 Hello and welcome to another episode of Frightfully Forgotten Horror Movies, but before we get started, what are we drinking? Today we are drinking Chucky's Check Pills That Kills. Don't fuck with that, Chuck! Today we're gonna bring to you 1982's The Sender. This movie is directed by Roger Christian, and he's actually more known for being part of the art department of movies. He was actually the set director for Star Wars, and worked with George Lucas on several films. Gelko Ivannik is in this, the slimy governor in Oz. That's what we know him from growing up in the 90s. And he's also, uh, in Hannibal too, he's that butler guy. Yeah, Cardale! Catherine Harold is in this, and she was in Rod Dio with Schwarzenegger. Paul Freeman's also in this, he was in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Bellach. He was also Ivan Ooze in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie. So this movie starts off with just some guy, he just wakes up in the woods, and he hasn't even been on a bender. I've woken up in some weird places. Never in the woods. Yeah, usually on a concrete floor somewhere. So he wakes up, and he's all kind of disoriented, he doesn't know where he is. He starts walking, and he makes his way to this beach, and you see him grab a bunch of, like, heavy rocks. He holds this heavy stone, and he just walks into the water. And you're like, what the fuck is going on? Holy shit! What kind of a beginning is this, right? There's an ambulance that gets him and takes him to this mental asylum. We get introduced to Dr. Farmer trying to learn more about this, this stranger. What's your name? I don't know. Where are you from? It starts asking him all these questions, and it turns out that he has amnesia, so you can't remember anything. Dr. Farmer's at home, and she hears a window break, so she figures somebody's in the house. She phones the cops while she's waiting for the cops. She actually sees who it is that's in the house, and it turns out to be this John Doe guy going through some of her things. When the cops arrive, it turns out that they can't find any broken windows. They went around the whole house. So she phones the hospital, and she says, well, John Doe was here. No, he wasn't. He was in bed sleeping the whole time. The next day, Dr. Farmer goes back to the hospital, this woman waiting for her. This ends up being John Doe's mother. My son's got these powers. Don't get too close to him. He's pretty dangerous. If you get too close to him, you're going to wish he never did. Stay here. I'm going to go call another doctor. As she turns her back and calls another doctor, goes, looks back, the mother's gone. So she runs out, gets in her car to go and try to follow her, driving in the rain while she sees John Doe standing there. Yeah, holding that sign. Holding some sign. This truck comes behind her. Nobody's driving it. John Doe gets in the passenger seat, driving towards her. It just floors it, you. So she floors it, trying to get away from this car with nobody driving it, gets in a car accident. And then, while this mysterious truck is now gone, goes back to the hospital and realizes, well, John Doe was there the whole time. So she's kind of put this theory together that John Doe is actually projecting his dreams and his thoughts on other people. She goes to the hospital bathroom, turns on the faucet, the washer face, blood on her face, blood coming out of the faucet. All the mirrors start smashing out and blood coming through out of the mirrors. It's got to be something with John Doe runs to go find him. And the reason the mirrors are all smashing is because he had smashed a mirror to grab a piece to commit suicide, right? Because he wants all this to be over. So because of this suicide attempt, the head doctor has decided we're finally going to go through with electroshock therapy. Bring him in to the gurney, put the thing in his mouth. Yeah, just like one floor over the Goku's nest. Mac! Oh Mac! Little dab will do ya. Go to go put the charge on him and suddenly everything goes to slow motion and people start lifting from the floor and floating. Like these guys are being thrown through all these like all these windows. The guy goes through that window on all that equipment. That guy goes through all that equipment, all that blue dye. Shit. This is real. Dr. Farmer is not bullshitting us. Her theory is correct. And we have to explore what this is and where this John Doe came from. And that's where we're going to end the plot. So if you want to find out what happens at the end of the sender, watch the sender. This movie came out before movies like Nightmare on Elm Street. And this movie has so much that mirrors that. To do with dreams and questioning what scenes are really happening and what's real and what's a dream. Right. It's not really dreams that are killing per se. Things from his mind that are just being projected. It's not to hurt or maim on purpose. But it's just because he kind of doesn't know how to control what he's got. And the opening set up to this movie is fantastic. When he walks in with the rocks into the water, you have to know why. You have to know why and what's happening. And it's one of the best opening scenes from a horror movie I've seen in a long time. It's like, yeah, it reels you in big time. Exactly, yeah. They keep that going throughout the whole movie, right? That pacing keeps up. You're always wanting to see what's going to happen next. They're always throwing you another nugget. But also another question at the same time. Exactly. So it keeps things moving forward, but then you're left to need to figure out more. Pacing is fantastic. There's a crazy thing that happens, and then there's a little bit of storytelling, a little bit of character building, and then something crazy happens. Again, it kind of gets your heart going and then it dials it back a little bit. A bit more storytelling. Yeah, you learn a little more about the character as the movie goes on. You're always wondering, well, who is he for one thing? Because nobody knows. How did he get these powers? How did he end up on the side of the road with Amnesia? And then who is this mother figure that keeps showing up? And disappearing. The premise and the story of this movie is really good. It's a pretty original idea. Since then it's probably been copycatted a lot of times. This movie probably doesn't get enough credit for kind of starting this whole dream trend. The fact that they're placing this movie entirely within a mental institution adds to that as well, right? That setting is great. Yeah, because there's also the inmates too, right? They're crazy, and then he's projecting his stuff onto these crazy people. Making them even crazier. You feel sorry for them like, Jesus, can things get any worse for you poor guys? Exactly. Poor bastards. Is it just their mental illnesses that are doing this? Or is it him projecting these things? You don't know. Yeah, it's pretty cool. The music in this movie is fantastic. It is eerie and dreamy. It complements the scenes perfectly. The music in this isn't memorable, but it works so well where it kind of pulls you in. That brings us to the tone of the movie. The whole movie is serious. The only time I laughed was kind of unintentionally when that guy goes through all those jewels and everything, just because I got a stupid, dark sense of humor. But if it wasn't for that, there was no humor in this movie at all and it doesn't need it. No, no, and I think if they did have it, it would take away from the effectiveness. The effects in this movie are great. We talked about some of them with the blood coming through the mirrors and all that kind of stuff. People floating in slow motion. And there's another effect too that really gets you do a procedure on John Doe and they drill through his skull. And first they show cutting through the flesh in his head. And you're like, ugh. Yeah, that's bad enough. And then they show the drill drilling into his skull and the bone being kind of torn away. And you're like, argh. And he's awake during it. And you can see his eyes are open and you're like, argh. And he's like, I'm getting worse. He's like, wow, look. The casting for this movie I think is great. It's not necessarily perfect, but it's great. You believe every single person who's playing their part. Yeah, yeah, there's no stunted performances. Jellico does a really good job of playing this poor guy just like tormented by not knowing who he is or what's going on with his life. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That Paul Freeman guy who plays that head doctor, I believe that he's in charge of this award. Same with Katherine Harrell too. She's still sort of young. So you believe that she's just kind of a plain doctor, right? She hasn't gotten to the supervisory. That's why people don't believe what she has to say because you're just a newbie. Exactly. She's not really, she can't really call the shots. She's not in a position of power. Her performance is completely believable. The only negative thing I can say about this movie is the ending is a little too open-ended. Like, I like open-ended endings just fine. But when there's not quite enough to make you kind of put things together in your own head, there's too many questions that need to be answered still. With the mother, who is the mother and how is the mother there and what exactly is she and how did she get there? That's kind of all left a little unanswered. A few more little clues thrown my way would have helped a lot as far as just piecing it all together yourself. Which you're supposed to do, but you need to be able to do it, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, other than that, I thought it was a fucking great movie. Yeah, I liked the ending. I thought it was pretty good. So if you want a great movie from early 80s with great acting, the psychology of dreams and projecting your dreams and other people's dreams is pretty cool. Definitely check out The Sender. And until next time, keep drinking. And sending. Thoughts to your stomach? I need more beer. It's like, damn, I gotta drink more.