Indie AF: Big Bad Betty

Hello. In this episode we are joined by writer, director, creator of Big Bad Betty, Justin Sulham. So that means this episode has got tons of spoilers in it and the movie just came out. So what I recommend for you is to go get yourself a copy. And the best way to do that because it's physical, physical media only. You can get a blu ray or VHS. Go to slashville studios.com the links in the show notes. Get yourself a copy, watch it and then come back. Enjoy the show. Gather together from the cosmic breaches of the universe. Here in this great screening room with comfortable recliners are the most powerful forces of good ever assembled. Keith Terry.

I made like one short film in college and it was like so hard and it turned out so bad.

Eric, I'm gonna throw out. Here's an idea. It's half in jest, half grounded in. Well, this might work. And the power twins Zap and Jordan with their magical lemur snort, dedicated to fumbling their way through movies one forgotten gem at a time. This week we watch the 2026 indie creature feature Big Bad Betty. This is Fumbling Through Film.

Once upon a time, there lived a family on these very lands. A family so sick, so twisty, so utterly deranged that the townspeople rejected them, shunned and banished them back to which they came. Legend has it the man of the home used to experiment with his livestock crossbreeding species. One night he was experimenting and he crossbred himself with a sheep. They say the sheep had a lamb whose fleece was white as snow. But not for long, for it grew big and strong and had a rage of a thousand suns. Worst of all, no one knows for sure what happened to this creature.

Hello and welcome to another one of a kind, genre defining, brand new episode of Fumbling Through Film. The only show that dares to bring together three dudes to talk about movies. But these aren't just any movies though

could be

these are the ones we've either missed, overlooked, or feel are simply worth revisiting. Which, you know we're going to have like an unbiased opinion on this, but I think that's pretty much any movie.

I think there's some wiggle room there that maybe not every movie, but we'll find out anyway.

My name is Derek and I'm a Fumbler. Joining me here in the Fumble Dome, our palatial estate, that is our reclaimed planetarium that we had a police auction, is the prime minister of fumbling and film, Keith.

Hey, hey, what's up, kg? Fumbler Extraordinaire man, that. That intro, that makes me laugh.

All right. That other person over there that thinks things are interesting and that's right. Interjects when maybe he shouldn't is the Dr. Dre of Kansas. Terry.

Hey, everybody, it's me. I'm Terry. I interject sometimes, but I feel like it's reasonable.

I don't know if it's during my day. What Usually during my. Usually during my deep dive this week. I'm sure.

Yeah, I like to. I like to speak my mind every once in a while. But that's. That's okay.

He does do that, don't I? He speaks his mind. And another person. We actually have opened our doors and we have a visitor for the very first time ever.

Yes.

And he may be here just for fun or maybe related to something. The movie we're watching. I don't know. But he is. I don't even know how to introduce him. He's the writer and director of Big Bad Betty, which we're watching today. It's Justin Sulham.

Hello, hello, hello. There he is.

How you doing today, sir?

You know, I'm doing good. I'm just so disappointed in myself because the whole time you guys were talking and I promise I was trying to listen to you. I was also trying to come up with something clever to say for myself. I couldn't do it.

Hey, hello, hello, hello. It's not bad.

Falls right in line with what I do every week.

Deer in headlights. It's Keith. Oh, who, me? Yes. Yeah, you, Derek.

Is the same intro each week and by the time it gets to me, I'm like fumbler or something. Okay, it's me.

Thank God I go second because I got a little extra time to really nail mine obviously.

Nails it. Justin, thank you for joining us. Yes. Super excited about today's episode. But before we do anything, give us a quick rundown of who you are, where you're from, where you journeyed to us from today.

Well, I am. I'm a Boston native and I relocated to Nashville, Tennessee for the first time back in 2015. I had been dabbling in filmmaking prior to that, but Nashville was where my professional career began. Had a short stint during COVID where I went back up to Boston where I'm from. So I was there for two more years and back in 2022, came back here again. There is going to be no leaving here again. I am. I am a Nashville and I am a. I'm a first time feature filmmaker. I feel like I'm not allowed to call Myself a feature filmmaker yet because I only done one, but I'm impressed.

More than a second. I say you're going pretty.

You can hang your head on that.

Oh, yeah.

You're talking to three people that have never made a feature film. So you're one up on us there, at least.

Well, there's still time.

Yeah.

Don't get us started. Yeah, we may not be allowed to make films. I don't know.

Well, thank you for joining. Nashville, Tennessee, is like the coolest place to be on the face the earth. I think right now. That's where everybody claims, at least.

I guess it depends on what circle you. You run with. If you. If you like to go out and you like to socialize, you know, your bars, clubs, yada, yada. Yeah, this place is, you know, it's becoming like Vegas, you know, someone like me, I just kind of keep to myself and not really big on venturing out, so for me, I think it's a little bit. I'm becoming the.

The.

The old man that complains about how it's too loud. But I do also have a. I have a Regal Cinemas literally across the street from my house. So whenever I want to, I just walk across the street and go to a movie. So that's.

That's nice.

That's nice.

That's the life right there.

I was glad they did a whole run of the Universal monsters to end October.

Really.

Yep. So I. I had seen them, but I, you know, I finally got to see Wolfman. I. I went and I saw Wolfman and the original Mummy, and I see, like, Wolfman because I. I'm just a slut for that movie. I love it. I love how bad it is. And, you know, it was. It was nice to, you know, to be able to experience it on the big screen. But then I saw wizard of Oz in probably January, but it was like a 4K restoration copy, you know, and it was. It was crap. It was crap.

Really?

Well, it buries the gimmick of, of the nostalgia because you can see, like, the makeup on Tin Man's face and the. You can see the painted backdrops. You know, it's like. It doesn't need to be a 4k rest or how about, you know. Yeah, leave it like, 480 or whatever the quality of film was, you know.

Yeah.

And because it's worked for, what, 80 years? Like, it continued to work. It'd be fun.

It's kind of like when they. They remaster, like, the. All those, like, Godzilla films, you start all of a sudden the wires are there and everything. You're like, wait a second. You know, I mean, I knew they were wires, but watch it. Like, oh, what? I'm sorry to break the Steve Derek, but they use wires to use the airplanes, make them fly. But yeah, that's kind of like that where you're like. It's like suddenly it becomes a little more obvious. Like it's always been, you know, you know it's fake because it's a movie, but like, yeah, kind of.

Well, it's like Jason or Friday 13th 3D, right? So I think. Was that the third one, 3D? Probably when Jason does the cross, the. The skull crush gimmick and there's the eyeball that pops out towards lens and you can just see like the metal fishing line that it's on, you know, like. But I think that was a part of it. I think they were like, we know we see this, but fuck it. Like, it's funny.

Yeah, why not?

All right, we're burying the lead a little bit here, so I got to tell people we made this far. What is we do here?

Oh, right. We do.

Every week we watch movies. But not just any movie, right?

What?

Every month one of us chooses a theme, a genre, some sort of guiding light, a exposed well, like the well pump. That is just something we can take a movie and just jam it on top. Oh, watch that movie, right?

See what comes out of that thing.

See what comes out. And this is. God damn, I will get to it. This month is a me month, and it's the first week of a me month. And so I chose something very unique because I happen to be on social media. Don't know why Justin popped up in my timeline. I didn't follow him. I follow him now. But he's like, I released my feature length film today. I was like, well, hot damn, I want to find out what this is. So I messaged him and he's like, it's this. And I'm like, great, I'll take three copies. That's what we're here this month we're watching indie as fuck movies. That's our. That's our indie. AF is our theme for the month and I chose Big Bad Betty, the movie that Justin wrote and directed now. But before we do our patent pending fumblers deep dive, before we talk about our movie, Keith Terry, did either of you have any knowledge or history with Big Bad Betty?

Not until last week when I opened my mysterious envelope and saw it. Yeah, but that was quite the surprise. I was excited once I saw that thing.

But not, not the movie, but you know, back in the day, I'm sure.

Oh, you knew. You knew a Big Bang Betty back in the day.

Probably.

Rama Lamb, it's time to for you guys to sit back and relax. And Justin, you're gonna be my co pilot as we do another patent pending fumbler. Ste movie is Big Bad Betty. This Son, it says on IMDb, came out in 2025, but I talked to Justin in 2026. Is there an official release date?

Yeah, yeah. Official release date was February 6, 2026. I. Wow. I've requested to IMDb to update that information maybe 10, 10 or 12 times and they won't.

Yeah, you're like, I made a Valentine's Day movie. Please update.

Yeah, it's full of love. I love it.

Came out just last month and that's a really good.

Yeah, just wait. We are. It's. It's like a premiere almost. This Son came out on February 6, 2026. It is unrated, but I would rate it an R if I were the person in charge. And is 1 hour and 30 minutes and change, it's sitting at a solid 8.8 on IMDb.

That's pretty good.

According to IMDb, the story centers on Sarah, a young woman restoring her late grandfather's horse ranch, who alongside her friends, encounter a predatory entity tied to the land's dark legacy. Is written and directed by Justin Sul Sulham. He has eight previous directing credits going back to 2006 shorts like Sing Sanguinary, Black Vulture and Night of the Werewolves. But he has 40 credits. This is where I, I was like geeking out a little bit. Is 40 credits behind the scenes in TV and film going back to 2017. And this one's my favorite. But I'm saying at first. Jack White's music video for Connected by Love, eight episodes of the Penguin show and HBO, three episodes of Severance, 10 episodes of Dexter, New Blood and movies like A Bad Mom's Christmas, Shazam, Fury of the Gods, the Holdovers. Excellent film, Madame web. But in 2018, he worked as a grip on Rampage. When three different animals become infected with a dangerous pathogen, a primatologist and a Genesis team up to stop them from destroying Chicago.

Yes.

Starring Dwayne the Rock Johnson, Naomi Harris and Malin Ackerman.

Yes. Based off the hit video game the Arcade Game.

And the reason I brought this one up is because for some reason, the creator of the Rampage video game has popped up in my timeline this week.

Oh, really?

And apparently the Lizzie character is not based off Of Godzilla. What? It's based off of some other thing. Yeah, I can't remember what he said, but it was too big.

Yeah, it must have been something else. All right, fine, I'll take it.

Iguana that he had.

It was something else. I just don't know. It was.

Was it like another monster or was it like, just like some random lizard?

Yeah, it was another movie monster. I should have wrote this down. I. I brought it up and I.

The Gorgon.

I don't.

Terry, you can name every Kaiju Young Gary.

Young Gary. I don't know. Is that a Kaiju Young Gary?

It's from Korea. Yeah. Oh.

I thought it would be like Gary Shandling or something like that.

What about Godzuki?

Godzuki? That's a cartoon only, isn't it?

Godzuki is smaller than Godzilla, so it's possible.

Justin, do you have any insights on Rampage for us?

Well, I love the game. Yeah, yeah, no, I do. I love, I've always loved the game. It's so strange that I, I have like these vague memories from, you know, when I was like 7 or 8. Because I don't know about you guys, but I really don't remember, you know, shit from back then.

No, no, no.

But I remember going to. I even remember the name Billy D's Arcade. And. Yeah, I don't. Fuck. Couldn't tell you where it was. It was in Massachusetts somewhere. But Billy D's Arcade and I was always playing Rampage and the four Player Ninja Turtles game.

Yes, yes, yes.

What? Turtles? In time maybe.

Yes, that sounds right.

Yeah. And then there was the, the X Men. Not the X Men versus Street Fighter, which was awesome, but the X Men game that also had the multiple consoles.

Yep.

Yeah, I love that. So, no, Rampage was. Rampage was, Was a lot of fun. We shot it in Atlanta, Georgia. It was hot. I remember the first day I showed up on set, they had a guy there with a.22 and I was like, what. What you doing? You know, because when, when you're, when you're filming down south, it's not unheard of to like have somebody that's like, you're bordering their land and they're like, hi, man. Just so you know, I'll shoot you.

You cross the property.

Yeah, right. This guy, this guy was there as our snake wrangler. So he.

Oh, nice.

Well, you know, it's. And you never want to kill him. Of course. He, he and I, I watched him work. He would do his best to just, you know, capture so they could reset free. But it was Peak. You know, it was, like, August probably. It was 800 degrees. Yeah. But that movie was a lot of fun to work on. That was the second thing that I worked with Dwayne Johnson on. The first one was all the way back in 2006. Six was the game Plan. Disney movie. The Game Plan.

I love that movie.

What? Keith?

I love that. I love that movie.

Do you?

Yeah.

Is that the.

The cinnamon.

Isn't he, like, a football person?

Yeah, he's a football player. Finds out he's got a daughter.

Yeah.

And she gives him some cinnamon even though he's allergic to it. At some point in time, he's.

Oh, you know what? Now you're saying this. I feel like I've seen this.

Yes. It's. It's. I've ever seen that. I don't think I've seen the movie, but I know that clip. Isn't he swollen up? I don't remember.

Yeah, his, like, tongue swells up and everything like that and. Yeah, but see, now I've seen it multiple times.

Mixing it in my head with that. Remember the Martin show where he goes and he gets the crap kicked out of him in a boxing ring and his head's, like, all blown up?

No, I don't.

That's all I could think of is that he. I can't remember who he fights. Oh, he fights Tommy the Hitman Hearns. Anyway, that's all I could think of when he said that. All right, cool. Dwayne the Rock Johnson. This movie, Big Bad Betty, it stars Zach Palica.

Palika.

Palika as Henry. He's got five additional acting credits going back to 2016. He played Zach in two episodes of Every day. And in 2025, he played Caden in a short called Dead Note, which immediately piqued my interest. Sounds nothing to do with Death Note. But it's different. The lead singer of a popular rock band whose name is Derek. I don't know if the lead singer is there.

Now I see why this stuck out to you. That's interesting, huh?

Okay.

Comes under investigation following the overdose of his bandmate's girlfriend. But who is responsible? And how far will the band go to preserve their public image?

What year did you say it came out? 2025.

2025? Yep.

So that was directed. That was directed by a kid that worked on Betty, too. He. Yeah, yeah. I want to give him a shout out here. That's where I'm going with this. Yeah, Joe. And I called him Joe Macho, but I just can't for the life. Machoski Joe Machoski.

Okay.

Yeah. So shout out to him because I didn't think his name was going to come up. Yeah, he directed that.

Nice. This movie also stars Katrina Solo as Brooke. This is her first film credit, but she does have three TV credits going back to 2016. She was in an episode each of Discover indie film the Mick and you can do better. She's the one that ends up impaled, right?

Yes.

I like her a lot.

Yes, she's funny.

There's a lot of very likable characters in this movie and she's the first one to get kind of like really, like cheering for it. And then, you know, she meets her demise in a way that.

Yeah, it's very well foreshadowed.

Yes, Agreed.

She got what she wanted.

Right. I think she's a.

Choose her words more carefully.

Let's just say that you got to know. You got to know your surroundings, know where you're at. And those sorts of requests don't go unnoticed.

Right.

You gotta, you know, you gotta assume the fates are not on your side. They're gonna twist that little wish into something else. Yeah. You gotta be careful.

This movie also stars Ray Bruce. He plays the gluten insensitive wrestler who won't miss a meal. Marco the Great.

I love Marco the Great.

Yeah, yeah. He's got a few upcoming credits for stunts on mdv, but he is an accomplished professional wrestler. Oh, really?

Yeah.

I looked on his Facebook. He most recently was wrestling for the pwa. And as recording wrestling he wrestated yesterday at the awf. Fresh faces with other names. Wrestlers like Grease Monkey, Red Riggins, the Playmaker, Win Brantley and the viral champion, amg. Justin, you're a big wrestler guy, aren't you? You were a wrestler, weren't you?

Was a wrestler.

You were.

If.

If I talk, if I take too long telling a story, just tell me to shut up because I never know how much I'm supposed to say when I'm.

Again.

You could say whatever you want.

So I. My last match as a professional wrestler was. I retired with a company called OVW run by Al Snow up in Louisville.

Oh, El Snow. I know the name.

Yeah. And so fun fact. And then I'll go back to the story. I was at Al's house two weeks ago recording the voiceover work for the next feature because he's in it.

Oh,

my retirement match, which I didn't know at the time was going to be my retirement match. I hadn't wrestled in a couple years and I knew that it wasn't something I wanted to get back into, but I'm just so physically banged up that. That it had to be it. So I went in and I just killed the guy, you know, as a masked character. So I just did the thing where the music stops and, you know, then. Or the music starts and then I go in and kill him and lights and whatever. Right. Fucking pageantry. And I leave. Well, it turns out that Ray Bruce was in the audience. I didn't know that. And so he tells me this story on, like, day five of filming. He was like, man, I remember, like, seeing you in the ring, and I'm just trying to size you up and figure out if I'm bigger than you the entire time. As they pull out a tape measure. No, not that kind

of.

Oh. Anyway, he's. He's incredibly easy to work with. He's a hard worker. I think that he's got a huge future ahead of him. Selfishly, I hope that it's not in professional wrestling. I hope that it's, you know, on camera in the film world. He's just, you know, it was his first feature film, and it felt like it was his 10th because he memorized all his dialogue. His delivery was fucking fantastic. You know, it's. He was easy to direct. It seems like he, you know, he really gets it. He's doing great things in wrestling. He's done a lot of other stuff. He's done some extra work for tna, which is a great way to get your foot in the door, you know, to have them invite you down to the training center. And I honestly think that he's going to reach a point where he's going to have to make a decision on which direction he wants to go in, because both are calling him wrestling or the film industry, you know, but he's, you know, he's fantastic. And then I just wanted to take a second and circle back on Katrina because I didn't want to interrupt you guys. She's also, you know, she was incredibly easy to work with, and she doesn't have a lot of credits as an actor, but that's because she spent a large part of her time as a model.

Okay.

So she's. She's done a lot of. A lot of print work. And, you know, she's. She's very talented. And, I mean, obviously, you saw her. She's, you know, she's beautiful and she's funny. So she's another. She's another one that. I think if she. If she wanted to have the industry in her Capable grasp. She, you know, she could, but she's, you know, she's side hustling with on the production side of things, you know, she's incredibly talented on the crew side as a production designer and in that world. So. Yeah. But I wanted to make sure to, you know, touch on her as well because, you know, as you saw, she was a very likable character. And yes, you know, she was. She was too good not to circle back on and mention for sure.

I'm gonna say with all honesty, I was surprised at the level of screen competence. Just like a lot of the people in this movie had Katrina Solo, Ray, Bruce, like, they look like they've been doing it for a long time, right? Like, even though this is, this is an indie as movie, right. Like, they still had a quality to him. It's like, boy, they, they've done stuff before. The other one that I didn't deep dive on her little Rasta, who is the address for that. She was. I loved her.

Yep, she's fantastic. I. I mean, I could sit here for an hour and not run out of things to say about her. All good. You know, she's just. She is, sweetheart. She's so I. I ended up affectionately calling her, referring to her as a little ball of light. Like that was like. Because it honestly is kind of. That's what it. Cause she's very petite, you know, she's like 5, 5 1. But when she walks in the room, it's as if like somebody turns a light on, you know, she's just. She's positive and she's happy and she's just so, so nice to be around and she's so, again, easy to direct and agreeable. You know, like, my point of criticism for her, which I've. Because it's not really a point of criticism, is I just hope that she will challenge people a little more as time goes on because she is so agreeable to say yes and roll with it. You know? You know what I mean? And like, that's, and that's not a fault. That's. That's of course a quality. But, you know, she's another one that she's just so good at what she does that I think that she's going to find herself in a position, if I had to predict the future for her, she's going to be behind the camera on the crew side again, I think production design and she'll be, you know, calling shots. So awesome. Eventually she's gonna have to learn how to tell people no.

But like, oh, True.

I'm bringing her into the fold on the next film that we're doing. And I'm not putting her back on camera because it's a. It's a limited cast. But I want her to be a part of it. So I'm gonna bring her in in a production capacity and also. Cause she was our stunt coordinator. Co stunt coordinator for the film.

Oh, very cool.

Awesome.

Very nice. So the last person I have written down here is Mateo Palm Meteor Palmettier.

You know, I'd be lying if I said I knew how to pronounce it as well. I've never. Because I've never had to. Paul Midier.

Palmidier. He's the man behind Mateo. Yeah, he's the man behind the mask as Betty. Yes. He's an actor, stuntman, writer with credits going back to 2023.

Have you scrolled through? And there's no wrong answer here. If you haven't my YouTube at all.

No, have not.

So on your own time, after we've done this podcast, if you go on my YouTube. I don't remember when we posted it. I think it was. It was definitely pre wrestling because I did a lot. I filmed a lot of wrestling last year. So you just scroll way past all that shit, you're gonna find a video of this really beautiful piano driven duet with a man and a woman. That's fucking Mateo.

Oh, really?

The same dude that kills everyone on this horse ranch also has. He's. He's been called by Will Ferrell or by John C. Reilly as the songbird of his generation.

Wow. Wow. What a man of two sides. Wow.

Yeah.

So longbird of the generation. Is that what you said?

Well, it was a stepbrothers quote.

Yeah.

Still, to. To like to. To throw that out towards anybody as well. Any quote from that movie.

Yeah.

That's still high praise either way.

The song is called Shame on you, Shame on Me. The thumbnail is him and a pretty girl. Yeah. A white T shirt and a keyboard.

This is normally where I have fun facts, but we've. I think we've been doused with fun facts. Is there any more. Is there anything else fun that is like pre, like behind the scenes? Like, oh, this person was allergic to peanuts and we had, you know, EpiPens on hand. Was there anything fun like that? Yeah.

Yeah. I have an awesome fun fact about how much of a fucking dirtbag I am as a director. I didn't know that Ray Bruce. I didn't know that Ray Bruce really had a gluten sensitivity. So I Wrote it. I just wrote it into the character because it's fucking ridiculous. Like, the full script for the character was that he was supposed to be a fitness influencer as well, you know?

Okay.

And so, like, the scene when him and Henry are driving in the car, he starts, like, trying to give him discount codes to get creatine and shit. But I didn't know that he had gluten and lactose sensitivity.

Really.

And because of where we were filming, when we were doing the ranch stuff, there was. There was literally. There was no. There were no options. There was fudgeing pizza. And so I would just order a bunch of pizza for everybody and I walked away because I would be working during lunch. You know, I never had a chance to sit and relax on that because I was wearing so many different hats.

Yeah.

So I just assumed dude was eating, and I end up finding out he brought his own food anyway, so he was. He was. He was meal prepping at the time. Okay.

But chicken breast and brown rice.

Yeah, something like that. But if it wasn't for that dude, you know, he wouldn't have been eating, and he was too polite to tell me.

Oh.

So, yeah, fun fact. He's a sweetheart.

He'll beat your ass in the ring, but he's got a gluten intolerance and he's nice as hell.

That's how. That's how you beat him when you're in the ring with him. You take like a. I don't know, pizza dough and shove it down his throat or something.

Yeah.

Have you ever seen that. That one wrestler online? He's like an old guy who, like, his, like, finishing move is. He, like, pops out of, like, a thing of pizza dough and, like, spins around the air and then throws it at him.

Yeah. Huh.

Yeah. That would take. That could take him out immediately with that move.

My friend Haley. My friend Haley just worked him in, like, Vegas or New York or something.

Yeah, he's like an. He's like an old man at least. Or that's how he comes across. And he's got, like, an apron on, and he sits there and he spins the pizza dough up in the air and does the whole thing.

And then like, dude, what a fun gimmick, though.

I love that.

Let me. If I got hit with one of those pizza doughs, I'll tell you, that probably knocked me down. I don't know.

Hard breeze would knock Terry over along with the pizza dough.

Yeah. Don't add pizza to the harsh freezer. I almost shattered my. All my bones will Shatter.

That'd be an awesome rivalry though that the old pizza guy versus somebody with a gluten.

Yeah.

A secret gluten intolerance.

And he like shoves dough in your mouth and he's like, in five to six hours you're gonna feel good.

You're gonna be real itchy.

You're gonna have to. We're gonna fight for. I have to just survive for another six hours in the ring and you're

really gonna regret this. Well, boyos, that was deep as hell. We got closer to Big Bad Betty than I ever anticipated.

That's probably deeper than me will ever get on any movie ever.

I know.

We actually had act insight from the making of the movie.

No need to speculate. Yeah.

Apparently like most of the cast are a bunch of sweethearts that are. Are going to go far, which I can't argue with. Yeah.

Now it's gonna. From now on, it's the not so patent pending, not so deep dives that we're gonna have to deal with.

Yeah, I know. Like there's. We're gonna have a lot to follow up, like big shoes to fill after this episode.

Well, the way I look at it is that every. It seems like every time you have. Not you, but just you, the proverbial you. Every time that like a film, a guest on something, it's singing high praise about like, you know, how good something was or, you know, like it's. It's just never like the truth. It's rarely the truth. It's like this movie was hard to make and so I'll just tell people like I'm a pretty much an open book, you know, like, there are a few topics I won't dive into. But like, short of that, if you guys have any questions on it, I'm. I'm game.

You know, I can't imagine how hard it is to make a movie like this. Yeah, I made like one short film in college and it was like so hard and it turned out so bad that. And it's like, I can't imagine speaking a 90 minute movie like, and making it like comprehensible and actually good.

Yeah. The fact that the movie starts and ends and you can follow it the whole way is better than a lot of like the big budget movies we've watched.

Honestly. Yes.

Oh, I, I followed the story from point A to point Z. That's, that's, that's a victory within itself.

I sing on the K. Oh, wow. I actually like a lot of these characters. Interesting.

Yes.

That's nice. Yeah. Like, it' much better than a lot of movies we've watched on the show.

Yeah. And I. Oh, God. Well, let's just get into. Let's talk about Big Bad Benny. I cackled in the most. In, like, the most genuine way when. Boy, I'm terrible at names and characters. When she was impaled by Big Bad Betty.

Yeah.

On that exposed. I guess it's like a. A. Like a well pump or something.

I don't know.

It doesn't matter what it was. It was big, it was metal, and it probably went from butt to skull. I laughed.

I thought maybe she was just gonna get stabbed or something, you know? No, this was the best way to do that. That was amazing. Yeah.

Who's going to impale me now?

Even though she foreshadowed it, I was like. When he picked her up, I was like, man, where's he going to take her back to that thing? What's the matter? Like, they're on this giant ranch. Oh. And then I was like, no, no, no, no, please. I didn't laugh. I just sat there like, how much

do we care about. About going into spoiler territory here? I mean, we kind of just did. Right. So, like.

Yeah.

So

one of the things that I had to make a decision as a director, it's a creative role. Right. Where you're working with talent and. But as a producer, which of course, I also was. You're a responsible adult.

Yeah.

And. Yeah. And so the producer and me had to come out. And it was. Well, it was hard because the way that that scene was originally written was fucking insane. And I wasn't able to do it because of safety. So fun fact. When Mateo puts the suit on and we pull the suspenders over, he loses all visibility. He has to work blind.

Oh, okay.

There's no visibility. And I'm not exaggerating. It's not like he's got a little. There is zero visual because the mouth is where his eyes are supposed to be looking out, and it gets pulled down by the suspenders.

So

the original script called for him to pick, and we had the things there on the day to do this gag, but it wasn't safe. He picks her up, brings her over, he drives her down, which we shot in reverse, by the way. When we see it in the film. We sat her down on it so she was getting it squished up her butt. And then he rips her off of it. It. And in. In post, I reversed it so it looked like she was, you know. But she gets driven down and all of a sudden, the water. Because it's a water spigot, the water turns on and water just starts pouring out of her mouth.

Oh.

And I thought.

I thought it was gonna. That's kind of what I thought it was gonna happen when you got the closeup on her.

And so that. Well, that was the original plan. And so I bought. I went to Home Depot and I bought some plastic tubing and some plumbing elbows, curved elbows to create, like, an S. And it was small enough to fit in her mouth. So I was going to shoot her from, like, a bit of a dirty profile. So you could see one of her eyes, but you couldn't see the other side of her cheek. And the S thing was going to go into her mouth, which was attached to the pump, which was going to pump water out. But in order to do that, to establish that the water was. Was on, you would have to have it on before she's impaled. To do that would. Would have meant that he would have had to have picked her up and walked across wet grass with zero visibility. Holding an actor.

Oh, yeah.

And so, you know, we had a lot of that in the movie, you know, like with Ray Bruce's scene. And the reason that it's very brief is because we had, like, moonsaults. He was going to do moonsault off the truck. He's going to do a jumping drop. And he was capable to do it all. But again, you know, zero viz.

Yeah, I'll be real honest, I was hoping for some. Some crazy wrestling move there. And when he. When he hauled off and decked Betty. Right. And then it cuts. Right. I. I laughed at that, too.

It was hard with Betty because Mateo was suffering. He was suffering the entire time, you know, and we filmed his stuff in late August and early. He was only on set for, like, five days. It was late August, early September. So he could only wear the suit at any given time. The longest that he was in, it was probably like seven minutes. And he would have to take the head off because that was, of course, you know, what was so hot on him. By the end of production. When you see him in the film, he has an ice vest on. So it's like a runner's vest, but we put ice packs all in it.

Wow.

And in between takes, he either has to take the helmet off, the head off, or we have slots that are slit in the thing to shove fans, little fans. To bring his body temperature down. Yes. We were forever having to bring his body temperature down.

It sounds brutal.

They're Pretty heavy too. It looked like it might be pretty heavy to wear, kind of.

Yeah. I mean, the claws themselves are probably good five or six pounds a piece. So. Yeah, I would think the whole, the whole gimmick because it was a head, shoulder attachment and then there were the overalls, the flannel shirt. You know, probably like a 25 pound, but 25 pounds of like quarter inch thick or. Or, you know, eighth inch thick latex. Oh, geez. You know, impermeable latex. It was, you know, he was just so hot.

I can imagine. We. One of the movies we talked about on before was RoboCop, and Peter Willie had to have air conditioners built into his RoboCop suit. So when you do Big Bad Betty 2 or the Return or whatever, consider air conditioners built into the suit. Yeah. That's all I'm saying. Right.

How hard could it be to install?

Yeah, I mean, just get a window unit and have them drag.

Just add another £50.

I don't know if you. You would have any way of knowing this because I. I haven't made like an official thing, you know, I feel like official announcements are always so stupid, but I've said it passively in some of the videos I put out there. The Big Bad Petty two is coming.

Nice.

Oh, it is, yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is an exclusive right here.

Yeah. The script's been written for. I mean, I had been roughing the script together while I was shooting the last movie, but did you watch through the, through the credits?

I did, yeah.

Yeah. So you kind of have an inkling of like, you know, what. What did I just see? You know, was it a monster? Was it not?

Yeah. Oh, damn it. Now I'm.

You didn't watch it?

Oh, no.

And then I immediately, I immediately thought of the. What's the. The meme that everyone does too, where it's. I'm like, oh, Big Bad at Betty will return in Avengers.

Yeah, that would be a candy Avengers. There's a little something something.

And I'm gonna go back and watch again.

But I'll tell you what, you know, between the two films, there's a moment in the second script where this thing makes an appearance again. The. The head and shoulder piece makes an appearance again.

Okay.

And it's. It's horrifying because the second film. So the first one was meant to be very light hearted and comedic and, you know, I mean, you saw it like I did the monster reveal with a pickle.

Yes.

Yeah.

The second one is. It's the easiest way to Describe it. It's like the first one is House of a Thousand Corpses and the second one is the Devil's Rejects. It's very gritty, very grounded. I didn't want to get too far away from the source material in terms of like the, the laughter. I wanted there to be some. So the laughter changes, you know, like in, in Devil's Rejects, you know, one of my favorite moments is when she boobs him on the nose with the ice cream, the tootie, fucking fruity, you know, and like you've got these heinous people and you're laughing, you're rooting for them. Yeah. So that's very much the vibe of Number two, but I still lean into that synth music. And yes, I love it. Yeah, so that's going to be a fun one. But unlike Betty 1, which, you know, self funded and financially, quite honestly broke me, I cannot do a self funded Big Bad Betty too. So I don't know if that means crowdfunding. I don't know if it means seeking an investor to come in and become a part of it. But I can tell you, like, we flip a vehicle, there's an explosion, there's, you know, there's prop gunfire. We have an insane prosthetic for a character for one of the kills. I've got named talent reading for one of the roles right now. It's a name that everyone who's watched horror knows. And if she comes on board, where's that money coming from? You know?

So are there. Are there three? The movie watching podcast.

Oh, come on.

For the, for the low, low price of $55,000, we could be in it.

Oh, that's like a tier list on the Kickstarter.

55k. You get a poster.

Oh, okay, I'll take that.

Not just any poster. I'll have the A P.A. sign it.

Oh, thanks. Awesome. Not even.

I'm the P.A.

honey, give me the checkbook.

Honey, I already got a Blu Ray you signed.

You know what funny is? When I go to these conventions and people buy a copy, I don't offer to sign it right away because I like, why the would you want my signature? You know, and so like, people will ask and I'm like, I had to stop acting surprised because I only. I don't want them to feel foolish, you know, like, oh, you. Yeah, sure. Like, I guess, you know, like, I'm not the cast. To me, it's like, that's, that's for the, the cast, you know, like they're the people that made the movie. I'm Just the guy that pointed the camera.

Yeah, I hear you. I'm, I'm gonna throw out. Here's an idea. It's half ingest, half grounded in, like. Well, this might work. We recently watched Casino Royale, the Daniel Craig James Bond movie. And one of the things that movie did is it broke the Guinness Book of World Records. Oh, for a car flip fueled by a cannon. Right. So it did seven roles, and it was powered by like some air cannon. If you go in and you can find an investor that was willing to get behind the idea of breaking a world record by flipping a car seven and a half to eight times with a cannon, you might have some, you

might get some people on board with that.

Oh, yeah, I'm already on board. I'll chip it. 50 bucks.

You know, I'll have to keep that up my sleeve for, for another one.

Big bad Betty 3. Maybe we'll get that going.

They could make. We can, maybe we could break the record for the most times that I've thrown up behind the scenes making a movie, which currently is once.

Oh, okay. It seems like an achievable goal.

That night that we shot the Katrina scene with the, the water spigot, I was, because I was the director of photography on this thing as well. I wore a lot of hats.

Hats, Bought a lot of hats.

And I'm standing there holding the camera. I'm like, like, something's coming up. So. Oh, no, I, I, whoever, I don't even remember who is near me, but whoever was near me because I have a bad shoulder. So there was almost always somebody near me to like, grab the camera from me when I was done, whoever it was, they took it. And I was like, I'll be right back. Played it real cool. Walked like I wasn't about to die. And I rounded the corner and so exhausted, because that was a long day for me. Because I, I, I was giving myself. In the business, it's called a pre call. So it's how much time you get there before the cast or before the crew. And I was giving myself like five to seven hour pre calls to get everything done. So by the time people would get there, I had already been working for like five to seven hours. And so it was on the seven hour pre call day. And I ran behind the shed and I just started vomiting so hard. Let that run its course. And then I wiped my mouth and just went back to work like nothing happened. I was so tired. And then it was actually really, it was a late night. Well, look, these people are Volunteering their time. Right. This wasn't a paid movie. I didn't have enough money to pay everybody, so I wasn't going to ask anyone to stay after. So it was like, as soon as I called rap, it was, get out of here. And everybody would offer, like, let me help you, let me help you. And it wasn't out of spite that I would say no or out of pride. It was like, no, I don't want to disrespect your time. You've given me so much already. Just get out of here.

Here.

And that day was my longest rap. That was my longest day working on Betty. It was like 17 and a half hours. Well, because the shooting days were always very short because it was so hot. And I didn't want to ask these people. Our typical Industry day is 12 hours plus lunch, 12 and a half. And I didn't want to ask that of them. I think on an independent film, to ever ask somebody to work 12 hours is obscene. 10 hours, different story, it's still obscene, but 10 hours is a lot better. And 12, so. But I still didn't want that. So the longest day I ever had cast on set was like seven hours.

Okay.

But it was, you know, the pre calls and the wraps, and I was just toast. Like that greenhouse, I built it, right? So I built that thing.

You built the greenhouse?

I did, yeah.

Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah, So I built the greenhouse on, you know, whatever day, like the day before. And then on the day of Ashley, our production designer, and Raya and Jojo, our two stunt coordinators, they. They got there a couple hours early and helped put the plastic over it and dress it and get it ready for camera. And then the next day after we wrapped, I went home. I slept for like two hours. And I got back in the van, drove all the way back to locations about an hour away and spent the day breaking it down.

Jeez.

That thing only existed? Yeah, it only existed for like 48 hours. But it looked. It was my favorite.

It.

You know, I. I love that set.

That's probably one of my favorite sequences in the film too, is when she's like, crawling away in the blood splatter. You can see the blood splatter.

Against that was an air compressor. We had. I built a blood cannon. So I took an air compressor, put the hose on it, grabbed a Gatorade bottle, like a 32 ounce Gatorade bottle, drill the hole in the cap, put the air compressor nozzle through the hole, and then put or cut the bottom off. So it was a, you know, like a. Like a cup, right? Like an open top cup. Filled it with blood. And then they would charge the air compressor and just let it rip. So like that, that shot with the tongue, that's the air compressor. Betty at the end, that's an air compressor. And then the splat of the blood inside, that's an air compressor.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's pretty cool, that thing. Yeah, that thing worked its ass off on that movie.

Yeah, your money's worth that.

That thing.

Yeah.

I love practical effects. And that's not just me saying it for this episode. I've said it for how many episodes we've done now? 60 something. 62. I love practical effects. And I loved at the end where Betty gets. Well, Betty and. And little. Little Rasta get the. Get the spike from the. Was. Was. I don't. Some attachment on a tractor that's used for picking up bales of hay, right?

Yeah. Round bales of hay.

Yep.

When they get that spike and that blood flies.

Yes.

That was like a lot of blood. And I loved every drop of it.

So the way that that street scene was written, there were supposed to be two more shots. And I loved these shots so much and I hated that I had to cut them. One shot was from the perspective of beside the tractor. So not. Not the in cab perspective, but just to the side of it where Betty spits blood all over the hood of the tractor and all over the window. And then there would have been the turnaround which would be the over Betty's shoulder looking towards the tractor. And we were going to. We were. I was going to puppet the compressor. So I was going to cut the mouth out and put the blood cannon in the mouth and just hit, you know, hit the button and fucking launch. Blood all over the tractor. Problem was, the problem was on the day, because I had seen the tractor. This falls 100 on me for not seeing this sooner. But I only ever saw the tractor in a dark tunnel because they had this like. Like the thing that she kind of walks through on top of all the round bales that's backlit with all the haze. There's another one on that building. And it's just black. It's just darkness. And that's where the tractor lived. So I never saw the. The hood. And the hood was perforated like a screen to your house.

Okay.

And I was told, you know, if any.

Don't get blood in the engine.

Yeah, well, it wasn't like a. It wasn't. Don't get blood in the Engine. It's. So if you get blood on the engine, you know, it was. It was definitely don't get blood on the engine. So, you know, so I had to, I had to pull that. Well, like, there's a shot during that sequence where you actually see the spike entering from the perspective of. Inside the, the, the cab of the tractor. I built a fake tractor and a fake spike and put it on my camera dolly. So that's actually a camera dolly pushing in. Oh, and I took two by fours and I painted them the same color as the tractor. And I bought a retractable sword

because

I wanted there to be a scene

where, where you could actually see a moving actor and see Rasta behind the, you know, behind Betty and see the impalement. And then of course, was the wide, where it was a mannequin, which I had to cut that shot short because the spike goes through the front and then it gets stuck on the back and instead of piercing through, it just pushes the top bale of hay down.

Oh, no.

Yeah. It was a lot that happened behind the scenes on that movie.

There's a lot of work that goes into making the smallest of videos that you put like, you're just like, hey, it's me, guys, video on online. I think there's a lot of work that goes into that, but there's an exponential amount of work that goes into making a full 90 minute movie. Clearly you had to have shot more than just 90 minutes worth of footage. Right. To make it. I think people don't understand that. It's like, oh, there's. There's hundreds of hours that go. Or hundreds of minutes that go into probably dozens of hours of footage. You guys shot maybe hundreds. So to cut down to make 90

minutes, you can generally, when you're watching your next movie. Now if you're watching an Avengers movie or a Marvel, you know, the CGI world, it's a lot different because that takes so much time. But let's say you're watching a very straightforward film. You know, you're just watching. You're watching the holdovers, right? One page of a script is typically one minute of screen time. And that one minute of screen time is typically three hours of editing. Wow. So. And then you get into color grading. So, like, you have to keep in mind. So you take your footage the way that I did Betty. The reason that I was able to cut it and have it ready to go so much sooner, because it came out in September, or I'm sorry, February, but it was ready to come out In September. And I had initially planned on an October 2025 release. Release. So movie had been in the canon, you know, in the can, for a while, but I was editing as I was shooting. So I said no to a lot of work this summer because I work, you know, in the industry, and I said no to a lot of gigs so that I could cut this movie. So I would take the footage. Okay, so we shoot on a Friday, Saturday. I wake up early. I dump all the footage from the night before into bins in my editing software. Then I start to sort through which clip was my favorite. Okay, this one. That's right. Put it on the timeline, check it, make sure it works out well. Because if I'm blessed to be at the same location again and there's something I don't love, I can reshoot it. Right. Okay. So you do an assembly timeline. You do that every day. You throw everything on there. Cool. So now you've got this assembly timeline. It's not pretty. It's not meant to be. And now it's okay. Cool. Now I have to cut it into a timeline. So you start to cut into a timeline. Well, I want to make sure specific songs are here and there. Okay. So you find your songs. Now you have to make this clip a little longer, this clip a little shorter. You're cutting to music, whatever. Okay. Then after you have that all complete. Okay, now it's time for color correction. All right, so I'm going to fully color correct this thing. Every frame. You have to go through with a fine tooth comb and make sure that the greens look the way you want them to look and the blues look the way you want them to look. And then it's the sound design. Okay, so now I need to polish the sound design. And all of these things, they take so much time that if I had to guess, I would say call it get 5 hours of editing per 1 minute of finished. I mean, you know, I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours editing that film, and that's the way that it works. And that's okay. Even with all of the advances in editing now, are there editing tools that are AI Driven that would make things a lot faster? I believe so, but I'm not going to use them for. For a number of reasons. I'm not into AI That's a whole other conversation. But I'm just not, you know, I'm not into.

I apologize.

I want to do it myself. I just want to do it myself. Because if, If. If a movie comes out, I mean, like, you watch the film, it's not a perfect film, but it's not a bad film. It's a fun film and people enjoy it. The feedback has been, you know, fantastic. But like, even if it was trash, it was still going to have to be my. My trash. It's my baby.

Yeah, for sure.

You know, because it takes a team. Everyone that was a part of this film, we could not have made it without them. That's a fact. But when all is said and done today, now here I'm on the podcast, or I'm packing, you know, shipping and receiving and doing all of the physical. Because it's a physical media exclusive, right? There's no digital screening, so there's no digital copies. You can't stream it. And so. And then I'm going to these conventions, you know, I'm paying to go to these conventions. I'm taking work off to go to the conventions. I'm renting cars or I'm sleeping in cars, you know, like, like to save money because I can't afford a hotel. And so in that aspect, it's my movie. And so you treat it with that level of respect. So when you're cutting the thing, you're like, you know, you have to. This is something I told myself, you know, Justin, you have to think like in 10 years, in 20 years, in 50 years, this is always going to be your first feature, right? So make it count. Make it matter. And then that's why I roll. I roll out. Like when you order the, the. The copies. Which again, thank you so much for picking them up. That was.

Hell yeah.

The, that was the early stages of shipping. I mean, I've polished everything so much more since I've got custom bubble mailers and customers.

You gave me that fancy ass box and it came with a picture.

Yes. You get the OG box. So I took the box and I just kind of put everything into proprietary packaging. Not like court, not like corporate packaging. I hate corporate packaging.

I got it from you day one. I think I'm an early adopter.

I think you did.

Did. If, if nothing else, people have always told me, Derek Gardner, he's on the cutting edge. That's me. But no, that box came, I was like, what the. Because it had a bunch of stuff in it. It's like I wasn't expecting any of it. It's just the DVDs, people.

The worst part was he had to sit and not tell us anything. Suddenly we get this envelopes here. He's like, do not open it, don't open it.

I'M sitting here looking at this envelope for, like, a week and a half. Like, well, what's in it? And I'm like, like. And he's like, you can't open it until next week. And I'm like, oh, my God. It was driving me crazy.

The way I see it is people work too hard. Especially, like, unless I'm in this, this category. Most people that watch horror, the vast majority, like, we're not a wealthy, you know, class, right? We don't have a lot of money. And so if someone especially, like, fucking strangers. I mean, anyone who orders the film, but let's take a perfect stranger. You. Like, I don't. I don't know you in real life. We don't see each other at the gym or coffee or, you know, we don't work together, so. So you chose to take a chance on something you had never heard of by someone you had never heard of, and you showed support. It is on me to tell you to show you, because I wasn't speaking. We weren't speaking. I had to show you I appreciate you. I see you. I hear you. I value you. I respect you. Like this whole Dana White thing, shitting on his fan base about the AI usage. And the fans are giving. Long story short, fans are giving blowback because UFC has finally admitted to using AI in their marketing. And his response was like, don't worry about how I market my products. Just be thankful I'm showing it to you. And so I'm like, oh, so you. To the people who put food on your table? No, never you. You. I'm not saying we need to worship the ground that people walk on. We're all human at the end of the day. But no, you. You treat people with respect and dignity, and if they are kind enough to take a chance on you as an artist or a filmmaker or a fight promoter, in his case, like, you are grateful, and you never let that change. And so I make it a point when people order this film that I give them more than just a movie. I miss the days. And this is all because I miss the days of when movies were an experience. I miss it. And if I can't have it myself, going to a theater and all the posters and the big giant cardboard cutouts and the people doing cosplay and the way it used to be, then I'm gonna do the best I can to. To give people some elements of what it was that I. That made me grow to love film, you know? And for me, a lot of it's

packaging, it doesn't go unnoticed by the people that receive it. At least for me. Like, I got it. I was stoked, and I had to sit on it for a minute. So your story and the way you. The way you've said everything reminds me a lot of. And I want to make this about me, but I want to show you that I relate. Dozen. Two dozen years ago, a friend of mine and I, we worked on a comic book together, and we went to a lot of comic book shows, comic cons and stuff. And that is a lot of. You got a. You're. You're spending a couple hundred dollars to get a table. Then you're spending a whole weekend in the city that you don't live to sit there and try to convince people that you don't know to give you a chance to say, hey, look at what I've done. You might like it. And if you don't, I'm sorry I wasted your time, but thank you for giving me five bucks. Like, there's a lot to that. There's a lot. The fact that you're willing to be vulnerable, to take the opportunity to put yourself out there, because a lot of people won't. Right? Right. The majority of people do not do things that make them in any way vulnerable, but they are the first to. On those that do. Right. So the fact that people are still willing to make themselves vulnerable, to still do the things that they want to do, the things that they love, the things that they spend their time to make. And this is clearly a movie that is made from love, right?

Yeah.

This is one of those moments where, like, very rarely do you get to see the person behind the work. You just could see the work. And people are so easy to say, yeah, whatever. Right there is enough. This move me to make me to want to see a second version of this movie. Yes, it was. There was a lot to love about this movie.

This movie's got such a great vibe, I feel.

It does.

It's got the. It does that blend of the. The humor really well with the horror because sometimes, like horror comedy, they don't really nail that balance. But this movie, like, I was chuckling throughout a lot of this movie. Just some of the ridiculousness, like the character. All the, like we were talking about, the characters are so goofy but likable. They all have their own little quirks and stuff. Like, I was like. I was like, kind of rooting for everybody, you know, like, I don't need to do that. Or you're in the horror movies, you know, you're like this. You're like, oh, I can't wait to watch this guy die, or whatever.

But like, yeah.

I'm like, please don't kill Marco. When the first time Marco, like, goes

out on his own, I think Marco's dead. Yeah.

I was like, like, no, not yet. And then thank God he was still alive. And. Yeah, like, yeah, it's just like horror movies don't usually do that. And I feel like this movie does a good job of making me. Yeah. Have a good time with the.

Carrie is our resident horror aficionado. I'm. I'm like a. More of like a new horror convert. I used to. When I was a kid, things scared me a lot, so I never really gravitated to horror. But now as an adult, I can. I can discern the fact that things aren't real.

I'm a rom com specialist.

I can watch a movie and go, oh, that's not real. I understand now.

It took a little while to get

there, but you finally figured object permanence, lots of different things that kids get real quick, I didn't get till I was an adult.

You know what I did, now that I'm thinking about it is because I watched Primate over the weekend.

Oh, did you? What?

You think it's just gory and crazy, but there's a lot of that. Like, like, why are you. Why are you doing that? Just like, go.

Just do it.

Like, you went to get the phone. Why did you still leave it behind? Like, and I'm. And getting mad at the people for doing dumb stuff in this one. I'm never getting mad at anybody for doing anything. Because even the one girl's like, she's. Even. When was it Sarah? The lead is like, I'm gonna get. She's gonna get that she wants to fight, so she grabs the bat and stuff like that. And the other girl's like, like, I'm still getting the hell out of here.

I'm like, yes.

See, somebody is like, let's go. Or like, you know when they get to the car and there's. There's no keys. Like, they were set to go and the keys weren't there. And he's like, we were gonna be here for two weeks when I can't remember where I put my keys.

Yeah, yeah. That was really.

There was none of that getting upset of people for, like, doing anything. Like, just like, like stupidly not just leaving the situation, getting the hell out. It was. They each seemed to have a reason to continue to be where they were going to Be. Or at least one of them was constantly like, can we go now? Can we go now?

It's like, we need to leave. And I'm like, yeah, that's such a good idea. Yeah,

outside. But there's a monster, right?

The first sign of a genetically mutated sheep, or whatever it is, is outside. I'm gone on like that.

That sheep is the product potentially of beastiality. I think that's the only. But we don't know for sure. We never saw anybody. A sheep. But it may have happened.

Huh?

You didn't see it. That's true. We didn't see that.

We did. It wasn't on camera, so we don't know for sure.

Another scene that I, that I did like is when the one guy is dancing.

Yes.

It's just silent. And then when they close it on him, the music's there. So he's got something going on his head. He's like, yeah, look, I'm doing this, this, this music here. I'm dancing along.

Yes.

Yeah. I love the girl keeps looking at him like, what are you doing?

Yeah.

That was my favorite scene in the movie, I think.

Do you want to know the original version?

Yeah.

So the original script, I. I didn't know what to call these guys, so I called them the FUBU fellas because they were wearing like baggy FUBU pants, you know. And so I had Fubu Uno and FUBU do. And at the end they're like, you know, let's get the fuck out of here. And Betty traps one of them and maims them so they can't run away. The other bro grabs the bottle and he's like, let's fucking go. Pretty much what you saw. Betty does the glass shard, you know, shatter thing. And dude drops to his knees. And Betty takes both of the bros by the head and like, pulls them wide apart and then drives them into each other. But I was gonna shoot it at 120 frames a second so that they were like moving in ultra slow motion and they were gonna just go. They were gonna go. And then as soon as they got done saying bro, it was gonna cut to real time for the last. Oh, and then just smash.

Oh, that's awesome.

We're gonna do fake blood infused cantaloupes inside hoodies.

Oh, nice.

But, you know, I've now I've got that up my sleeve for the next one.

There was.

There was a whole thing. The Lost Boys, right? I love the I Still Believe gimmick with the dude playing the sax.

Yes. The big muscle Guy on stage.

So at one point, when they're getting ready to get out of there, there was going to be a song that was going to have some saxophone. And Marco was going to look to his side, and I was going to pan the camera, and I was going to have some random playing a saxophone. And then he was gonna be like, what the you doing here? And the dude's gonna be, I'm in studio A. And he's like, no, bro, this is studio B. He's like, oh, my bad, my bad. Left.

Oh.

Again, something else to keep up the sleeve, you know?

Yeah, yeah, there you go. Yeah.

Someone can just steal the idea from me. Well, there's this guy.

Don't you go for late night walks playing a saxophone.

Come on.

One of the things that cracked me up early on was kind of like that. Where was it? Little Rosta's, like, going for a walk at the gas station. And she goes back, and then there's that guy just back there, just jamming out, dancing with this cat T shirt on. It was amazing. I just was like, I did not expect that to be what she found.

I love cats. So that's where the cat thing came.

Yes. I noticed a lot of cats in this film like that. You shot that cat several times in the barn. The cat T shirts. I was really digging in.

Years to come, when those cats are gone, that barn owner, that farm owner can look back and see their kids.

Yeah. I was trying to figure out if there was a reason for the cats. Like, is the cat.

Like, is he behind it the whole

time or is the cat.

Probably cats are.

Yeah. Trying to figure out what they were. The cat meant because it was always like, here's two girls dancing and then a cat. I'm like, what does that mean?

What does that mean? It's the omen of death.

Means the director loves cast more than he friends.

See?

All right.

Yeah. Most. You should. As an owner of cats, you should. The movie and the animal.

Okay. Yeah.

We don't need the original soundtrack for the Broadway musical.

I only watch the Broadway.

I'm a big, big cat man.

That's what they call him. The big cat man.

They call me big cat man. There's a lot of things in this movie that are clearly ripped from your personal loves. Right. There's the. The wrestling at the beginning.

I didn't know you were a wrestler, but yeah, I was like, I bet this guy loves wrestling because there's so much in it.

Did you go to IMDb and see his picture?

No.

The dude's a monster. You're a monster. You're a big man. You're a big man that clearly is a wrestler. So the wrestling's in there, and that was clear an influence in, in something that you wanted to put on screen, right? Like, hey, this is me, right? What else is, is you that's on screen in this movie?

That's a good question. Wrestling, the cats, the wardrobe, Marco, pretty much. I, I, I wear all black most of the time, but on the inside, I am wearing Zuba's pants and Ray Bans.

Yeah, those sunglasses were epic. I just got.

Yeah. So that the music, like my van, my production van has a CD player, which is awesome. So I currently have, I have the Footloose soundtrack from Dusk Till dawn soundtrack, the Lost Boys soundtrack, which is currently stuck in the CD player. So that might be my soundtrack that just lives in there for life. It might be. And then a random collective soul cd so that those are my balance.

Gotta balance yourself.

And those are the only ones I own. So. Well, what I'll do is I'll go hunting for physical media, you know, and I love it. And so I'll go looking for CDs. But it's so overwhelming when there's, you know, 10,000 of them in front of you. It's the place I go to locally that has CDs like that. There's probably 10,000 CDs there. So I just go straight to the soundtrack section. I keep it small, keep it limited. And yeah, somehow the collective soul thing just showed itself when I was somewhere and I was like, the universe wants me to listen to this. So I grabbed it.

What's your favorite soundtrack of all time?

You know, so I have, I would say probably the soundtrack to the Faculty.

Oh, really?

Oh, yeah, that's on my. Right now. Chris Cornell is on my, my record player. But the Faculty finds itself on there probably once a week. Scream 3. The Scream 3 soundtrack is insane.

Wow.

The Bond song for Casino.

Yes, he did. And I love that song. Yeah, I learned something. So the next film, you know, here's a little bit of info. This is the most info I've given about this next film. So the next film is a. It's a found footage film, and it's a. It follows a singer songwriter named Marissa. So the actress playing Marissa M. Genovese, she is a singer, and she was at the house the other day doing a wardrobe fitting. And I had Chris Cornell on, and she was like, you know, a fun fact about Chris Cornell, God rest his soul, the average human sings Two to three octaves. The average opera singer can sing up to five octaves. Chris Cornell could sing six. Yep. So Chris Cornell was an anomaly as a singer.

I love sound garden. Yeah.

I'll tell you, man, it's so strange because I never met the man. And working in my business, sometimes you meet. You know, you're surprised at who you meet, and, you know, so I don't know that I was ever going to meet a man. Maybe, maybe not. But, like, his death hurt. I was so. And still, I'm just like, it sucks, like, because he. He was. I can't say he was my Elvis. Right. But, like, I. I can see why people reacted to Elvis's death the way they did. Right. You know?

Yeah.

I just think he was perfect. Just incredible performer and. Yeah. So anyway, he's. He lives on my record player, but it's. It's back and forth between that faculty. And then I actually have the Footloose soundtrack, too. And. And, you know, don't crucify me for this, because I know that the film itself is a mixed batch of reviews, but the sequel to the Joker, was it Foley? Something fully.

Oh, oh, yeah. I know what you're talking about.

That I have that album. That album's great, huh?

I've not seen that, actually.

Me neither.

I've been trying to mean it, too.

I. Oh, you haven't seen the film?

Film, No, I haven't. I haven't seen the first one.

Yep. I enjoy. Well, the first one was so good, I. I enjoyed the second one for what it was. But anytime you hear someone say, I enjoyed it for what it was, obviously there's, you know, there's a little more to it.

Some caveats there, I think.

Yeah. So, like, I enjoyed it for what it was, but I guess I can see why fans did not.

Sounds like it's got a great soundtrack. I mean, that's. Sometimes that's enough to pull me in, you know? I love a good.

That's good tracker score.

That's good.

Awesome. Well, did we do it, boyos? And our honorary boyo, Justin. Did we. Do we get through the Big Bad Betty?

I think so.

I think so, yeah.

God. Well, what do we think of Big Bad Betty? I loved it. I. I love the honesty behind it. I love the. The gore, the practical effects, the. There was Foley work, Keith. There was a spreading of cream cheese on a bagel.

Oh, thank you for reminding me about that. Had terrific.

Perfect sound behind it. Justin. I don't know if you haven't listened to it a single episode. I am a big fan of foley

work

and that there was like, it was a very. Had a visceral quality to it, and it worked right with the knife work. Loved it.

So practical effects comes up and foley work. Those are probably the top two reoccurring themes.

Those are my man.

Every single episode. But they're in 95 and, like, 90 of the episodes.

Those are my two things that I really appreciate in movies. It had, like, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, like, classic monster movies sort of. Sort of vibe to it, and I dug every minute of it. I laughed and I could tell. Not laughed at, but left with. This is a movie that knew what it was, knew what it was trying to do, and I think, think hit a lot of marks.

I appreciate that very much.

I agree with a lot of Derek said. I, I. The thing that really sat to me is I just. I think the character work was really well done because the comedy really helped endear me to these people. And I'm usually not rooting for. I don't feel like a lot of these horror films, like, make it the big. Like, you know, you'll watch, like, Friday the 13th, and it's like you don't care about any of these teenagers or whoever, you know, like, I do care about these characters, which is really cool. I can. Yeah, I just. I enjoyed the vibe of the comedy and the horror. It was just a very entertaining watch. I enjoyed it a lot.

Agreed.

Yeah.

And especially when you then add in, like, all the background details that you've given us, gives us, like, the extra layer. And it's something that no matter what other movie we've been watching for the past, like, you know, 14 months of this and stuff like that. Like, it. It's something that can't be. It can't be matched on those other movies as we're guessing what the person had in mind. It just adds. It's like, really nice layer on top of everything else with the movie.

I think that a lot of people are, like, you mentioned vulnerability earlier. A lot of people in life in general. Right. They're so guarded and afraid to be vulnerable. And I've been guilty of that myself, you know, for. For so many years. But when it came to making this movie, I was like, look, man, I. I'll tell you, it's such a strange feeling. I don't know where you guys are at in your lives. And this isn't shifting to a deep topic, but it is a recent realization I had. This is my final chapter. Not in a morbid way, in A good way. But this is the thing. So Slashville Studios. This, I just feel it, I feel it in my gut. This is the thing that I'm supposed to do. And so all of these years of short films and commercial work and working on the bigger stuff on the crew side and learning the ways, right? It's all starting to come together. And I like, it's, it feels really, really good to me. But the reason I say all this is I wanted, I just wish that there was a filmmaker who would put themselves out there in the way that I'm allowing myself to be vulnerable enough to do. Because I'm game to talk about anything. And like, let's talk about the challenges, let's talk about how, how we learn to work around them. Because maybe there's a filmmaker out there, an aspiring filmmaker out there, or, I don't know, a guy that wants to start a landscaping company. Somebody that just wants to do something and they've been afraid to do it, right? I, so, like, I read a study, 60% of CEOs, now, this was a while ago, so I'm sure It's changed, but 60% of CEOs are over 6ft tall. It's interesting. I'm 6, 6, 320 pounds.

You're a big man.

So I, I, I will be a CEO. So, like, I'll walk into a room and I have a bit of a presence, right. And I find that people will, like, in some stressful situations like I've been in, people will, they just look to me. And so I'm like, okay, so if people are going to look to me for filmmaking, like, I want to just be an open book for them because if I make mistakes, and you're going to make yours too, everyone's going to make their own. But I just want to help people. And if this is the thing that the universe has conspired to have me do to help people, I don't want to, I don't want to miss that opportunity. So I'll always give people the details. I'll always tell people the hard truths of this or that or the positives of this or that. I just try to make myself open.

Yeah. And I mean, that's what's really interesting to me about, like, indie films like this. Because you, you talk about how you have to kind of adapt and change things. You know, as you're on set, you have all these different hats you're wearing. You're trying to, you got to, sometimes you have to figure something out. You got to do A lot of adapting, figure things, things out on the fly, all the that stuff. It's just like a. Kind of interesting to see, hear that perspective so candidly too. Like, you know, like, it's not easy. It's so hard to do this. And like the things you envision can't always work. So you have to find something else that will work just as well, you know, like adapting and changing your vision on the fly. Like it's, it's just really a tricky thing. And it's cool to hear someone talk about it like that.

You have to be able. You have to be open to what. You know. I keep on referring to the universe, right? Because I'm not, I'm not, not religious, but I'm not religious. So, like, it could be God, Buddha, Allah, it could be, you know, whatever the thing is to me, I call it the universe. Whatever the universe is to. To who? Whomever. It speaks to us. It does, it speaks to us. And so on the day. If I was supposed to have done the scene with Katrina and the, the water spigot, the way that I had it written, I would have done it. But maybe I'm meant to do that in a much bigger film, you know, or maybe I'm not meant to do it. Maybe if I did it and an actor slipped and got hurt.

Yeah.

You know, like. And so I'm. I listen because that was the thing I had to do on the day. Like, that was the moment where I had to, on the fly, in front of everybody, play it cool. Like I wasn't, you know, killing my darling, so to speak, you know, because

I was so excited.

I. I previs that scene so, you know, storyboards. But at the end of the day, you speak. You listen to the universe as it speaks to you. You listen to your gut, you listen to your instincts and, and, and you make those hard decisions because no one else is going to make them for you.

Yeah, that'd be tough. I get attached to things so easily. Yeah. Like just having to be like, well, I guess I can't do that. That has to be hard. Like pulling off a bandage. Like I really wanted to do that. Like, you have to be able to tell those decisions. That has to be really hard.

Yeah, it just becomes like, oh, I really wanted to do that two seconds later.

Oh, well, yeah, you just gotta move on. Just gotta move on.

Well, it's like, I mean, I don't know if you've ever been fired from a job, but like, when you're fired from a job, it's like falling. That sucks. But oh, well, like it's done.

Right.

Right.

If I can't change it now.

Right?

That's true.

Yeah.

I think this works into kind of the, the topic you're going with here. Is there something you learned from making this one? Like a major thing that like changes how you're the next movie you make and stuff like this, like something you were like, oh, this is going to like not just like the, the one individual scene, but just like something just in movie making overall that you're like,

oh, I, oh, what's your big takeaway?

Yeah, yeah, I guess I could, I could, you know, touch on it because I don't want to go on, on too long. Paperwork. Administrative. I learned, I learned how important it is to keep the appropriate paperwork and that's. It's talent agreements, it's location agreements, it's music licensing, you know, down to like the name of the song, who did it, the run time. Because I don't know what they're going to need if I ever get audited. Audited. I kept all the receipts, I kept all the things. Now like the state's not going to audit me. I didn't get any tax incentive money. You know what I mean? But like it's good practice to prepare for those bigger shoots. So I would say I learned more about the administrative and the importance of maintaining contracts.

What's crazy is I can't even imagine the number of hats you had to wear.

Yes.

In this movie. But like I, I can only imagine that a, a major studio production, they have hundreds if not thousands of people working on any individual title in some capacity. Right. And I, I know, I only recently know that because I work for a marketing company and I know we have people that their only job is to sign checks. Yep. Wow. So you had to take on all of those roles that I can't even imagine the amount of work. Yeah.

The administration part, I never even think, yeah, that never crossed my mind until you just said. I'm like, yeah, I guess that would be another thing I'd have to do.

Yikes. People see movies and be like, oh, I can do that. You can't, man.

It's like, so prep for the next, you know, the next movie and I'll make this very short. But like I've already. The paperwork is, is pre printed. It's in folders, it's in a three ring binder. I've got what I call the folder football. On set we call it the football. It's where all the stuff is the important stuff. So I'm building a football. You know, I've got the football ready to go. The next film is going to be a lot smaller in scale, thank God. And, and so it's, it's going to be a lot more manageable, which is something I'm very much looking forward to. But I want to make sure that before I roll for the first time, because it's again, it's me wearing, you know, so many hats again before I, I lose myself to those other hats, the producer side of me, the accounting side of me, because I'm paying everybody for this one again, out of my own pocket. It's. I need to go in prepared because on the day I want to wear my director hat because I'm going to be shooting it again. So I'm the director. I'm the director of photography. I'm going to be editing it. I'm bringing somebody. And crew is small. I've got a crew of two. I'm bringing somebody in to do the slate. They're called an AC Camera assistant. They're an ac. And I'm bringing in a boom op for two of the days. So I have six days of production written and I'll have a crew for two days. The rest, I'm doing it all.

Wow.

So, but even at the, you know, on those two days, it's still just a crew of two. So it's me pre lighting. It's, it's all the stuff and it's. I'm fine. I'm prepared for that. I did it once before. I know I can do it again.

Oh. So, Justin, I really appreciate you coming on this show. I really appreciate your time. I really appreciate your candor and your honesty and everything that's going into this. Like, I appreciate your time. That's. I appreciate you. So. Yeah, this has been a hell of an episode. Yeah.

Thanks for coming on. It's awesome.

Yeah, for sure. Well, we know we had to say, what did the Internet have to. We know what we thought, but what did the Internet have to say? Well, on March 20, 2026, Paulo 4833 had this to say. Entertainingly fun and independent, the film blends the perfect balance of keeping you guessing, entertained, and smiling all at once. You can see great thoughts that were put into shots and lighting choices and also be laughing at the madness that is bbb. Oh, Big Bad Betty.

Hang on a second. Go back. I, I, honestly, I was listening, but I thought you were reading a review from something else.

Yeah, this is on IMDb.

I didn't know that there was a review on IMDb yet. Yeah, it's the first time I'm hearing it.

My favorite is the overhead shot in the horse arena. You'll know it when you see it. Agree. Highly recommend with an exclamation point. Now.

Cool.

This review is. Is 9 days old, so 0 found it helpful.

0.

Disagree. 10 out of 10 awesome.

Well, that's fantastic.

But not to be outdone, this is the lowest review we have on here. Horror Madness had this to say on March 20th of 2026. Indie Fun. Met Director Justin Sulham at Days of the Dead and dug his energy. Agreed. Picked up a copy of Big Bad Bitty because it seemed fun and I enjoy creature features. I was not wrong. It was silly, funny and at the end of the. At the end became a decent indie horror. You could tell the whole team had fun with this one. Is it perfect? No. But what indie horror is. This had a fun creature, practical effects and enjoyable end to it. Go pick up a fizzle because physical copy and have a blast. 0 find it helpful. 0 disagreed. 8 out of 10 Nice.

Nice.

Good stuff.

Days of the Dead.

Tanner or Trevor. Yeah, that was his name. It was. I remember this kid because he. He posted something on. On. On Instagram on one of my things. I. I think I might have even followed him back. Yeah, I remember that interaction. He's a great kid. Good.

Yeah.

Nice.

Good stuff. All right, well, now we got one thing left to do. Bos. Keith, next week, what do you bring it? Are you bringing the director on for your movie?

No. Well, I. So I did reach out to somebody who I know had. I reached out to somebody who I. Who had made a movie. It just. They haven't made it releasable for enough people to watch it. They've done a couple things, so I had to. I had a. I gotta say, Derek, this is a very tough. It's gotta be me trying to figure out stuff. Well, I. I'm gonna hope this one counts. I. I looked through all the trivia and stuff it said.

It better not be Clerks.

No, I thought about doing that for fun.

Clerks too.

No, Only Clerks would have counted. But no, it. In this 19th century supernatural winter epic, a drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America's greatest fur trapper by defeating this, the title Hundreds of Beavers.

Oh, yes. I have seen this. I've seen this.

Oh man. You've seen this? I was hoping Terry hadn't seen it.

Yeah, I've seen this.

Come On.

I've already seen it. Sorry. I'm excited to watch it. Yeah, we should definitely watch this.

Justin, do you know Hundreds of Beavers?

Oh, my God. I'm sorry. I'm still thinking about the title.

You know, it's funny. My dad texted me, like, when this movie was coming, I was like, have you heard of Hundreds of Beavers?

I was like, what? I have.

Yeah.

Why do you know about that? Was my first question. That's a good pick, Keith. I like that.

Epic.

Oh, wow.

So we're on to Hundreds of Beavers for next week. I love saying it. It's a fun thing to say.

Oh, but I guess I, I, I

gave, I gave my other person I reached out to. I gave them all the way up until today to let me know, yay or nay, whether we could watch this a different movie. But they were not able to get access to it, so.

Oh, that's all right. I think Hundreds of Beavers is a perfect next step. I love it.

Oh, wait till you watch the trailer. At least Eric or Derek, you're gonna. You're gonna fall in love.

I can't wait. I can't wait. But until then, I guess there's nothing to do but then end this episode the way we end everything. This is Big Betty right here.

Wow, he has a great voice.

I try. Isn't that insane?

That's awesome.

It is insane.

I love it. What a talented guy. He's skilled,

But it looks like you tagged along.

Just imagine this is like the song playing in Betty's head as he's going around.

I was just thinking, Betty's just a very conflicted character.

Yeah.

Just tearing people apart.

Yeah. His head just singing.

Thanks for listening to fumbling through film. New episodes drop every Thursday. Got feedback or questions? Email [email protected] you can see our films to fumble before you tumble into the grave and other musings on letterbox that fumble through film. The through is T H R U. You can also follow Keith on Instagram @kg3030 lives and on Letterboxd3030. Terry is on Letterboxdary2099. Derek is on Letterboxdirect. The number nine and then the word nine. All original music is done by the Dr. Dre of Kansas, Terry. So hit him up for them Bangers. Our new podcast logo is done by the delightful and talented Sanjay Vicky Nayak. You can find her on Instagram at ikestein. That's Einstein with a K in there. We'll see you next week as we keep on fumbling.