DEMONS (1985) Paired with Final Girl and Ghostnote Wines

WINE TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE WEEK:

Which white wine grape shares a parent with Pinot Noir? (Aka, they both came from the same parent grape.)

1. Chardonnay
2. Sauvignon Blanc
3. Riesling
4. Muscat of Alexandria

VOTE AT THE POLL HERE. Or send us a message!

This week's wines:

FINAL GIRL Piquette of Syrah

GHOSTNOTE WINES Super Santa Cruz

Chapters

• 2:26 Opening Theme
• 4:30 Wine Trivia Question of the Week
• 12:21 DEMONS (1985) Background
• 20:24 Failed Wine Pairing!
• 27:08 Ghostnote Super Santa Cruz
• 31:01 Final Girl Piquette of Syrah
• 37:14 Favorite Kills in the Film
• 41:40 Most WTF Moments in the Film
• 47:06 Wrap-Up!
• 52:56 Outtakes
• 53:49 Fandom vs, Religion Debate

Transcript

0:00

Where is it? There it is. Ah, there it is. God damn it, I've been looking for the name of this wine. Yeah, that you that you should have had prepared buddy Because I remember, I'm doing the failed pairing now and I remember we... you don't have to do a failed pairing. That's not a thing. It's not a thing we have to do. I just have this It's a thing, I like it. It's a thing. It's a thing. It's definitely a thing. Mr. We Gotta Keep It Within An Hour. It should be a thing but not, you know, it should be like a 10 minute thing. It should just be like, you know, a paragraph if it's necessary. Do I sound okay? Great. Yeah. All right. All right. Here we go. Just just in time to actually record voice crack. All right. Note I did. I truncated the opening a little bit. It's much shorter than before. So we're going to get to the question ah much sooner. I think this is going to be our new opening now that we've tried this couple of times and just like get to the fucking point. Here we go. Yeah, we are both recording. Cool. We've only been recording for 30 minutes straight. Okay, cool. I'm sure I said something stupid. Hell yeah, that's why. We gotta do it. We gotta do our religion and fandom argument. That'll probably be our outtake at the very end. We'll see. It's not an argument. That's what I love that you're calling it an argument. That's my favorite thing. Debate, conversation, argument. mean, again, arguments not a negative to me. I think that's the thing. I know a lot of people have a negative connotation to argument, but I'm like, arguments are good. Arguments are healthy. That's why you talk about them. It's more discussion. Discussion. Let's start with a discussion rather than an argument. You go right to argument. But we did disagree on something and then debated the distinctions and our attempts at defending why we differed and in what way. that is an argument. Now this is the new outtake, right? Exactly, argument about the argument, right? uh Arguing about whether it's an argument and whether arguing about the argument is an argument and we could go on for a Here we go. What then to take? This is Dave and I'm Dallas and this is Ventertainment. We have opinions on just about everything. Sometimes those opinions are spot on. Sometimes they go down easier with a glass of wine. This is entertainment. The wine and entertainment pairing podcast. Welcome to another wine and entertainment pairing for your entertainment. This is the podcast where we pair wine with entertainment. It is as simple as that. We always know what we like or dislike, but we rarely know why. So what better way to learn about that than by comparing different wines to different types of entertainment and compare how they both hit us and affect us the way that they do. Welcome everybody. I'm Dave. oh you know what? never I never decided I wanted to change the sentence. I just left it hanging. I don't want to just say something besides W set level three. um You know what? What what? But what you had before. Because yeah, with you saying that and with me hinting at the world building and writer thing, it literally covered. Absolutely. Fair, In that case, everyone, I'm still, just like last week, Dave, your W-Set Level 3 certified wine professional. And I am Dallas, your professional writer and world builder. And now for the answer to last week's wine trivia question, actually the week before last week's wine trivia question, because we did a Vinterview, an interview last week and I totally forgot to bring up the wine trivia at the beginning of that episode because it was a different format of an episode. Maybe that's for the best. We'll see what happens going forward. I'm gonna try and do a wine trivia every week though. So I'll just remember to do that. So two weeks ago, what was that wine trivia question? Let's jog your memory. is what is the world's top wine importer per capita? Is it A, London, England, B, New York City, USA, C, Shanghai, China, or D, Vatican City, quote unquote Italy, it's its own country, Vatican City. So technically not part of Italy, but it's in Italy, let's be honest. So the answer is drum roll, please. D, Vatican City. Now, 67 % of you selected that on our poll over on our substack and 33 % of you voted for Shanghai, China, which, hey, not a bad guess. Honestly, China buys a crazy amount of wine, but they also have a crazy big population. So per capita, not as much, right, as something as small as Vatican City is going to be. Plus these days, The Chinese are trying to focus more on making their own wine and downplaying how much they're importing. They still import a ton, but less than previously. Now, Dallas, why Vatican City? Alright, listen up guys. seems the inhabitants of Vatican City are the most well-wined people on earth. As per capita, average person consumes around 99 bottles. Yep, is 99 bottles per year. guys guys guys guys guys guys you gotta get to 100 a year that is your challenge this year it's like that is so 99 just one more bottle per person and you are a nice round that is what you need to do this year vatican city you have a new pope 100 bottles per year that is his first goal that is his first true achievement okay He's a Chicagoan, so there may be some Midwestern wines coming to Vatican City. I'm just saying, there may be a thing. May be a thing. Anyway, under the Lateran Treaty of 1929, Vatican City is granted duty-free import status by Italy with over 96 % of imports coming from Italy. Coming in a distant second is Australia with 3%. And an honorable mention going to Bodegas Harris Cordon in La Rioja, which supplies the Vatican with 2,000 bottles every year covered in labels of the Papal Coat of Arms. Still wines of course make up the majority of imports around 67 % in the form of sweet reds made in ex genimini, vitis, from the fruit of the vine, that's translation, in accordance with the religious edict. But it seems the Holy See also enjoys a bit of the bubbly as 33 % of the wines imported were the sparkling variety with Veneto Prosecco, Tivmont Assi Spamantes, and the rare champagne rounding up the list. And while the concept of Vatican wine would make most people scratch their heads as there are no vineyards within the hundred or so acres of the Vatican City, there is an update. It's official. God now has wine. That's right. In twenty twenty three, the Vatican planted two hectares of the Cabernet Sauvignon on the grounds of Castel Gandolfo. the bad vacation home of the Pope. Apparently the vintage won't be ready until 2026 and we'll have a Vatican label for sale in shops on site. So go ahead and book those tickets now to get your papal Vatican. And it's all thanks to Jesus. Let's give credit where it's due, turning water into wine, right? It's always the kid who has to remind their folks how to cut loose and win over people. I guarantee he was like, Dad, Dad, we're losing them. You're losing all of them. Look, look, we got to tell them, we got to tell them, being poor, right? We got to tell them being poor is awesome. Being rich is evil. And then turn all the water into wine. We do that, man. Pretty sure we can keep riding this wave for a thousand years minimum. And that kid, Jesus, was right. Anyway, and I also wanted to say La Rioja that was mentioned a little bit earlier. That is not Rioja. That is La Rioja, which is in Argentina, um which is has been a point of contention between Argentina and Rioja in Spain for quite some time. Because the region is La Rioja, but of course, Rioja Rioja was like, well, you can't put that on your fucking wine. The people are going to get confused and yeah, people get confused. um And I believe they came to an agreement of some sort where like the locals get to say it's La Rioja but import if they export elsewhere, you do have to not you have to downplay or downsize that part. Like you can put it somewhere on the bottle, but you can't write huge bold. Right. La Rioja, because everyone's just going to see Rioja. I think it's coming from Rio. Absolutely. Yep, this is part of why wine is complicated, kids, because it's a whole world worth and we all have our own labels. We sometimes name the same thing the same thing, even though they're two completely different places. And no one wants to. Of course, you know, your local place, you're like, yeah, well, I'm not changing the name. You go, you change your name. Nobody wants to do that. And to be fair, uh in a fair and just society, who should? And it's hard to say because they did both blossom independently anyway. this week's wine trivia question that you can answer before next week's episode. Which wine, which white wine grape shares the same parent grape as Pinot Noir? Is it A Chardonnay, B Sauvignon Blanc, C Riesling, or D Muscat of Alexandria? Now, this is actually fairly common that you can have a red grape or a white wine grape that is a parent of the polar opposite of themselves. For instance, Sauvignon Blanc is the parent grape of Cabernet Sauvignon. They took Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc, bred them together and created Cabernet Sauvignon, hence the name, right? Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc, so Cabernet Sauvignon. So that was a white grape that with a red grape bred another red grape and in this case a parent great bread both Pinot Noir and something else and it was a white wine grape the bread both of them it bread Pinot Noir and then a bread its own white wine grape as well is a Chardonnay, Semi-en-Blanc, Riesling or Muscat of Alexandria just head on over to our sub stack of entertainment studios.com to cast your vote the best way to do it is cast a vote in the poll. which will be embedded in this post on this Demons episode. So go to entertainmentstudios.com, find our post on the Demons podcast episode, and that will have the poll embedded right there. Or you can also message us or email us. You can email us at entertainmentstudios.gmail.com. Or there should be a link on many of these platforms that says, us, we always respond. And you can click on that link and it allows you to text us. a message that comes through like an email message and you can give your answer there. We will collect all those and reveal how well people did next week. All right, Dee, at that note, let's talk about, we were just saying post on this demons episode, let's talk about this demons thing. about demons. All right, guys. Today's feature is proof positive that not all free things are good things. If you like pimple popping and watching the goose spew out from them, then Dario Argento presents Demons directed by Lamberto Baba is for you. It follows a group of fun seeking teams who take an offer for free movie tickets only to discover the events of the movie repeating themselves in the real world and finding themselves in the center of a deadly demonic Outbreak. That's right. There's a movie within a movie. Something you'll be seeing more of around here in the coming months. Absolutely. We're going to have a whole episode on that. We are. Keep an eye out for that. You can also go check out our episode on Love and Death on Long Island from 1997, which is another movie within a movie movie. And they're all going to come together in a future episode that is all about movies within movies. So take a listen to that. And now let's get on to Demons. This is directed by Lombardo Bava, son of the master of Italian horror himself, Mario Bava. Demons began its life as a three-part film anthology, horror film anthology, written between Lamberto Bava and Dardano Siquetti. Bava wanted to create an anthology like his father's Black Sabbath, but during the treatment process, one of those three stories centering on a movie theater that spawned demons invigorated them more than the others and became their primary focus. Now eventually they take a 25 page treatment for a feature film version of this to producer Fabrizio de Angelis. I know I'm pronouncing all these Italian names wrong. Just bear with me. heard us say wine they've heard us say wine title for years so they get it I just know there are gonna be so many Italian wine specialists and people right out of Italy that are gonna be like, my God, why are we listening to we're not sorry, because we know you butcher ours as well, but go on That's true. That's true. That's In our in our Anglo white boy accents in Dallas is Anglo black boy accent Fabrizio de Angles and jealous who wanted to use footage from Lucio Fulci's films as the film within a film to cut costs. The two would also take the treatment to Luciano Martino, who suggested the two to produce the film themselves. Meanwhile, the one and only Dario Argento, who is fresh. from the financial success of Phenomena from 1985 and was interested in producing films as he had done previously with Dawn of the Dead, had started reading scripts in search of a new project, most of which did not really move him. He was not convinced by them. And then Argento got wind of this treatment, met with Baba, and agreed to produce Demons. That's right. The film was shot in two months in the summer of 1985 on location in West Berlin and Rome. After wrapping, it would be up to distributor Titanus to release the film. Titanus began its life as a production company started by Gustavo Lombardo and with the arrival of the new wave films. The company launched a youth operation which explicitly gave young film artists a chance to create low budget films with relative freedom. This youth operation program would manage to release an impressive 100 titles between 1960 and 1965. And bit of a side thing here. We've been talking about the entertainment industry and how it's imploding here. And Dave and I and myself and some other people in the industry have been discussing separately what could possibly bring it back or at least start a fire. And something like this, honestly, instead of spending, I'm sure we've heard it a thousand times, instead of spending $100 million, $200 million, $300 million or$400 million on Andor. uh Why not take that massive chunk of money and find 100 different projects and allow them to sort of recreate some fire and some momentum and some inertia uh in the industry. uh So it can be done, guys. And maybe now's the time to try and fucking do it. Anyway. The Pulsing at Al Ahorus synth score was set by the legend Claudio Simonetti and on October 4th, 1985, Demon Eye was released in Europe. Fans were pleased to see it featured cameos by Fiore Argento. Yes, that's Dario's daughter. uh Michele Suave, who would go on to direct classics like Stagefright and Cemetery Man and Lamberto Bava himself. And the money or demon I however you I'm sure it's the money uh is just the Italian name of demon. Same movie. Just wanted to say since we're switching between them, I'm like, we should probably mention that real quick. Anyways, the end of the year box office totals for Italy in 1985 for demons. It listed it as the 39th highest grossing film of the calendar year ahead of other new releases like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Cat's Eye and Silver Bullet. The following year it was unleashed on North America to confused a crane. The film is a tilt a world of characters and it seems that during production new characters from either the crew, the town or from the street were brought in just to justify another gory death scene. And guess what? Thank God because it is a gory, awesome, random, ridiculous and entertaining as hell mess and I adore it. I will also say, know, the when they were at the script stage for all of this, this was originally, of course, Lamberto, Baba and Suketti who were writing together. And when Argento came on board, he actually wanted changes to the script that Suketti was not a fan of. yeah. And at one point, Argento actually paid Suketti to just fuck off and go away. he was like, bye bye bye. Right. And except then and he said, can he accepted? He's like, yeah, this is driving me insane. So he took the money left. Then Argento invited him back to come back and do polishes on the revamp script. This is so Hollywood. It's disgusting. It really is. This is in the world, right? It's like rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Original writer, come back back and rewrite it back to where it was when we started this whole fucking thing, which is kind of what happened. And apparently the final script that was shot The first half, Soketi says the first half of the movie as it was shot, as it was released, is very close to the original script now. it's, and Hugh's very close to what they had written originally. But the second half just becomes, as Dallas just mentioned, it was all the kills. They just threw in things to create new kills. Like whether it made sense or not. Ridiculous. Oh, it's ridiculous. But Demons was essentially Italy's response to quote unquote monster horror movies ah and monster effects popularized by the likes in America uh by Sam Raimi's Evil Dead. John Carpenter films, especially John Carpenter's The Thing, which right around this time. And so they were trying to compete on that stage. If you think about Italian giallo's, they were more horror thrillers. They were more like slashers. They would rarely sometimes the killer would be a create a little mute, a mutant or mutated or slight ever so slightly monstrous or scarred like a Phantom of the Opera kind of a thing. But it was rare that they would have a monster that wasn't quite their thing, even though Lambert Obama right before doing this film did do a shark film. So they did do it. They were were were veering into this territory around this. Yeah, yes. But this was very much they're like, we want that we want to do that and learn how to do that. And this was this was quite a gauntlet throne, I think, for the Italian side of horror of being able to do this. So wine pairings Dallas before we get any further and talking about the movie, let's talk about what we're drinking with this movie. So for me, uh I'm actually we're going to do a slightly new thing on this episode. And we're going to talk about my failed pairing. that I attempted because I attempted a few that didn't quite work. actually posted about this on social media last week. ah And now we're going to talk about it in this episode proper and then reveal what I actually successfully paired with this movie. But just in case you thought that these pairings were things that we just sort of, you know, get a little cheeky with, like we're just sort of poetically pairing things or, you know, dream up in our head of what might work and we just do it. We actually try this stuff. Like, this is stuff we actually sip and try watching the movie. As we're watching the movie, we're like, what do we think is going to work? Then we pause it, go grab something, try it. And I've got a Coravin. I can do that. I can just take out a little bit of wine. Those are definitely a Coravin's don't really let you keep wine for a long, long after that, after you start pouring some out. But it allows you like I don't have to drink it within a day or two, like add a little bit of time to like get around to everything that I attempt. That's what I'm drinking for the next couple of weeks. If I do a lot of them. And in this case, that kind of turned out to be the case um because I had two failed pairings before getting it on my third attempt. So my first choice was to try a fairly unique Petite Verdeau. Petite Verdeau is a grape, but I tried one from North Carolina. This is my first North Carolina wine ever. I actually tried two because I had two vintages of the same Petite Verdeau. And Petite Verdeau is usually a highly tannic, robust, floral red, ah usually reserved for blending. It's a French grape. They predominantly blend with it. You almost never see it all on its own coming out of France. We will make it on its own here in California. It often gets riper more easily here in California so that you can make it a softer, quote unquote sweeter so that it goes with all the bitterness of the tannins and creates this. I love petit-fer-deux. I love California petit-fer-deux especially. um But I'd never had a North Carolina wine, period. And this time, I was like, well, let's try Petite Fredot. That is super interesting. And I wanted a grippy, rustic red like that. Demons? It's Italy's foray into monster effects. I thought it was apropos to have a wine where the grapes in the region were uncommon for each other for that reason, right? Because they're taking something that they are not known for doing and putting it into their giallo style of horror and seeing how those two things work. So I'm like, look, petit for dough, North Carolina, not two terms that you ever put together. So this was a Jones Von Drell, Jones Von D-R-E-H-L-E. It was. very tasty. had a 2015 and a 2018 but unfortunately the 2015 was the first one I tried. It was way too smooth. The 2015 the tannins were so mellow. It was all black fruit and florals, mild acidity and just the I mean it was it was like wine punch at that point. I just it was so freaking smooth that I was like okay this is not fitting. the rawness of demons. wasn't fitting the kill, the gory kills and like the edge that this movie has because some of the monster effects in this movie honestly are authentically eerie too. If I was kid, this would have scared the shit. So here's what's crazy. They're so effective and you can tell they are practical and but again, they hold up which is crazy really hold up. So yeah, I get it totally. Yes, especially there is a well, OK, I'll get to her in a minute. But the first lady that turns into a demon, she's like one of the best of the bunch in terms of. easily one of the best transition scenes in movie history like easily yeah So I then tried the 2018 after this 2015 and it did have more rustic tannin to it. was like obviously the age was the thing that was mellowing it out. But even a 2018 is not super young. And my guess is North Carolina. It is a cooler. It's probably a cooler climate. I know they have hot summers, but they obviously have very cold winters and whatnot. And for whatever reason, even the 2018, it had a little bit of grippiness. um but neither were the grippy, clawing, demonic beast I was looking for. you know, I think both of these, if you want to try a North Carolina Petite Ferdot, think of like a cool climate Syrah. They're very similar in flavor and structure, flavor profile, a little peppery, dark fruit, but then minus those tannins. The tannins were so smooth, I was stunned by how smooth both of these wines were. But it wasn't what I was looking for like it's nice in their way, but I'm like that that is exactly I wanted the petite for dough Tannins on this so then I tried I had a rechiotto that about a put a cella so Italian dessert wine from Valpa la cella This is kind of the sweet dessert version of Amarone de la Valpa la cella for those of you who have had an Amarone similar profile very dark very brooding Amarone is also known as a great age-worthy wine because the tannic profile it has but the grapes in a rechioto are late harvested. They let them get uber right on the vine and then dehydrated like an amarone, delaval, pollocella to concentrate those sugars even more. And you wind up with a high alcohol, high sugar because the yeast, it has so much sugar in these grapes by that point in time, the late harvest plus the dehydration that the yeast naturally dies well before gobbling up half the sugar. So you get, this was a 15 % ABV, 15 % alcohol. And then I don't know what the residual sugar profile was, but it was, it is a proper sweet wine. It's a half bottle dessert wine that it comes in. And normally, because this is Valpolicella, this is gonna be Corvina, a blend of Corvina and other grapes, just like they make Amarone out of. And like an Amarone, it should have had those great tannins, but this was admittedly a 2002 bottle. of Retioto de la Valpolicella. So, you know, we're talking about 23 years of bottle age on this guy. So too smooth, way too fucking smooth. Those tannins, the tannins were there. There was actually more tannins in this than in both of the Petite Bordeaux's, but they were so integrated. They were so fine. I was like, damn it. And it doesn't have the edge. So what did? I ultimately pair with the 1985 movie Demons. I paired it with a wine from a winery called Ghost Note Wines. And this was their quote unquote super Santa Cruz, which is a fun play on super Tuscan, of course, right? And a Tuscan is super Tuscan is gonna be a wine made in Italy using non indigenous grapes. So you're bringing in usually French grapes. So Cab Sauve, Cab Franc, Merlot. This of course is a Super Santa Cruz, so none of these grapes are native to Santa Cruz. Center Cruise. That's one of my favorite new sort of relatively new terms and why I love it. good. And this is a blend predominantly of cabs of cab Frank in San Giovese with a mixed lot of Merlot Nebiolo and Negro Amato all tossed in all grown in the Ascona Vineyard in Santa Cruz. The Ascona Vineyard organically farmed 2000 feet in elevation. which gets abundant sunshine during the day, but also has consistent overnight fog and cool ocean breezes. You got that maritime influence. The soils are weathered marine sedimentary sandstone shale and siltstone. This is a very small 4.5 acre vineyard that was planted in 2000 on the site of an old Christmas tree farm and has been meticulously farmed by Ken and Abby Spagels or Swagels. SWEG LS since 2016 this fucker my friends this had the tannins this was a 2022 and so it was new release properly young rustic dry as all demonic hell mouth feel I was looking for this is the cabs all Frank and Nebby Olo and Sanji Oveci these are all not low tannin grapes especially cabs all and Nebbiolo. Those are known for having those higher rustic tannins. uh Black and red fruit and ooze of earth and cocoa powder with a nice bay leaf herbaceousness at the back end. That's what I was tasting on this wine. Robust, good body, dark. oh This, yeah, this did it to me. Now I will say Ghost Note wines. They have four wines they've released right now. They're a very small winery. They do not have a tasting room. They only sell retail and things like that. They usually in smaller retail because they're wines are not big production lots. They're very small as mentioned before. This is all coming from a vineyard that only has 4.5 acres. And this is the Super Santa Cruz. They also have a Rose of Allianico, which is another Italian grape. And they do all Italian grapes in California. So a Rose of Allianico, a pure Corvina, which is that main grape in Amarone and in Recciato della Amarone. But they made just a dry fine and Corvina if you don't dehydrate it like that it stays very light bodied and light in color. Very delicate, very elegant. If you ever get a Valpolicella Classico that is the lighter elegant style of Corvina coming out of Italy coming out of Valpolicella and this is the the California version. And lastly they have a pure Sagrantino coming out of California. I cannot wait to try. all of them. You can find them at Curated Wine Shop here in LA. They have all four if you're in the LA area. Otherwise, you can buy direct from them on their website. And then, you know, Google will have some links down below. See if you can find some of these wines. They are small lot productions, but Super Santa Cruz. That's why maybe I would say get a Super Tuscan if you can't find any of these Ghost Note wines, just a Super Tuscan. Young, don't go too old. You don't want it too smooth. You want that. grippiness, you want that challenge, you want that roughness. Anyways, Dallas, what you got? oh All right. Okay. Following the failed pairing theme, I initially thought I'd be a bit on the nose because I like to do that sometimes with this because the film of course is bloody and fleshy and gory. And to match that I was thinking of course a Surah or a Malpac. But I think after tasting I have Dave and I went to Gelson's a while back. And Gelson's has really kind of upgraded their wine offerings. You guys don't know Gelson's is a regional LA uh upscale grocery store chain, but they have a great whole foods. Yeah, for sure. um But their own branded wines have really gotten pretty damn good. And they have a fantastic Sarah. um And uh very well balanced. It's just It's good structure, just great. It's just a great, great wine. um But that and the Melbeck I had, which was a Tinto Negro, I think that price points around 12 bucks. Pretty sure we paired that with something in one of our legacy uh series. um Again, another one. Very nice. ah Very well balanced, structured, all the things. um And unfortunately, those two seemed a bit too good. too well balanced. This film. Yeah, yeah, it's not that the film lacks structure. But it does feel like the director and I've said it before, the director and the crew had free reign to kind of just kill and bleed and cause as much mayhem to as many actors and the set as possible. And so there's this sort of accessible chaos to it. There's this sort of gorilla kind of aspect to it, even though the filmmaking is great. There's great artistry going on in this film for sure. I decided that the Sarah and the Melbec were a bit too serious, a bit too well structured. um And so I walked a step or two back from that. wanted to stick with something that was in its best state, best sort of expression is pretty well balanced and bloody and all the things. And I remembered this uh Sarah picket, which uh You can find anywhere. Essentially, piquette is just a low alcohol wine made from second pressings of pulp and stems and seeds ah from the grapes, also known as the the palmist. It ends up with a touch of fizz that makes it kind of reminiscent of wine spritzers, right? um It's generally they're sort of called summertime sippers. They come from the French. The term comes from the French word for pick or prickle. And it describes that slight fizz. The idea dates back to Roman and ancient Greek times. um Curiously enough, in the French tradition, it's kind of the wine that the winemakers and farmers drink for pick me up. The ABV, of course, is going to be much lower, sometimes around anywhere from five to eight percent. ah And if you're looking for one regionally, there's a Hudson Valley Farms in upstate New York. They have a whole rainbow of piquettes. That's what they call them from a Riesling grapes, Cab Franc um and a few others. um So I went with the final girl, Piquette. And if you guys are unfamiliar with Final Girl, they are here in California. ah They will ship. You can find a lot of their wines in boutique little the wineries around LA and the West Coast in general. ah And they're called final girl, of course, guys, because of the trope in horror films, right? You get that final girl, she's left and she doesn't know what to do. She's screaming her head off, right? She's the she's the final girl. There's a break. But I say the two people who founded it were horror movie fans. So that's why they called it Final Girl. As a matter of fact, believe maybe both of them, but at least one of them actually worked in the industry in horror films properly as an effects house or effects parallel somehow. We discovered them at a little place here in LA called V Wine Room, which has undergone a transition in the past few years in terms of ownership. uh it was our first introduction. My first introduction was their Petite Verdeux, I think, uh which was Fantastic was fucking me talking about petit-per-dos. There you go. This one was like, yeah. was just so good. And the labels are great. They're all horror themed. Their whole you know, uh sort of outfit is kind of horror theme. ah They are in the heart of Santa Barbara wine country. ah They have their own tasting room now in Solvang. By the way, anyone who's interested in kitschy wine, kitschy decor, architecture and a plethora of wine tasting rooms, I tell you the skip Santa Barbara and go to Solvang. It's a bit more accessible. It's so much fun. And you can, you know, stumble home after you get completely intoxicated on Yes, and for those those unfamiliar with Solvang that is Solvang, V-A-N-G. So because a lot of times when people say it, you think like Solvane like kind of a thing. It is pronounced much closer to that than salt. You're not like Solvang. It's not like white Fang Solvang. So anyways, Solvang. That's what you Google to get it on the map. Yeah. Yeah, not far from Santa Barbara. It's a great trip. Great little weekend excursion if you're looking forward and price point on this picket of the picket of Sarah 2022 is 20 bucks by the way. If you're looking for different versions, I found a few that you can get about 19 bucks, but I'm going say since they're shipping, try this guy. Try this picket of Sarah from Final Girl. And I don't think you will be disappointed. Yeah. Sweet. That's we're doing. Yeah. So there you go, guys. uh Let's get into this real quickly. What was your favorite death scene from the film? So here's the interesting part about this film. Or gore scene, I suppose. Right. mean, I know that it is very gory. There are a lot of deaths, but there are only really one or two deaths. a lot of people, most of the time they get turned into demons rather than there being a death scene. Right. Because they get scratched, they get clawed, they get bitten. It's a little zombie like in that regard. And then slowly, like they will become the demon after. that there's very few death scenes where it's literally like someone's being killed in some outrageous way. There's only one or two of those in the whole movie. So I don't really have a favorite death scene. But what I do have is I think it's kind of one of the iconic things. because some of the Blu-ray or DVD covers have this moment on the cover as the cover. And there are basically two covers of the icon. There's one with them coming up the stairs with their glowing eyes, which is the most famous poster slash cover. Right. But then there's the one that births a demon out of her stomach slash chest. Right. There's the one where she just sort of like faints. And then instead of turning into a demon herself, one excavates itself out of her. And I'm like, wait, that doesn't happen to anybody else in this movie. It's so random. Doesn't really make any internal logic sense, but it's so well done. And then the demon that crawls out is so much more of a demon. Like literally it's like a true demon, not just a human that's semi-turned, but like it's a demon that's coming out. And I'm like, Dude, that looks cool. That's my favorite moment of, think, in terms of quote unquote death, that would be my favorite. What's yours? Well, I mean, if a body is being ripped through another body and turning into something else, I suppose technically there is a death of the old person at hand. it's sort of so. But I will say my. By the way, guys, the and can't stress this enough for this film to have come out in 1980, five, 86. uh These effects hold up so well. I mean, was the of some of the makeup. right with the exception of some of the actual just make up the edges of the frame and stuff and that's just sort of part of the course. This was this was the heyday of practical effects. I mean, so this this is it was like John Carpenter's the thing we're like, this is really good outside of a few moments here or there. Most and look, this they had nine weeks to film this movie, which is a may we would a low ish budget horror movie getting nine weeks for practical. We would just a filmmaker nowadays would. die for that kind of filming timeline. It'd be too much honestly. I feel like it might be a shitty film because they would just like have too many. They'd be like, can film forever. don't want to. be fair, that's kinda what happened with this one. I went off the rails, right? uh But in a glorious way. It's fantastic. So I will say for me, the best graphics scene and that's probably how I should ask the question. The best graphics scene ah is that initial first turn when that first character turns after getting pricked by the mask. When she turns in the bathroom with those pustules uh and it just And it was so amazing because the entire thing is done in close-ups. You can't hide anything. And it's just so effective. Something about that gross factor with the skin horror and the demonic thing. All those sort of elements converging in that one close-up in that first turn scene. Chef's kiss. Yep. Beautiful. All right. Sweet. Let's take them home, baby. Well, actually, most what the fuck moment. Let's talk about that first. I think that's the same one for me, honestly, if that's gonna be the same answer. No, no, actually, no, fuck no. The most mo- no, no, the most what the fuck moment is the coke- No, the Coke can. You don't remember the Coke can scene? when they're just trying to get it out of the machine. No, when they're they get a Coke can out of the machine and then they're in the car, right? This random interlude of these characters are just show up. And then the car that first of all, what the fuck? That's a very good. Yes. Yes. Got it. It was one of those things where you just watch and you're like, huh? So Okay, see, I don't think that was what the fuck that was. I was wondering where are they going with this because this is something that the movie does. This isn't really a spoiler guys, but it's a lot of fun. You get about halfway through the movie. Because this movie is a contained one location seemingly type of movie. You're in the theater. Once everyone arrives at the theater, it begins, they're trapped in the theater. And you're like, great, this is a, we're trapped in here with monsters, we got to get out. That's what the movie is. It are immediately elevated because of that. And then halfway through the movie, roughly halfway, everyone's trapped. You're like, OK, this is what the movie is. And then it just cuts to some other scene out in the world, out on the streets of whatever city this is. Just a car full of punks just driving through the city looking for traffic Classic 80s punks too, right? They mohawks. got sleeveless shirts and earrings and just like cursing and doing drugs and bad mouth and everything. And you're just like, wow, this is so like typical 80s quote unquote punk, the dregs of society, what we feared back in the day. And they're so cute these days. It's so amazing. And they're doing a literal can of coke in the car. And they keep, the funny thing is they then keep cutting back and forth between these punks in the car, doing these random things, and then back to the theater, then back to these punks in the car. And you're like, where are you going with this movie? are you here? But the fun part was I really appreciated that. I didn't think it was what the fuck, but it is a where are you going with this? But you know, they're going somewhere. If they went to those punks and you're like, well, this is going to dovetail into our theater eventually. And yes, that is exactly what happens eventually. It takes a sweet fucking time, but it does do it eventually. um But yeah, so I don't know if I quite agree that that is what the fuck, but I get what you mean, yeah. Yeah, that's the permeate. was the what the fuck moment. was like, OK, because I get it. I get it in terms of like them needing to get those characters to the theater for something and then needing to give those characters something to do. But the idea of that Coke can and then them fighting, I was like, OK, what the fuck? But I get it. But yes, you think the helicopter. Oh, the helicopter by far. it's not, it's not, some people are like, it's totally makes no sense. I'm like, no, makes sense because once you reveal what's happening beyond this theater, it does make a certain, certain kind of sense. as far as a Deus ex machina, I mean, it is a just sudden, again, you've been in this theater outside of looking at a couple of punks in a car outside, you know, here and there, you've just been in this theater. And there is somehow a scene that involves a helicopter. all I'm going to say. And we'll leave it at that. But And there's more than one Deuses Machina in this film, by the way. You'll see it in the last... for sure. Yes. And I will say the other so the other thing that's a little I was so and I think a lot of people when I went online to look at look this up afterwards I was not alone in this but the ticket seller girl whatever they call that role but the girl who like works at the theater and She's just trapped in there with the rest of them and kind of seems just as confused. I'm like, but you were selling the tickets at this theater. What is happening with that? Like that almost doesn't make any sense. I did look online later and someone does have an explanation. They're like, the mystery masked man hired her to just do this for one night. And I'm like, oh, I feel like that might have I missed that somehow. I did not know. eh Maybe I don't think that's actually in there. Maybe not. Maybe there's a cut where it is or maybe like when she's first dressing up to go do this thing because she's in this weird Christmasy like green elf Christmas outfit. It's bizarre. um And when she's dressing up, maybe maybe we saw something like a message or like that she was hired. But I was not paying enough attention. So like when she was like selling the tickets and then just one of the people trapped in the theater, I kept waiting for her plot moment to like have a purpose. And it never came. And I was like, but She works there, what is happening? I don't get this. um But anyways, yeah, apparently people online have figured this out. Alright, and one last thing, guys, if you were watching this video and you see the goop on my beard, just know it is beard conditioning day here in the Miller household. I'm not just salivating into my beard. So take that as you will. All right, let's take them home. actually, we're always doing this in the middle of the day, or most usually in the middle of the day. So he's not actually drinking while we're recording. So he's not salivating into his beard. He'll do that later when he's actually drinking some more of that picket. So once again, yes, picket of Sarah Final Girl wines coming out of California. And for me, Super Santa Cruz from Ghost Note wines coming out of California. By the way, a ghost note is a note written on the musical paper that is not an actual note that is played. It's something that sort of informs how the music is meant to come across in total, but it is a phantom note because it's not a note that you actually play. actually did not know that. I can't even picture it. I need to Google this later and be like, can I see what a ghost note on paper looks like? I'm not a musician, so I'm like, I do not know this, but. Ghost note, they call themselves that because they're wines. is like that mystery something something that makes the whole thing work, right? And that is I suppose both of our wineries, I didn't realize that, are horror themed. Very nice. Afterlife theme. Yeah, Ghost Note and Final Girl. it's not after like Ghost Note is just a musical thing. So they're not. Well, the etymology of the term of the, it means something that is a phantom. It means something that is know that, but they didn't come up with it because there was a note that haunted uh an orchestral theater somewhere. so I'm just saying the etymology isn't actually horror themed. All right, fair enough. Please disagree with us uh on our socials, as Dave will now tell you about. Yes, as I will now tell you, find us on our sub stack at entertainment studios.com. But first, be sure to hit that follower subscribe button if you have not done so already. That sincerely helps this podcast grow. Also, especially if you're already a subscriber, so completely useless to us in that regard, do this instead. Recommend us to a friend or family member, anyone you think will like deep dives into movies, TV, books, comics and or music. We cover it all, baby. All matched with wine and wine education. Anybody you think will like that, let them know about this podcast. Suggest it to them if you ever do like my favorite podcast of all time. We know we're one of them So suggest us in one of those lists are your little listicles online? Everyone was a listicle and don't just follow this podcast also follow us and interact with us on sub stack That is entertainment studios comm that is where you will find all our podcast episodes broken down by subject matter articles on wine and entertainment bonus pairings interactive polls like the wine trivia question of the week, go find that and answer it on that interactive poll there on our sub stack. You also find chats, pairing directories covering all the wine and entertainment pairings we have ever done. Once again, broken down by subject matter and updated weekly. Now some of this is only available to paid subscribers of our sub stack. And that's great segue to mention that you can support this podcast by heading over to sub stack entertainment studios.com and going paid just two bucks a month. gets you access to everything, baby. Two bucks or $19.60 per year. And for the big spenders out there, and you just love us, and you can afford it. Don't only do it if you can afford it, please. You can also become what this Substack calls, ah what Substack themselves call a founding member, but what we cleverly retitled as a producer, get it? Well, we're wine and entertainment, right? So you're a producer, also wine, grapes, produce. You're a producer. That is $50 per year. This gets you a shout out on every single episode going forward and also allows you to commission an episode one per year telling us which movie, TV show, album or comic you want us to cover. You might even be able to commission the wine that we're supposed to drink if it's possible that we can get our hands on it and doesn't break our bank. You know, none of this none of this grand crew burgundy bullshit where it's like, you know, there's $2,650 a bottle you gotta do that I'm like, okay, if you want to send it to us cool, we will do that But we're not you're not spending 50 bucks a year and then having us spend $2,000 on a bottle of wine anyway for that Go check us out on entertainment studios comm we hope to see you there even believe it or not If you don't throw money at us like the cheap hookers we are and now our three current Producers shout out to Kate Michelle from survives on wine dot sub stack that com she has her own sub stack wine sub stack that is survives on wine dot sub stack comm Kate Rochelle also Paul Calum Kyarian who has his own wine theme podcast wine talks with Paul K highly that is I'm recommending it to you that would be on my listicle wine talks with Paul K go check his out and then Jessica Mason Jessica, writer, author, extraordinaire of horror, by the way. She does a horror graphic novel. She does horror novels. Go check out Jessica Mason on monsteroftheweek.substack.com. Thank you all to those three first producers. And folks, we will catch you next time. Join us in one week for another wine and entertainment pairing for your entertainment. Ciao for now, drink something great, watch or read something great, listen to something if you're doing music, if you're listening to other podcasts, and we will check you next time. Later guys! our episodes what are you we just said we got it down to an art form and shit I gotta take this sweater off hold on yeah and the pressure's on and everything gets warm. That's how it works, baby. I don't even give a shit, not today. Like, AC is gonna be in the background, I don't care. Daddy. And then, and then... I will never understand nerds. I mean, I'm pretty sure you're at least one of those, I'm all of them probably, but I don't understand others that are like me. Same. I never say anything like that. So we're good. I know. I know. uh So I mean, OK. Right. I think the thing that I don't understand is like. uh I think it's it's basically I think it's the the Uber mainstream part of nerddom and geekdom where like people get that jazzed about Star Wars and and more like the Marvel where I'm like, I mean, you can be excited about it up to a point, but. If you're like, but I love everything about it and I can't wait for yet another toy to drop or another this to drop. And I'm like, Star Wars? Really? I'm like, how is that even personal to you? Like, it's not. I understand if you have that thing where it's like, I love Star Wars, but then there's this one character that is like, my favorite and no one else gives a shit. And they're making a toy of that character. I'm super jazzed when they're like the. 66th version of Luke Skywalker. I'm like, I don't get it. How are you? And they're raving about it on social media. And I'm like, and it's not they're not doing they're not paid advertising. They're not an influencer. They're literally just authentically that jazzed for it. And I'm like, I don't understand. Like that makes zero sense to me. No, I agree. It is that, I guess for me, that line generally... is sort of popularity, like Star Wars, those things in general, that's not my kind of, I don't respond to it. But you're right, there are those guys who after a certain point, it seems like it becomes a religion to them over just general fandom, and they're buying into the collective kind of I I it becomes, I feel like not to go out of our way to be dicks about it. Like, I feel like it's closer, like rather than calling it a religion, which is the dickish way to do it, where you're you're comparing it to something that's cultish. I'm like, it's kind of like the fondness you have for your hometown, right? Where it's like, it doesn't have to make sense, make sense, but it's like, it's part of your childhood, what you grew up with. It's so familiar to you. It's the thing that defined, or helped you, like, you know, it was the thing that in those formative years, it was your world. And so here's Star Wars, it's a part of your world. You're watching it. I mean, a lot of some people, unlike me, like I did not rewatch things very often. Other people definitely did. Like they watched Star Wars every week for like five years straight or some shit like that from like eight to 13. And you're like, whoa, okay. And so like, I get it. It is like being in a small town or like, you know, this is my hometown. I know it like the back of my fucking hand because I was just that rolling in it. It was my whole world for a certain chunk of my life and now it's meaningful to me. But I feel like even then, you know, like, okay, those Star Wars, cool. But like why all the extensions and the expansions and the franchise? And it's like, can that really all have the same meaning to you? And even if even then, you know, even in your hometown, it's like, okay, but like, you can be fond of your hometown, but you've got your own secret nooks and crannies of your hometown, that those are the things that are the most meaningful to you, not just the hometown, kind of like not just the place that everyone like, there's that coffee shop or the restaurant that like everybody in the hometown loves. If you grew up there, that is just the place. And that's meaningful to you, but it's not that personal to you because it's everybody in that town kind of thing. And the things personal to you are the things that are you and not not shared in the exact same way by absolutely everybody from that hometown. And that's where I feel like things the fandom loses me is when they get obsessive about the parts that are not that particular to them. They can't be because it's shared by so many. And you can still it still is meaningful, just not that meaningful. That would be my less we're being dicks about it comparison. Hey, it's a and honestly, this day and age it is more that sort of buying into the it's so curious to say that because down the street for me is fun Co. I think that's called the girls. And oh my god, it just amazes me that fully grown adults will stand and I get it, but will stand in line for like you said, some derivative doll connected to a third generation film that really doesn't necessarily hold up to the original. And it's just another piece of, you know, artifice in, you know, on the on the shelf. And it just amazes me that they will stand in line for hours to spend their money on that and that I don't get. And so that's why I call it a sort of a, it's sort of a religious kind of It also feels like they experience it a bit like a religious experience. It's sort of like they're standing in line, they're logging in, they know the release dates, they're... The same thing with GameStop. A lot of the guys who um will camp out for the third entry in a title, it's like, okay, guys, at some point, see. I mean, I mean, it's it's religious in the sense that there's I dollar. There's an idolatry element to it, right? Where it's like there is especially the celebrity like people. Potterheads were like that with J.K. Rowling, right? Like the new release of a Harry Potter. They would camp out to get the the book that and then read. Even if the book was 700 fucking pages, they would try to read it in a day. Right. To like just like 24 to 48 hours, they take off work and they would just. do nothing with their life except read this book so they could be the first to have read it and finish it and then talk about it. Social media doesn't help because of course you can sit there and post about waiting in line and that's part of the experience as well is you're claiming that like I've been in this line for eight hours and it's not something just a fun story you get to tell people in real life much later. You get to be, you're chronicling it as you go through and like everyone's responding as, and you're so lucky to be waiting in that line for eight hours. You're just describing prostatizing at this point, buddy.