Bug Buster (featuring Doug Jones and Derek Maki)

[00:00:04] Welcome to Movie Oubliette, the film review podcast for movies that most people have mercifully forgotten. I'm Dan. And I'm Conrad. And in each episode, we drag a forsaken film out of the Oubliette. Discuss it and judge it to decide whether it should be set free. Or whether it should be thrown back and consigned to oblivion forever.

[00:00:37] Movie Oubliette

[00:01:08] Oh, don't we? Yeah. So, Dan, off to the home country soon. That must be exciting. Oh, yes. It's going to be nice. Seeing lots of family. It's my wife's dad's 70th. So, it'll be a big family reunion. A couple of aunties and uncles coming up. Yeah, it's going to be fun. It's going to be cold, I think, though, which I'm not looking forward to because we've had an unusually warm autumn in Melbourne.

[00:01:37] It's been very nice, actually. So, are you packing for colder climes for New Zealand? Yes. Everything. Winter wear, layers, jackets, scarves, everything. It's going to be cold, I think. Oh, well, I envy you your holiday. But you're not missing an episode. You're just sneaking in the recording before you jump on the plane. Yes, a quick one before I jump on the plane and then I'll be back.

[00:02:03] But you'll have to edit everything, unfortunately, which I'm very sorry about. It's fine. You'll have to do the same when I go to Toronto. Yes, yes, yes. Of course. All right, Conrad, shall we move on to the mailbag for today? What have our listeners been saying to us? Well, we have a new patron, Sullivan. Hello, sir. It's great to have you on board. Hello, hello. And also March has upgraded to Dungeon Devotee.

[00:02:31] So he now has voting rights. Oh, very good. We do appreciate the support. Yes. And we heard from DBear01 on Cool World who said, loved this movie as a kid. HBO staple back in the day. Ah. Yeah, I think this film has a bigger cult following than I first anticipated because our social clips of this have been going through the roof. Oh, right.

[00:03:01] Ah. Far more than our previous ones have. So, yeah, people like this movie. I mean, I enjoyed it. Yeah. We also heard from Wicked Person on Phenomena who said, I'm afraid that there were only three things I enjoyed in Phenomena. Number one, there was a song by Motorhead. Oh, yes. Number two, there was a song by Iron Maiden. Oh, yes. And number three, Goblin sounded good. Right. Yes.

[00:03:29] Well, I don't know whether I can agree about all those choices, but I did like Goblin. Yes. It's not really my taste for music and it didn't really fit. But I guess if you weren't enjoying the movie and you were enjoying the music, it sort of underlines the fact that the two didn't go together. So, I guess at least he got something out of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he says, I feel like a philistine, but despite Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avery's endless ranting about giallo in their podcast,

[00:03:56] I can no more love it as a genre than I can find it in me to love anime. Oh, okay. Yeah, you know, some like it, some don't. Yeah, not his thing. And we heard from March on Phenomena. Oh, yes. I still don't think this is one of Argento's best films. And for me, it falls in the lower end of his output. I've seen 13, my tops being Suspiria, Deep Red and Tenebrae.

[00:04:23] This time I watched in Italian and appreciated the technical and atmospheric aspects more than the first time. Love the Goblin soundtrack, the cinematography and the costumes. I found too many parallels between this and Suspiria. Yeah. Yeah, I would say that as well. I still haven't seen Deep Red. I really need to watch that. Yeah, I think that one is regarded as a stone cold classic. I do remember enjoying it a lot. Yeah.

[00:04:51] Well, thanks for getting in touch, everyone. Yes. We always love hearing from you. Yes, we love your messages. We do. So, Dan, what will we be discovering this time? Oh, yes. Well, I'll just hop on over to the lid. Oh, I'm at a lake. Oh, nice. It's tranquil. Whoa. One of the cast of Star Trek shooting at something. Fish, maybe. Or bugs? I don't know.

[00:05:21] How irresponsible. Quick, get out of there. Yeah. Oh, here's the movie. Here it is. Next to this lobster. All right. Beware the demons. Welcome back. What did you fish out of the lake for us today? Oh, yes. Well, today we'll be discussing the 1998 horror comedy Bugbuster, directed by Lorenzo Dumani, written by Malik Khoury,

[00:05:47] and it stars Randy Quaid, Katherine Heigl, James Duhan, George Takei, Meredith Salinger, and a small role by Doug Jones. Oh, my. What happens in this film? Yeah. Well, in the small town of Mount View lies a hidden threat to tranquil life. Bugs. The Griffin family move in, hoping to escape the busy city, buying a holiday lodge, expecting a tree change.

[00:06:14] As young Shannon chases a cute boy, Steve, she is interrupted by Steve-obsessed Veronica, reports of scarfish attacks, crazy old Jebediah, and most terrifyingly, unexplained fatal bug attacks. With Dr. Fujimoto investigating alone in his lab, veterinarian Laurie piecing the puzzle together, and Shannon's parents getting frisky.

[00:06:42] Will they ever overcome the insect infestation? Or will they have to call in the big guns, General George, pest eliminator, to defeat their greatest foe of all, Mother Bug? We'll find out after the break. Yes. And we'll be joined by a very, very special guest. Yes.

[00:07:14] And we're back to discuss Bug Buster, a 1998 horror monster comedy movie. I don't think either of us had seen this before. No. No, not at all. I've never heard of it. So it is going to be a... Double Blind. Yes, this was suggested by our guest, and weren't we surprised?

[00:07:40] It does feel as though, because obviously I always look up the box office history, and this doesn't have one. It wasn't released theatrically. So this is the sort of mid to low budget, straight to video genre creation. Yes. It felt like a TV movie. There are moments where scenes fade to black, and that's always a telltale sign that this is for TV.

[00:08:08] Yeah, or like the sci-fi channel on cable, something like that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, my first impressions of this movie, it did feel like, not a rip-off, but getting a lot of inspiration from the 1990 movie, Erectophobia. Yes. Which we covered very recently. Yeah, so you've got a family moving to a small town because the father wants to have a quieter pace of life, in this case, because he has a heart condition.

[00:08:38] And they're taking with them, not young children, but a quote-unquote teenager. Yes. Katherine Heigl. Yes. As Shannon, who was 20, I think, when the movie was shot. So, yeah. I mean, she looks 20, but they've dressed her up to be a teenager, I think. But then she drives a car later on in the movie. So maybe she is supposed to be 20. I don't know. Maybe she is. And also, she's alone in the world at that point, isn't she?

[00:09:07] Because, spoilers, her parents don't make it out of the catastrophe of Mountview. So, yeah, presumably she's old enough to choose her own destiny at the end of it. So, yeah, it's an interesting combination. But, yeah, they are moving to a small town for a quieter life and are immediately beset by the terror of an infestation. In this case, caused by that old bugbear, evil industrial toxic insecticide, I think it is.

[00:09:38] Theothion. Theothion. Yeah, say that after a few drinks. So, the movie starts with two low-grade TV clips. One is a news report of a town mayor or governor announcing plans to spray crops despite Dr. Fujimoto's protestations. And the other is an advertisement for General George, pest eliminator. And then after the titles, it says 13 years later.

[00:10:04] So, presumably 13 years after the decision to spray crops, not 13 years after General George advertised for the first time. I don't know. But you're set up that these two things are going to collide at some point. Yes. That whole opening sequence, that news report, felt very tacked on to me. Like, they don't really talk about the Othion at all in the rest of the movie. I think there's one point where they're spraying it.

[00:10:33] I don't know. It just seems very like, oh, we have to explain this. Let's just, we've got George Takai. Let's quickly just record this scene. Just paste it at the front of the movie. It just, yeah, felt very last minute. And I sort of, because I did not understand the infestation that was going on.

[00:10:56] So, the spray is mutating the insects into doing what? Like, they infect the fish in the lake. And they've mutated to be warm-blooded and to survive in water. Damp, dark. So, they can't survive in daylight, apparently. Well, they don't like daylight. Because all the attacks happen at night. And I just don't even really understand the attacks.

[00:11:23] So, how are they attacking people? Because we keep finding dead bodies. And I'm not sure how. I think from ingesting the bugs? Are they drinking the bugs? I honestly don't know. Sometimes it seems like you have characters like Veronica. So, Veronica and Steve, you mentioned in your synopsis. Yes. Veronica is sort of like the town mean girl.

[00:11:49] And she develops like a disfiguring skin condition. And I don't know if that's because of bugs or the insecticide or both or neither. I mean, she did get bitten or attacked. She was, yeah. So, I don't know whether it's like blood. It's gone through her blood. Well, because it's never explained. There's a scene at the movie theater. They find two, I think it's two dead bodies that have just been eaten from the inside. Spoilers.

[00:12:19] Shannon's parents seem to be eaten from the inside. Metcoitus. Yes. Yeah, I know. I know. It's almost like they didn't have the budget to show the attacks. They just had the budget to show the consequences. And there's no sort of explanation as to what happened. No, no. I mean, the results of the attacks are effectively realized.

[00:12:42] And the full-size bug, which we would get to, also effectively realized by Altarian Studios, the effects house that is still working today. Their most recent credits include Heart Eyes, which is a horror comedy that I enjoyed on the plane last time I flew. And the Chucky TV series, Hocus Pocus 2. So they're a great outfit.

[00:13:08] The makeup effects and the prosthetic effects look great. But yeah, we don't get an attack scene ever. So, and I'm not sure on the life cycle either, because you have scenes where it's sort of cutting between the vet, Laurie and Dr. Fujimoto, played by George Takai. And they're sort of taking samples and he's like drowning cockroaches in a tank that grow into enormous cocoons. Yeah.

[00:13:36] That presumably hatch something and attack him. And I don't know, I can't follow the life cycle at all. Yeah. I mean, let's talk about George Takai. Did they just have him for a day? I think they did. Because his entire role is restricted to a lab. Like he has some interaction with other characters through phone calls, but he is in the lab the entire film. He never leaves the lab.

[00:14:03] And a giant insect does hatch out of this cocoon in his lab and somehow gets back to Mount View. Because I don't even know where his lab is. Like it could be in New York. It could be anywhere in the country. There's no, there doesn't seem to be any indication as to how far he is. But that, whatever hatches, goes back to Mount View to terrorize in the last act. I don't know how.

[00:14:30] Because you have that scene with Dr. Fujimoto and Laurie and she hears him getting attacked. And I think she assumes he's died. And she's just screaming, Professor! Professor! But she doesn't do anything about it. She doesn't send anyone to him. She doesn't call the police or anything. And then, I don't think she's even in the rest of the film. Is she? Maybe in the finale? Oh, she's in the mine with everyone else. Yeah, she is. Okay.

[00:14:59] And similarly, Jimmy Doohan. So he's Scotty. George Takai, of course, was Sulu. So it's a bit of a mini Star Trek reunion. Right. But they're never in the same scene. George Takai, I'm sure, is fairly certain. Yeah, as you say, it's just shot in one location, two rooms maybe. And James Doohan, I think, also was shot in very few locations. Because like in the finale, where he's facing off against people in the mine.

[00:15:26] Because, you know, there's a surprise twist, double cross. You never actually see him in the same frame as the rest of them. Yeah, actually. He's just up against a wall. So I have a feeling that he wasn't there for many days either. Right, okay. Yeah. Stunt casting, I think. Yeah. I mean, it's surprising seeing Katherine Heigl in this movie in such an early role. Because this is pre Grey's Anatomy. This is pre Roswell. This is pre Knocked Out.

[00:15:54] Like this is before she became big. Yeah. She's pretty young in this. So it's quite surprising to see her in this type of movie. I guess it makes sense, right? I've had this theory that all these big stars in the 90s and 2000s always started in horror. Yeah. And it's borne out by that list that you came up with when we were looking at this phenomenon. Yeah. It's definitely a thing. And she's doing pretty well with the material. There isn't a lot in it.

[00:16:22] But she clearly shines probably more so than the rest of her cast. Yes. Oh, definitely. I did feel sorry for her. And I think this is more in the writing. But all the men in this movie are a bit gross. Yeah. Including George Takei, who I was really shocked. So Dr. Fujimoto, when he's first caught by the vet, who's disturbed by what she's discovered in this recent attack.

[00:16:47] And he remembers her because she was in his class or something and says, oh, yes, pretty blonde, long legs, nice chest cavity. And you just think, oh, yuck. Yeah. Yeah. I remember you very nicely. Stop it, George. I mean, he's very good at playing a disgusting creep whilst still being sort of funny.

[00:17:16] I mean, it is funny. You're clearly not to think, yay, go Dr. Fujimoto. You're supposed to think, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, even Steve's uncle is a bit gross. There's a phone call from Shannon and he describes her voice as sweet as sugar on honey. Oh, I wish to hell I was young again. It's like, oh, don't say that. Yeah. So this is Uncle Buck who owns a gas station. So Uncle Buck merces gas.

[00:17:45] And of course he does fart at some point in the proceedings. Yes. I just thought, oh, are we going for fart jokes now? But it is part of the plot. Yes. He goes to use the facilities and then they find him again eaten alive by bugs. Still don't know how that happened and why it's affecting his digestion. But oh, well. Okay. Yeah. There's another character. So the news reporter for FU2 News.

[00:18:15] Kate Cunningham. I think she was quite a famous presenter at the time. She's downtown Julie Brown. She hosted Club MTV and also ESPN and the E Channel, which is so late 90s, 2000s for me. She was British. So did you know about her? Was she someone that you've come across? No, not at all.

[00:18:38] But it did remind me of that whole entertainment news era that we talked about when we were revisiting the Fantastic Four with the Silver Surfer. Rise of the Silver Surfer. Yeah. That whole phenomenon with, you know, all of the exposes and it would be so tasteless and tacky and exploitative. Like she's questioning the victims' grieving families and she's asking questions about how disgusting the corpses were.

[00:19:04] You know, it's really grotesque journalism to the extreme. Yeah, I did want to ask, like there are moments in this film where it does feel like parody. Like that felt like parody. The fact that the news channel is called FU2 News is hilarious. But yeah, there are lots of references to other movies. Like in the dialogue, they reference Jaws. They talk about outbreak, about closing the town like an outbreak.

[00:19:31] When they go to the cinema, they watch House of Usher, a Vincent Price movie, which I haven't seen. I need to watch. So do you think that there were intentions of it being a reference or homage to like old horror and sort of monster movies? Yeah. So at one point, Bo suggests spraying the town with bug spray after again comparing their situation to an old movie.

[00:19:59] This is something that James Doohan, I should say the character name, the Sheriff, Sheriff Carlson. He says something about them discovering the body of the Jones Kid. There's this town folkloric history about the Jones Kid and what happened to him. And they found his eyes bugged out like an old movie. It is very much aware of what it is. So it's one of those movies that slightly arch and a parody.

[00:20:25] It's not what's that channel that does the really terrible Sharknado style. Asylum. Asylum. Yeah. It's not asylum. It's not like deliberately terrible. But hasn't quite got the resources that it can muster to be a really great classy B movie. Yeah. In the style of arachnophobia, for example.

[00:20:48] But I don't think it feels like Birdemic where the filmmaker clearly thought they were making a masterpiece and they're just unaware of their shortcomings. So it sort of falls somewhere between two stools. It's sort of a self-aware parody. But also it seems to be going for genuine action adventure excitement, but not quite having the resources to pull it off. Because it is going for comedy, I think. Yeah.

[00:21:15] Especially with Randy Quaid's character, General George. Like he is straight up comical. But it's not specific in its references to old movies. It's not Monster in a Closet where you can clearly see, oh yeah, we've got to take on Psycho here. Or we've got to take on like the stupid text that comes up in horror movies. Like that's obvious. Like that's like slapstick. Whereas this is serious, like it's still trying to be a horror movie.

[00:21:44] But then you insert General George and it's straight up comedy. And I kind of loved his appearance. Like you see his adverts throughout the movie and he's just ridiculous. Like he's like shooting fake bugs with machine guns and stuff. It's absolutely bonkers. And then he shows up and he steals the scene. He is amazing when he shows up. Yeah, it's a really extreme version of his character from Independence Day, I think. Ah.

[00:22:14] And it's, yeah, it's a rip off of Delbert from Arachnophobia. A hundred percent. Yeah. It absolutely is. I mean, it's take it to the nth degree. The adverts are obviously very heightened. But they do have these nice little touches of timing. So it's not unsophisticated humor. Some of it's really quite good because he's doing all these big sort of overblown claims. Like from the jungles of Vietnam to the jungles you call home. Yeah. And there's this big finale.

[00:22:42] And then he just comes back at the end and says, I also hate rats. It's just this nice little throwaway cherry on the top that's like added in at the end. So there is some really nice comedy. I mean, Randy Quaid, problematic character, though he may have proven to be as time has gone on. He is funny in this role. He is funny. It felt improvised as well. There were certain scenes where it looked like the other characters did not know what was going on.

[00:23:13] That scene where General George hugs Shannon. It looked like Catherine had no idea that was going to happen. And it's funny because of it. It worked. No, I can fully believe that because I think this was moving fast and loose, this production. Right.

[00:23:36] Another movie Bug Buster did remind me of in this kind of B grade referencing other movies, but also kind of comedy is Carnosaur, which I did with Sige. Right. Where, yeah, it's obviously ripping off Jurassic Park. But I felt like Carnosaur was dead serious, whereas this is comedy. But it has a similar vibe to it to me. Yeah. Like kind of TV movie, low budget.

[00:24:05] Yeah, there's some not great CGI in this movie. But I do agree that all the sort of gore effects were good. But you don't see them that often. You saw the parents, which was disgusting. And I don't want to see that again. But you don't really see anything else. In the scene with Veronica where she's talking about her leg, there's no close-ups of her leg. It's always mid shots. And you can't really see the effects.

[00:24:31] I don't know whether they were just trying to go for a lower rating or something. Yeah, I know. It's peculiar. He's shouting, oh, your skin is all festered. And Steve looks at her leg, Veronica's leg. And he reacts really badly. Like you get his reaction shot. But there's no insert of what you're looking at. No. But then you see it in the corner of the frame later on. And you can see that it's a complex makeup that's been applied to her leg. Yeah, there's bladders going on. Like it's full-on body horror. Yeah, but we don't see it.

[00:24:58] So I'm not sure whether it's just clumsy direction or like you say that they were trying to soften the impact of it to get a lower rating maybe. Yeah, yeah. Because, I mean, you did mention that you don't ever see any insect attacks. No. You see Shannon covered in bugs that look 100% just placed there. Yes. And not a lot as well. No. Like she keeps having this recurring nightmare. And there are like maybe 20 cockroaches in her room.

[00:25:26] It's not the sort of infestation that you expect. No. And one or two of them are on her face though. So kudos to Katherine Heigl for putting up with this. Because she's very scantily clad in like this silky outfit on this crumpled silky bed. It looks like an advert for a chocolate bar called Flake in the UK. Oh yeah. But she's covered in cockroaches. And she keeps having this dream. And then it culminates in a moment where we see Shannon's bug dream.

[00:25:55] But I don't understand because the previous scene was the one where she hears her parents starting to have loud sex. Like her mum is like, oh yeah, do it to me bad boy kind of thing. And obviously as any teenager that's 20 years old would be, Shannon is horrified and flees into the night in a thunderstorm. And then the next thing you see is her having this bug dream again. But then it turns out that it's real.

[00:26:23] And she is back in her room again. And somehow Steve knew it was happening and comes to the rescue with a vacuum cleaner. With a vacuum cleaner. Yeah, a conveniently placed hoover. I'm not sure where he got it from. And he's like hoovering them up saying, I got it. I got it. I got it over and over again. Yeah. And I was in hysterics. But I have no idea how this sequence of events happens.

[00:26:52] I don't know if scenes are missing or if they've been moved around or if the logic of the script was just a little confused. But yeah, sometimes you just don't get shots you're expecting. And sometimes all sequences don't come in the order that you're expecting either. There are a lot of scenes in this movie that made me question my sanity. Right. So there's that scene with the sheriff and Deputy Bo investigating the lake on a boat.

[00:27:21] And Bo falls in the water. And he seems to be attacked by something. And instead of the sheriff jumping in to save him or throwing him a life ring or anything, he pulls out his gun and starts shooting. And you think, oh no, this is the end of Bo. Yes. This is going to go horribly wrong.

[00:27:42] But he manages to shoot the thing that's attacking Bo, which ends up being this giant scarfish, which I don't even know whether it exists in real life. Yeah. It looks like a big coy car. Yeah. And then like, good job. Like, what just happened? Yeah. Bo's congratulating him on his shot. Yeah. Okay.

[00:28:05] And then you get the scene of them stood proudly stood by the side of the dock with this thing hung up like in jaws. And it's just like about a foot long or something. Yeah. It's like, we're good. No more dangers in the lake. We got the fish. And it's just such a strange scene. It is. It edges into genuinely bizarre, which I quite enjoyed because usually you get broad genre parodies.

[00:28:33] You know, like the scary movies. Oh, yeah. More than half of the jokes sort of fall flat for me because it's just reference humor or it's really lame jokes. Like, it's not even a joke, really. It's just sort of silly. Whereas this pushes more into Zucker Brothers' bizarre territory with that scene in particular because it's just genuinely odd. Really odd.

[00:28:56] I mean, there's another odd scene I want to mention is of General George where they're scoping out the lake and trying to find clues. And then he suddenly flamethrows a crayfish, some sort of lobster that's just sitting on the lakeside, on the sand. As you do. And he grabs it and then he pulls a chunk of flesh that's clearly not from the crayfish. It's just been, like, placed there and starts chowing down on lobs of flesh, I guess.

[00:29:26] And so what? Where did this come from? Like, what? I have no idea. Again, I don't think that's something that Randy improvised on set because, you know, you need too many props and elements to do that. So it's clearly in the script. So, yeah, I don't know. Just to illustrate. Badass he is. Yeah. Well, he kicks things arse. Don't forget. 500 kick arse. Yeah. That is his credo.

[00:29:54] And, of course, the film culminates after lots of the whole town being terrorised. Shannon's father deciding that he's got to sell up his dream hotel. I think it's a hotel. It's a resort of some kind. It's a lodge. Yeah. He mentions in one scene that he's been offered 25% of the value of the lodge and he's thinking he's just going to accept that and leave. And then in the next scene, when I think he's still wearing the deal is done. Which is amazingly fast.

[00:30:23] And then it all leads towards a final confrontation in the cave. The big twist. Yeah. And the big twist that's revealed that the sheriff. But I don't understand the twist. This is like phenomenon. Am I just getting really dumb? So the sheriff is behind all of it. Oh, Jimmy Doohan. He's spreading rumours about insects in order to lower property prices so he can buy things on the cheap.

[00:30:51] So does he not think that the attacks are real and he's spreading rumours or does he think the attacks are real and he's profiteering from them? And in any case, will he make his money back? Because surely nobody's going to want to buy it from him at original prices now. So I don't get what the scheme is. Yeah. That whole twist ending was very confusing. And also just dialogue wise, it was confusing because he was going on about sitting on a gold mine.

[00:31:20] And I thought, oh, they're in a mine. So is it gold? Is there something like plunder of gold that's like literal gold? But then he goes on about the original attack and he knew that it was going to happen again. So he kind of let it happen. And that's why he wasn't really investigating. But then, yeah, I don't understand how he's actually making money. If he's buying all these properties on a cheap because everyone is leaving town, what's going to happen? He's not going to be able to resell these properties.

[00:31:50] No one's going to want to come to this bug infested town where dead bodies are turning out left, right and centre. Like it doesn't make any sense. Like who's he going to sell it to? He's just going to own a whole bunch of cheap property with no one to buy it from him. Yeah. It's weird. I don't understand it. And unfortunately, he falls victim to Mother Bug. Yes. Descends from the ceiling in what I believe is some stop motion animation. It's very quick. Yeah. That shot.

[00:32:19] And dispatches him. And that leads to a showdown between Mother Bug, played by the great creature performer, actor, Doug Jones. Yes. The legend. The guy that's been in all of these amazing films with Guillermo del Toro directing, Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, doing things like The Gentleman in Buffy the Vampire. So I mean, the guy's a legend. And here he is as this killer insect.

[00:32:48] Also worth pointing out, he just played Long John in Mimic. So the big bug creature in Mimic the year before, 1997, which that role is incredible. I mean, that movie still, I'm flabbergasted how good that movie looks with the effects. Yeah. We should do that at some point because that is a sort of overlooked Guillermo del Toro movie. And there are two versions of it, which makes it kind of interesting to explore. Yes. Yes. I've watched all the sequels, in fact, as well. Have you?

[00:33:18] Which are not directed by Guillermo del Toro. And they're, you know, varying in quality. But I do, I actually do enjoy them. I think the third one is the weakest. But the fourth one is interesting. They take the Mimic story and put it in a rear window structure. So it's about a neighbor seeing bugs attacking people across the street. And it's really interesting. Okay. Yeah. That sounds good.

[00:33:45] There's an element of that in the original, isn't there? With little voicing things happening outside the window. Yeah. So he had his first brush with Guillermo del Toro the year before. And then he finds himself in this. And I think he is gamefully doing his best with this costume to create a presence and a dynamic and exciting scene with Randy Quaid battling him.

[00:34:13] But it's just not quite coming together, is it? You can see metal rods in the scene, which are, I'm assuming, puppeteering the arms of the bug. Yeah. I don't know whether they were going for like, hey, ha ha, this is a bug costume. It's part of the joke. Or whether it's just low budget and they just couldn't get anything better. I'm not sure. No. But it does kind of take you out of the scene when you see how it's been puppeteered. Yeah.

[00:34:40] And it's not the most elegant of action scenes or the most technically complex in terms of its choreography, camera movement, the movement of the artists, stunts, anything like this. It's sort of like Star Trek, the original series. They beam down to a planet and they battle a monster standard of scene. I mean, it's funny. I do think it's funny because you have General George using the, he's got like a freeze gun or something. Yeah. I'm not sure what that is.

[00:35:09] And then that runs out and then he tries to blow torch and it runs out. Then he starts shooting it with like, it looks like a magnum or some really massive gun. And then he has to resort to the fisticuffs. He's just like literally just punching this giant bug. It's funny. It is funny. And then the whole scene ends with a grenade being dropped by General George and the mine collapses and then the bug escapes. And then you have Bo, Deputy Bo on a horseback. Yes.

[00:35:38] Trying to lasso mother bug. But realizing, oh, that was a bad idea and being chased by this huge flying cockroach. And then finally General George rocket launches the bug and it explodes. And that's the final act. It's funny. It is funny. Yeah. And I did appreciate the full body bug shots of it flying around. I mean, I think that they were quite simple in terms of how it was achieved.

[00:36:08] But it was still, I appreciated that they went for it to try and visualize the full thing flying around over a guy on horseback. Yeah. Yes. And then General George's words before passing out, I kicked that bug and he can't quite finish it. So Laurie and Shannon say ass. Yeah. And he says, yeah. I do like how they say it though, because it's like a question like ass. Yeah.

[00:36:39] Yeah. I mean, kudos to the film. The final people standing are, yes, Randy Quaid's exterminator character, but he's wounded. But also Laurie and Shannon. Steve does not make it. That was shocking. That was a big shock. So, yeah, you expect Steve, who was kind of the boyfriend of Shannon, to be the hero of the movie. But no, just gets killed just like that. Three shots to the chest. Yeah. And that's the end of Steve. That's the end of Steve.

[00:37:08] And Bo survives, but he's nobody's love interest in particular. He gets to be sheriff at the end. Yeah. With Steve. What surprised me is he has such a setup in terms of his backstory. He says that his mother was raped. Oh, yeah. And died shortly after he was born. And he says, I guess today I'd be an abortion statistic. I'm not quite sure why.

[00:37:30] I don't know if availability of abortion or attitudes towards rape pregnancies changed in the period between his birth and now. I really don't know. So it's like a particularly heavy, tonally heavy backstory for him to have. This baggage. Yeah. For what otherwise is a fairly light, frothy film. And then he just gets shot in the chest. And that's the end of Steve. I know. I was shocked. I was quite shocked. Yeah. There's a lot of backstory.

[00:37:59] He goes on about being raised by his uncle at the service station. And you think, oh, yes, there's going to be some love story. And they're going to run away into the sunset at the end. But no. No. It's just Shannon by herself. Yeah. And then Shannon drives off. And you get that classic last scare. You've got to have a last scare. Yeah. Great theme, I guess. Shannon doesn't need a guy to save her. She can take her herself. Exactly. Yeah.

[00:38:27] I mean, she is rescued by Steve with a hoover at one point. But other than that, she's fairly active as a character. There isn't much to her in terms of a characterization. I don't think she's sort of vaguely miffed at being transplanted to a new town and then just shocked at everything that's going on and reacting to things mostly. She doesn't really have an awful lot to do in the movie. No, that's true. Yeah. I don't know.

[00:38:56] I don't know whether anyone has a lot to do. I feel like Laurie's doing a lot of investigation, the vet, and helping the sheriff, I guess. But also, why there are no doctors in this town? She is the substitute doctor. She's doing autopsies. She's patching up Veronica after her attack. What's happening here? Yeah. I know. I thought it was odd. Yeah. Why is Veronica being treated by a vet? Is it because she's a bitch? I'm here all weekend.

[00:39:25] They do explain it. They say something about the gruesome death of the Jones boy, yet again, this incident that haunts the town, scared off the town doctor. It was so gruesome and disturbing. The town doctor ran away. Okay. So now they don't have one. And they just have the vet. The vet's just doing autopsies now. And they're fine with that. Of human corpses. It's just part of vet training. Sure.

[00:39:51] Well, I mean, humans, dogs, it's all the same. It's all the same. Now it's time for Random Trivia. Okay, it's trivia time. Conrad, what interesting fact did you hoover up from Shannon today? Oh, there's an image. Well, I discovered that the film was somewhat of a family affair

[00:40:17] because the director, Lorenzo Dumani, cast his wife at the time, Brenda Dumani, as the vet, Laurie. Oh. And she is actually singing several of the songs in the film, including the end title track, Virtue. Right. Oh, wow. What a talented woman. Yeah, incredibly talented lady.

[00:40:45] Brenda Dumani, as I say, was the director's wife at the time. They are now divorced. She played Ashley Abbott on the soap opera The Young and the Restless from 1988 to 1995. Oh, wow. That's a good chunk of that show. It's probably like 400 episodes or something, right? Exactly. So I feel like she's probably a character that American listeners will recognize. I'm not sure that The Young and the Restless made it over here.

[00:41:13] It's like one of these soaps like Days of Our Lives. I'm not sure it made it. Yeah, it definitely was played during the daytime in New Zealand, 100%. Right. Oh, okay. That's our trivia. The version of the film that I saw did not look great. It was on Amazon Prime. I don't think it's in high definition. It looked like VHS to me.

[00:41:40] And at one point, the film got really contrasty and muddy. And most of it was sort of garish reds. It was quite hard to see what was going on. Yeah, I had to adjust my TV contrast. Yeah. Because I literally couldn't see what was going on. Yeah. But I don't think we're missing much in terms of mise-en-scene, cinematography, camera work. I don't think we're missing much in terms of production value.

[00:42:09] There's some location shooting, I guess. Yes. But yeah, it doesn't look like a particularly lush production. Yeah. I mean, even the end when they go to the mine. Is there mention of the mine? I don't remember. Because it felt like we're going to the mine. Like, there's a mine? I didn't realise. Yeah. I couldn't figure it out. They said that the mine has been closed ever since what happened to the Jones boy. But wasn't that at the lake? It was, yeah.

[00:42:38] What's the mine got to do with the lake? I don't know. I don't see what the connection is. They just closed the mine down? Okay. Or was it the Jones kids' family's mine and they left town and closed their mine? I don't know. I'm confused. It really felt like, hey, we've got a mine. We've locations scouted a mine. How do we put this in the movie so that they can be walking around this creepy cave? But I mean, it's a different location. It's a cool location. I mean, cliche.

[00:43:07] But like, there's a cool location. You have to go into the monster's lair for the finale, don't you? And find all the eggs and blow everything up. Yeah. Which they don't deliberately do. I think it's only done by, not sort of unintentionally by General George when he's trying to blow up the mother bug. I don't think anyone's that concerned about the hold of eggs about to hatch into giant insects. No.

[00:43:33] I mean, generally, something that Serge pointed out about previous movies we've covered, motivations don't seem to be continuous from one scene to the next. And people don't seem to be overly concerned about the things that are happening in the scenes that they're in sometimes. Score? So the score, it's by Bobby Caldwell and Sydney James. They're not names that I recognise. It feels quite low budget.

[00:44:03] I think it's largely a synth ensemble with maybe solo acoustic instruments. So I think we have some gently plucked acoustic guitar to give that sort of bucolic mountain, rural atmosphere. And occasionally you get a solo violin, like a fiddle style solo. And General George, I think he gets a real solo trumpet theme for his military heroism and gravitas.

[00:44:33] So I don't know. It's doing its best, I guess, is what I could say for it. Yeah. For the most part, it sounded like one person at a keyboard playing fake strings. Yeah. And fast and cheap MIDI sounding instruments. It felt almost like daytime soap opera at times, like really sort of melodramatic, but not especially horror sounding.

[00:45:02] No, it wasn't particularly thrilling or engaging. It was kind of wallpapery. And yeah, I don't know. Yeah. It was there. It was there. Yeah. I did enjoy the military kind of cues for General George, though. I mean, cheesy. He is a military man, I guess. So you've got to have those snare drops. Yeah, you do. Just paradiddling away. Yeah. Yeah. You have to have that. So yeah, I don't know. It's one of those things. It's just a film that's just sort of doing its best.

[00:45:32] Yes. But its best isn't great. Yeah. I mean, it's budget. It's 100% budget. They probably had nothing in terms of the music department. So they just had to just whip something out really quickly. Yeah. I mean, hats off to the musical stylings of the featured group in The Lodge. Trailer Park Trash. Oh, yeah. Yes. Trailer Park Trash. The band that sing a song called I Itch. Yes. And in the end credits, I noticed that the band members were credited as Johnny Legend and

[00:46:01] Melba Toast. Yeah. I'm presuming their stage names. Yeah. They're probably real artists. I enjoyed them. They were kind of quirky and fun. Yeah. And, you know, that's what you expect from a small town in America. Yeah, absolutely. No, I can easily see this as being like the only band in town and they get all the gigs. 100%. I did find there was a bit of lazy filmmaking. So they keep showing the shot at night of the bugs crawling out of the lake.

[00:46:30] And I swear it's the same shot every time. Yeah. It's hard to tell because the contrast is so bad. But I think it is. Also, all the recurring dreams that Shannon has, I'm pretty sure it's the same scene again and again. Yeah, it is. Really is a recurring dream. In those moments in the film, like it's the same shots of her room, the same bug crawling on her mouth every time. It hasn't been shot in a different way. It's not adding anything with each dream.

[00:46:59] You find out more. It's just literally the same scene. Copy and paste it. Yeah. In the editing timeline, just grab that scene and pop it back in again. Yeah. I mean, I guess Katherine Heigl doesn't want to do 18 different angles of the same cockroach on her mouth. But, you know. Yeah. I also have to point out when they do find the bodies that have been eaten by bugs, it's an assortment of bugs. It's not just cockroaches.

[00:47:29] There's maggots. There's like millipedes. There's like what look like slugs, leeches. What? What's going on here? Yeah. Because every other time they're talking about cockroaches. When Dr. Fujimoto is in his lab, it's cockroaches. There's always cockroaches. But then you see all of these other bugs. Yeah. It's an equal opportunity mutating pesticide, one assumes.

[00:47:53] All of the town's bugs are mutating and attacking people in some way, I guess. Yeah. Well, maybe our very special guest can explain it all to us. Okay. After the break. We're thrilled to be joined today by an artist whose blended movement, voice and imagination

[00:48:17] into extraordinary creatures that haunt your nightmares and deeply human characters that inspire your soul. As well as the independent film producer who, in his latest project, is documenting his amazing career. Hello to Doug Jones and Derek Mackey. Hey. Hi, guys. Oh, thank you so much for having us. Thank you so much. It's amazing to have you. So, on this show, of course, we focus on the films that people have forgotten.

[00:48:46] So, I'm sure you've been asked many times about your incredible collaborations with Guillermo del Toro. But today, we're going to ask you about a film that you selected for us, Bug Buster, from 1998, or at least I think that's when it was released. And I was wondering if you could set the scene for us in terms of where you were in your career and how this project came into your path.

[00:49:12] Well, in the 90s in general, I was thick into creatures. And I'd done a lot of TV commercials by then using my own face or monster makeups back and forth. And as far as movies or television in the 90s, I was mostly known for wearing rubber bits. The things I did with my real face might have aired for one time and then gone away and forgotten. With the rubber bits, that comes from the Creature Peck's makeup designers that have referred me over the years.

[00:49:41] So, Bug Buster comes up, and it was being done at Alterion Studios making the bug suit for this wacky movie that was tongue-in-cheek horror, I guess. It knew that it was awful, so it played on that for the sake of funny, I think, right? Which I was all on board for. I love comedy, love laughing, love making fun of things. Perfect. And the makeup artist and designer who heads up Alterion Studios, Tony Gardner, whom I worked

[00:50:11] with on Hocus Pocus in 1993. This was one of many projects that we did after Hocus Pocus. He came around and referred me for one job after another. So, Bug Buster comes along. They need somebody tall and skinny to wear a humongous insect costume for this zany story. Well, the story goes, basically, there's a town being infested by these killer insects that their bite or sting kills people.

[00:50:40] Oh, where are they coming from? Why is this happening? Ah! Right? So, they call in an expert to help exterminate the town, and that would be Randy Quaid. Randy Quaid played a former military guy in his general outfit with Coke bottles, glasses, it made his eyes go funny. And wearing a beret, I think, you know, let's kick some bug ass, man! A very extreme character that was, and Randy is hilarious.

[00:51:08] So, his investigation and his snooping takes him to a cave just outside of town where they're all coming from. Ah! So, by the time he gets there, and I can't remember exactly, it's been a long time, I saw it once. Um, I think people were getting killed off along the way. He ends up at the cave loaded up with a bunch of weapons. So, he comes into the cave, and that's where he finds the mother bug, played by Doug Jones.

[00:51:33] I am in this huge insect costume, guarding my pile of eggs, as a mother bug would do. Of course. So, as he's like, starts yelling at me, You there! Ah! And I kind of turn around, like, ah! You know, I'm defending my pile of eggs. And so, he starts to shoot me with bullets. Bullets don't kill me. Okay, so then he tries his flamethrower gun. I don't burn. Well, then he pulls out a CO2 gun to try to freeze me.

[00:52:03] I don't freeze. So, he throws all his weapons down, and then this is where it gets weird. Right, it gets weird. Now, again, you know where he says, he puts his fists up and says, Come on, man, you and me! Mono e mono! I'm gonna have a fist fight. So, Randy Quaid and a huge, huge oversized bug in a fist fight. It was hilarious. We had a choreographed stunt fight scene.

[00:52:29] That was a stunt coordinator was on set, walked us through, choreographed it out. We rehearsed it. And because I'm in this huge, cumbersome suit, we had to make, you know, concessions for how, what can I do? What can't I do in this huge suit? So, they were gonna film it with a handheld camera. So, there was nothing to cut. It was gonna be all one continuous follow us around the room while we're fighting scene with nothing to cut away to, is what I remember. So, we had to do the fight from beginning to end without breaking points.

[00:52:58] So, it was an exhausting task in a humongous, heavy-ass bug suit. And I'm also a bit worried for Randy's sake. So, here I am. Now, the head of the bug was above my head. It was up here. And it was on a pulley system so that when I turned my head to the right, it would go crank to the right. And I turned my head down. It'll crank down. And it was not as smooth as one would hope. And then, in addition to that, I had six legs sticking out of my sides.

[00:53:25] Two front arms were stuck in these six-foot big pinchers, fiberglass blades that you might find on a grasshopper or something like that. Then, my backside had a big stinger coming out of my tail and wings. I had huge wings that were gonna be animated in post-production. It might have weighed 100 pounds. So, here I am, you know, barely able to walk to the set by myself. And now, I've got to do some superhuman fight scene.

[00:53:55] So, before we start filming, now, before the camera rolls, I'm stuck in the neck. My face is in the neck of the bug with netting and little fur bits coming out of the netting. You know, like if you look at an insect under a microscope, you see these hairs, right? That's what I'm looking through. So, I'm looking through this and I'm saying, Randy, can you... Okay, I'm in the neck. Yeah, yeah, right down here. That's good. Randy, be careful with this fight scene.

[00:54:23] I don't know how sharp these pinchers are. They're made out of fiberglass. I don't want to hurt you. Don't worry, Doug, buddy. You know, we're gonna get it. Fine. You just do what you gotta do and we'll film it. Yeah, it's good. I'm good to go. I guess you'll be okay with this. So, action. And we start filming this long fight scene where I'm swinging at him and swinging at him. He's swinging back at me and I'm connecting with flesh and bang, bing, bang. And we bounce off of a cave wall and then roll onto the ground and I end up on top of him.

[00:54:53] He's on his back and I'm on top of it. And cut. I get pulled off of him and put back onto my bug chair. Well, I had to have a bug chair because of that stinger come out of my ass, right? So, yeah. So, I had to be like on a bicycle seat leaning forward onto a T-bar. That's the most comfortable I could get. And so, I'm breathing heavy and sweating up a storm inside this bug suit. And I asked the nice assistant lady helping me, can you go check on Randy?

[00:55:22] I didn't see him get up. So, from across the cave, I hear, Doug, buddy. That's Randy. Can you hear me? Yes. Yeah, Randy. You okay? Yep. I'm fine, Doug. Don't worry about a thing. You're doing great. I can go another take. Let's do it. No, nothing to worry about. I guess, I guess he's fine. The next voice I heard mere seconds later was a young production assistant, maybe 20 years old. And the voice was cracking saying, Um, can I get some ice over here?

[00:55:51] I can't stop the bleeding. Oh, no. I had gashed both of his forearms to the point where he was projectile bleeding out of them. Wow. Both of his arms. So, they bandaged him up and he sure enough went in for take two. Bless his heart. Whoa. What a champ he was, right? Oh, wow. So, I thought if I ever write my autobiography, I would like to title it, I Almost Killed Randy Quaid, The Doug Jones Story.

[00:56:21] Amazing. I was just looking up pictures of Bug Buster. Oh, no. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. So, yeah. Bug Buster was an experience and a director that I have never been back to or I have heard hide nor hair of that director ever since then. And I'm okay with that. Yeah. Yes. I mean, Bug Buster is something of a love letter to monster movies of the 1950s.

[00:56:50] Did you grow up with all of these monster movies? Was it inspiring for you? Were you influenced by these movies into your career? Well, you know, what influenced me most were funny things. Sitcoms, variety shows. Ah. Growing up with Dick Van Dyke and watching Gomer Pyle and Gilligan's Island and the Andy Griffith show with Dom Knotts playing Barney Fife.

[00:57:14] And those were the characters that made skinny, goofy looking Doug Jones as a kid think, oh, I could be skinny, goofy. I can be an actor like these guys are. Dick Van Dyke. Oh, love that man. And Danny Kaye and Jerry Lewis. And those are characters that I go, yes, if they can do it, maybe I can, too. So I leaned into comedy more than I did monster movies. But the monster movies that I connected with as a kid was Creature from the Black Lagoon and Universal Monster.

[00:57:43] And the first horror film I ever saw was The Mummy with Boris Karloff. And then Frankenstein came after that. But, oh, my gosh, you know, those creatures had sympathy to their storyline. And you could almost relate with them a little bit. That's what touched me about them. But the TV on Saturdays would show, you know, those 1950s, like, cheaper made, you know, sci-fi movies. Or, oh, there's an alien from outer space. Oh, it's a spaceship. And, like, it's a flying saucer made out of a plate.

[00:58:12] You know, those movies are great. So those you watch with that tongue-in-cheek humor intact. So that's why when Bug Buster came up, I knew what we were making. I did know, you know. Yeah, it's very much of that ilk. Did it give you much opportunity? Because you're well known for finding the human aspects, the heart of a character, even when you're playing the most fantastical characters.

[00:58:37] Was there much opportunity or inspiration to do that in Bug Buster, considering your contribution there was smaller than... Minimal, yeah. Yeah, there wasn't a whole lot of heart and soul, honestly. When you look at an insect, you want to, you know, I don't know, I come from an era where we smash them on the sidewalk. So it's like insects are basically out just for survival. They sting what they have to sting. They suck blood from what they have to suck blood from just to eat and survive the day.

[00:59:06] And I don't think they have evil intentions. They have survival intentions. So that's all I had to do was just like, you know, I'm trying to do my best. I'm making very bad choices in the meantime. But I survived like everybody else. Where did the bugs come from? Were they outer space or what was it? Well, Bug Buster, I have no idea. Again, it has kind of appeared, I think. I've never seen Bug Buster, which, no, I'm going to have to do it. But now I'm curious for movie Oobliette here.

[00:59:31] So did you guys watch Bug Buster before interviewing us today? Yes, absolutely. And we have already spent some time discussing the merits of Bug Buster. And one question I have, well, I guess just dug because, Derek, you haven't seen it. But if you were voting on whether to release Bug Buster from our movie Oobliette into the wild

[00:59:58] or whether it should be thrown back in there to be forgotten forever, where would you land? If you were asking me what it came out in 1998, you said, if you were asking me in 1999, I would say, let it be lost forever. Now I'm well past it to look back and I can giggle about it and say, oh, no, put it out there. Let's all laugh about it. Yes. Well, I was looking at pictures on IMDb while Doug was talking about it and I want to see it now. So I think it needs to be out there.

[01:00:26] And interesting tie-in, it stars or co-stars Jimmy Doohan and George Takei. From Star Trek. From Star Trek, which you are now part of the Star Trek family. So it's kind of like a woven universe. Yeah, right. Yeah. I was wondering whether it looks to me as though their scenes were filmed in a day because they're only ever in like limited locations, especially George Takei seems to be in one room. Right. Did you cross paths with them at all during the production?

[01:00:56] I did. I was on the movie for my fight one day, one day for me. And in that day, I met George and Jimmy and James. But it was brief. But I remember James was more like, hi, how are you? Nice to meet you. And that was about it. George was like, so you're playing what? Oh, you know. Yeah. He's a bit more interested in the peculiarity of what I was that day. Sure. Yeah.

[01:01:26] But he was quite lovely. They're all lovely. Yeah. Yeah. You've played an assortment of different creatures, ghouls and monsters in your career. How do you find the movements that sort of encapsulate these characters? Like they're so memorable. Well, thank you for saying that they're memorable. That's very kind of you. The challenge that I face with each character is how to make it different from all the rest. Now, this June will be my 40th anniversary as an actor. Wow. So that's 200 characters in that time. How do you think?

[01:01:56] And you're given a new one. Okay. What makes him special and different? And what makes it what unique thing can I bring to this character? That's my biggest challenge. The writers and the script give me a lot of that information. His backstory, what he's made of. Is it an animal man hybrid? Is it a is it a fictitious thing from outer space? Is it a, you know, what is it? Yeah. Or a fantasy character that someone magically makes, you know, come true with a wand? You know, you never know.

[01:02:22] So all those origins inform a lot of what I become and how I move. And also interaction with other characters. Do I have wants, needs, loves, fears of my own to present? And how am I interacting with the other characters in the story? And how do I help move the plot along? All of that is just a part of it. So you'll find that you can take that information to a dance studio with just a T-shirt and shorts on.

[01:02:49] And try to find the right posture that, like, okay, up with all the information I have. And after having a meeting with the director to find out what nuances he wants to see is, okay, how do I take all that information and make? Is he a rounded back? Is he a flat back? Is he an arched back? So, and every body part has its own place to live. So what's his home stance? And that's what I want to find first. Now, does he, is, does the script call for me to lunge and run after somebody down a hallway? How does he do that?

[01:03:17] Or does it, does it call for him to be creepy and, and, and like crawly? Or is he, is he tall and, and elegant? And does he, does he glide when he wants? These are all things that, that can change dramatic, dramatically how you, how you present it. Of course. You've always created such distinctive characters. None of them are the same. You've got such an incredible body of work for people to explore, which will be explored in, in the documentary, I'm sure.

[01:03:46] Bug Buster is a bit of a hidden curiosity. Are there any other fascinating items that you're hoping fans might discover through the documentary? Well, a documentary like this, first of all, with Derek sitting here next to me, Derek is my, my appearance manager. He handles the part of my career that involves meeting the public or, or, or autograph signing and all that. That's, that's his part of my, of my life. And he is not, after working together for 18 years, he knows me better than a lot of people do.

[01:04:14] He knows career and personal Dougie. And that's why the idea of the documentary hit him was to let's, let's explore all this on film. Uh, and I, when he presented to me the first two times I said, oh, please, no, no, no, no, no. Ah, there's nothing to document here. Nothing to hear. See here folks. Very humbling and almost embarrassing, you know, when, when presented with an idea like this.

[01:04:35] Uh, and I've done so many interviews with journalists over these 40 years where, uh, especially in later years now where, uh, an interview wants to go and explore it. Let's, let's recap and go through your entire IMDB list one more time. So when presented with the idea of a documentary, it's like, uh, no, there's no reason to there's, that's already out there. So I wanted to add a personal, if I'm say yes to this, I want a personal touch in there.

[01:05:01] I want to have, um, all of the young actors that I might have mentored over the years. Let's interview them and get their perspective on who I am. Let's interview my three older brothers and forget their perspective of who I am. They've done me the longest of anybody on this planet now. And, uh, let's, so let's interview Mrs. Laurie, my lovely wife of 42 years. Let's interview daughter, Natisha. Let's interview my nieces and best friends of 30 plus years.

[01:05:27] Uh, everyone has their own perspective on me and their own experience with me that if you're going to tell the Doug Jones story, these elements have to be in there. And one thing we got that I'm really excited about that you don't get in a podcast interview is, uh, we track down my high school drama teacher. Oh, wow. Wow. I know. So she's retired in Florida now. So we were in Florida for something else and took an extra day, met up with her. And there we are. Oh my gosh.

[01:05:54] Ah, uh, uh, hadn't seen her in over 40 years. So we, uh, they actually captured on film, us seeing each other for the first time. It was not staged. It was not, um, not rehearsed or anything. It's just like, it was genuinely first time seeing each other. We screamed, we giggled, we teared up, we cupped faces, we held hands, we yapped and told. So that's the one interview in this entire documentary that I sat with her and we just yammered back and forth and got nostalgic.

[01:06:23] So far, it's been like my favorite interview, I think. She knew Doug Jones at 14 years old to 18 years old. That's when I was in under her care. Wow. And she was the first person that took a kid's hopes and dreams of getting on stage and doing something with it. She was the first person to put me on stage and direct me in something as an actor. So you'll never forget that person. And I never have. I've held her in such high esteem ever since. And getting together and seeing her again after 40 plus years, she brought a folder with her

[01:06:53] that had newspaper and magazine clippings in it of articles about me and reviews that she's been collecting all this time. I mean, no, it was goose bumpy for me to have this, this. And that's something you don't get in a typical podcast interview. That's what the documentary is going to delve into those parts of my life. Yeah. Well, it feels like a very personal and emotional journey that we're going to go on through this documentary. Emotional for me, certainly. Yeah. It's a part. Well, some of the people we've interviewed, I've told Doug this, like people like Sonequa

[01:07:21] Martin-Green and Noah Wiley, like they cried during their interviews and it was all from the heart. And again, everything on this is it's all unscripted. The interviews, it's not staged when they were done. They were like, oh, my God, I can't believe why am I crying? And it's like, no, it's fantastic because it shows how genuine their love and admiration of Doug is and what he means to them. You know, and I think it humbles him to hear. Beyond humbling. It's almost embarrassing. I guess.

[01:07:50] Oh, everyone's talking about. Stop it. I don't deserve that.

[01:08:23] Yeah. Which I had just literally watched two days before I went to Germany and it was my favorite film of all time to this day. Used to be the Empire Strikes Back. Empire is now second. And I'm gushing all over Doug going, this is you? I can't. I just watched it. Oh, my God, it's incredible. And we over the week and that we were there, we would sit together at the dinner and we would just chit chat.

[01:08:49] And I told him one time, I think during that trip, it's like, you know, I'd love to talk about representing you for these events. And and then I let it go. And it was just kind of fluid. And a few weeks being back in L.A., Doug called me and asked if you could take me to dinner. And then he hired me at dinner. He's like, you need to be my guy. So I've I've been with Doug for 18 years now. And I've wow, I've celebrated triumphs with him and and cheered him on it on red carpet events that he's been gracious enough to invite me to.

[01:09:17] And and he's cried on my shoulder when a few times he's gotten these phone calls and I was the only one there because we were on the road together. And yeah, and I've watched him have these low highs and peaks and lows and dips. And I'm just like, oh, my God, Doug is amazing. And the one thing that has always bothered me, Doug has never received the accolades that he deserves. He's been an Oscar winning films. He's been an Emmy winning TV shows.

[01:09:45] But he doesn't have a statue of his own. Why? It's not right. And I really feel that Doug needs these accolades. So this film is going to be his digital accolade. It's my love letter to him. And I'm hoping that we're going to open up the fans eyes to a different part of his world. And I'm hoping that we can open the industry's eyes and go, wow, how did we miss giving an

[01:10:12] award to this man who we've basically abused for 40 years because putting him in 12, seven hours of makeup and it's horrible. Wow. You know, like, so, yeah, I want to I want to get the Academy's attention and go, hey, guys, you know, and I know Doug Hayes me gushing all over him, but it is the truth. So, like I said, humbling and embarrassing to hear all this. But thank you. Yes. Well, you certainly have our support. I think you're absolutely right. Oh, yeah. So how can our listeners support the film? Yes.

[01:10:42] So I want to state first and foremost, what I am very proud of so far with this film is we were able to raise all of the funds for principal photography on our own. So as an independent filmmaker, that's very hard to do. And we're very proud that we were able to do that. What we need now is we need help on what we're calling the crowd finishing campaign. So this is where we are reaching out to everyone and saying, hey, look, guys, people don't know what it goes into making a movie.

[01:11:10] And if you don't have a big studio backing you, the funds that it takes to bring this to reality, you know, it's not two dollars. So, you know, there's music rights that we want to have in the film that we need to pay for. We need to pay our editor. We want to go to film festivals and we want to be in big film festivals. Like when people see actors on the red carpet at Cannes or Sundance, they don't understand that like the studios had to pay for them to be there. The festival doesn't.

[01:11:37] And you have to pay to get your film submitted into the festival. And if it doesn't get accepted, you don't get your money back. So we're asking anyone who would like to help us. We are going to announce this month one of the crowdfunding platforms where you will be able to get things probably as low as 40 or 50 dollars all the way high as twenty five thousand dollars.

[01:12:00] Some sort of perk that includes things like some of his co-stars have signed photographs for us, limited edition pieces. And Doug has been gracious enough to donate from his own personal archives things such as original shooting scripts from what we do in the shadows and Star Trek Discovery. We have original makeup applications from Star Trek Discovery and so many other cool, amazing things.

[01:12:27] And so we're asking for anyone that would like to help us. Please do. We have an official website. Getmedougjones.com. And it has links to all of the platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, what have you. The IMDB page. IMDB page. Information all about our director, William Conlon, Doug and myself. And then once the crowd finishing campaign goes live, the links will be on that as well. So we're asking everyone to visit.

[01:12:56] Getmedougjones.com, everyone. Check us out. And thank you so much. Amazing. Yeah, please do. Well, I want to thank you both for joining us to talk about Bug Buster and this documentary, which sounds fantastic. Yeah. Thanks for your time. It's been amazing. Like, seriously, Doug, you've been in like all of my favorite movies. Oh, bless your soul. Thanks for letting me be a part of your life and in your living room all this time. Yeah. So sweet of you. Thanks, guys. Bye-bye. Bye.

[01:13:24] Coming to you live from the Movie Oobli at Theatre, it's the prestigious Moobli Awards. Yes, it's the Movie Awards where we nominate our favorite cockroach crawling parts of the film in a number of General George eliminating categories. Vast quote. My favorite bit of dialogue comes when Uncle Buck is talking to Shannon about General George and he says, he was a war hero in Vietnam.

[01:13:54] And Shannon says, what did he do? And Buck said, he survived. That's enough. Yeah, that is enough. Yeah. My favorite is from General George. It's when he's trying to reassure Shannon and Steve that he'll be able to take down the insects. He says, when General George opens up his can of whoop-ass, there'll be roaches in Siberia feeling the heat.

[01:14:27] Yeah, that's great, isn't it? It's so good. Best hair or costume? Gotta say, it's General George again. His whole outfit. His khaki green jumpsuit, yellow turtleneck, army beret hat, and like, kind of like, almost looks like a Ghostbuster, like, backpack for his sort of flamethrower slash freeze gun that he has.

[01:14:53] I'm not sure how it switches, but yeah, his whole getup is great. Yeah, it is. Sort of building on Delbert from arachnophobia, but taking it to the nth degree, I think.

[01:15:07] For me, it was Katie, the British reporter for FUTV, who shows up to an insect infestation murder spree in a gold lame suit with these, like, squiggly patterns on it. Like she's at a movie premiere or something. Anyway, she's dressed completely inappropriately and very pleased with herself. And go her. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go her.

[01:15:36] Most 90s moment. Creature features that are tonally confused. So I'm thinking of things like, as we've said, arachnophobia from 1990, ticks from 93, Congo from 95, which I think is supposed to be serious, but it really doesn't come off as serious.

[01:15:59] There's anaconda from 97, deep rising, 98, lake placid from 99 and deep blue sea also 99, which again, I'm not sure if that one was meant to be serious, but it's hilariously funny. It's really good. It's really good. 90s for me is just a very 90s reference.

[01:16:21] It's during the phone call with Fujimoto and Laurie, and he's watching this kind of weird computer simulation of two insects named Tyson and Holyfield battling each other. And suddenly the scorpion attacks the grasshopper and Fujimoto exclaims, Tyson just bit Holyfield's antenna. That's a reference to that 1997 boxing match between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield where Tyson bit off part of Holyfield's ear.

[01:16:50] Oh, it's just such a 90 thing. It was such a big scandalous boxing match where he bites his ear. It's ridiculous. Yeah. I remember the scandal. Tyson was almost persona non grata for years after that. Oh yeah. Favorite scene. My favorite scene was all the interactions between General George and Shannon and Steve, like the first interactions. They're trying to kind of figure him out.

[01:17:19] And when he hugs Shannon and he's smoking the cigar, he shoots the neon sign. And then later on when he flame throws the lobster, all of that is just comedy gold to me. Yeah. Randy Quaid really steals the show. Yeah, he does. Yeah. Favorite scene for you? For me. Well, it's got to be Doug's scene, obviously. Oh, yes.

[01:17:40] But seriously, the full-size motherbug flying around while Beau tries to lasso it on horseback only for General George to bazooka it is just priceless. It's, again, a long wait to get to it. But it's worth the wait. It's quite the payoff, I think. Yeah. Most cliche moment.

[01:18:04] There are quite a few cliches in this, but I'm going to go for one that perhaps we haven't mentioned before, which is random couple skinny dipping become the first victims of the monster. That's what I've got written down as well. Really? It's just, I think it must be Jaws, right? Yeah. It must be from Jaws. It's Jaws, yeah. But it's always a skinny dipping couple. Even in, like, what was that volcano movie?

[01:18:32] Dante's Peak with Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton. Yeah, even when it's not a revenge of nature movie in the sense of animals. Yeah. I mean, it was still a skinny dipping couple that got roasted to death by lava. Yeah. You just can't escape it no matter what genre of film you're in. Yeah, I mean, it's in slashes as well. Like, yeah, any horror movie with a body of water. It's, yeah, it's a no-go zone. Don't do it. It is. Best special effect.

[01:19:02] I think it's the makeup effects. And I think it's probably Shannon's parents because they look properly disgusting and horrifying. Yeah. Rotten, maggot infested. They look like human-shaped spaghetti and meatballs. Like, it's just a real red meatball look to their corpses. And it's horrifying. Yeah. I dread to think what it smelled like. Oof. Oof. Favorite sound effect.

[01:19:32] I think this is quite a standard, but creature screaming sound is, it's generally a pig squeal, right? Right, yeah. It's a pig squeal going on with Motherbug in the end. But it's kind of become the standard sound effect. Yes. It's either that or in Lord of the Rings, it's Peter Jackson's partner. It's Fran Walsh. Right. Screaming violently. Yeah. Yeah, that's the standard. Pig squeal or Fran Walsh.

[01:20:01] Or Fran Walsh. I'm not sure she'd like to be in that company. There we go. She does have an incredible scream. Yes. My favorite sound in the film was there is a moment where the saxophonist in the trailer park trash group dies because I think a giant worm thing has crawled into his instrument and for some reason that kills him. I don't know.

[01:20:29] He can't breathe or he ingests it. Maybe. I don't know. I can't figure out what happens. But the note that he's holding on the saxophone becomes distorted and then has a delay on it for some reason until he collapses. And I thought, well, that's sonically odd. I wasn't expecting that. Yeah. No, I liked it. I did like that. Yeah. Most funniest moment. Well, my funniest moment was the scene that you already mentioned, which was Bo falling

[01:20:57] in the lake and a former member of the original Star Trek crew just shooting wildly at him and then Bo emerges and he's fine and he congratulates him on his excellent shot and then they display the fish that he's killed. I wasn't laughing during it. I was just sort of incredulous. Like, what? I was, yeah, I was in disbelief to what I was seeing.

[01:21:24] Like, that's not the response to someone falling into a lake. Just pull out your gun and start blasting away. That's surely not safe. I don't think so. No. All right. Okay. That's our Moobly Wards. That's our Mooblies. Yeah. Yeah. Hi, everyone. This is Derek Mackey. And I am actor Doug Jones. But right now you are listening to Movie Ooblyette.

[01:21:54] Final verdict time. Should Bug Buster be set free from its dark, moist lair to infest the world in all its cinematic glory? Or should it be frozen, flambéed and rocket launched back into the hole in which it came from? The Ooblyette lost for eternity. Conrad, this is a double blind for both of us. Bug Buster. Final thoughts. Well, I was fascinated that Doug gave it a final verdict.

[01:22:24] And he said back in the day, he would have thrown it back and wanted to forget it forever. But now he just wants to let it all hang out so we can all laugh at it, which I think is a lovely attitude to take towards some of the questionable things in your back. I think ultimately, I don't think it's quite good enough to recommend either as an exciting

[01:22:49] action adventure movie and a love letter to B movies, monster movies like Arachnophobia is. But I mean, that's a big studio production, but it doesn't quite have the charm of like Tremors or something along those lines. And it's not quite bad enough to be laughable bad, like have a few beers and pizzas with your mates and just laugh at it bad. It's sort of halfway in between.

[01:23:15] Like some of it is genuinely intentionally funny and creative. And some of it is just a bit shoddy and lackluster because of the limitations of the budget and lacking in logic and doesn't quite hold together. It just sort of falls in between two stalls, which makes me feel like it's just mediocre and I can't really recommend it. So I think ultimately I'd throw it back.

[01:23:40] Yes, I agree with it not quite being in either camp. Like it could have gone full gore and just made it into this kind of schlocky B grade horror comedy, but it doesn't. Like you don't see the gore very much and it's good when you do see it, but you just, it's not there. It's not quite funny enough as well. I wish Randy Quaid was more a character. You see him through the adverts throughout the film, but he doesn't show up until the

[01:24:09] hour mark and he's great in all the scenes he's in, but he's just not in that many scenes. It is really strange seeing George Takei in, just trapped in this lab throughout the entire movie. Cause he is also great. His voice is just so iconic. I love it. This movie is a curiosity to watch in terms of Katherine Heigl, one of her early roles. So there's that. Yeah, it's true.

[01:24:34] But on the whole, I don't know whether I could recommend this movie. It just felt like a TV movie to me and a nineties TV movie at that, which is not great time. So yeah, I gotta say throwing this one back in. Yeah. Well, we're both in agreement, but let's check in with our patrons to see if they disagreed with us. Hello, Gary. Another request. Time continues. It's slow collapse.

[01:25:03] Patrons, vote please. They choose wisely. Make a note of it. Ah, okay. Okay. They did agree. Let's hear some comments. They did indeed. Keeper Antony said, If you told me this was a direct-to-sci-fi channel movie, I would believe you. Takes too long to get to the bugs. Music's cheesy. Horror's not scary. Comedy's not funny. The only thing funny was some of the special effects.

[01:25:32] It's fun to see Scotty and Sulu, though. The only way I would rewatch this is if it was being riffed by robots. Throw it back. All right. All right. It does feel like mystery science theatre material for sure. Yeah. Jasmine said, I saw Bug Buster a year after its release and I thought it was an absolute blast. Yes, some of the special effects are a bit dodgy and a patched-up ending would have been nice, but it's so much fun. And holy moly, what a cast.

[01:25:59] I remember my eyes widening like saucers every time a familiar face popped up. Meredith Salinger, Bernie Coppel, Anne Lockhart, Downtown, Julie Brown, all in one movie. I love it. So, of course, I will likely be the only one asking for the Pesterminator and the Orkin Man to be turned away. Oh, okay. Okay. Wow. Chazilla said, Found this streaming on Amazon. Thank the gods.

[01:26:28] I appreciate finding obscure movies available on any of the eight streaming services I subscribe to. Having said that, I'm wondering where Bezos found a fourth generation VHS copy of Bug Buster. Quality-wise, it was barely watchable. You're absolutely right, Chazilla. I really struggled. And I paid for it too, so I'm glad you didn't.

[01:26:52] And finally, March was short but succinct with thanks, I hated it. Ooh. Okay. Well, it's decided. We're throwing it back. Yes. Although Doug is at peace with it, we are throwing it back for you, Doug. So, here we go. No, how dare you? Back you go. I'm a pain in lemonade. Lovely. All right. That was a great interview we had with Doug, even if the movie was not as great.

[01:27:23] No. He chose something fascinating for us to talk about. Yes. Okay, Conrad, what's on the menu for our next episode? What's the film? Next time, we will be going to the 80s again to celebrate the release of a new film by looking back at the original attempt to make it, the 1987 sword and sorcery fantasy sci-fi film,

[01:27:51] Masters of the Universe. Ah, right. Yes, I have seen this. I don't really remember it. I remember eating chicken and that's all I remember. I can tell what your priorities were. Was that you eating chicken or a character in the movie eating chicken? Don't they eat chicken? They eat chicken and they're horrified that they're eating flesh? Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. They do.

[01:28:18] The only thing I remember is there's a synthesizer that looks like a round accordion or something. It's very peculiar. And Courtney Cox, of course. Courtney Cox is in it for some reason. No, I don't. I don't even remember that. Oh, you're in for a treat. This is going to be fun. And we are going to be joined by a friend for that one. Ah, yes. Yes. Can't wait.

[01:28:46] All right, listeners, if you do want to keep up with our episodes when they get released, you can follow us on all platforms as Movie Oubliette. And you can email us at movie.oubliette at gmail.com. Yes. And if you want to support the show, head on over to Patreon, where for as little as a dollar, you can get extended portions of the show. And for $5, you can vote in the final verdict and hear our exclusive monthly Minnesotans.

[01:29:14] And for $10, you can be an executive producer like Chazilla, Isaac Sutton, Dr. Doggy, Serge, iconographer Ryan A. Potter, Nick Hardy, Luke R., Keeper Anthony, and Jasmine. Yes, yes, yes. Thanks for all the support, everyone. And if you want us to support us without even spending any money, you can rate and review us on whatever platform you're using. It does help us spread the word. Yes, it does. Okay. That's it for this episode, Conrad.

[01:29:44] Until next time, I'll be back from New Zealand just in time for Masters of the Universe. Yes. Until then. Bye for now. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. dead bimbo.