talk about on the show all the time, is like if it's not of God, it's either it's it's not benef sometimes it's not beneficial, but it's it's not beneficial, and sometimes it's neutral in the sense of it's not a bad thing, but it's not necessarily, and then there's other things that you just shouldn't expose yourself to. Sure. So let's talk about these ones that you shouldn't let your children be exposed exposed exposed to.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So if you do a Google search on children's horror movies, the top picks, at least when I pulled it up, was Monster. Monster Squad. No.
SPEAKER_03:Really? I wonder if your list is completely different than that. Monster House. Oh, Monster House. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Frank and Weenie. The House with a Clock in the Walls, The Adams Family, Caroline, Ernest, Scared, Stupid. That movie is a classic.
SPEAKER_03:But it's so dumb.
SPEAKER_02:The Little Vampire. You have such a different list. I've never heard this one before. Return to Oz. Oh yeah. Return of Oz.
SPEAKER_03:That's a Disney movie.
SPEAKER_02:Return to Oz. That's a Disney movie. The Witches.
SPEAKER_03:The Witches. Yeah. Whenever you have something called The Witches.
SPEAKER_02:It's a uh looks like it's came out in 2020. Uh Scooby-Doo 2, the live action.
SPEAKER_03:I wonder what what was your time frame that you put in on yours?
SPEAKER_02:I literally just typed in children's horror movies.
SPEAKER_03:I did the children's horror that I grew up on. So kind of 90s. So that makes more sense.
SPEAKER_02:Well, there are, I mean, yeah. Box Trolls, Goosebumps 2, Witcher or Watcher in the Woods. Watcher in the Woods.
SPEAKER_03:That I I don't think that's a really oh I have seen that.
SPEAKER_02:The Watcher in the Woods from 1980. That is a weird movie. I have seen that. Paranorman. Paranorman. Yep. Igor and Scooby-Doo. And I mean it keeps going on, but.
SPEAKER_03:Well, well, I want to let's start with that one. All right. Let's start with the one that has a thousand different properties on it. And you've said it a few times, called it out a few different times. Because that is to me a really interesting one, uh, which is Scooby-Doo.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Because initially, Scooby-Doo wasn't supernatural.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Initially, the only weird supernatural thing about that was why is the dog talking? But like it started out as a just a mystery. Like they were called the Mystery Inc., and anywhere they went, there was somebody, it was a spooky thing, a monster, a creature, right? And it was always trying to get them out of wherever they're at, scare them away. But on every single episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You was the original show. Yeah. It was always somebody in a costume trying to scare people away.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:How do you feel about, in that sense, children's horror, where it was never anything evil or supernatural? It was just somebody in a suit every time. And the reveal was who was it actually? was the idea of the show.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know. I I don't really have I don't really care either way when it comes to that.
SPEAKER_03:Like it's a weird question.
SPEAKER_02:It's like the the idea is that it's like they're they're letting you know, like, hey, this isn't this is this isn't real. Like they aren't really dealing with the the supernatural, cosmic, weirda stuff.
SPEAKER_03:Like, oh, it's the I remember like there was a few, like like the the minor 49er, and he was just the ghost of a guy in a mine shaft, like a gold digger. That kind of guy who that was the the spooky, and it was just a guy who was trying to scare everybody out of the mine shaft so he could actually mine the gold that was there. Yeah. So it's like it was always that kind of stuff. Yeah. It was always posed as like a spooky house or spooky this, and it was always never actually the thing that they made it look like it was.
SPEAKER_02:What I will say is that Scooby-Doo, like with how old it is, you you gotta think about the audience at the time would not accept actual supernatural stuff.
SPEAKER_03:Do you think the intent was like we want to make it supernatural, but we won't get away with it?
SPEAKER_02:Well, there's been this weird, I don't know what it is, but there's been this weird attraction to being spooked. Like it's it's uh almost like uh people enjoy. I mean, I find myself being like, that is pretty entertaining. You know, just the idea of being spooked. And so I would say that it's that. It's like, hey, let's take something that's creepy, let's make it appropriate for kids, and then let's give an explanation at the end to cover our butts with the parents. That's like, well, no, no, no. It was never really a ghost. It was Mr. Billy Bob. It was the butler the whole time. Yeah, yeah, it was the butler. You know, so uh yeah, because I think that true like ghost stuff was saved for adults. So this was like so again, the gateway to it. Yeah, it's like it had to be kid friendly, and kid friendly is there's no such thing as ghosts because that's what all the parents are telling their kids. There's no monsters under the bed, there's no monsters in the closet, there are no ghosts, stuff like that.
SPEAKER_03:So Scooby-Doo again is that interesting one because what you said later on as it got more modern, like Scooby-Doo, obviously, it's so old, like probably one I wouldn't say one of the most, but I just feel like it's like such a long-lasting property. We're always gonna get something Scooby-Doo related. Yeah. But, you know, after Scooby-Doo, uh, you know, Where Are You, even like in the uh 60s, like 70s, 80s, as it grew older, he they started running into the real creatures. They had an entire movie, you know, like where Scooby-Doo had like was helping three ghosts, or like Shaggy was teaching at uh Dracula's school. It was like these weird ones, but you know, like even back then, we're not even talking modern, they started gearing away from it was just somebody in a mask.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I think that that's when the change started happening in the 80s, because that's when you start seeing things like dungeons and dragons. Like that's a kid, like that to my understanding, that started as a kid's game. And it it does not shy away from the supernatural. I mean, most of the creatures in the game are spooky. Yeah, you know, or have or are from the spooky properties.
SPEAKER_03:There was one Scooby-Doo, and I'll let you we'll talk about DD if you more if you like, but I just it came to me. There is a Scooby-Doo movie where Shaggy gets turned into a werewolf and is in a cross-country race or uh organized by Dracula. That was like the entire plot of the movie was them Shaggy is a werewolf, and to get turned back into normal by Dracula, he has to win this cross-crunchy car race.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, you saying uh werewolf may remind me of this. I saw a clip for an interview. They interviewed the guy who did the voice for uh Nixon from Futurama, you know, all the presidents, their heads reserved or whatever. Yeah. And he said he was trying to like do a bit for it because he didn't want to do it unless it was going to be like clever and unique and funny. And he was like, you know, when I watched this speech for Nixon as a kid, like I told my mom, like, it just seems like he's a guy on the cusp of turning into a werewolf. So he's that's how he's so that's why he did the Nixon voice like that. He's like, it's just a guy who's about to become a werewolf. He's like in mid-transition. I was like in the show, he goes, Yeah, exactly. And that's why, because he's like, it's yeah, it's Nixon, but Nixon's about to become a werewolf. I was like, okay, whatever. That's funny. Uh I don't condemn Fitrome just sort of wow. I I did watch it. I haven't watched all of it, but I did watch it in my wild days.
SPEAKER_03:And uh same here. I tried watching like the newer seasons when they started making those. I'm like, I I just wasn't good, in my opinion. I know it does well, but it's just like it just didn't interest me. Like I maybe it was part of like watching a show I shouldn't have been watching when I was younger, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02:The more that I press into the Lord, the harder it is for me to just watch anything. You know what I mean? Like it's really hard to use my eyes when I'm kidding. No, but I mean like things that I used to watch and enjoy, it's getting harder to just sit down and enjoy them. I really only have a couple of things that I'll watch. And I don't know, it's getting harder to to do it. And I think it's just because of that. It's like it's you know, there are things in it that are not godly. Yeah. And there's no justification for it. Like it's not trying to say, like, here's the godly stuff, here's the ungodly stuff, and the godly stuff is gonna win. It's just it's thrown in there for the entertainment bit of whatever it is.
SPEAKER_03:I feel like something like, you know, and we'll get into more of these properties where it's like it's a little bit more of a gray area on decision because it's that good versus evil argument on a lot of these children's shows.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But when you're talking about something like Futurama, it's just adult humor. Exactly. And so it's like there's not like crude adult humor.
SPEAKER_02:We've gone so we've gone so far down this rabbit hole with all these adult cartoons that like it's not like it's it's just crude.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's not even like good guy versus bad guy or whatever. It's just like like you said, it's crude humor and there's no grow gray area to it.
SPEAKER_02:It's just an excuse to kind of slap in like the crude sensual jokes and bits and make fun of different people groups and things, and it's like it's all in the name of comedy. Like I hear I hear this all the time from comedians conveniently, that it's like comedy should be untouchable because we make fun of everyone and we make fun of everything, and that's how we use comedy to really address the issues is because we make fun of it.
SPEAKER_03:I was like, Yeah, and should we accept that statement when they are blaspheming our Lord and Savior? Yeah, exactly. It's like, well, oh yeah, it's okay because we make fun of everybody.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we're we're making fun of God because we're trying to address the issues, and it's like, well, I wouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, don't do that. Futurama is an interesting one, at least growing up, like on the shows I shouldn't have been watching as a kid. It's kind of tame compared to other things like Family Guy or South Park, yeah, stuff like that, but it still doesn't make it worth watching. It's just interesting because I don't feel like Futurama is as bad as other ones that are out there.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I think it's also my parent brain. Like, true. I've got to think like, okay, if my kid walked in right now, how would that go? Like, would the scene be questionable? Is it something that I can't take back? Like I have no control, I'm just watching it, and then they jump out of the corner, and whatever's on the screen's on the screen. You know, so it's like I've really got to control the environment that I'm watching things, and then it's like if I have to go to all that extra work, like should I even watch it? Yeah. So I'm and this is a more recent development, but I am noticing it's like it's not gonna hurt me to not watch it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you know, that's the thing, is with all this entertainment stuff. Is it worth the if I really wanted to watch it, is it really worth the effort to try to for for your and our spiritual you know, journey, journey, and for the worth the effort of having to hide it if your kid came into the room. So many things, variables in it, like it's not worth worth trying to watch it. Yep. So yeah, but uh going back to kid horror, kid horror, uh Spiderwick. I was gonna say real quick, because we kind of mentioned it, uh, Dungeons and Dragons. Okay. Because that is like also kind of kid's horror. It's not really a seasonal horror thing, like spooky season type thing, but it is still that you're right, it's it's too demonic in that sense.
SPEAKER_02:It's taking become too demonic.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. The story behind Dungeons and Dragons, the your characters and your heroes fighting the evil, that does exist, but it's also you're aligning yourself too much in that storyline with things that are evil.
SPEAKER_02:Well, the benefit of the game is you get 100% control of what's in it and what's not in it. So whoever is creating the game decides what the bad guys are, what the good guys can do.
SPEAKER_03:The problem, though, too, is a lot of times, yes, you can write and create those uh campaigns, but a lot of times, at least for the ones I've been to, it was somebody going off of a guidance of a book. So you're not really at least the few I went to, they weren't really in control. They were just following the guidance of a book in the outline. So then if you're clever, you can, you know, make it okay and not have the evil stuff in it in a positive manner. Sure. But at the end of the day, that's I feel like that should be especially for kids, is something they shouldn't be playing.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and bringing it around to more modern times because that's like a defining or that's a major part in the Stranger Things, yeah. Which is, I mean, if you get into the cryptid communities, they're all talking about portals and this alternate dimension that mirrors our dimension. And so that's what they're like, they're all talking about like, hey, like we've been talking about this stuff, and they put this show out, Stranger Things, and they gave a name to this place that we've been talking about, the upside down. And it has these things, it has these weird, crazy, demonic creatures that they're trying to find the portals to get over to our side of reality to mess with people and potentially drag people back over to this alternate reality.
SPEAKER_03:Well, spoilers on the show, they're just more of just wanting to get through to have another world to conquer. They're not trying to Yeah, yeah. But I mean, I guess that's kind of the image.
SPEAKER_02:Specifically for the store, for the story of Stranger Things, that's what's happening. But I'm saying the themes and the things that are going on in it is it's uh I mean, people that are in the supernatural communities, they're warning against it. And then they're also incorporating Dungeons and Dragons into it. It's like, oh, these kids were able to be, they were more susceptible or they were I haven't seen the show, so I can't talk too much into it. But you know, it it just it's they're trying to check all the boxes for a certain group of people, like, oh, you like Dungeons and Dragons? Oh, you like 80s nostalgia? Check. Oh, you like alternate dimensions where you can get spooked? Check, you know. And coming back around to that, it's there's this weird thing where a lot of people, and everyone has different tolerances, but a lot of people they like the entertaining aspects of being frightened. So, or have frightening elements to something as entertaining. Harry Potter. Here we go. We're finally getting into it. Yeah, no, no, no, no. In the movies, in the movies, that castle has ghosts floating all around it. You know, and it's like, but it's like really cheesy comical. Oh, yeah. You know, like they it's not scary by any means, but the idea of these ethereal creatures roaming the halls with children, you know, it's like, oh, don't don't worry.
SPEAKER_03:They they're weird. That was something being somebody who's read and watched Harry Potter's, like, why are there ghosts in this castle? But just they never really true truly served an overall purpose to the story as much as just like every now and then it like they would give some like information that the kids needed.
SPEAKER_02:Well, in the movie, the staff utilized them whenever something broke into the the school, which seems to happen a lot, they would like send the ghosts out to search for whatever.
SPEAKER_03:They do that, like it's one throwaway line in one movie. Oh, okay. So you're right, you're right, you're right. It's just like it's something that's there, like you're saying that it's like just to add, I don't know, like you said, spooky omniance to it or whatever, but like it's something something weird to me, is like they would always advertise like it not to be a horror movie, though. Like it's always watch Harry Potter around Christmas. They tried to make it like a Christmas movie because like the first three or four had Christmas scenes in it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, see, my uh significant other brought up that it's a fall movie, I guess because of Halloween.
SPEAKER_03:Sure, but again, like they have And because they're in school school seasons fall, so but like they have scenes of like and a few of them of kind of Halloween scenes, and then I feel like they do have it's just such a small, like maybe three or four minute portion of the movie, a couple of the seasons. Yeah. I just don't see it, like I just see it as like okay, we had a a bit of time in Christmas, a bit of time in Halloween, but overall it's just a magic fantasy movie. Well, I think I don't I don't see it as like a holiday movie.
SPEAKER_02:I think that's what plays into it, and this can be distributed to all horror in general.
SPEAKER_03:All right, exactly. But that goes back to then at this point, and I think we've tried to do that. Didn't even let me finish it. Oh, you're right. I'm sorry. I didn't even know I'm sorry, I had a thought and it I had to get it out.
SPEAKER_02:So uh the changing of the season Die Hard. Is that a Christmas movie? No. The changing of the season. When we get into fall, I mean you you're experiencing it, I'm experiencing it. The day's shorter. You get dark, it's darker for longer periods of time. And I mean, for all of human history, it seems like we have correlated horror or spookies to the dark. So when there's longer times of darkness, it's like, oh, this is the spooky season because it's darker. And so it's like fall is that tipping point. It's the fall festival, it's the changing of the season, it's the whatever, and it's the kickoff, and so everyone everyone wants to get a little bit of spook with their pumpkin spice latte.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you know, and then we kind of transition, it is interesting because it's like heavy, spooky to November, fall, Thanksgiving, where it's like a fall theming, but also starting to become more wholesome and more comfy and cozy to the full-blown happy, joyous time of Christmas. Of Christmas. Yeah. And then then from there you go to frozen nightmare of January. Frozen nightmare. Nothing joyous or happy at all, and it's just cold. Yeah. Epiphany. That's in January. You had an idea? No. Finally had an idea in January. The 12th day of Christmas.
SPEAKER_02:January 6th, Epiphany. Oh, yeah. You've never celebrated it, have you? I had never heard of that, to be honest. Okay. We don't normally celebrate it, but the 12 days of Christmas is a thing.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I know about that.
SPEAKER_02:But it is I always thought it led up to Christmas. Nope. It ends on January 6th. Okay. Which is Epiphany, which is the day that celebr, I believe it's the day that we celebrate the Wise men coming and finding Christ. But that's that's joyous season, but we're currently It is joyous season. But you brought up that nothing good happens in January. And I brought up that Epiphany happens in January. Nice. There you go. Back to spooky season. February. Nothing at all.
SPEAKER_03:I hate love.
SPEAKER_02:Uh yeah. Okay. Give me your setup that you were cutting me off on.
SPEAKER_03:I don't even. Oh, I was just gonna say talking about how uh Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. Oh wow. How we're talking about Harry Potter, just because there is a scene in it, a seasonal what of anything, does not make the thing that you're watching an overall holiday movie.
SPEAKER_02:Just because the entire thing happens on Christmas Eve and you constantly see Christmas decorations and people refer to Christmas, does not make it a Christmas movie.
SPEAKER_03:Alright, we're gonna put a pause on this conversation for a reason. Okay. Because I think during Joyous Season we should talk about what is and isn't a Christmas movie. Okay. I don't know if I want to, but alright. Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. I was just jabbing. I was just poke fan. Alright. What's another one that you had on your list? Haunted Mansion. Haunt The Haunted Mansion? Yeah, Disney's The Haunted Mansion. I really like that movie. Believe it or not. Not the new one. I like the Eddie Murphy one.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's the one that's on here.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Yeah, that's that new one was not that great. I haven't seen either of them. Yeah, the Haunted Mansion's a weird one because it's just very nostalgic for me because it was like one of my favorite rides at Disney because of the Don't give me that face.
SPEAKER_02:No, because of all the cool entire park full of kids' joy, and you pick the one scary ride.
SPEAKER_03:No, because I think it goes back to how I like to view things of like how it was made and not necessarily what it was showing or representing fully. Yeah. So I like the effects and how they did that because that was the most effect-heavy attraction at Disney. Yeah. And for it to be the 1970s when this was built, and do they're doing all these cool, like transparent ghost effects. I just liked how it was created, and I like that aspect of it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm gonna be honest. I I rode that ride one time. Mm-hmm. I had a real hard time riding it. Real hard time.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it riding it recently, it is weird. Weird, more and more laying heavy on me when riding it. Yeah. Uh the one in Paris is way darker. Oh, really? Yeah, it's like the storyline on that one is that the local town like blew up and everybody died. So everything's kind of underground, all the ghosts and they're all skeletons coming out of the walls. It's creepy. That one's creepy. Yeah. I didn't know. Going into it, I'm like, I didn't know that this one was gonna be bad. Yeah. Uh the best one I wrote was The Nightmare Before Christmas Overlay in California. Oh. That one was fun. And segue to A Nightmare Before Christmas. A night? I've never seen it. That's probably one of my favorite Disney movies. It shouldn't be, but I really like A Nightmare Before Christmas.
SPEAKER_02:We're sitting here talking about all the kids' horrors. Like, yeah, it's probably not very good in like every other movie.
SPEAKER_03:Well, it's just like it's like man, I love that. It it's it's just a good movie. It's nostalgic. I think everything that I en that's on this list that I enjoyed, I want to talk about because it was nostalgic. Sure. You know, before I became a good person.
SPEAKER_02:One that's on here that I'm confused by is The Secret of Nim. I didn't know that that was a horror film for kids. I didn't know that it was tones.
SPEAKER_03:Is that the one with the fairy and Tim Curry is the smog monster and everything? No, that's um Ferngully. Ferngully. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Secret of Nim is about the mouse.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah. I think that there's some things like that that aren't actually meant to be horror as much as it has spooky parts in it. You know what I mean? Like, is Brave Little Toaster a scary movie? Or does it have a the most terrifying scene in any movie ever in it?
SPEAKER_02:Go ahead. What's the most terrifying?
SPEAKER_03:Have you never seen the clown scene from a Brave Little Toaster? I must have purged it from my memory. I'll have to show you after the recording. It is for a kid's movie, one of the scariest things. I watched it recently and it just brought up like childhood trauma. Like it's it's a rough for a kid's movie? Yeah. I don't know why they did this back then, but just like let's throw in the just scariest scene ever in any movie you'll ever see for a five-year-old.
SPEAKER_02:Do you know what is kids' horror or should be labeled as kids' horror that has no supernatural in it? What's that? Now I'm blanking on the name. The uh the the bunny movie, the British bunny movie. Oh, um Watership Down. Watership down. That movie as a child watching it was pretty it's gory, right? Yeah. And it's a kids' movie. Well, because it gets into the graphic reality of rabbit troops and competing rabbit troops and them fighting with each other and turf wars and turf wars and like things getting buried alive. Like that's really dark. Yeah. Something getting buried alive.
SPEAKER_03:They made that, remade that recently, I think.
SPEAKER_02:They did. It's a it's a mini-series on Netflix. Jeez.
SPEAKER_03:Is it still really awful? Like, how did they tone down the No, I watched it.
SPEAKER_02:I think that it is, I think that it's still the same, but it's not targeting kids. That's the thing, is most of these remakes, they know that their audience, the target audience, has grown up. Yeah. So it's more of a like kid. Yeah, we're gonna revamp it. But even though it may be labeled as a kid's whatever, we're targeting the parents who grew up watching it because the only reason their kids are gonna watch it is because the parents watched the original version. And they're like, oh yeah, my kids gotta see this. So but all that to say, I don't remember anything supernatural or super spooky about the secret of them.
SPEAKER_03:That's the thing about oh, secret of them. I was gonna say about Watership Down, it's just like that something can be spooky, but not be horror. I think it's just ominous because they horror is something that I think would be defined, and I'm sorry I interrupted you again. Okay. Uh horror is something that is defined, at least in my book, as something that is supernatural and evil and demonic. And uh something scary can be something that doesn't have something demonic in it, yeah, but still is spooky to watch.
SPEAKER_02:Uh Spider Wick Chronicles.
SPEAKER_03:That was not a scary movie. That was not horror, that was fantasy. Okay. Uh in my opinion. Goosebumps. Okay. Why are you taking mine? Stop. Shut up. Stop it. That's my big one. Let's talk about it. Uh, Goosebumps. I uh that was really what was the main uh reason why I wanted to do this episode. Okay. Because I think this is a very, very great prime example of what what we're talking about here, which is something that was made for kids. Yeah, that was intentionally a gateway entry point to horror. Okay. For kids. Sure. I mean, R. L. Stein wrote Goosebumps as an alternative to Stephen King's novels. A hundred percent. There's so many of them that mirror things that he made. You know what I mean? Like like the store, like the like Stephen King wrote a story about, you know, um evil clown. Yeah, and there's an evil clown book that R. L. Stein wrote. You can sit down and read a goosebumps book in about an hour.
SPEAKER_02:There's there's short stories. There's a couple of different ones. So there's uh Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is serious by Alvin Schwartz, and then Goosebumps is by R.L. Stein. And then there's the House with the Clock in the Walls by John Belairs. Mm-hmm. And then Wait Till Helen Comes. Wait till Helen Comes? By Mary Down Downing Hand.
SPEAKER_03:I don't know what that is. So your Goosebumps is this long series. It's a series of books. Long series, and each book is just like its own individual short horror story. Yeah. And the reason why I say it's short is like it is a book, but it's like somewhere between 100 to 150 pages. The pages are small pages with word. Like so longer than uh Magic Treehouse, but picture pretty similar. Very similar, but a little bit bigger. But Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was truly actually just a book series within, and all of them had just shorter, like maybe a couple page uh short story horror stories.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it says a collection of classic folklore and urban legends complete with chilling illustrations.
SPEAKER_03:They're creepy, dude. Yeah. For children's stories, everything looked so gross and rotting and nasty on all the this whoever did these illustrations should stop should stop, and they were sick in the head because all that stuff looks so gross. Yeah. Just imagery-wise, for a children's book is disgusting.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I think that's at the heart of it, right? When it comes to the enemy. Yeah. You know, demonic forces, like.
SPEAKER_03:But again, this is made for children. Yeah. And they re-released the books like recently and they toned down that stuff greatly. So they did, though, and going back to that, they made a movie based around that franchise. Uh, but it was like an adult horror movie that came out recently. Really? Yeah. What's it? It's just scary stories to tell in the dark. Oh, okay. Is what it's called. And it's just kind of like the story on that was the like this witch, I think, was taking she was the one writing these stories. And if you read the stories, the creature from the story would come after you. Or something to that effect. No, I'm sorry. I'm mixing it up with goosebumps, but it's very similar where the witch is writing the stories as she's writing it, that thing is starts coming after you. Gotcha. Goosebumps story was So kind of like Inkhart. Kind of. Things are coming out of the pages. Kind of, yeah. The thing about Goosebumps was, and very cleverly, I actually so I was a I watched Goosebumps and I had the books as a kid and all that stuff. So when the new move when the movie came out, Jack Black played a character in that. Jack Black was Jack Black played R. L. Stein. So the story of it is that this is a world where Goosebumps books existed, and Jack Black had a uh R.L. Stein in this had a power that if he did not write the story in his mind down, yeah, the creature that he was thinking about would get loose. Okay. So then he'd have to lock them in the book. The huge like loophole or plot hole to that was how does these books exist in this world that these kids are reading if all these things are locked away and shouldn't be open or read? Because that's how it starts, is like somebody breaks into his house, a kid opens up the book, and then all of a sudden all the monsters are now loose in the city. So all his stories that you're familiar with as a kid, yeah, you know, is familiar with it. So I enjoyed the movie, but again, that was when it came out. Yeah. And if I rewatch it now, I probably shouldn't. Like I probably won't enjoy it. Yeah. Just a lot, a lot of these things I'm talking about, I'm thought you could talk about fondly for nostalgia. Yeah. And probably like, uh better not watch this now.
SPEAKER_02:And then you're rethinking, like, you know what, maybe it should take take a second think about this. Pass wise, it was a good movie. So I think I think I watched Goosebumps. The I don't remember.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, the show from the 90s.
SPEAKER_02:No, no, the movie. The movie. Yeah, yeah, with Jack Black. And I don't remember why I watched it, but I think I did watch it, and yeah, it was nothing super memorable. I mean, I remember the doll.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was a it was a ventriloquist dummy. Yeah. Yeah, dummy. He was a dummy. You're a dummy dummy. The original show. I remember being so scared to watch as a kid. Okay. And if you watch it now, it's some of the worst acting you've ever seen ever. It's just like literally, here's the line. You ready? Oh no, there is a ghost in the house. Ah.
SPEAKER_02:See, I felt like, okay. You know when things are like over the top? Like it's just way too much, and you don't like because it's way too much, it takes you out of the experience of the story. You don't feel like you're a part of it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So there's a movie with Jason Momo in it. I think it's called Werewolves. It's called Aquaman. Yeah, Aquaman. No, I think it's called Werewolves. I'm looking it up. But the acting in it is everyone is like to the max. Wolves. It's called Wolves. And it has Jason Momoa and Lucas Till. And um I don't think anyone else would know anyone else in it. But yeah, it was. I mean, it goes along the lines of what we're talking about with horror, because werewolves. But uh watching it the entire time, I was like, man, this is too cheesy. Like you can't get into it. Uh okay, I've got another one on my list.
SPEAKER_03:Uh before we do, like, I wanted to say though, the thing about goosebumps was the stories, though always had supernatural things around it. Yeah. It was always kids being dragged into those situations and trying to get out. It was never posed as it was that, to me personally, that moral gray area where it's good versus evil. They're not posing the evil as good. It's always somebody trying to survive the evil. Sure. So that was kind of where I was at. And that's kind of again, as always, my okay, moral gray area of as long as you're not posing the evil as good, I don't mind watching it, kind of thing. Yeah. But some other people might have opinions on that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I the hard thing is like as an adult, you've already got your ideological parameters established. And so you your discernment, for the most part, your discernment's there. As a child, when you're still super influential, it doesn't matter if it's the bad guy. If he's cool, you want to be like him.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You know, I run in I run into that all the time with the with the boys. Like we'll be watching something, and they don't care about like the hero is not as cool as the bad guy. And so they pretend to be the bad guy. Let's be honest, Venom is like the coolest thing ever. Well, but I mean it's not it's not this way for everything, but they it just depends on what the movie or the TV show is or the video game, whatever. Like sometimes the bad guy's cooler, and so if that's what what clicks with them, they're like, Oh, I want to be the bad guy, or I'm gonna pretend to be this guy, and and you're like, Well, I want you to be the hero, yeah, and I want you to shun evil. So that's where it's you gotta go the extra mile when you got super young kids. I mean, sometimes even tweens and teens, like you gotta be careful what you allow them to watch and partake of.
SPEAKER_03:I remember why you would have watched Goosebumps. Why wasn't your wife an extra in that movie? Maybe, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Maybe that's why.
SPEAKER_02:I'll have to ask her later. I I think you're right. I think she was an extra. Because they had a dance scene, right? Yeah, in the school dance, yeah. School dance. And she's an extra her and her friend are an extra in it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's why I was like, I was I was sitting here racking my brain, like, why? And I think I remembered like y'all talking about that at one point. What's with us being extras in movies that don't do well?
SPEAKER_02:I was an extra in a movie and it did well. I mean, I guess it did all right. Yeah. But my mother-in-law was in an extra in that one movie that like never made it to theaters.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it made$76 or something like that. Yeah, it did.
SPEAKER_02:It did awful. My wife was in goosebumps. She's in a couple of stuff. I can't name it all. I can't remember all of it.
SPEAKER_03:Uh your son is in that one movie. Park Ranger's in that one movie a lot. A lot than he thought. He is the main character of that movie. Yeah. So much.
SPEAKER_02:And um, and I think we only got he only got$400 for the movie. No, but I mean, it didn't do well. It didn't do well, that movie. What movie have you been in? Not a movie, it's a TV show. Cops. I was gonna say the news. The news.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Comes on every day. I'm on it every day doing something. No, but we gotta get you an extra role so you can uh so I can be a part of the club. Be part of the in a movie club. The movie club. Hey guys, I was in Footloose. I don't know if you heard earlier. I'm I'm you can see me. You can see me clearly.
SPEAKER_02:I think Bigfoot's in a movie too, or at least he did an extra part for a movie, I think. Yeah? I don't know if he ever if the if it ever came out or something. I think it was Bigfoot. You'll have to tell me about it later. Yeah, yeah, we'll talk about it later.
SPEAKER_03:We're being vague on your children because we don't want people looking at your children. Yeah, exactly. But it's funny because the movie that we're that uh Park Ranger was in, yeah, a lot of people have seen your son. Yeah. You just they don't know it's your son. They don't know it's him. So because that movie, it's not a good movie, but I think it did well enough. Yeah. It is a Disney film, technically. Like one of the sub Disney companies. Oh, yeah. Well, that's like 50% of the news of everything. Anyways, uh, what we were talking about. Horror. Horror. Uh I cut you off about goosebumps, but you were moving into something else.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I was gonna talk about uh I was just gonna bring up that hocus pocus was on my list.
SPEAKER_03:You know, yeah, that's one of those weird ones I never watch. I know that's something I've never seen it either. Like I to my understanding, there is like the good the like a little girl using witchcraft to combat the witches, summoning dead in this, and I no. Like I don't have that nostalgic factor on that on my life, so I can't defend this movie either. So like no, no on no no hocus nocus. Hocus nocus.
SPEAKER_02:Uh see that's my that's my struggle with the Harry Potter is the story's good. Like it's a great like it pulls you in, and you know, the cinematics of the movies are good, but that like just the amount of magic, great up magic, not like alluding to oh, we call this magic, like they do in Narnia or they do in Lore of the Red. It is the school of witchcraft. It is, yeah. And wizardry. And they I mean they do, they do straight up to like this is how you make this potion and it does this to this person, or like the divination class, like this is how you divine things, and yeah, and you know, like this is how you cast a spell, and this is what the spell does to somebody. This is the words you use to cast it and stuff. And so it's just so explicitly, even though it's such a small well, it's not a small part, but even though it's it's a minor part, like the actual magic practices are not super major in the story. It's so integral in the story that you know it it that's what caught that's what gives me a hard time is like how do you you can't cut this out.
SPEAKER_03:There's no way to make it or spin it in a way that it isn't what it is.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so I'll just have to stick with Lord of the Rings.
SPEAKER_03:That has magic in it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. It's weird the way he wrote it, like because like when he uses the term magic, like each thing, each race or each thing has its own magic exclusively for them, but it's not like any kind of conjuring thing. You know what I mean? Like it's something that they weave into their stuff, and that's why it is exclusively their thing, like the elves, like things that are elvish are exclusively elvish because of the elf magic.
SPEAKER_03:Is it the best way to explain it? Is the way he writes it is that it's not witchcraft. Well, the because they are. I mean, there are people who do technically do witchcraft in it, and it's not the same thing as the witch, like the the spell casting and the like powers that is used by the race. Yeah, it is it's hard to write fantasy, it's hard to write like you know, magic into stuff, and then make it okay.
SPEAKER_02:Well, with Lord of the Rings in the Silmarillion, he makes it to where the beginning of all things comes in through song, it's sung into existence, and everything has a song, and what brought evil is basically the vanity and selfishness of one Valar whose name is Morgoth. Morgoth, yep, and he he wants to create his own song and he wants to be equal to the creator, and so Morgoth starts but he can't create his own song. Yeah, he's the devil. He can't create his own song, so he distorts the music. And so everything that he conjures is a distortion of the divine song. And so everything that's created afterwards is a part of the song, the divine song, and they each have their own specific little part to play into it. So I guess like the magic in Lord of the Rings specifically, it's not academic. Like for the most part, it's it's just normal, it's a part of it, like in and what makes it bad is if it's a distortion of the intended purpose. So, you know, orcs, like they're a distortion of because they're you they're elves, yeah. They're the at the beginning, they were taken and and through the corruptness, corrupted, you know, and so and that's how it is for everything. Everything is taken and corrupted, and that's a great parallel to the reality of our world, where everything that was created was good. God said it was good, and it's not a new thing was created that is bad. The bad came from a distortion of what was created, and so that's where we're at today where there's so much bad going on, it's because there's so much distortion of God's creation. But yeah, nothing's like uh, hey, say these three words and it does this thing in the world.
SPEAKER_03:It's a natural thing that they have always had, and it's just the closest thing that you could describe it as because it's not a natural thing in our reality is to call it magic. Yeah, because that's why like the when you're talking about storytelling, like yeah, the only way for you to tell the story is to explain it as like, okay, what what what what other term could I use it for if it's something that's not natural?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, magic. But it's not really, you know, witchcraft or evil, because the witchcrafting eagle exist as the distortion. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know, I don't rightly know. I don't rightly know, Jim. Isn't it?
SPEAKER_02:Can I just real quick about that, isn't it? Mm-hmm. The amount of time that I've spent with my family, the amount of time that that has been brought up. After the episode 52? After episode 52 is crazy. I have a niece, and that's her favorite thing now.
SPEAKER_03:Isn't it?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we were camping. She grabbed a piece of bread and brought it to the fire, and she's like, Don't we all want to sit down and have a piece of toast, isn't it? I was like, what are you doing here?
SPEAKER_03:It's your own fault. You're the one who brought that up in episode 52. It was funny though. I kept saying it. Yeah. It's funny. I am Spartacus. Isn't it? Let's let's talk about something real quick, though. Uh, another just I want to uh briefly mention it because it's very similar to Goosebumps. Are you afraid of the dark?
SPEAKER_01:Liar!
SPEAKER_03:Liar. How is that like goosebumps? It's literally another children's horror uh thing. It's just they didn't have books, it was just TV episodes. Oh. Where it was just like I always found it to be scarier than goosebumps, but were you watching it's also still just terrible acting and not really scary at all as an adult. Uh Jake Gyllenhaal. It was his first Gyllenhaal. He uh he starred in an episode of it. And like that was like his first acting role was in the show. Really? Yeah. But I just wanted to mention it that that's another one of those Goosebumps S things. That's weird. How old was he when he was in it? Uh great question. What's the what's the name of it again? Are you afraid of the dark? And it's a TV series. It was Canadian, I believe. Canadian.
SPEAKER_02:Um I'm trying to look it up.
SPEAKER_03:But it was just like the entire plot of it was the connecting factor was is each each week when the episode would come out, it was just kids sitting around a bonfire telling ghost stories. And as they're telling the ghost stories, you're watching the story.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it doesn't come up when I do TV shows with Jake Gyllenhaal.
SPEAKER_03:Just search Jake Gyllenhaal. Are you afraid of the dark? Alright.
SPEAKER_02:It was the episode with the camera. Are you afraid of the dark? It was the episode with the camera. Yeah, there was a uh Jake Gyllenhaal is not in Are You Afraid of the Dark? Who is it then? The confusion may stem from him starring in horror films or his role as the original Jake in the 2001 film Donnie Darko, which is sometimes associated with the show due to its horror and mystery themes. The revival seen the episode. I don't I mean, this is just an AI overview. Maybe this is a uh what's the name of that? It's not the butterfly effect. What's the effect? It's where it's like the Mandela effect. Mendela effect.
SPEAKER_03:Maybe I'm wrong.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. He was in Danny Durko.
SPEAKER_03:That was a weird movie. Ryan Gosling. Ryan Gossling. Not Jake Jillenhall, Ryan Gossling. Okay. I'm sorry. It's okay, they all look the same. They're all the same. All those men actors. Same episode, same idea. I just had their name wrong.
SPEAKER_02:It was a camera that what it did. Okay. Yep, yep, yep. Young, a young Ryan Gosling.
SPEAKER_03:In the episode, the camera would, if you get took a picture with the camera, it would show you like it wasn't like necessarily like death, but it would be like a terrible accident or something would happen. Wait, if you look at the camera? No, when you took a picture with the camera, the developed picture would show you. It was like it wasn't that it predicted the future, it showed you once you took the picture, it would show you it could create a terrible future within the fit the picture. So it's like you didn't want your picture taken with this camera.
SPEAKER_02:Gotcha. This it says the I guess the episode was the tale of station one oh nine point one. Am I just being stupid? A youth obsessed with death discovers a radio station which takes its listeners to the afterlife.
SPEAKER_03:This is all children's made media people's lists. Yeah. I don't know. See, that one was the scary one, and I avoided. All right. Good call. Good good call. Yep. Yeah. Today. I avoided it today. I'm spooked out, guys. Good job.
SPEAKER_01:Home run.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks. That's all I had. Sorry. I had to redo. I rebooted my comp I reset my computer, so I'm slowly building back up the sound bites, everybody. We got the most important one, though.
SPEAKER_03:Very good.
unknown:You're welcome.
SPEAKER_03:Let's uh speed run a couple of shows. Okay. Uh two that I watched a lot as as a kid. Um, don't tisk me. You don't know what I'm about to talk about. I know it's not gonna be good. Uh Real Monsters was one I watched where it was just an entire it was essentially Monsters Inc. Okay. But in cartoon form from the uh 1994. Monsters Inc.
SPEAKER_02:is just the prelude to Stranger Things. Portals. Portals into an alternate dimension, and they're trying to take things from our dimension. Yep. Hollywood man. Hollywood man. What are they preparing us for?
SPEAKER_03:Money. They're preparing them, them to get our money. They're preparing for us to not have any money. Uh all Real Monsters was literally just like it was a school of monsters that were learning how to scare kids. Okay. And that was just like the entire plot, and each week was just like a different little plot. Uh I watched that a lot. It was just monsters. Like goofy looking monsters. And then the other one I watched. Oh, those goofy looking monsters. This one I watched, and I loved this show. I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but it's Courage the Cowardly Dog.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:And it's just that. It was just like an elderly couple living in the middle of nowhere. The town is literally called Nowhere. Okay. And they had a dog named Courage. Yep. I know, I know about this, yes. Mm-hmm. And then just every week, some sort of evil force would materialize itself and Courage would have to protect its elderly coupled family. And he was a coward. It was it was it was an entertaining show as a kid. Entertaining. And it was like there's some parts that were really creepy in it, but it was never like anything over the top.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:But it'd just be like but it'd be like goofy things like a duck from space. Or ducks from space? Yeah, it was like a Mighty Ducks? No. Ducks like it was alien ducks. Yeah, Mighty Ducks. Yeah. Alien Ducks.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Mm-hmm. I'm not familiar enough with Mighty Ducks to know. Well, they're ducks from space. I thought it was just a kid's hockey movie. No, the the animated cartoon, Mighty Ducks. They made an animated cartoon off the Mighty Ducks hockey kids movie. They made two separate things that have the same name.
SPEAKER_02:And aren't related at all? They're related in the sense that they play hockey. Isn't like their logo the same or something? Maybe, but that's about it. Well, okay. In the the live action show about the kids playing hockey, they've got a mask that looks like a duckbill.
SPEAKER_03:I bet you money. In the cartoon. How much you want to bet that the cartoon in the TV show in the movie are related in the sense that they just wanted to make the TV show Mighty Ducks, but didn't want to actually make it about hockey. I think the Space Ducks played hockey, dude. They did. That's what I'm saying. Like that's then they're related.
SPEAKER_02:That's the only thing that relates them, is is that the ducks from space play hockey.
SPEAKER_03:And there's You're telling me that a show called The Mighty Ducks that's unrelated to the other Mighty Ducks where they both play hockey is unrelated.
SPEAKER_02:The only thing that they have in common is that they play hockey and their name is the Mighty Ducks.
SPEAKER_03:And what I'm trying to say is you're telling me that that's not related to one another?
SPEAKER_02:That's I'm saying that's the only thing they have in common. They don't use any of the characters from the wall.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, but you don't you don't think that they were made by the same company or a spin-off from the other property?
SPEAKER_02:I'm sure it was a spin-off, but what I'm telling you is it shares nothing outside of the sport of hockey. There's no intermingled characters. The universe is not even the same. Like they land on Earth, so I guess in a sense they share that, but sure.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, they made it. Okay, that's my point. Is like they is a You're right. You know what? You're right. I am Spartacus. You did. I want to I want to go through a couple movies real quick. Okay. You said the witches, which I'm not actually sure. I've never heard of that. Which witch? Which witch? The sandwich? Monster Squad, which was essentially Dracula shows up in the neighborhood and summons all the monster, classic monsters, and kids have to defeat them.
SPEAKER_02:Like Hotel Transylvania?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, pretty much. Uh Coraline, Paranorman, Monster House, and Frankenweenie, all just horror.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Kids' horror.
SPEAKER_02:Can I ask you about that? What's that? The Hotel Transylvania. Like, why does it have so many movies?
SPEAKER_03:Apparently it did really well. Yeah, I guess so. I don't know. I don't know. Funny enough, Coraline and Paranorman, they're both made by the same company. I thought Frank and Weenie was, but it's not. James and the Giant Peach? James and the Giant Peach. Why'd you say it that way? That's a good movie. James and the Giant Peach. Why'd you s mimic me like that? Hey, I'm gonna pretend to be John. Sounds nothing like you. Yeah. Alright. We're getting a little short on time, but I wanted to talk about something very specific. Okay. It is marketed at a ch as a children's board game.
SPEAKER_02:Spookily the square pumpkin?
SPEAKER_03:The board game? Yeah, I love that. What? Sorry, I gotta just try. It's a movie. It's called Spookily the Square Pumpkin. Can that be our new spooky season mascot? Just a square pumpkin? I don't know. There might be copyright infringement, but uh we'll get away with it. They won't know. They won't know. Uh Ouija boards. Ouija boards. Luigi boards? Ouija boards, yeah. Ouija boards. You know what I'm talking about. Oh, I know you're okay. Just make sure you like the way you said it's like, what are you talking about? Luigi? Ouija boards. Uh this one is very specifically targeted towards kids. I've been in in stores and it's in the children's toy aisles of a Ouija board. And this is something that is just like we've talked about, you know, middle ground, great areas, what you should and should not be watching. And a lot of these shows is like can be left up to your discernment of what is good for you, you know, what you believe as with your spiritual walk, right? Sure. These are all, you know, left up for interpretation. But I feel like that this is something that is geared towards children that is very blatantly something that we should not be playing with. Yeah. You are using divination to summon and talk to spirits. Yep. There's no way hiding it. There's no like, you know, colorful rainbow hit on top of it to make it look good and pretty. Yeah. This is just something that is straight up evil. Yeah. That is labeled as a children's thing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I agree. It put out there as a kid's game or just a lighthearted whatever, whatever.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah, just sit in the dark and that good hearty spook spook.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. You know. And the reality is it's, you know, there's a reason that the Lord tells Israel to have nothing to do with divination, witchcraft, necromancy, all these things. Is you're trying to tap it, you're trying to say you've got your own power, so you're tapping into a spiritual presence. And in doing this, you are inviting spirits in. And if it's not the spirit of God, then it's a demonic spirit. And if you're welcoming a demonic spirit into your life, you're you're giving it control. Yeah. And so Ouija boards is you're that's what you're doing. You're tapping into this demonic spirit and inviting it. Sorry, I'm yawning. You're have we talked about how tired we are as people right now? Everybody who that was a free yawn. I hope all of you yawned with me. No, but yeah, you're inviting these dark spirits in by doing this light-hearted divination board game. Well, marketed as a lighthearted marketed as. You know what they're doing?
SPEAKER_03:What?
unknown:Liar!
SPEAKER_03:They're lying. They're lying. I don't know. It's just it's such an odd property item toy or whatever. Because it's marketed as this evil thing. Like, yeah, not necess not necessarily marketed as evil, but it's not hiding what it is at all. This is the tool. This is the thing that you use to communicate with the dead.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I think that I think as Christian, I think as Americans, we've fooled ourselves into thinking like there's only a couple of religions in this world, and or I can only I can count on one hand how many religions are on the world: Christianity, Judaism, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist. It's those five. And then you got the atheists who say they're not a religion, but they're a religion. So there's six. But the reality is, is there's so many different worships of idols that have always been around. And part of that is, you know, the demonic, the the Satan, like the worship of Satan, the church of Satan is a thing, and it's real and it's present, and they don't they don't beat around the bush like yet. Some of them, some of these satanic communities are like, oh no, like we mean it as in like we just worship the earth and we don't believe in any god, and then there's the straight up demonic, like, yes, Satan, the accuser, the the devil, that's who we worship. And so there's you know, it's not like it's hidden, it's out in the open, but it because it is of the darkness, Christians are like, oh, let's just push that to the side, pretend like it doesn't exist, or pretend like it's not a big deal, and go about our day. We need to be real with ourselves. We are a holy race of ambassadors who are called to shine the light in the darkness, and there's a lot of darkness out there. There are a lot of temples to idols, and we just try to give them other names, you know? I'm thinking about I was thinking about it today, like the capital of our country, Washington, D.C., has an obelisk at the capital. That's I mean, in ancient times, in the middle, in the land of Canaan where Israel lived, they were constantly erecting and cutting down Asherah poles. And it's the same thing. Obelisks are these uh pillars uh set up as a form of worship to uh whatever deity or whatever whatever moment in time, but it's a form of worship, and we've got it in our capital, and we treat it like it's no big deal.
SPEAKER_03:So you're saying that this children's toy is just kind of it's just can be conditioned to be okay because it's just something that we have around all the time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, there's so many things that are all around us that because we're in denial of the reality of polytheism, unofficial polytheism, let me put it that way, unofficial polytheism, that people that practice it on the we're like, oh what? That's I don't know. You know, like we try to argue and justify why it's not what it is, but the reality is polytheism is a worship of plural god, multiple gods. And we're there's only one God, there is no other. So when you play things like divination, you're inviting these evil spirits who demand worship. When you are on your phone all day long, and you spend no time with God, you're worshiping your phone. That's your idol. That's one that I have had to remind myself of constantly. Like, I'm using my phone for so many different things, having my own business and having, you know, personal life and this, that, and the other. But I'm just here on my phone. Why am I worshiping my phone? You know? So, yeah. And I'm sure that there's a lot out there that people can fill in the blanks with, but I would say things like that, like watching horror movies, reading horror books, playing with Ouija boards. It's even if you don't want to acknowledge it as a form of exaltation of demonic spirits, it most likely is because it's most likely opening the door and welcoming them into your life. So we as Christians, we've gotta we've got to ask ourselves that question. What am I inviting in by participating in this? And go from there. That's why I have such a hard time with Harry Potter. It's like, what am I inviting in by doing this? Am I inviting anything in? You know? So you're inviting JK Rowling into your house. Well, I don't know what to make of that because apparently she's Christian, but then I also hear stories about all the spells that she used for the books. She actually did like extensive studies into Wiccan and Druidry to get those spells.
SPEAKER_03:So it's like I think it might be, and I'm not saying this is okay, but like one of those authors who's like, I want to make it as authentic as possible, kind of mentality on it. Yeah. It's possible why she did the studies into it. I'm not defending her, don't get me wrong on that. I'm just more of trying to find reason within it, is all.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but then we go around to the other things like the like the goosebump books, and and scary stories to tell in the dark. Like there's no gray area in those. No, there's one purpose to those books, it's to scare you. And so we I guess we gotta really hammer out that. Like, why do we find joy in being scared?
SPEAKER_03:Probably it's a safe, thrilling, like like why do we have people, and this might end up getting weird to some or sound unrelated, but it's like, why do we have people who go drive cars fast? Why do we have, you know, I mean get people who climb mountains? And it's it's a it's a form of seeking thrill to some degree.
SPEAKER_02:I guess that's what it is, is it's a thrill thing, but that's what I'm saying. Like, because it's across the board, everyone has their different tolerant tolerances. So some things are too scary for people, but then they do other things that it would still fall in the camp of spooky. It's just been I guess, I guess it's more tame.
SPEAKER_03:So it's easier because like horror when you're talking about thrill seeking is easier because it's safe. Yeah. When you're talking about physical uh harm, you're not jumping out of an airplane, you're not gonna you might not accidentally crash your car, yeah, and you might not get stuck rock climbing. Your worst case thing is you could hurt your eyes watching the TV or get a paper cut reading a book, turning the page. So it's a safe, easy, thrill seeking thing. I think and it and it also is a bit of an accomplishment to get through something that's scary, right? You you watch something that is horror, and at the end of you like, wow, I made it through that. Yeah, you know what I mean? But you just watched a movie, you know what I mean? Yeah, so there's people like that, that's why I think. All right. So yeah. Tell us in the comments what's your big thrill seeker?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. What wait? Yeah, what's your big thrill seeker? Well, what is your big thrill seeking activity? And also, why are you doing horror?
SPEAKER_03:No, I'm just kidding. What is your big thrill seeking? No. I am Spartacus. Anyways, all right, that's the show. I hope you guys did it. Thank you for joining us for Spooky Season episode 56 of the podcast. Episode 56 of the Saints that serve podcast. Saints that serve podcast. That's right. So, Christ is Lord. And the kingdom is now. We are the saints that serve. No, I am supported. No, I am supposed to I am supportive.