House of HorroR: Resident Evil

House of R

Joanna Robinson and Mallory Rubin celebrate Mal's 40th birthday with a candid, enthusiastic review of the Resident Evil movie adaptation, bl

Key takeaways

• The film successfully expands the video game universe with strong world-building and atmospheric storytelling.
• Mallory's first foray into horror cinema was a brave and rewarding experience despite initial nerves.

Main topics

• Resident Evil movie adaptation
• Horror genre appreciation

Notable quotes

"It was so good. And then we got a ton of horror movie recommendations from the Bad Babies."

Conclusion

The hosts conclude with heartfelt encouragement for listeners to embra

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:04) Hello and welcome to House of Horror. I'm Joyner Robinson and joining me today, she's the bravest little girl. It's her birthday. It's Mallory Rubin. Hello. Hello. Hey, Mal, how are you doing? Speaker 2 (0:20) I'm honestly great. I mean, in general, I'm terrible, as you know. Sure. Withering, decaying, steady march toward death. Delighted to be here with you today for this podcast. I'm really excited. I'm excited to talk about our Resident Evil experience and excited to talk about just dipping my toe into those bloody horror waters. It's been a Speaker 1 (0:42) fun week and a half-ish. It's all still new to me. We have a lot to get into. I'm so excited. My hand has mostly recovered from you clutching it when we watched Resident Evil a couple days ago. There Speaker 2 (0:52) was a Speaker 1 (0:52) stretch where I was squeezing it really hard. Speaker 2 (0:55) And Speaker 1 (0:56) we'll get into all of that right after this. Speaker 1 (1:13) First of all, shout out to the team for the spooky set deck that we have here today. Amazing Speaker 2 (1:17) stuff. Speaker 1 (1:18) Amazing stuff. First of Speaker 2 (1:19) all, I love to see the Talk the Thrones stone walls, which feel, you know, kind of gothic and spooky and dungeon-y. Torture chamber-y. Definitely. And that's in general a vibe we seek Speaker 1 (1:33) to establish. Torture. Yeah. I was thinking like sex dungeon. Speaker 2 (1:36) Oh, sex dungeon. You know, you say dungeon, I think sex dungeon. I think torment, Speaker 1 (1:40) whatever. Why not all of it? Potato, potato. Speaker 2 (1:43) You know. And the red lights. What a surprise that is. My goodness. I'm sure it looks great on. Speaker 2 (1:52) the palest person alive. But you know what? You do. You look incredible. You look glowing. I love a bit. As you know, I love a bit. So I love this commitment to the bit. It's great. Thanks Speaker 1 (2:02) to the team. I mean, our team Speaker 2 (2:03) are, they're big horror Speaker 1 (2:05) fans. I know. This is Speaker 2 (2:06) a big day for Jacob in particular, I think. It's Jacob's best day, perhaps. I'm hyped for Jacob. I told him I hope I don't let him Speaker 1 (2:12) down. You won't. There's no way you could. We're going to... Just talk briefly about our experience watching Resident Evil. Essentially, this is not a deep dive into the movie, but we're going to talk about this great movie we saw. It was so good. Speaker 2 (2:26) It Speaker 1 (2:26) was so good. And then we got a ton of horror movie recommendations from the Bad Babies. So we're going to go through some of those with you. They're secrets. I don't know what they are yet. I know. I'll be finding out in real time. I know. Speaker 2 (2:37) I guess just like the gut response of whether I think I can handle Speaker 1 (2:40) it or Speaker 2 (2:40) not. Speaker 1 (2:40) I love a spook and a scare and a surprise. Delightful. So love that for you. On the recommendations front, I just want to say a bunch of our listeners, I was sort of saying I didn't know what I was going to do while you were gone other than weep and wail and wait for your return next week. We will have a Lanterns episode as normal. So that will come out on Monday. But in terms of the second episode next week, a bunch of our listeners suggested I do like a House of Reads episode and do some book recommendations. Wonderful. Speaker 2 (3:07) So Speaker 1 (3:07) that's what we're going to do. Probably our most popular podcast we'll ever have. People are Speaker 2 (3:12) going to love it. For the readers out there. Bookstagram and Speaker 1 (3:14) BookTok are going to be going nuts. If you are a genre reader, sci-fi fantasy reader, romanticy, hard sci-fi, whatever it is you're into, email us, hobbitsanddragons.gmail.com. I'd love to hear what your favorite books that you've read recently or are upcoming, if there are movie adaptations upcoming that people should be aware of, all that sort of stuff. I started reading The God of the Woods, which is an upcoming adaptation. It's not genre, really, but like... Mystery. Great mystery. Great mystery. And I got really excited for the upcoming adaptation. So, yes, I Speaker 2 (3:46) was hitting up a thread with you, Dobmob and Juliet about casting for that because I think wrongly assumed that all three of you had read that. And I was like, my hawk got in the woods. Let's go. I knew Juliet had read it just because only one word is necessary. Camp. Yeah. That's it. Got it. But that book's great. I had a great time reading that. I'm excited to see what you think. I'm Speaker 1 (4:06) only like a third of the way through, but I'm having a really, really good time. Oh, I'm already enjoying it. So yeah, House of Re's episode next week. We will hopefully have a couple guests and I will give my recommendations. One of the books on my hype meter, Leigh Bardugo's Deadbeat came out. There you go. Tuesday. I will have read it, finished it by next week for sure. So I'm really excited for that. Lantern's ongoing, as I mentioned. Like the pod, subscribe, follow at House of R Pod on social media. You can watch us on video. You can listen to us, HobbitsAndDragons.gmail.com if you have yet to send your birthday wishes to Mallory Rubin. You can do so on social media or via email. Thank you to all the bad babies who sent her well wishes yesterday. You're a star, Mallory. Thanks, Speaker 2 (4:53) bad babies. I love you. I love you all. You're the best. Thank you to Joanna and Jomie and the crew for my birthday surprise on Instagram. Speaker 1 (5:00) That's a Jomie. What Speaker 2 (5:02) a Speaker 1 (5:02) wonderful. That was Speaker 2 (5:03) beautiful. Jomie Speaker 1 (5:03) put it together. My little Baltimore birthday surprise. Speaker 2 (5:06) Will you do a Speaker 1 (5:06) voiceover? And I said, I will. Can I? I was like, can I do like a David Attenborough voice or like an old timey radio voice or whatever? He's like, could you just do it normally? And I was like, sure. But I Speaker 2 (5:16) texted you after I said, you're ready to narrate a documentary. I think after that, that was my takeaway. Speaker 1 (5:22) A bunch of some listeners were like, wow, Joanna must have like Googled the word cannon for arm. I knew that one. That's what I knew. Speaker 1 (5:33) Don't ask what else I had to Google when it comes to baseball. But I did know about warming up the old cannon. Anyway, you can watch that video of Mallory's incredible day that she had in Baltimore. That we had. That we had, that we shared together in Baltimore. It was delightful. It really was great. And all the bad babies who were there. And I love that the very scary, spooky sky made an appearance inside of that video. Spoiler warning. Everything. Like, well, we'll do sort of the opening snapshot, but then when we get to talking about the film, we're just going to spoil everything. That's right. You know? That's right. We're not doing a deep dive, but Speaker 2 (6:05) we're going to talk Speaker 1 (6:05) about the things that happened in the movie. Absolutely. And I know that this is coming out earlier than our, like, sort of movie podcasts usually do, but we don't know how to talk about this movie without talking about this movie. So, spoiler warning for Resident Speaker 2 (6:14) Evil. Go see it. This is a 90-minute movie. There's no reason not to go see it. 90 minutes. 90. Let's go now to the opening snapshot. Speaker 1 (6:30) All right, quick facts. Directed by Zach Kreger, written by Kreger and Shea Hatton. 95-minute movie. Zippy. $75 million budget. Incredible stuff. Really positive reviews. Speaker 2 (6:43) We went Speaker 1 (6:43) to a press screening. The press screening loved it. Yes. Absolutely loved it. And then the reviews have been really positive. We're recording this sort of before the Gen Pop gets to see the movie, so we don't know how they're going to respond. But I have to think that the horror fans at least will be... Thrilled. We were sort of discussing this with because we, you know, we had the blessed opportunity to see this with our pals. Sean Fennessey was there and then Chris Ryan and his lovely wife Phoebe were in a different theater. But we all got to decompress after. And I was like, do you guys think this is going to make one gajillion dollars because it's so good and horror is having such a year. And they were slightly skeptical of the sort of goop threshold. I suppose that people might have because it's a very goopy, bloody movie. A lot of exploding bodies. A lot of viscous substances inside of this movie. So we don't know. But the box office is tracking very well for it to make between $45 and $60 million off the $75 million budget in the opening weekend, which is very good. It's the best opening for a Resident Evil movie ever. I was a little surprised because I thought the first one. opened really well, but this would be the best opening for a Resident Evil movie if, in fact, that's what it makes. And just a reminder that Weapons had a similar opening weekend but went on to make $270 million. So you at home can make this multi-hundreds-of-million-dollar movie. You have the power. Go see it in the theaters. Make Speaker 2 (8:16) it happen. Speaker 1 (8:17) Get out there. When did you know you wanted to see this movie and what was your impression of seeing the movie? We already spoiled that we loved it, but what did you think? Speaker 2 (8:24) I think the first trailer that I saw for the movie, I was like, this looks sick. This looks great. It looked really fun and specific. And obviously at that point, I had yet to see a single frame of any Zack Craig creation. And as we'll explore shortly, that has since changed. But I've always liked Austin Abrams. Shout out, shout out Paper Towns. Paper Towns. Speaker 1 (8:46) He's great in Paper Towns. He's always been fantastic. Dash and Lily on Netflix. He's just a euphoria star. Speaker 2 (8:54) Honestly, Speaker 1 (8:55) huge standout euphoria for me. No question about Speaker 2 (8:58) it. Speaker 1 (8:59) Best part of Wolves, which is a movie that stars Brad Pitt and George Clooney. And yet Austin Abrams. Stole the show? Stole the entire movie from George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Wow. I'm just like. I'm just like such a huge Austin Speaker 2 (9:12) Abrams fan. I'm so excited for him. He's really wonderful. So yeah, I just thought the trailer looked great. It looked like it was going to be really fun and I was intrigued. And then as I thought about it more and it was time for us to do our fall hype meter. Yeah. And there's, you know, more trailer action to immerse myself in, I thought. I really want to see this movie. I really want to see this movie. I'm going to see this movie. And it was part because the trailer looked fun, the movie looked fun, part because I know that people love Craigers films, I like Austin Abrams, but more because I increasingly felt like I was just really missing out on this contemporary horror moment and horror boom. And there are plenty of things in life that I don't mind missing out on. But this, I don't know, it is so in our orbit, or Speaker 1 (9:57) at least adjacent Speaker 2 (9:58) to Speaker 1 (9:58) our orbit. You like to have your finger on the pulse. And the pulse is Speaker 2 (10:02) like Speaker 1 (10:03) spurting blood right Speaker 2 (10:05) now. Exactly. It's oozing. And yeah, so I don't know. It felt like while this was kind of on the horizon and it was very close to my birthday, it was the week of my birthday, my 40th birthday. And I thought that's a time of change in life. It's a time of change. Is it a time of growth? I think we'll see. The jury's still out, maybe not. But I thought, I'm going to do my toe. I'm going to do it. I'm going to watch a couple things before this, and then I'm going to watch this movie. And you know what? I'm having a blast. And there are still boundaries that I think are going to exist for me as I continue to explore, but I do intend to continue to explore so we can parse all of that. Has your sleep been at Speaker 1 (10:42) all troubled by what we witnessed together? Not at all. I Speaker 2 (10:46) said this to Chris after the screening when we were riding the escalator down to the parking garage. Once again. As always, somehow the Ringer crew wound up in three to four different entryways to ultimately the same parking garage. There's nothing quite like the Century City West. I will say I've I've Speaker 1 (11:02) locked it. I always come in the same way. Speaker 2 (11:04) I have found my path. Yeah, it seems to never be the same as anyone else's, which is a mystery to me. And I said to Chris, you know, I think that there is a benefit for me personally. And this is not a benefit to my life overall. Let me be clear. This is. A challenge in my life, as you know, the person other than my husband who hears me complain the most and maybe Arjuna. That's the top three about how tired I am all the time. But when it came to saying, is this the moment where I watched some horror at long last after a life of not doing that for reasons I'll explain the benefit of being so. Speaker 1 (11:43) bedraggled and beleaguered and broken all the time is I'm just like, you know what? You have no sleep to trouble. Speaker 2 (11:49) I'm going to, or the opposite, as you know, it comes in waves, it comes in pockets. Like I'm just going to be so tired that no matter what traumatizing experience I have just witnessed on the big screen, Speaker 1 (11:59) I'm probably Speaker 2 (12:01) going to pass out on the couch with my laptop open on my lap and fall asleep no matter what, because I'm exhausted. Then I will wake up in the middle of the night and be like, boy, my back hurts. Well, that's a lot of pain in my hip. Why did I allow myself to fall asleep on the couch again? And that's the routine and that's the rhythm. I've slept. We're doing really well. I've slept fine after. Weapons was the one I was most like, I don't know how well I'll sleep tonight after I watched that. But after Weapons, after Nosferatu, after Obsession, and after Resident Evil. It's Speaker 1 (12:25) been Speaker 2 (12:25) fine. I did not sleep fine because my sleep is shitty in general, but my sleep was not troubled by the films. And that felt distinct. Some Speaker 1 (12:33) people feel like they love watching horror because it's sort of, they like watching the scariest thing that could possibly happen. That's not my relationship to it. I know. Historically, it hasn't. But I'm just saying, it makes the day-to-day terrors Speaker 2 (12:48) of Speaker 1 (12:48) the world feel more manageable. You know what I mean? Speaker 2 (12:51) Yeah. Okay. Speaker 1 (12:53) My hand's fine. Thanks for asking. I loved this movie. I had such a good time with it. Laughed way more than I thought I would, even though I know that Zack Craig has a great sense of humor. Hysterical film. This was just like magnitudes funnier. And we'll sort of talk about the relationship between horror and comedy in a second. But just had a great, like, just a great time. When we were walking out, I was like, I was like, why did this feel like the 90s to me? And I... I don't, I still don't have a great answer. Yeah. Is it because it was like just on the verge of the 90s when I saw the first Resident Evil movie? Is it because Shaun the Dead came out? Just like so early aughts maybe, maybe. Or just sort of like the experience of just seeing something that feels like well-made. Yeah. Contained, short, like. a visceral shared experience in the theater and I'm just sort of like this felt like this is what it felt like to go to the movies every Friday in 1999 with all my friends in high school you know what I mean yeah getting to see it with you guys the buds like it was just Speaker 2 (13:54) it was just Speaker 1 (13:55) a really good time and everyone walked out with a huge smile on their face people were delighted I was like I walked out you and Sean and Chris and Phoebe were talking to each other and I was like beelining for the parking validation because if I don't do it right away, I'll forget. And Chris was just sort of like making meaningful eye contact with me through the crowd to just be like, did you like it essentially? And I just had this huge smile on my face and he was just sort of like, yeah, that's right. That's right. This is a great movie. It Speaker 2 (14:19) was awesome to see it in the theater because I think, you know, I have attempted to make my. acclamation to the current wave of horror communal by sharing it, obviously, with you. We've been in touch. I've been posting my little hiding under my fleece blanket videos. But I was thinking, like, had I ever seen a horror movie in a movie theater before? I was thinking about that. And, you know, I guess it depends on what we're... Because, like, there is some horror... cinema that has been a part of my life. Like, I love the 28 movies, for example. Right. And those are horror films. Yeah. Right. I think that that has been a part of the pattern is that horror inside of another genre that I enjoy, like zombie movies or alien movies, I have been able to tolerate a little bit more. But Speaker 1 (15:03) you wouldn't count zombie Speaker 2 (15:03) as horror? No, I do. It's Speaker 1 (15:05) a Speaker 2 (15:05) flavor. There are certain flavors Speaker 1 (15:06) of horror that you're like, I can handle the zombie bucket. I can handle the alien bucket. Exactly. Like, I love. Speaker 2 (15:12) Alien. Like I've always been able to I think I don't know that has been much more something that I personally am able to tolerate where like a home invasion horror movie or something like that has not been something that I could bring into my life before. So I have you know, I saw the two 28 years movies in theaters recently. I didn't see Romulus in theaters, though. I was thinking back. Speaker 1 (15:38) I Speaker 2 (15:39) saw that at home, not in theaters. So like, it's a pretty limited set of things I could point to where like, and I was just, I was saying to Adam when I got home, that was actually one of the things I had been nervous about was like, you know, when we watched Weapons, when I saw Gladys on the ceiling for the first time, I honestly, I just shrieked. Like I screamed Speaker 1 (15:56) in Speaker 2 (15:57) genuine Speaker 1 (15:57) terror. I was terrified. And he was laughing at me. And, you Speaker 2 (16:01) know, I paused and I was like, how many more moments like that? And he said two to three, which was not the case. But I was like. wow, what if I'm like fucking embarrassed to be reacting that way in the theater? But ultimately, first of all, that was not a part of my experience watching Resident Evil. Speaker 1 (16:15) But also you were in the loving embrace of me who would support you Speaker 2 (16:19) always and Speaker 1 (16:20) Sean who would mock you mercilessly. So like all of those things were the whole spectrum. It was quite an emotional Speaker 2 (16:26) support cocoon to be in, very different flavors. But it was just so fun. to not only, I mean, it was because the movie is so comic and so funny to have the experience of everybody laughing together, but the moments where the air is sucked out of the room and the tension is so high and it's silent. At one point I turned to you and I was like, I'm like pretty worried about trying to open this bag of nerds clusters and making a crinkle sound while the room is dead quiet. Speaker 1 (16:51) You Speaker 2 (16:51) helped me out because you're Speaker 1 (16:53) the Speaker 2 (16:53) best. that candy. It just was delicious. It was great to have it there. I ate chicken tenders during the movie. I was eating the entire time. I was really fine. Your emotional Speaker 1 (17:02) support tenders. But Speaker 2 (17:03) those really tense moments where the action is leading you into a sense of intentional and clear dread. That was a fun thing to share with a room full of people, which I understand I'm saying the most obvious basic shit. Like that is a part of why people love to go to watch horror movies in theaters together. For me, that felt really new. Speaker 1 (17:22) That was not an experience I had had before. And I honestly, I quite enjoyed it. I feel like we talked about this a bit on when I was on the rewatchables for obsession, we talked a bit about sort of like that communal experience in the theater of seeing horror together and how it like. We talk a lot about how important we think it is that people go to the theater. And Speaker 2 (17:40) I Speaker 1 (17:40) really do think and how important the monoculture is. And I agree with both of those things. But like altogether, this idea of going through an emotional experience with. you know, your fellow man and it does not matter who they are or if you know them, but we are all human together and we can all scream together or laugh together. Or when I saw Hamnet cry, like weep together, you know what I mean? Like that, that emotional catharsis that you feel in the theater, I genuinely think it's good for society. Like I'm being very serious. And so, um, you're talking about the fact that like, it feels like, uh, the comedy genre is like in many ways. dead the comedy film genre is in many ways dead not not the way it was like even a decade or two decades ago and I really miss that experience of we're all seeing the same like funny movie together and quoting the lines back and just like continuing like continuing to laugh and share and have this thing and this thing in common that knits us together as a society when so many other things are like driving us apart as a society and so Speaker 1 (18:42) To laugh that much, you know, because I've seen horror movies, but I haven't seen a horror comedy this good in a really, really long time. And so to like laugh our way through this, it was really fun to sit next to you and have my hand crushed by you and and all that sort of stuff. And then. Speaker 1 (19:02) pal and colleague, uh, Katie Walsh was sitting on the other side of me and Katie just said, you like 500 times in the movie. It was really, she had a great time, but every single time something disgusting happened, which was Speaker 2 (19:13) constantly Speaker 1 (19:14) gross movie compliment, but yeah, that's really funny. Um, incredible. All right. So do you feel like you covered what tip the skills for you this year? Or is there more, more you want to talk about? Um, no, I think, I Speaker 2 (19:27) think those are the reasons, you know, getting old. Want to try a new thing? Felt like I'm missing out? In terms of the films that I selected. Yes. Well, let me pan back for why this was not a part of my life for so long. I'll keep this quick. I've talked about this many times on many other Ringer Pods before. Formative Wounds. When I was seven years old, in second grade, I went to one of my friend's houses. His name was Adam. Different Adam. And I had just a gigantic crush on this guy, Adam. Wonderful. His older brother was there. And he made us watch Child's Play. Speaker 1 (19:59) Yeah. Speaker 2 (20:00) And when I tell you to this day I have not recovered from that, I mean it sincerely. Like, I, for a really long time, when I was a very young kid, like, could not sleep because I was so scarred by the experience of seeing that. When, you know, you go to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video, this was something I loved to do with my parents. We'd go, we'd pick out a movie or two for the weekend. If I passed, like, if I saw Chucky. It was over. I was. Like it just scared the shit out of me. When Chucky would pop up, even this was when I was like a. working adult in sports media, John Gruden, a