Original subtitles

Hello, my name's Justin LeClue, and I'm here today with the creators of Don't

Let the River Beats Get You, Charlie and Matt. Hey, everybody.

When was the last time you guys watched this movie? Must have been April for

the... I guess at the spectacle screening. When you look back, is this

of your favorite films, or where does it like lay in your vast filmography? I'm

a contrarian, so as soon as...

people started liking this movie, I was like, eh, it's not that great.

And I'd be like, Charlie, why does everyone like River Beast?

Her other movies are better.

But like I said, that's just my natural inclination. I definitely love all of

them. How about you, Charlie? I like this one a lot. I mean, having the

is so cool. I think Farley is born to be like...

this tutor and a nice mixture of you know sort of smarts and action. This was

just before everyone got really busy.

with their lives, so I love it. I think that River Beast is a great Moturn media

starter film only because the structure of it as a monster movie is recognizable

to people, while something like Druid Gladiator Clone doesn't have that

recognition where people can go, oh, I have seen things like this. River Beast,

you know it's a monster movie right there. And we now have on screen Frank

Stone, the athlete of all athletes. Who came up with that idea?

We were brainstorming with... Tom. Tom and Charlie and me were playing

basketball together on a nice day in late August, I believe it was.

Or whenever it was. It was like after the weekend of the ManchVegas premiere.

Charlie, does that sound right? Maybe? And that would have been in May or June.

But whatever it was, we're playing basketball, just throwing ideas back and

forth. And we're like, McGee should be an athlete.

And then just over the course of the conversation, we determined that he'd be

athlete in every way, but we'd never specify.

And we also have Sharon Scalzo returning to the motard media universe. You said

in previous interviews that she's always happy to do whatever.

Yeah, she doesn't ask any questions.

Whenever we need her, she's pretty much available.

You know, plenty of days I've been outside of her house at 5 in the

with some actors, you show up at 5 and you're like, oh, man, what if they're

still asleep? But not with her. You know she's going to be there. And, Charlie,

this was the first digital Moturn film. Was there a lot of internal discussion

about what camera you were going to use or what lenses?

A little bit, yeah. I mean, our number one interest is cost.

So Farley already had a couple lenses from his old film SLR. So I'm like,

let's get something that will work with those.

And then we did a couple practice things to ramp up for this, including a

paparazzi commercial and a singing animal lover commercial, which were fun.

then, yeah, after those couple tests, I mean, it wasn't a lot. We dove right in.

And it was nice to be able to, you know, have a monitor sort of.

on the back of a camera and, you know, check stuff out as we were going. So

was a new experience. On the digital camera, did Matt demand you show him the

takes after he acted? Or you're like, no, no, keep moving.

That's kind of a tradition between us a little bit. But we were under so much

time constraints that even then, I think Farley's like, just keep moving.

You know, whatever we got, we have to work with it. Yeah, I've pretty much

outgrown that need, especially after the debacle and the grave. yard in 2000.

Not that we keep bringing it up.

Speaking of that story that Charlie just mentioned, I'm going to get the

advertising right off the table from the get -go that if this is your first

brush with the Moturn Media universe and you love it so much you're listening to

this commentary, make sure to go and grab Local Legends from goldninjavideo

.com. We release it on Blu -ray, and we talk about the story of Matt needing to

see his footage and it leading to disastrous results on the commentary for

Gladiator Clone, which is also on that disc.

Who's Super 8 camera is this?

Is this yours, Charlie? No, I probably had that from a thrift store sale or

someone just gave it to him. It was in a bin somewhere and we just were like...

Why not? No discussions about, like, what if we shot it on 8mm?

No, no. We were ready to make things a little easier on ourselves. And since

other camera was breaking, we kind of had no choice but to do something.

And we have Chris Peterson here returning to the Motor and Media fold.

Matt. I've heard him mention that the last time he worked with you before this

was a four -hour movie. What is that?

Yeah, that was the summer of 99.

Every summer after college, you know, we'd make a movie.

One of them was a four -hour movie. It's like an art film, you know. It's really

just... There's not a lot of plot. There's little scenes, little vignettes,

lot of interviews.

But our main goal was to fill up four hours. At one point, we were like, you

know, we could make a pretty nice 90 -minute movie here. But instead, let's

a bad, sprawling four -hour movie. Oh, wow.

I am assuming that has never seen the light of day since probably when it was

shot. Yeah, but I have the tapes down here.

Oh, wow.

There's so much stuff that I know that you and Charlie have that unfortunately

can't really be released due to having copyrighted music in it. But one day

it'll all make its way to the Moturn Media Museum. I can guarantee that. Ooh,

stump grinding. I could see the sign right there to call in a phone number.

This is some good New Hampshire there. That was Robie's General Store, which is

like a vintage, beautiful old general store and downtown hooks it. Whose

basement is this with like the unfinished walls?

Mr. Kyle, you can ask Kyle about it. That was his garage unfinished at the

Hey, Ben, I like your garage. Can we use it as an abandoned hovel, scary place

where someone's hiding? Yeah, well, he had a good property because he had that,

and then his backyard has this.

stream going through it that was big enough to be a river for our sake, so we

did a lot of filming there. Did you guys wait long for the train to pass by, or

were you just going to shoot it and it was going?

No, we didn't plan it at all. It just happened to be there. I was like,

act natural. Run over there.

Go. You're walking back to town. Go. And he's like, I'm doing it.

Barley, jump on the train. Grab the side. It's not going that fast.

But we lived on those tracks. We used to watch those tracks for fun.

Did you ever put anything on the tracks like every teenager would do at some

point? No, we were too scared.

All right. I say, yeah, I didn't do that either in the small town where I live.

And this is the Motör magic, is that neither of them are in the same room,

right? They're in the same room, different time. Ah, okay.

Yeah. But I think we sell it, you know? Charlie, do we sell it? This one works

among the best of any times we've ever done it, you know?

Especially when you're trying, you know, you're just trying to remember the eye

line and the head size and those relative things. There's really not much

that... ties these two together exactly because the red curtain doesn't like

there's nothing that continues on her side but no it worked i buy it and they

she brings sharon just brings her energy like right off the bat all that was

pretty much one take just amazing you know so she doesn't mind having to you

know go there and acting to fake it she just wants to get it done

Sharon, in my opinion, just gets the tone of your movie so well that she's

monotone. She's committed, but there's something off about it, and that offness

is what makes it incredibly hilarious.

Charlie cameo. That's him right there. That's my cameo.

I had to say, come on, get out of the street. I never noticed that before.

We're always safe on our movies. I'm like, come on.

Remember I said walk out of the street as soon as possible. Charlie's nervous.

Not that way.

Ah, the meeting of the minds here.

Was there a long discussion about what Matt's wardrobe should be?

The white shirt, you know.

No.

We just went for a classic, you know, something that's not distracting, more

less, and easy for him to do. I mean, Farley's got to do so much on both sides

of the camera during it, and he has to be something kind of comfortable. And if

it gets ruined, that you can replace it with something else. Replace easy, yeah,

exactly. But, I mean, I did go out and buy my Tudor outfit, which I get into a

little later, like that little sweater vest thing.

I went to some thrift store to get that. Yeah. When it comes to locations, do

you guys, like, write the script around them, or do you just write the scenes

and go, all right, where do we know where this will fit the best? We almost

always know the locations as we're going, because otherwise, if you don't

where you're going to film it, don't write it.

Ah, this scene is so good where Matt's talking to his wife. Yeah, we're real

happy with this. This is on Hanover Street in Manchester.

That's Nick LaValle. He's a comedian.

He still does comedy in Manchester, and he's perfect as this kind of like.

you know, like aggressive guy. Has anybody that you've asked to act in your

movies ever been like, what? This is the role you want me to play? The angry

husband? Milhouse gives me trouble because he's like, why is my character

interested in food?

I'm like, I don't know.

It was delightful to interview Milhouse for this disc because he was so shocked

that anybody knew who he was in these movies and just wanted me to repeat to

him, wait, what did they say?

This kid is great, too. Did you have trouble convincing the parents to have

appear in this? I mean, our track record of filming with him all the way back to

Dewey Gladiator Clones. So, no, he was one of the little kids. He was a little

kid who says, white knight.

Blue night.

Yeah, so we know, luckily we know, it's not like parents we don't know. It's

Farley's friend from work, you know, back then. So we would, I don't think we

would ever do something where we didn't know, personally know the people. Yeah,

yeah, that worked out well because we're, you know, CJ is the dad of that

and CJ's been in a bunch of the movies and so it was an easy transition.

And he did good. A great thing about Riverby is that you feel like all the

actors that are appearing as far as crew and country are finally at their full

power. Yeah, McHugh.

I love he doesn't walk into that shot. He's just standing there.

It's kind of like a comment on weird, yeah, it's like a comment on weird films

that they didn't think to like have someone materialize there and just in

another, even another city too, which is that, so that's Mass. It's used in

Massachusetts.

New Hampshire. The thing about Riverbeats is that like all these actors

have appeared in your previous films, they all get like big, almost hero

introductions.

Like, whether it be Frank or whether it be your uncle right there, it's like,

whoa. It's like, don't you know who this is? They're back on the big screen.

I kind of always thought of it as, like, a Western, you know, where, like, the

hero's coming back to town and going to make everything right again, you know?

So it's got that kind of epic.

And is there any of your films that doesn't take place during fall?

Because, like, when I think of motor movies, it's all, you know, leaves on

ground. Halloween is right around the corner. We try for it when we can. It

something. I mean, even seeing Farley there on the ground, I think, oh, yeah,

some leaves, like, subconsciously. It just feels like magic. It's the best

in New England. So whenever we can, yeah, we try. And luckily she had those

decorations up there. Joanie had those on her.

table anyway, so sometimes you're getting bonus in the background, free

free set decorations. It's never quite Halloween, so it's not a definitive

point. It's like Halloween is all life. It just always exists.

I hear around this point, Matt, you were starting your addiction to coffee milk

as well. Yeah, and so I'm actually drinking coffee milk in a lot of these

scenes, but the script had it as chocolate milk, so this was the

time. Here's Tom.

T -scalzo.

So this was in the condo I lived in in Salem, in the basement. We turned that

into Teddy's apartment, you know.

And it's also where we filmed the jail cell on the other corner. We made the

most of it. Yeah, it has a nice sickly green look here. It feels like a guy who

hasn't left that basement in a long time. And that quilt and everything,

it just has this.

This, like, stagnant feeling down there, which is great. I love this direction

that it looks like you up the shutter speed to make the fight look, like, more

intense. Yeah, I don't know. It was actually that intense.

You know, Farley and Tom could be quite, you know, we're exploring having more

fights because they do such a good job.

But actually, I don't think so, Justin. I think it was just their intensity.

And I'm assuming you block a shot with Tom, that you did, like, all the

scenes all in one go?

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Whenever we can, we do that because you never know

what's going to come up and you're not going to be able to get that person back

again. They're going to change their hair, cut a lot, whatever.

We'd save stuff for Tom, Charlie, and Farley.

When the night ended and we were done filming with everyone else, then we'd

in an extra three hours in the basement, just the three of us, you know, which

was... painful but also like it wasn't so even though we were working late and

getting tired we didn't have like other people's schedules to at least worry

about because at this point like charlie mentioned everybody was all over the

place right charlie yeah they were but also um you know some people didn't have

kids yet or other other things like that so it was a little bit i feel like this

was a last gasp of having things be a little less stressful of having to rush

But when I'm filming, when Farley and Tom and I are filming, yes, it has that

feeling of we've known each other so long that you don't really feel that.

it's work or that you have a such such a strict time you kind of feel like uh

you just having fun the fact that you've been able to keep it fun over all of

these years making these movies will never stop surprising me because anyone

else i feel would have felt like something like this would have become

you know i love listening to you guys talk about how just making the movies is

enough to want to make more movies oh kyle's entry here yes

Seymour, Connecticut.

We always film on that street because it's vintage Halloween.

Or vintage Americana there. Yeah, the help. I kind of wish it didn't have that

because your eye is drawn to that and it's not anything that we want to be up

there. But Kyle was fantastic here. He decided, what if my guy smokes?

He's like a Geraldo from the 80s. He's like that shock jock kind of style.

He did a lot of great stuff, and he has a lot of cool props and things in his

house. So, I mean, thank heavens he had, like, a vintage blazer and all this

stuff we can't afford.

He just brings and shows up, and, you know, these guys are awesome together.

There's a shot when Matt walks away, and it's, like, a static, and I wondered if

Charlie was like, maybe I'll just digitally change the marquee to a

film. Yeah, yeah.

I was thinking that. Or, you know, even just having it plain.

Because a lot of our movies are plain, and this is a plain shot. Because we

people to be so into, like, I don't want anything to distract from the emotion

and the comedy at the same time.

And that kind of does.

But it's okay. It's okay.

That's where we had a screening of Slingshot Cops at that theater, right?

we rented out that whole theater and showed the movie there, which was nice.

Kyle, oh, so great. A belly laugh.

And just that awkward. He's like, don't edit out of it. Just stay right there.

And Matt, when you came to this movie, did you approach your character in any

different way, like when you were writing the script?

No, it's just the Farley character, you know.

Basically, you know, different names in each of these movies, but I'm just doing

what I always do. Yeah, I guess there's, like, two extremes.

There's the Freaky Farley, which is, you know, like, timid and scared, and then

the ultra -confident Matt Farley, which you see in, like, Slingshot Cops and

this. That's all I... Yeah, and I mean...

In Slingshot Cops, I get a little manic at times, too, which was something I

tried to do, for sure.

But this is probably the most even -keeled Farley, the River Beast Farley.

Manch Vegas, I'm a little cartoonish and over -energetic.

There's some nuances,

right, Charlie?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, totally, Farley. I mean, you've got a lot of characters around

in this one, so you can play it a little more, you know, slightly more normal.

You're like the one who calms down these other tutors. And, you know, around

Kyle, you know, Kyle's putting out a lot of energy as like this, you know, shock

jock reporter, so you don't have to dial it up as much. Yeah, we definitely.

You guys were great here. Oh, what a day in the gazebo, Farley. I'm sorry to cut

you off. Do you remember who came up with the line, you can't cook a whole

on a hot plate? Because that's like one I quote all the time.

Well, that and the butternut squash just one day came to me. I like some of the

cooking stuff, but yeah, it's funny. It's a funny thing.

And this Farley and I talked about having a lot of petty moments.

Like revel in the petty moments and some of them are things we were inspired by

on TV movies.

Seeing a lot of the melodrama of a TV movie because

They're trying to cram so much in. They've got such a short running time.

They've got these overdramatic actors, and we love that.

We love unearned drama and very quick emotional changes.

Zero to 60.

Zero to 60. So yeah, we had some of that, and that plays into some

magic Moturn touch, which is the regular but elevated to the absurd because

everything is so melodramatic, even though it all ends well in the end. So

there's Farley's real -life barber.

He was nice enough to let us do that. That guy in the chair, so confused.

I don't think he knows he's in a movie, but he was so confused.

He was so... I felt a little bad. The guy in the chair... The guy in the chair

was a, like...

worked for a construction company who was helping to fix the shattered glass

the thing.

And Tim was like, hey, sit over here for a minute. He's like, okay. Dude, that's

the best story, Farley. Oh, my gosh. I know his English wasn't great.

I don't think he had much of a choice because Tim was like, you're in this

movie. Farley, shoot this. I kept going there with a camera.

We had one take and three minutes.

Okay, Kevin McGee. Kevin McGee. And that's his son right there. And son. Did

guys ever have any discussions of what sports he should play? Like a big list?

And it's like, how can we implement this? Whatever we had at his house that

free to use. But I think we were kind of, we've also been inspired by bad

translations on VHS boxes and or ones where the people who wrote the box.

didn't know anything about the plot or the stuff that's happening in the movie.

So somebody who doesn't know anything about sports came up with this.

That's what they would say. They would just say he's an athlete. I don't know

anyone's ever noticed the joke on the DVD we made, Justin.

I purposely wrote...

An incorrect synopsis of the movie. Can I read it? Do you mind? Yeah, go ahead.

After three years of self -imposed exile, a man voyages home to resume his

as an educational mentor.

When a mysterious woman helps him locate the river beast that terrorizes the

town, he takes his band of brothers on a dazzling mission to the perilous river

where the only potential outcomes are victory or death. I like how band of

brothers is in quotes.

It's like band of brothers. Yes.

Oh, thank you for recognizing that. It's such a subtle joke to write. I think

only one in maybe one or two million people know that that synopsis is a

It's a select person.

And there's no mysterious woman, you know? So I just love it.

That's so subtle.

It's like a Rene Cardona Jr.

movie or something.

If you read the back of the VHS on Beaks, it's all confusing.

And you're like, that doesn't really happen that way.

I thought that you were saying this is a Rene Cardona moment here of her laying

back in the pool on the floaty.

You guys are going to jump on a helicopter and fly around for 30

yeah, it kind of is.

You have a recorder in your pocket there, right? Oh, yeah, my right hand is

protecting the recorder.

Recorder in your pocket, protecting the Zoom recorder to a lab that's run up.

So we also had the Tudor thing was a part of a script. We had written a

called the Maniac Tudor.

And then we bailed on it. But then when we decided to make River Beast, we were

like, why don't we take the concept of the tutor and make that be what these

people are doing in their daily lives.

And I'm very happy. It's fun.

When we're writing these movies, it's like jamming more and more and more and

more because we're not going to wow them with our acting or our special effects

or something. So we might as well just like...

wow them with lots of storylines and we can wow them with our grammar so there's

like a little bit of uh there's a little bit of grammar exploitation which is a

little bit it's the least it's the least profitable of all the exploitations and

probably the least practiced but i just love fun weird words and farley does too

and tom does too he usually tom usually corrects one of one of us for saying

something wrong but it's just like spice up life spice up your movie a little

bit it's fun i mean it's also become a tradition for us but it's uh we're able

to make the world we want why not make those people use more interesting words

it's kind of people have teased me for it before people who don't get it but uh

i don't know i think it's fun it's free to do i also like all all the reaction

shots um not as much here because sharon and i did a pretty good job of

remembering our lines but there's others where people didn't remember their

lines and so we have extended shots of of one character listening, you know,

because we had to show something while the other person was literally reading

the line off, off the script.

I just love it. Like the, the listeners.

From my point of view, always seem a little bored, which I actually like.

great. I mean, it's perfect when you cut to someone, like, nodding. Yeah.

There's something going on. Yeah, they're a little bored.

They don't understand what a reaction shot is. We don't really tell them.

just like, just sit down for a second. I was going to say, oh, where'd you guys

shoot this? But I see that Kevin McGee is here, so it's Kevin McGee's house, I

assume. Of course, yeah.

He's got a great backyard set up.

for entertaining people and for filming movies. It's wonderful. And continuing

the tradition of McGee as the father to Sharon's character. So they kind of have

a good history going. Yeah, it's great.

Oh, the meat.

The meat, Farley. Oh, yeah, we got that. We did have real meat there.

Yeah, whatever cheapest meat was at the grocery store. You didn't go up and ask

like I did once, hey, do you guys have any guts you can sell me? And they

at me like I was a crazy person.

Well, the day we were filming that, Justin, there's a walking path near

Someone comes by with a huge Doberman.

So we've got the raw bloody meat going into, in a costume.

We look over, huh?

The dog like whips his head over at us. The guy has like a chain and a chain

collar. Like this beast is, he's got, he would be mad to attack the river beast,

but also because he has blood on it, fake blood on him and liver or fat,

whatever we were eating.

Having shot movies myself, I know the second that you bring any kind of food

out, a dog will come running out of nowhere to eat it. It happened when we

making the movie Teddy Bomb multiple times.

So here we have John Noble.

He's in a lot of the movies. He's the guy I worked with.

This is probably his biggest role, though. He plays the guy who gets the

mustache painted on his face in Match Vegas.

And then he's the guy in the shower that I'm spying on in Freaky Farley.

Engineer in Sammy.

The Engineer in Sammy.

His general attitude, he just spits back the line. He literally just does not

care at all as we're filming. Whatever.

It's hilarious.

And then here's Michelle, who's a radio DJ that I wrote a song about her, and

now she's in all our movies. It's pretty cool. Hopefully some really famous

people will reach out after hearing their songs, and you can be like, oh, do

want to be in my movie as well?

She's the only one so far. Yeah, Michelle is great. Just like Brian

though that she's a celebrity to you guys, she gets into the tone of these

movies.

Perfectly. Close -up. We know this is coffee milk, not chocolate. That one is

actually chocolate, believe it or not. That was filmed at my parents' house. We

didn't have access to coffee milk.

And this one, we just needed some shots to be happening during this dialogue.

We were in a rush, basically.

Yeah. No, it's like a travelogue, and it's also building up the camaraderie. I

mean, it's a good, and there's the famous phone booth in so many movies,

red phone booth. But I like this. This has a really good feel. And I think

we both love walking so much, having two characters kind of bond while walking.

Totally. I would do an entire movie like this.

It really works, you know, if you can. It's just we don't have a focus puller.

was going to say, you've got to get the rights to Stephen King's The Long Walk.

That would be the perfect Matt Farley movie. Oh, yeah.

So this is cool because, like you said, Chris Peterson hadn't been in a movie

with us since 1999, and this was his big return.

Every scene he's in is just hilarious.

He's so good.

He makes these little gestures, and we crack up. Every line that he delivers,

Charlie and I just can't hold it together. It's so great. He brings so

the whole movie, from every aspect.

to, like, you know, is it funny if I do this, to little touches with his outfit.

He really knows what he's doing. Yeah, kind of like how Kyle will do that kind

of stuff. He'll bring something to it every time. Yeah, exactly.

Collaborate big time. I mean, Chris said that he was so committed he tried to,

like, grow a mustache to look more disgraced.

It works.

It works.

So this is filmed at the house of the kid, the kid who plays Bradley.

We filmed this at his house.

And then there's a quick shot, not that one, there's another shot where Nick

wasn't there to play Danny O 'Grady, and it's actually, it's the kid's dad in

real life, but you never notice it. Oh, wow.

You're shattering the movie magic here. Yeah, I'd like to point out all that

stuff. It's good to film at the house of the people who have the kid, because

then it makes things a lot easier.

We can play video games when we don't need them, and then we have to drag them

away from the game for a quick shot.

And continue the tradition of Farley getting water.

dumped on him, something splashed on him or dumped on him that we had with the

water balloon.

I love that Matt Farley, like, shoulder shake there.

Yeah.

Yeah, Charlie told me to do that, and it was brilliant. When you go to

somebody's house, I guess you guys get, like, two hours of, like, full

commitment before they start to, like, drift and, like, I have other stuff to

in the day.

Exactly. That sounds about right. Exactly.

But then we keep filming as they're cooking dinner, you know, as, like...

Certain family members are giving looks to each other. Work it into the script.

Work it in. Are these guys going to leave? For people that have never shot a

movie before, it's difficult to kind of let them know how boring it will be and

how they'd rather be doing anything as they wait for stuff to be set up. But

it's so important.

He's going to pop out.

Here's what Farley was talking about.

There, that's him. That's DJ right there who popped his head out. That was

brazen. He's actually too big in the frame.

Oh, Sharon, months away, hiding behind a little thing.

Before work.

We went to her house before she had to go to work. She was in her work clothes.

We're like, hide behind this banister and duck, please, Sharon.

Okay. Did it. Done. We went home. When you know that those cuts were months

apart, it makes it even better.

Because when you see it, you're like, oh, okay, these, like, cutaways.

That's why they're structured like this. Yeah, it's like a comment on B -movie,

on C -movies while it is a C -movie. We had to do that to get it done, but in

the tradition of those kind of things. Good line coming up from McGee.

I don't pay to beat people in horseshoes or whatever it is. That's a great,

great moment right there.

Yeah.

One of his best in all the movies. I asked McGee if he consciously tries to

you laugh, and he was like, nope, I don't. It just happens.

So good, yeah. Because I'm so committed to the role, it just makes Matt laugh. I

don't know.

You know, honesty, it's like you don't want to talk about it too much while

you're working with him. You just kind of, you don't want to mess up the magic.

He takes great pride in it.

Don't listen to him.

Especially if you tried to take him on at horseshoes or something like that. Do

you ever play basketball with Kevin? I mean, not anymore, but I would at work.

He's ultra -competitive. He's more competitive than Frank Stone.

In the midst of a game, he will do anything to win.

I like to win too, but I'm not that concerned about it.

Luckily, he beats me anyway.

Even if I tried my hardest, he would still beat me.

He's a good athlete.

Touching moment. So we have here, you're still shooting at his house. I'm

surprised that this location was utilized so much. Yeah. Well, we were

were quick. We get there a little bit before he says we're allowed to and sit

the car for a while, talk about life.

And then we get a shot set up while he's inside getting ready. But Sharon is

also so fast with her lines, and Farley is too.

That stuff was lightning. You know, we were going pretty darn quick. A lot of

it, it's just me and Sharon, so we didn't even need him. Like, we dismissed

at some point, and they were like, we're going to stay a couple more hours. He's

like, yeah, yeah, whatever.

So that's good.

Totally, yeah.

The great Brian Fortin.

Brian Fortin. She's been a regular since Match Vegas.

And this is Tiff. She's my cousin.

And she's been a regular since Match Vegas, too. And she really knows how to

dance some, so that kind of works. Yeah, well, she told me. She was like, I'm

getting into poppin'. And I was like, all right, well, I'll make your

a poppin' rock dancer.

I love how this crowd forms.

With me, too. We were so desperate for extras. I'm like, maybe I'll crouch

run on the camera, go crouch down.

I didn't even notice that with you. It's fun for it to be a situation where

people are watching and they're just like, this would never happen.

Some people get angry almost. They're like, what?

this would never happen, and we're like, yeah, we know. That's why it's funny. I

wish it did. Yeah, I wish you could hang out in the park, meet somebody,

instantly become friends, play guitar, get cash, and then go, like, hang out

with your friends some more. Like, that's, like, the perfect day, yeah.

straight out of Wikipedia when she defines pop and lock -in, which is

And her obsession with cat litter, did you just land on that instantly, or were

there variations to that theme?

It took some time.

It took some time.

All sorts of things. I knew about it in life, that you use it in the garage for

oil spills and stuff.

And then we just kind of developed it. But yeah, it's unique and it's funny. It

was one of those things in developing the story, she was just the...

Her character is based on, what do we call her, Backpack Girl from the movie

Ants, I think. Yeah.

There's a moment in the movie Ants where this girl shows up and immediately asks

to take a shower at a guy's house.

We just...

Straight took it. But then we're like, how are we going to kill these river

beasts? And Charlie was like, well, what if it was kitty litter?

And then we're like, all right, and let's make it that her character loves

litter. So that's how we made it work. Yeah. Well, I had known that I think

break dancers use kitty litter on the cardboard to make it. Wait, what?

There's actually a basis in real life? That's what I thought, but I actually

didn't. We also don't do research because we don't want to.

We don't want to like mess up the magic almost in a way. Sort of like this is

the broad strokes of knowing about something.

It's like the movie version and we're putting it in a movie again.

Hearing you say that you don't do any research actually makes it funnier

everybody speaks in such an authoritative way in this movie, even

words they're actually saying is very silly. So it's like that contrast

that brings hilarity onto the screen. Oh, he's got a Shock July book there. So

yeah, I don't know that for sure, but that was something I thought.

Yes, insta -fight.

Also TV movie -ish, kind of, and soap opera -ish.

I was going to ask if there was, like, a particular movie that you guys borrowed

this from, but I guess it sounds like it's just hyper -drama in and of itself.

But it's a lot ants. I mean, ants, it's not a, in our movie it's a river beast,

in their movie it's ants, but, um...

The whole idea of a bunch of different characters who all have their things

going, like any disaster movie or monster movie.

Disaster movie?

That fist up in the air is so good.

It was cool that light actually fell as we were fighting, and that was kind of

cool. Charlie, don't you think?

Yeah, yeah. I think a photo flood was in there, so it was hot, too.

We risked it.

Everything it says on the bowl, do not put it in this kind of housing. That's

what we had it in.

Like a two -cent housing there. That thing is the cheapest. It was so hot.

Tiff does a great job here.

Her line is so confusing and magical.

I don't know what it means.

Oh, and the transistor radio.

Yeah, it's good. They instantly have this relationship.

It's fun. Tom, he is involved on just shooting, or does he actually help with

the script as well? He's like an advisor, script -wise.

Like I said, we had that big basketball session where we're popping ideas

around. Other than that, he'll read the script and give some suggestions here

and there. He'll have it on his lap.

while we're filming, too.

You know, he kind of ends up, if Farley is in the scene and I'm behind the

camera, we're like, Tom, what's it say how to do this here? And he's like, oh,

you've got to do this and that. And then we're just like, oh, okay. So he helps

really keep us on point. But we were always bouncing ideas off Tom. And he

the monster a few times in the film, right? Oh, yeah. Sure does, yeah.

Tom's a good sport.

I'll say, I'm sure we've said it plenty of times, but I mean, one person wears

it. they get hot and sweaty inside it, and then they take it off and give it to

the next person who's, like, easing into the other guy's sweat. It's real gross.

Elizabeth's so funny there, her head turn and her eye roll.

The little kid's action there is almost like a young Ricky, like a young Silent

Night, Deadly Night 2 tribute, I think, Farley, wouldn't you say?

Yeah, yeah.

Like, Ricky, like, yells at people and yells at his...

Whoever's helping him in the mental hospital, that little kid gets a line

that. And a helicopter hamburger is such a great concept. I love it. Yeah,

people like that.

Because people always ask, is that a real game?

Or is it just something that they made up?

Just something we made up, but it sounds like it could be, you know?

Oh, I'm so glad.

Yeah, alliteration helps.

Is that something you played when you were little, Farley? No, I just made it

while I was typing. Okay, that was Farley's idea, yeah. It seems very

believable. And the son from another marriage is probably one of the most

lines. Like, I remember when Peter was talking about seeing this movie, a pal

mine, he was like, oh, and they keep calling...

the child, the son from another marriage over and over again. Like it's such a

subtle thing. It's technically right. There's nothing wrong with it, but no

would ever say that so much. It's, it's a little bit insensitive. It's also just

not, I don't know. It's just sort of not done. Yeah. I mean, much like with the,

with the back cover of the DVD, it definitely something we thought about

was, um, what if, um, What if the whole script was written in Italian

and then was run through a translating...

a Google Translate, you know? So we wrote it as if that's where it came

And, you know, the Google Translate never gets it quite right, and it's off

just the most wonderful way. Yeah, it's like one of those Italian crews come to

the United States in a small town and shoot a film. Like, Joe D 'Amato did

a lot. Like, Troll 2 is one of those films where you're like, something feels

off about this.

Yeah, they're showing how American teenagers are, and someone has, like, a

skateboard, and they're like, you know, it's so over the top.

with convincing you that it's fun.

You can see the themes of the movie in a way. He's trying too hard, yeah.

And here we have the famous rock that appears in almost every Moturn media

And what's great about that is it's kind of like looking down on the small town

aesthetic that is just so organic in everything that you guys make. And

that angle just underlines it. And speaking of stuff that's in all your

Yeah, it wouldn't be a Moturn film without that phone booth. I haven't been

there in a long time, but I think so.

I think it is, but there's no phone inside of it anymore.

You mentioned that you took the idea of the tutor from another script.

Don't let the river beasts get you ever darker.

Did Matt ever go full Freaky Farley and start killing people or anything like

that in any versions of it? I would say the original one was a little darker.

Oh, the evil tutor.

Yeah, there were more beasts.

They used to be called river beasts.

And then he kept them and would use them to do his bidding. It was a little bit

more like, the pit in that way right right yeah yeah yeah he had the i was

evil tutor and i was tutoring sharon but it was more like i became obsessed with

sharon in that version and i like killed her boyfriend you know because he was

distracting her from her studies and then i found these beasts who i i like

started forming like an army of beasts But it was real weird. That was weird

dark. It's almost like stepfather in a way, where instead of just being

with being a father, you were obsessed with tutoring and doing a good job at it

and your charges results. The tagline was...

Eliminate distraction.

That was the tagline.

It was what I would say all the time.

Eliminate distraction. I can just see the cover. It's like an open dope book

there's like blood on it and like a broken pencil or something like that.

Oh, we just missed the introduction, though, to Ito Hootkin's Big Game Hunter

and Ladies Man. Mr. Farley. Yep.

Absolutely. Was it tough to get your dad?

No. Oh, in the background right here is Ryan, who plays the thrill -seeking

preppy in Slingshot Cops. You can see he's one of the patrons of the cupcake

shop. I just wanted to point him out. But working with my dad was easy and

It was like less than a mile from his house was where we filmed all those

scenes.

For those ones, and that was just me, him, and Charlie, so that was easy. And

then he drove to New Hampshire for that long day in the thicker woods.

But he was a total trooper, and he still dresses as Ido Hootkins for the

extravaganza every year. I like how Ryan in the background seems to have his own

story going on. He's like writing something down.

Oh, yeah.

He's an English guy, too.

He works in...

publishing stuff so yeah and he also plays the uh stalker and freak in a

legend and the and the poet too right ah look at these trees so

beautiful yeah yeah it's funny like kyle and connie are come from a different

era you know like with their camera and whatnot and there's no um

No discussion of it. And we didn't even write it for it to be like that. They

just were like, what if we had this camera? And we said, yeah, sure, go for

Yeah, it's just a little bonus for the audience, sort of a...

What are these guys, you know, you're supposed to have a lot of wheels turning

in your head while you're watching this. Yeah, instead of like trying to decide

in your head, oh, is this just like, you know, weird by accident? When you see

that camera, you're like, oh, okay, this is weird on purpose.

Because they're kind of like breaking any kind of reality. So I'm allowed to

laugh at like, you know, an overly wordy lie. Yeah, right. And give them

something a little interesting to look at too. Like just Americana -wise and

history -wise, it's, you know, hey.

just spices it up a little bit and doesn't distract too much from the

adds a little bit and use a lot, a lot of things in the stew. And that's just

one of them. Did your dad bring his own harmonica, Matt?

No, no, we, uh, that was one of the props and props are awful. Every time I

carry it, every time we're on, start filming.

Props are the bane of your existence. They're the most stressful thing that

can worry about on a shoot. And the thing is people don't even notice it in

movie because it's so part of it.

stunt double there we're like why what was the stunt double stunt double so we

we had someone do a close to camera pass by to act in for your dad because we

were filming Kyle in Connecticut.

Worked out well. Tricked me.

But plot -wise, I like how Sharon's character becomes interested

in... She likes to meddle, you know? So she's excited to be meddling in my love

life. And that's the hook that the tutor uses to pull her along into actually

focusing on her studies.

It's got a little bit of an after -school special.

quality to it or just like it it's very wholesome it's outrageously wholesome uh

and and fun it continues the tradition of all the main characters having a

they need to kind of like you know fulfill themselves in a way They've all

something that they're working toward or, you know, something that was missing

in their life. Yeah, that's screenwriting 101, which nobody

they're making independent films. But you guys do. Here you go. Yeah,

excitement. The park is just taking off here. The same people.

They come back for more.

You almost get the sense at first that, like, Sharon is going to try to crush on

Matt. Like, maybe she's going to think that a relationship is there. But

eventually, like, oh, no, that's not going to happen. And I feel that's,

very refreshing, not going down that angle. Yeah, exactly.

That's what we thought.

Yeah, it's super wholesome. Yeah, for sure.

Because it would be almost too obvious to go the other way. Yeah, you might

think that when you're talking about the movie on the first day, but then you

veto it real quickly in your mind and say, no, that's not, or you know that's

not the way to go.

Real kitty litter. That was expensive.

In the script to Thomasville, we had a line where, I just looked this up the

other day, someone throws the dirt over their head on the first couple pages

when they get back to city limits.

Isn't that funny? We're learning that we have certain motifs that we

unconsciously keep.

putting into movie after movie. It's because you're auteurs. Yeah, for sure.

Every time I see these scenes, my mind instantly imagines that shot of the

walking with the bindle. I think that's the best shot of the whole movie, just

that far away shot of the person with the bindle just happily skipping down

road. It's like the Americana version of a hobo. In reality, it's never going to

be that fun.

Here we're going for it. It's just, you know, she's having the time of her life.

What was your direction to Jim Farley, Charlie, when he's like, are you like,

just look around, or do you have any specific instructions?

I always say, like, sense the atmosphere, like, because he's a big

Literally, right, Farley? That's what I remember saying there. So he kind of got

that crouching attitude.

But there's not a ton of direction with Mr.

Farley, because you just want him to be himself, which, you know, is...

awesome and charming so you don't want to confuse them either it's fun to give

people a kind of a vague direction and then just see what they do you know yeah

so uh we do that sometimes hey this is this is like school now out of outdoors

lot dark putting us in the present but this was a beautiful day i mean it's

we had a wind machine there and sharon almost it's one of the great things

low budget shooting outside we have maybe a bounce on them to fill in on one

side and then

Just found a shady spot so they aren't too glary.

And, you know, working with just whatever park and whatever New England

given us. I love the color in this film. And it looks like I see the magic of

the warp stabilizer on some of those moving shots, too. A little bit, yeah,

which I'm a little guilty. I feel a little guilty about, but just a little.

Yeah, no one notices unless you've used it yourself in movies.

Yeah, you're probably right. I don't even know what it is.

47 minutes in and no one has been attacked by a river beast yet.

Lots of unhappy viewers.

Was there ever a discussion to have more cutaways to the river beast, like

eating flesh or just walking around?

What we got almost killed us.

We were kind of like, that's it.

It was so hard.

Being attacked by Dobermans and almost drowning in the water.

You are right, though. We did talk about it a little bit. And then you kind of

scale, you go with reality as you keep working.

But it worked out fine. It almost works even better to be in terms of us

being... kind of weirdos and underdogs to make a monster movie and not be able

to really have him in there a ton.

But if you save him for the end, you know, which not a spoiler because

knows that's coming, if you save him, it's maybe all the sweeter. I've talked

Farley before that it's like Rocky, you know, when he's learning to box and he

pretends that he can't use that one hand as his main hand, and then you bust out

that hand. So maybe this movie and in Freaky Farley, we're kind of just

Especially Freaky Farley. We're waiting until Farley's mania. And when it

arrives, it's just madness.

Farley turned all the way up.

I don't know. I like that. I like earning it. Let it simmer for a while

just go mad with a sprint to the end. Once we're working toward the ending,

like boom, boom, boom.

Slingshot Cops is the same thing. Once it's getting to the end, it's getting

there. I love...

Oh, this phone call with, what's his name, Ned Matthews calling the sheriff.

Oh, it's so good because when he says, can't you just come to the scene of the

crime, he's like, I got things to do, punk.

And the fact that, like, McHugh's just sitting there, like, by the jail cell,

you know?

Yeah.

So funny.

He pushed my face into the earth.

And when he takes out the map, you know, I'll take this shortcut to the police

station.

Oh, great delivery by Pete.

But, yeah, this is good stuff.

Subtle, subtle. Like a kid would not know that we're talking for the benefit

the audience. And then that's the magic of watching these movies. As someone

who's maybe like 12, 13, 14, the light bulb might go off.

Oh, they're actually, they know what they're doing.

But a little kid would just be like, okay, he's describing how he's going to

walk on the map. That's an interesting observation that these movies actually

work on two levels. People that are aware of the stuff that you're doing and

younger people who would just go along with it. He just carries this map around

with him all the time.

Get my crutches, get my map.

I didn't even think of it, but I think Elizabeth pointed out to me at one

she was like, the river beast has these deadly sharp claws, but he chooses to

kill this guy with the crutches, you know?

Well, we talked about it, that the river beast likes to add insult to injury,

and he's not just when animals attack.

He's actually a jerk. We talked about having him as a wrestling villain.

Like a bad guy in the WWF bad guy. Yeah. Have you ever discussed the origins of

the River Beast? Like, where did he come from?

No, we only know that he needs constant water to stay alive.

And in the world of this movie, it hasn't rained since the end of this

the sequel begins with the first rain in...

Possibly a decade or more.

And we did mention he could live underwater for a long time if he's not

disturbed. So that was Picnic Babes, huh? We should have mentioned Picnic

One or two people have said, I enjoy that. It's just weird enough.

It's good. And it's good.

That it's a thing around town. Everyone knows that the Picnic Babes are out

there. I think Milhouse or Fortin, one of them in the cupcake shop, is like,

there's nothing out there but the Picnic Babes. To imagine that that's just a

thing that everyone knows about delights me. And they're that dedicated to it,

that they're always there. They're there enough that all these sorts of

different people would see them. And they just enjoy their time together so

with that blanket and that radio.

bopping in place you know yeah but what's crazy like for making a movie

this is I have to sweet talk these two co -workers of mine and be like so uh I

was thinking maybe on Sunday you could come into the woods

and dance around on a picnic blanket for a few minutes. What do you think? And

they're like, okay.

But, I mean, it's just like one other thing that you have to finagle. So we're

in the midst of filming, like, fight scenes, and then I'm like, oh, the

babes are here.

So just stop filming the fight scene in the woods. Quickly film them dancing.

Let them leave and then get right back to it. I mean, that's the one thing that

you don't have anymore, Matt, is a workplace that you can take bodies from.

I know.

Seriously. Yeah.

That's a big deal.

Because Farley does such a good job of sweet -talking people for months to

on end. And then it just feels like an inevitability back then that they would

have to be in one of the movies, you know?

Yeah, I wonder. I can only imagine what they'd say when I wasn't in the room.

It's worth it.

And when you've worked with someone, you kind of know, I'm sorry to cut you off,

you kind of know to trust them. Do they show up late to work all the time? Are

they kind of secretly a jerk?

You know, you kind of can tell. Yeah, yeah. So it worked out well. But I got a

good, we got a good table of trusted collaborators, and we're still making it

work. You got to put up signs like, would you like to be in a movie? Call my

number.

No, we haven't gotten there yet.

Now, this scene, it was very windy.

Right, Charlie?

Very windy. Did you have to dub a lot of the movie? No.

No, I don't think so. Right, Charlie? Not a lot on this one. You would think

that we would have had to there.

I think just by having the lavalier under the shirt, it worked

kind of as a buffer enough.

Somehow we got away with it, but we didn't have to pass very stringent QC,

think you're pretty agreeable.

It worked okay, but yeah, it is hard. It is hard in that wind. But by using the

lavs on this movie, we were moving pretty fast without having a boom

nobody to dip into the shot, not another person to cram into the car with us.

Whenever I've shot with a lav, I'm so scared that all I'm going to hear is

like...

Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Well, most of our actors aren't moving when they're talking, so you'll hear a

lot of it as they're getting ready to perform, but then right when the line

delivered, luckily it's not happening then.

Oh, to live in a world, by the way, where the local newspaper would have a

page story about a tutor hiring a big game hunter to search for a river beast.

And a newspaper boy still going around, happily doing his job on foot.

No. I think that, like, the anachronism in your films is definitely one of the

key things that when people see them, they go, oh, they are making jokes about

it. Like, the newspaper boy going around with, like, important news feels like

something that is right out of The Simpsons. Especially the fact that you

don't make a big deal out of it. Like, no one is surprised that the character

made the front news. This is stuff that just happens every day.

Wait, I have to say, your uncle, does he move in this movie? He always seems to

be like standing still somewhere.

Does he take any steps?

Let's watch closely.

That's his way of working. He surveys the scene.

He, you know, points, shrugs. Yeah.

He just commands the screen and the world moves around him. I'm afraid we're

going to get in trouble for impersonating a police officer, you

filming. And he's proudly, like, walking around with his chief of police hat,

like, waving at police cars as they drive by.

Luckily, it works. And he's never played a chief.

Yeah, and he wears the hat. Yeah, that's fine. That's the only hat we have

access to. Yeah, he's been detective and he's been a sheriff.

Here comes the vagabond. There's your vagabond. Who's playing the vagabond in

this shot? That's Janet, one of my co -workers.

She's in Slingshot Cops. She's Ethel, the cleaning woman who also tastes the

cupcakes, too.

And she plays the aunt in Local Legends who recommends that I...

read the book how to improve your filmmaking techniques she's in that uh

that's right yeah she's super fun and we love having her in the movie right

charlie and we filmed at at the workplace there you know out in the out

grass so i mean if you get somebody when they're like on their way to their car

after a shift or before a shift you gotta be at work so then yeah you could

You know they're going to be there at a certain time. So unprofessional. You're

like, why would you say no?

Yeah, well, it was the same with that scene where the blonde -haired girl

to me and then Charlie is with her in the middle of the street. That is right

outside the driveway to where I used to work, and it was after a meeting.

And I was like, Kelly, quick, come over here. You're going to be in a movie.

It worked. I mean, I feel like a desperate loser when I'm doing it,

of course. But it's the price you have to pay. Yeah, it works. Yeah, you're

giving them immortality in the cinematic arts. And they don't have to drive

anywhere. And sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes they're giving us

feeling that we're ruining their lives by using them for eight minutes.

It's crazy. The process as far as writing the music on this film, did you

approach it differently, Matt? No.

I use a lot of the same sounds. I guess it's a little more symphonic as opposed

to like Freaky Farley is a little bit more like synthy, you know, like early

80s synth. So just kind of symphonic and just trying to get a little bit of an

adventure sound to it, you know, like a melody that's kind of driving or

something.

I'm pretty happy with it. Every time the River Beats is about to show up, you

hear the music, and you're like, ah, yeah, the River Beats is coming.

How about you, Charlie? Did you change anything stylistically in the way you

shot this movie compared to the other ones that you had made? This is slightly

more polished, so we did try to keep things pretty composed nicely,

some traditional coverage, ways to really get you into the story.

So I think those TV movies were all about having some good screenwriters.

You know, even like ants.

We love ants.

And also known as it happened at Lakewood Manor, if you prefer.

It's really illuminating to read your guys' shock marathon books because you

see over the years your taste evolving, changing, narrowing, widening even,

and that the references that you take and that you implement or that you find

funny are not always the most obvious things that people would think of first.

River Beach, obviously you're referencing 50s cinema and regional

but the TV movie perspective is something that would not have come to my

automatically, but now that you say it, the use of drama with no budget, it

makes so much sense. I love these photos.

Yeah, we had to pay budget on those.

But yeah, I think we shot it to maximize the comedy.

The movie...

Farley has said this before too, but the movie thinks it's a real movie. Maybe

even thinks it's a bigger movie than it is if we think of it as its own entity.

So we try to not get in the way of what these actors are doing and what the

dialogue is.

But still capturing, you know, trying to get wide now and again. I do feel I

watch some low -budget movies where I'm like, I do not want to be inside this

room all the time.

I do not want to be in your apartment all the time. I want to see...

the place you live, I want to see the town. We really go out of our way to get

locations that are a little bit good, if they're free. Has anyone that worked

for the city ever reached out and been like, ah, we love how you document our

city in this?

No.

I mean, ManchVegas was basically a love letter to the town of Manchester, and

they turned it down at the film festival.

I'd say the opposite.

They've mostly said, don't bother us, and we don't like your movie.

What's it called? Yeah, we were rejected. We sent a love letter to

New Hampshire, and they just put return to sender, basically, is what happened.

That's great, Farley. I like this section of the movie I like a lot, just

because it's like... Dark, dark times for Neil.

He's stuck tutoring jobs that he doesn't necessarily like.

He's being bullied by the reporter, and then he's got to sit and listen to Tom

and Tiff talk, and it's fun.

Now he's going to claw his way back. Charlie? Yeah, their sunny love building

there is like times a thousand on the brightness side, and you're curled under

an old quilt on the floor.

That worked pretty well right there.

If Riley's Old Street again, you know, this is a classic Manchester, all those

brick buildings. I do like that we keep being able to film there to capture

that, some sort of consistency across the movie. Watching scenes of characters

just wander around Manchester is kind of like going back home, seeing

recognizable things, especially if you've seen all these movies multiple

Now, this is one of the biggest scenes in the Moturn filmography, isn't it?

this big wedding with all these people?

Yeah, yeah, probably.

I'd say there's even more people here than were at the file shooting contest.

It's on the same ballpark, but yeah, same location too.

And this was the first thing we filmed for the whole movie, was this scene,

getting everyone together on a hot day in August.

This is my buddy Sleason right here playing Hi -Hat Harry.

There's this book I read by a local...

A local DJ wrote his autobiography and gave it.

He gave it to, when I was in eighth grade graduation, he was the DJ at our

party. And he gave every kid a copy of his autobiography. And in it included a

story of how his friend refused to play music unless the guy paid

him first. And it was this big back and forth. And I was like, we need to put

that. In a movie. So that's why the band won't play. Go Charlie. It was in a

pamphlet form, right? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Will Sloan and Farley had talked about pamphlets when we interviewed him

for the podcast episode. You may be the only person on planet Earth who read

that autobiography.

And made an homage to it.

He was also the local ice cream truck driver.

But that's where we got the Hi -Hat Harry thing. And I love a little later

when Hi -Hat Harry and Amanda come running back, and they were mad, but

music inspires them, and they just start dancing too. It's a great little touch.

Keeping this many people happy for an extended period of time with no, quote

-unquote, extras tent or whatever, and no assistant directors to wrangle or do

things over, it's interesting.

We start off with a lot of extras, and they kind of want to go. They would work

their way indoors where it was cooler.

It was air -conditioned inside, so they'd all kind of work their way

Then we'd have to be like, all right, everyone, come back out.

We could really use some more bodies on this shot.

I'm not going to hear.

No, everyone is so nice. I mean, they're not getting paid. But it's so hard,

unless you've actually made a movie, to put yourself in the shoes of the people

making the movie sometimes.

So when I help someone on a movie, I'm like, do you want to be an extra? I'll

stand here. I won't talk.

I'll just, whatever you need, I'll carry.

I know what I would wish that we had someone do on one of our movies. Did you

have to be like, quiet, everybody, quiet, when you're trying to shoot a

Oh, it's so hard.

Yeah, you don't want to because they're actually there having fun. It's actually

a little party they're invited to, and it's half that and half us making the

movie. And we just keep ruining it. Yeah, we just keep ruining it. Just keep

ruining it, yeah. I told my mom we needed potato salad, so she, like,

a recipe and spent time preparing this thing. She thought we were going to eat

it, you know?

And then she's like, wait, I did all that work just so you could dump it on

lawn?

But it all worked out. The authenticity.

Yeah. Michelle went all out wearing the wedding dress that her grandmother was

married in, I believe. Right, Charlie? I think so, which is unbelievable.

The wedding dress is so out of our budget, but her ability to volunteer to

that was just amazing.

And she came with a friend named Big Daddy who worked the clapper and had a

grand old time and was into it.

Like Charlie was saying, when you have to wrangle people, my philosophy is if

have to wrangle them, then I'd rather have the shot be bad and not have a lot

extras.

then have the shot be good and have to have, like, dragged them out there. It's

like the people who are gung -ho about it, we'll film with them, and the ones

who aren't, like, we don't blame them for not being gung -ho about it and let

them do their thing. If they wander back out, we'll put them in the background.

But ultimately, like...

I don't want to force people's cooperation. We've got to protect the

any negative vibes.

Any negative vibes.

So even if you're just holding the mic, but you bring negative vibes. No, no,

no. Riverbeats can't have any negative vibes. So it's like this bubble that we

have to maintain all the time. And if it means that we don't get an angle, it

means that we have to drop a whole scene. We do.

Did you have, like, a shot list for this, Charlie?

Because there's so many shots and so many eyelines as well, and that you did

all in, like, one day.

I wish we had a whole day to film it.

But, no.

I stopped doing that after we've been making the movies and having so many

things change all the time that I would end up having to kind of, like...

you know and just not use it so i just thought we'll just we'll just go on the

day and wing it yeah rewheel it right yeah how many times did you sing this

matt not too many three tops charlie yeah three tops and then each time i

in real time i'm just running around with the camera so there's a time when

in the in among the crowd like that there's a time when i'm getting a whole

Time for the reverse.

Three or four, maybe. It was a lot of energy. Give Farley his props. I mean,

was sweating up a storm.

He had to bring in each take.

And if he puts out all that energy, I mean, the people in the crowd should be

able to just kind of, like, twist around in place a little bit. Making up the

dance as he goes along.

Unbelievable. This is a little bit like one of Farley's college coffeehouse

performances a little, right, when he starts really rocking out.

I had the moves. I had the moves down, but then when I was trying to teach

everyone, one they weren't i was not i'm not a good dance teacher or a good

choreographer so it was people were just doing whatever they were just ignoring

my suggestions but at least on the when they're pulling the rope to get out of

the quicksand. At least everyone understood that part, and that's a good

enjoyed as well that Milhouse Ajee said that he learned the bass lines of the

song, so he could be playing it as close as possible. Yeah, and I mean, that's

one of those things, you know? It's cool that he wanted to bother to learn it,

because it's true.

Musicians watch, and they're like, what? He's not even strumming with the

rhythm. So, of course, there's no...

No believing that that upside -down Home Depot bucket makes that drum sound,

but what are you going to do?

It's good to give people who aren't in movies a ton something to do, for all

reasons, for the good charm of life and so they don't look too lost out there.

It worked out well. What's great about this part is you suddenly realize, oh,

yeah, there's a monster in this movie.

Yeah. And this is where we go. We step up to a new gear kind of starting around

here. Like, this is really happening.

You don't want me to be arrested for indecent. It reminds me a little bit of,

mean, there's more beasts in Horror Party Beach, more creature attacks, but

of the suburban -ish.

attack that happened in that movie which i really really love and was filmed in

connecticut um we get a little bit of that vibe here far lower budget on our

but uh But in those movies, just like the ones that you guys make, what's

endearing about them is not filmmakers trying to make a Hollywood -style

movie. Because on a certain level, the monster movie up until Jaws was always

considered an exploitation genre, a lesser of, even like the universal

like Frankenstein or Dracula.

So when you watch those regional films that were coming up in the 70s and 80s,

it was mostly people that were making... genres that they just loved when they

were a kid.

And it's not about like shocking or frightening.

It's just the love of being able to do it in the environment where these people

often grew up. And that's what you guys do. Got our money's worth out of the

picnic babes.

The picnic babes.

Such an obviously new location from where he walked into the woods versus

he... What do you mean?

Two months later, like the lush greens versus just like dead trees.

What are you going to do?

Whoever color corrected this did not match those two things. I did like the

close -up of it, like a red T -shirt and the claws going into it. No, it was

actually meat, the gory close -up, but it doesn't correspond to any body part.

It's just like a full frame of meat. You're like, is that his neck?

He's got a meaty neck. Yeah, but I tell you, Farley and I, and he actually helps

influence me on this, but to our convince, you always got to be super

Movies are weird.

It's like you would never expect in real life that someone writing real hard

with like a pencil would break the pencil and it would hurt their finger.

you're doing it in a movie, somehow that's going to happen.

It's just like things happen.

So for like using those claws, for example, and stabbing that fake meat, I

never going to like actually swipe near, let us or let Farley swipe near his

face or he wouldn't want to.

We don't want to endanger anybody.

You know, it works out better that way, and it makes it funnier and more low

-budget. But safe, safe, safe. Were those claws sharp?

Yeah, strong and sharp. Oh, the rigid. Props to Nick LaValle here. I think this

scene especially, he's great as Danny O 'Grady.

And, like, he's not a very likable character, but, like...

He cares about his son, you know, and, like, he kind of protects him near the

end. It's kind of, it's a nice little moment for him before he's

killed. Yeah, he gets his moment. I remember when I watched it for the first

time, I was shocked. I'm like, no, his dad is killed.

Because suddenly, like you said, the foot's on the gas, and just people are

going to start getting murdered.

Yeah. We always wanted, and in filming, like, with the Beast.

We always talked about having a wide shot that looks like that classic

walking across the street shot that you always see where he turns and it's in

the car headlights.

I tried to frame this so it would be like that. That feeling of you're just

there in nature and all of a sudden...

Oh,

he had the shot right there.

Just like Bigfoot. Yep. Turns and looks.

Yeah. Just wide enough to be a little confusing. And he's so camouflaged here.

This is the violent kill, where it just takes a little bit longer.

And that's like a soap opera moment where there's always amnesia or

things, ways to get around somebody not having to actually be dead but be out of

the story for a minute.

Yeah, and there's no real explanation why the monster went away for all those

years that I was out of town. I love that Matt's character was run out of

because he kept telling people that there was a monster, and that was

This is Kyle's backyard again, which was really great to film in. And I like how

we're like, how are we going to get Kyle and Connie on the ground? And

basically, like, the river beast suddenly has, like, a magical power to

like, he sends some sort of, like, power force at them, and they just fall down

and can't get up. Yeah, and they're entranced. And he's the slowest beast

And that was Farley trying to get out of the river quickly.

Yep, it's so difficult inside that costume.

I mean, walking with flippers is hard enough, but you can't see either.

Yeah, you can tell that the river beast is like, where am I supposed to put my

hands?

Yeah, that was Riley.

Was it always river beast? Was it ever like creek beast or lake beast?

It was river beast, yeah. I'll take credit for river beast.

I was like, Charlie, I got it. And the don't. We were like, we want to make

something in the tradition of all the great don't movies. So it was like,

let the Riverbeats get you.

We would always do this walk on the train tracks by the river, so we're pro

-river, right, Charlie? Yeah, and it's also in line with us being no budget. I

mean, a real movie films on Malibu, where that's where the monsters are, in

ocean, you know? But in a poor man's movie, you're on a tiny creek in New

Hampshire. Oh, but as we've been saying throughout this commentary, when you're

making a kind of subtle comedy like this, it's...

People don't really latch on right away.

Having a tiny creak is what makes it great.

Having a big one, not as funny.

Oh, the bricks.

The bricks. Once again, we did our best. We weren't like, hey, let's get the

worst -looking bricks we can.

These were the best -looking bricks we could get.

We even sprayed them down with some adhesive.

Right, Charlie? Some sort of adhesive spray.

I tried to get dulling spray. Whatever it was, that didn't help. It just made

the whole basement stink.

Yeah, it's the reflection is what gives it away and the wrinkles. It got all

crinkled, yeah. But it adds to the tradition that Farley and I have of

people make fun of us and we just say, go for it. It helps you have a fun day,

especially like teenagers who are kind of, maybe feel like, you know.

They feel comfortable about teasing something about fake -looking bricks and

guys trying to make a movie. Go for it. Let them do that. So I went to a

hardware store and bought ten of these poles for chain -link fences.

And then we had them stacked between the ceiling and the floor. And that worked

out well. Of course, the fact that there's no...

There's no way to get in or out of the, you know, there's no door to this cell,

many people have noticed. Yes, it was duct tape on the bottom of them to

to something, so they just kind of were, you couldn't breathe on them. As long

as you didn't breathe on them too hard, they didn't fall. And you couldn't turn

the camera up or down at all, or it would reveal the...

Did you write those newspaper articles, Charlie? Like if we free frame and read

what was on screen? Yeah, some of them have a first paragraph of something.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

That was fun. We actually kind of tried to make the newspaper a big part of the

story. Dolly, move.

There's only two or so in the movie. That's one of them.

If you have never made a movie before, dear listener, doing a dolly move like

you're seeing on screen right here over Tom Scalzo takes so much time to set up.

And most of the time, people don't even really notice.

After two testing sessions. Charlie had to take down whatever it actually said

there and rewrite that. That was good.

Now, this scene, this scene we love because it's completely unnecessary.

You know, like...

if you're going to cut a scene out of the movie, you'd be like, what about

the two guys talking in the cupcake shop? Like, we could live without that,

couldn't we? And Charlie and I are like, no.

No, this is the reason the movie exists, to have these two characters involved

in this inane conversation.

Oh, we love it. Because what would you say that, you know, someone's like, oh,

it's like, this scene is like this meets this, or it's like...

Something on Friday the 13th.

It's not really like much of anything.

It might be like some weird TV movie, but it would never pass all the

and all the people who have to sign off on a movie to let Fortin and Milhouse

chat in a cafe like this, you know? So we are the ones who can bring that to

people. He was very excited about his bacon cupcake.

That was his payment for appearing in the scene.

Yeah, and those cupcakes are pricey. I spent like $50 on cupcakes that day.

But it's all we can offer people.

Oh, they're real good. If you're ever in Manchester, New Hampshire, Queen City

Cupcakes on Elm Street, it's great.

Now, Sharon, why is Sharon just here to visit me? They let me have visiting

hours in the local jail, I guess? Yeah, yeah.

A little bit moody lighting here, moodier than we do. Yeah, but trying to

it off the plastic.

I was about to say, like, little noir lighting. Yeah, yeah.

Stuff is getting serious now, so the lighting reflects those.

Night is falling behind Matt.

And then the scene, has it happened yet, where Tom confronts me in the basement,

too, and he thinks that I killed Pamela or something. That's coming up, too,

right? That had the moody lighting, too. Yeah, we talked about it while we were

filming it. We're like, hey, this is feeling like an 80s horror movie or

something. It's like a Halloween kind of attack lighting, you know, attack scene

lighting going on here.

It's cool. Horror always kind of finds its way in a little bit. Good job by

Farley here. Farley and Sharon, they were so on point.

I mean, everything in here is one, two takes most, but a lot of it's first.

And Sharon doesn't like to rehearse.

So her one time of doing it is what's in the movie. And it was, at the end, if

you asked yourself, what could I say do better? The answer's nothing.

So you just move on. I mean, a cage is a line from Caged Terror. Is that right,

Shara? No, I think it's, oh, is it Caged Terror? Yeah, maybe it is. Donald

Pleasant in Texas Times, is that what it's called? Yeah, no, no, Night

Night Creature, you're right. Yeah, it's not Caged Terror. Yeah, Night Creature.

Caged Terror has a man in a cage as well, and we're influenced by that one

I was hoping that'd be the tagline to Cage Terror.

I'm in a cage.

Night Creature has a big game hunter, too, which definitely influenced it. We

basically just watch other movies and take notes and think, what are the

we like best from all these movies, and then we throw them all together for our

own version of the whole thing. This thing we filmed, this is in New

I have another friend whose property was right against these pretty thick woods.

And it's good to film where you know the owners of the land, you know. So we

were allowed to be there. And it's a nice looking woods.

Yeah, 360 degrees was clean.

No houses.

The only problem is there's also no, we had no chairs. And we had nowhere to

like get comfortable for a second really. We might have brought like one

for Sharon.

But other than that, we are really in the woods with a lot of mosquitoes and

with very little.

for the hours it takes. So now right here, presumably the movie is tricking

audience on purpose because it does the double red pages, or the red flashes

for the picnic babes.

That's basically the movie saying, ha ha, fooled you, right? I think so, yeah.

think you could interpret it either way because it comes right before they

establish him here.

I guess, yeah. But it seems like it's happening for the babes. Real fans.

expect that the river beast to get like its mask pulled off and it's one of the

picnic babes it's like it was them all along that would be something wow this

was this was probably i think tom here now because once farley was getting

to be in his tutor outfit i think tom had that was no that was was this farley

here what do you think can you tell beast acting i have no idea no idea

little taller i hope now that river beast frenzy is starting to trend

the whole cultural stratosphere we will have scholars that will go through this

movie separating which shots are which actor in the same way that many of the

monster kids love to do when it comes to looking at creature from the black

lagoon and going oh wait no this was the guy that was the swimmer and then it's

the stuntman that is in the other shots Okay, now we're getting into the big

action climax of this movie.

A little bit of an action scene here. It's unceremonious, too. There's Ido

Hootkin dead, you know? Oh, it's great to build something up and then just have

it.

Oh, that's a great fall, too, like his hat flops off.

Yeah. Yeah.

Mr. Farley, I mean, he had to go the extra mile to lie on the ground in the

woods, which is not easy for anybody.

The Killer's Moon reference here, I was surprised to hear you guys say, we don't

even like Killer's Moon. We just like the sound of the title. Yeah, that's

right.

We watched Killer's Moon, and we joked while watching it, like, uh -oh,

Moon's going to come out. We imagined that Killer's Moon was the name of the

guy or something.

Because the movie wasn't that, we were like, well, let's make it be that sort

in our movie.

It's just fun, like Fortin's character, for that to be his thing.

Everyone's got this little petty thing that they care about. It's like our

confused interpretation expands upon itself. It takes on its own.

Worth to us. And was Brian up for anything as well as far as, like,

the woods goes?

Oh, yeah. We're just like, hey, Brian, meet us in New Boston, New Hampshire at

in the morning. He's like, okay. It was like an hour and 20 -minute drive from

his house, and he just did it all with a smile. It was awesome. He had to be a

game. He had to really get put.

Put down on the ground.

Yeah, that's a good little scene when he's yelling to Sharon and telling her

run. That's good stuff. Nice, yeah. When Kevin McGee shows up in the next scene,

it's like the audience suddenly realizes, oh my God, he's going to get

amazing moment.

In the after movie Diner, one of the guys calls him the shoulder.

That's how he describes the character, McGee the shoulder.

I rack -focused his shoulder one time just out of comedy. I thought, why not?

A lot of lifting went into that shoulder, so why not?

These movies, they look so simple, but when you kind of think back on them,

are so well -constructed that strands that you forget suddenly pop right back

into the picture. Is Bradley going to come home now? Yeah, he is.

He can only make it to the threshold.

He's out cold again. The poor kid, he was just unconscious in the woods for

24 hours. Good energy here.

The fact that his name is Paul Teak is just a totally random thing I came up

with before I even decided that there would be a reason for it. Just like Paul

Teak. Wouldn't that be funny if that was a name? And then it worked out that

he's like an antique.

McHugh, there's like a famous.

In my world, there's a famous behind -the -scenes moment of us trying to get

McHugh to deliver one of these lines, and I don't know if you've ever seen it,

Justin, but it's like...

Eight times of him not getting it right, and it's so hilarious.

Well, he can get to a certain point, and he'll have a point he trips up at. He

might get past that one, and then you're just begging, please keep it going, and

then, no.

Or he changes it in a pleasant way, but it's just too wrong.

It's so fun. So fun.

But we're just trying to get sentences out so we don't have to do too much, you

know, too much cutting.

Oh, that coffee milk. I haven't had that brand in a while.

Right out of the darkness, like Michael Myers. Yeah, there you go, Michael

Myers. And we love the emotions changing so quickly. Like Tom hates me. He's

certain that I killed Pamela.

And now in a few seconds we're going to be locking hands and going out to save

the time. The Predator.

Schwarzenegger. We do a lot of the Predator kind of hand clasp. This is so

similar to what...

In the arcade, Charlie, you know, where I say there's something you can sense,

you know, that scene?

Right before Wolf comes back as a ghost, it's basically that moment, like, just

again. Yep, and then it happens again in Metal Detector after you guys finish

your last class teaching in the garage.

It's the Band of Brothers.

Millhouse is just running down the street.

This was real mise -en -scene here.

We filmed the Band of Brothers running near some artillery on purpose.

And then they're just walking through the woods.

You know, you can't go 100 % the entire time.

Yes.

The enthusiasm waned. I mean, but they put some miles in to get to that point.

You need that pause in the action before the big dramatic reveal that Brian's

character has been fouled. Good moment here.

Killer's Moon is dead. I love this. This is intense.

So we have to imagine that off camera you knew about his secret killer's moon.

Yeah, that's nice. I mean, someone might not realize that until they've watched

it. Like, Fortin's been telling people his whole life, you know, guys, if ever

I'm in a battle, I'd like you to call me killer's moon. And we're like, yeah,

yeah, of course. And if I'm dead, speak it over my grave. Yeah.

And then Sharon, Sharon has just been out.

outsmarting the Riverbeats all night with her athletic prowess because she

didn't know the way home. In the original script, she was going to climb

but then we realized it was too unsafe. Yeah, we wrote that line on set.

Just say you did it with your athletic prowess. Go, go, go, go. Film it. Let's

go. Boom.

Real fighting here.

This was hot.

Crazy day. So at points there, I'm the beast.

Yeah, I was going to say, like, so Tom is probably the beast at some point.

Charlie has to be the beast as well. I think it's just me and Tom. Me and Tom

for all these scenes. Charlie was only the beast in the water. In the water,

yeah. But Tom dons the costume for this show down here.

It's always frustrating because when you get to the end of a shoot, whether it

be a day or an entire production, the most important stuff, even though you

to put it at the beginning, always somehow ends up happening at the end of

day when you're running out of time, when you're running out of light, and

possible thing that could go wrong is going wrong.

Darn impressive, in my opinion, that you would never know that crunch you guys

were experiencing when shooting this very complex finale.

I like having the little thought, you know, you hear the thought and the

echo. This was one of my favorite days of filming in my life, or scenes.

Unleashing Kevin as an athlete here to dodge these trees was just him in his

glory.

Lots of claw action, lots of claw action. Ad -libbing by me, too. Like, I

remember you.

Yeah, ad -libbing. But we did kind of, like, choreograph the swings a little

bit. But it was fantastic, your ad -libbing and your intensity.

Yes. Yes. Which is kind of an homage to Gremlins, how the Gremlins know all this

stuff that you don't think a Gremlin would know, pop culture -wise. And real

fans can hear the Rubik's Cube go, Tudor!

That was Charlie.

Charlie added that in post. That was never discussed, but then Charlie threw

in there and probably didn't even tell me until I watched it. It's so good.

just another wheel in your head to turn. Oh, Kevin McGee. I mean, you're working

up to this the whole movie. Get ready for the beatdown of your life.

And he delivers.

That's everything you want. I think the only unbelievable thing in this movie is

that Kevin McGee just doesn't knock out the River Beast with one punch and then

he's done with it.

I know, it's tragic.

The thick hide on this beast. He really punches the mask, too.

So we just let him tee off on the chin. And Farley, you just had to take it. But

we thought it would look believable if the head snapped a little bit. This is

one time we were slightly unsafe.

But he really makes contact with it. As a filmmaker, I can really tell the sun

is setting in the background because you can see it on the horizon.

Justin. Oh, my God. This whole scene was, I just made up the angles in 10, 15

minutes. Oh, yeah. We're like, we got to hurry up. It's getting dark.

There's real contact there.

Yeah. Yeah. That was really fun. I loved that. We're fine.

If it's me, we don't care about injuries, you know?

But it's other people we don't want to put in any kind of position.

Again, a wrestling tribute there. There was one character who used to blind

people with sand.

That was a dirty trick.

right through his body.

You could see the athletic socks.

I sometimes probably didn't want to wear the flippers, so you could see the

athletic socks or the sneakers. They're there, yeah.

But we love death scenes.

McGee death moment. Anytime McGee is dying, it's hilarious.

Like an obtuse Todd.

And Freaky Farley in Manch Vegas. He doesn't die, but up on the rock. It's

so great for him to go full -fledged, you know. Opera.

Yeah.

I don't know. I wonder how many people watching it know

it's coming. You know, Justin, the kitty littered. What do you think? I

would say almost no one until you pull it out and people are like, oh, yeah.

Because it just seems like a non -sequitur joke before.

Yeah.

Glee. Glee fairly. Like, Milhouse's character's always, like, uncomfortably

stating truths, you know, when he's like, it's a shame everyone died before

figured this out. It's a good point, Millie.

It's nice seeing you guys together in that three -shot, though. Yeah, this is

band of brothers there.

Beast is dead, or is he?

I mean, speaking of dead, what's great about this finale is that some of their

friends have died, but, you know, life has to go on. They can have moments of

sadness, but it's mostly about the optimism. So for part two, the Beast has

to be in that exact position on the ground, Charlie, for part two.

We just leave his carcass out there.

Well, imagine if Picnic Babe's having a water balloon fight. There you go, and

one of them goes off. Over the head, splashes on him. Oh, to get those two

again 20 years later, wouldn't that be hilarious?

Heather, Megan, we've got to bring you out in the woods. I would love to know

the evolution. In the script, was there always a big ceremony that everybody was

at? Yeah, the ceremony was definitely the end of Star Wars.

And the whole idea of McGee being...

as a statue. That was early on in the development, right, Charlie? I think so.

Was it tough to pitch it to him? Like, we're going to paint you silver.

No. No, he's a gamer. He'll do anything.

I did have real quality silver paint from a professional movie makeup place.

Big props to Elizabeth for helping to put on that paint because we were so

filming all the other scenes.

When she had a moment to do something else, she was like...

Right, Farley, out there in the hallway of this school painting McGee Silver.

Painting him, yeah. Of course, yeah.

And, I mean, we're real happy with...

When I say that we're going to raise the ex -fiance's son from another marriage

as if he were our own. And then we see Bradley happy. Keep pouring it on. Yeah,

the joy. Oh, this is so great. The fact that this is being broadcast around the

town is so funny.

Everyone's happy.

Yeah, and that was me with the VHS camera back there.

We actually thought, that kind of looks like a broadcast sort of camera.

Yeah, and you with the VHS camera we filmed in my kitchen, right, Charlie?

Up against the white wall. Because this ending, out of all your movies, I think

has the most rapid -fire jokes, like, one after the other. Yeah. And it's

like, a sorry celebration, too, you know?

The balloons on the floor.

Yeah, and the little streamer. And then, like, why are we unveiling a statue?

So, like, if you were to unveil a statue, you would do it at the town

know? Why are we doing it at the school?

This makes no sense, you know?

I didn't even notice the fact that it's happening indoors because the whole kind

of feel of it just hits me every time that I watch it. And because it's gag

after gag, I can't even think because I'm laughing so hard.

She hides his sneakers because they weren't silver. We're like, we don't

the budget to paint the sneakers silver, so hide his sneakers.

Yeah,

how's it going to move there later?

And we're going to make two glass eyes and put it in the middle.

But fantastic.

I mean, Sharon had to talk to McGee holding his face there and hold it

And I remember here, there was a little directing where I was just like, Sharon,

play it happy.

Because we have done in movies before, occasionally with actors, where they

played sad and it didn't really work. So just be happy.

Because we knew.

She has like a head shot of him.

have the photo of Ida Hootkins.

And now Pamela, so Pamela just happens to be in town again and to come to this

ceremony, you know, like what is going on with her life? Like what has she been

doing all this time?

But just every good thing that could possibly happen, we just make it happen

this scene. There could have been like puppies running here, like at the end of

One Crazy Summer where there's all these, all of a sudden there's puppies,

know, something like that where it's like you pour it on really thick.

Just pure joy.

I mean, I can guarantee you guys that having watched this movie in an audience

few times, when it ends, everybody leaves that screening with a giant smile

their face for the rest of the day. This is my favorite part, though, this

interview with the sheriff, you know? When he says, we are a brave town,

and then there's a pause, and then he says, says the president.

During that pause, I actually read him.

the rest of the sentence. And Charlie just took the sound out, but left it,

that pause because it's so hilarious.

The way it's delivered with that, with that, you know, unnatural break.

Oh, when I first saw that, I, I wept.

Yeah. Movie magic. I mean, you couldn't, you couldn't pay to get that. And in

the way he just did, it was perfect.

A head nod and then smash to the credit.

Uh, dying elk hurt, right? Oh yeah. Yeah. They're great.

So, yeah, we've had them at the end of three movies, I guess, right?

Yeah, yeah. Great props to those guys in Pennsylvania for doing a custom song

for this no -budget movie, you know? Just watching it, like, I just feel the

nightmares again of just, like, you're in the woods and you think you're done,

but then you're like, oh, no, we need that one other shot. Like, I'm feeling

that feeling a little bit right now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, I mean, that's all good. I mean, that's what you need

have all those worries on your mind to get what you need, you know? Like,

sweating? Is the camera in focus?

Do we have another card?

What am I going to do when this gets filled up?

Is this eyeline going to match with what we're doing in another state in two

months? All those things, all that pressure is every single second, but

what's just barely enabling us to scrape by to get it done. And you have to make

the movie look like, ah, it's just fun. A bunch of friends are making it when

really everyone's just sweating. Yeah.

We just got to bite our tongues and just keep going and keep doing it.

It's mostly good fun.

For sure. I'm just feeling it a little bit. You would think that you could look

at it in the rear mirror now, but as time goes on, you're like, how did we do

that? That's crazy. Well, like the scene where Danny O 'Grady and Bradley get

attacked by the River Beast.

We had, like, it feels like we had 25 minutes to run down there, film it, and

run back, it seems, Charlie, you know?

And I can't believe that we got it done. So at my wedding, we were like, oh, we

have several characters from the movie, and it makes sense that I would marry

Emmeline and that the sheriff would be there and Tom and Pamela would be there,

so we took that photo. Yeah. That one shot is almost, that one photo is almost

like an epilogue for the whole movie. Here's my phone number.

There's Farley's phone number, so people can call, chat about the movie. I like

how it says, call Neil Stewart.

Yeah, and I've gotten calls from people going like, is this Neil Stewart?

I'm like, you bet it is. I'm a tutor. I love tutoring.

Best start tutoring.

Do I have to stay in character? Yes, please.

Well, thanks so much for doing this, guys. I really appreciate it.

Thank you. Oh, thank you. That was fun. And remember, everybody, don't let the

riverbeats get you.

Don't let the riverbeats get you.

Don't let the riverbeats get you.

Don't let the riverbeats get you.