Beastials

About this Episode

In this episode, we pay homage to the movie Gremlins, the Critters movie, and any other movie that could be labeled as a “Critter Horror Movie.” One where a large horde of small creatures wreaks havoc on a small community.

Our familiarity with this genre was mostly from Gremlins, so this episode basically becomes a parody of that, but hey, that doesn’t sound like a bad thing, does it…?

Links

Gremlins on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gremlins

Critters on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critters_(film)

Time Codes

Segment 1 - Discussion the Genre Tropes: 04:26

Segment 2 - Creating the Movie Outline: 10:04

Segment 3 - Picking the Improv Comedy Games: 16:30

Start of show: 23:52

Improv Game - Death in a Minute:25:46

Improv Game - Pardon: 27:46

Improv Game - Blind Line: 36;45

Improv Game - Newsroom: 50:58

Improv Game - Cutting Room:  1:01:22

End of show, into announcements: 1:15:51

More Information About the Show, Mike, and Avish

Subscribe to the podcast: www.AvishAndMike.com/subscribe

Our Website: www.AvishAndMike.com

Our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/143183833647812

Avish’s site: www.AvishParashar.com 

Mike’s site: www.MikeWorthMusic.com/

Transcription of the “Discussing the Genre Tropes” Segment (Unedited and Un-Cleaned up)

Avish Parashar: All right, we're not going to spend five minutes talking about the tropes commonalities and cliches of this genre i'm setting a timer for five minutes and our time.

Michael Worth: started a duck isn't it.

It is a duck timer yes.

Avish Parashar: i'll change it for next time, if I remember.

Avish Parashar: Right Mike let's talk critter horror um, what do you what comes to mind.

Michael Worth: i'm gonna i'm gonna go in the interest of like cuz he can play the whole you could go either way with like it's just like tremors i'm going to go with.

Michael Worth: These critters are are known by somebody so the trope is usually first of all it's usually an everyday suburban and this kind of movies and everyday suburban family or things like that.

Michael Worth: Usually it's in the cities there's rarely like kind of like a desolate countryside horror kind of thing um and usually.

Michael Worth: They discover these creatures as kind of a monkey's paw like it's usually kind of given to them, or they encountered it or they find it and they they decide to take it in, so the creatures are not initially malevolent.

Michael Worth: yeah, at least with the gremlins is not, and I think.

Avish Parashar: yeah and that's and you know my I was realizing as we're prepping for this episode that my familiarity with the genre isn't so broad I so a lot of my stuff is gonna be there's gonna be more of a gremlins almost for me then abroad critters Omar in general.

Michael Worth: Fine, because we can do gremlins on March, then we can do this again next year and do like a shadow Mars.

Avish Parashar: That maybe the only child in the history of.

Michael Worth: We will go down in history.

Michael Worth: gremlins, then I love that idea there's very much a monkey's paw thing right where it's like hey you can get this, but you gotta watch out there's.

Avish Parashar: A yeah yeah so there's a yeah they like two versions it's not inherently bad, I would say, you know, with some of the sample movies, for me, when I think critter Har I think small and numerous.

Avish Parashar: So not like not like tremors where it's you know.

Avish Parashar: On huge giant like dunes and worms or whatever.

Avish Parashar: So yeah I think a bunch of small.

Avish Parashar: And then, they also and I think this is across genres there's a number of sort of like a slasher movie right there's a number of.

Avish Parashar: Creative or random ways people die, you know, like you said about goolies like Dudes on a toilet and gets you know something comes up and goes into but like that's.

Michael Worth: Absolutely.

Avish Parashar: I don't that's creative or not, but you know it's like random.

Michael Worth: Right now there's what happens is, if you want to go this route.

Michael Worth: The creature start off very cute Okay, and even if they don't morph into something gross like I haven't seen critters but, like you know the kitchen there's somehow designed to look both scary and cute, which is actually a pretty impressive.

Michael Worth: SF s thing, because if you look at spike from gremlins those guys are still actually kind of cute and their little green lizard the last starfighter kind of way, obviously the good guy he would say, mostly but not him the.

Avish Parashar: model I want a mob was a.

Avish Parashar: gizmo was the.

Michael Worth: gizmo yeah yeah yeah I mean obviously he's adorable you know, setting the other, but when.

Avish Parashar: I gotta sell the merge baby.

Michael Worth: Oh, my God, yes, oh, by the way, this is a doctor, this is the era of massive product placement so.

Michael Worth: diet Pepsi everyone's eating m&ms right.

Avish Parashar: yeah.

Michael Worth: We need to put that in there.

Avish Parashar: I would say your hero is usually an ordinary person it's not like a yes and your law enforcement military is usually either just useless or hindrance.

Michael Worth: Right right this they're definitely incompetent God poor homie he's like to watch these movies notice that the police force look so grossly incompetent.

Michael Worth: How do they solve the infestation because honestly this act three well get that free but basically there's an it becomes an infestation the reason why there's so many little critters is because there's also lots of creative ways to kill the critters and that's.

Avish Parashar: All yeah so creative ways to kill the critters.

Michael Worth: Oh yeah like like silly ways like sticking them in the microwave.

Avish Parashar: yeah lady putting them in a blender.

Michael Worth: I was great yeah.

Avish Parashar: yeah it's so yeah I think they either have some exploitable weakness, you know water for the gremlins yeah and they kind of learned them in other sunlight.

Avish Parashar: Water wasn't a lot of sunlight would kill them right no.

Avish Parashar: or there's some like elaborate like they're drawn to something so it's like oh they're drawn to you know cat meowing so let's put all these cats in the school gym and learn them all there and blow them.

Michael Worth: All yeah there's usually some kind of weakness or trade about them, that makes them either destroy or gathering.

Michael Worth: Even though these creatures either are generated by a magic or super science they're killed with good old fashioned 80s action destruction like there's no like Oh, we have to create a summoning circle and like send them back the portal it's.

Michael Worth: Like yes that's true yeah.

Michael Worth: put them in the gym and blow them up, or like you know drop move on to a boat and then like synced about you know oh and.

Michael Worth: This is a big trope because remember these kind of movies low budgets you got to have a set piece, the final destruction of all the creatures is definitely a Hollywood explosion kind of thing it's like.

Michael Worth: All right, let's say, for example, water kills the Lord them onto a boat, instead of being like well just think about the trip ITO it's like no will nuke the boat with a sidewinder missed.

Michael Worth: The boat.

Michael Worth: yeah.

Michael Worth: And then you know.

Avish Parashar: there's a Doc all right, that is our five minutes, I think we have a good list of tropes and discussion points.

Michael Worth: yeah this this This really is going to turn into no master gremlins I have no problem with that.

Avish Parashar: yeah that's fine that's what we do here.

Transcription of the “Creating the Outline” Segment (Unedited and Un-Cleaned up)

Avish Parashar: That brings us to.

Avish Parashar: Alright now we're going to hash out a high level outline for our story.

Avish Parashar: Disclosure this being improv comedy we may veer from this outline, but this is how we're going to start we're going to afford act structure which is similar to the three act we just split Act two up into two parts, because it makes it a little easier for this kind of storytelling.

Avish Parashar: show our show.

Michael Worth: You, the.

Avish Parashar: five minute timer starts now.

Michael Worth: All right, no one's pretty easy at one we're going to do to the main character own and it's usually always a main character, plus a girlfriend or a boyfriend you know what maybe even a family, so when it comes to the.

Avish Parashar: main character, or like the love interest, so they may not be together at the beginning, but through this trauma they come together.

Michael Worth: yeah exactly and that's one they encounter.

Michael Worth: The critter or critters.

Michael Worth: And there's usually kind of a.

Michael Worth: mysterious figure, this is the call to adventure crossing the threshold so.

Avish Parashar: yeah and I would say that, like a lot of times it's all establishment, like the.

Avish Parashar: The the the critters don't really become evil or start doing bad stuff till the end of act.

Avish Parashar: To the end of that going right like it wasn't like the end of act, one that that they got fed after midnight and turn evil and gremlins.

Michael Worth: Right so so at the end of act one so, by the way in act one you also get the warnings.

Avish Parashar: The did the warning yes.

Michael Worth: Now, at the end of act one if we get really granular one warning is broken and that starts the process of transformation because, because then an act to whatever other warnings are broken are broken and then then act, three and four becomes the scramble you know what I mean.

Michael Worth: Okay, it kind of makes sense.

Avish Parashar: Warnings in one gets broken the kind of.

Avish Parashar: starts to slide.

Michael Worth: yeah because that's gonna be that's gonna be the end of the crossing the threshold where you're like oh I accidentally did this, and now the creatures are doing this, so I would say at the end of act one one warning will be broken.

Avish Parashar: Alright, so then into Act two, and this is where i'm.

Avish Parashar: The bad stuff starts to happen yep.

Michael Worth: But it's gonna be a slow burn that we can't we can't go too crazy enact too, because you got to save all the good stuff rack three so like it's just like little things you know and just mattel's it's got to be darkly comic.

which of course yeah.

Michael Worth: Doc and comic is our speciality.

Avish Parashar: yeah and I would say here is where.

Avish Parashar: it's more mischief than outright violence.

Avish Parashar: And if there is like violence or death it's with like offside character.

Avish Parashar: So, like the main characters aren't even aware that there's just much evil going on.

Michael Worth: Right or I could really see us going towards like animals and pets, you know not like omen style, but like being like you know oh my God all the all the journals are dead, you know.

Avish Parashar: yeah yeah.

Avish Parashar: we're gonna hit real dark real fast.

Michael Worth: yeah now this point uh This is where the police get involved and they're incompetent bumbling as a matter as a matter of fact yeah It might not even please animal control some of that.

Avish Parashar: Some authority start to.

Avish Parashar: realize something's going on.

Michael Worth: Now here is.

Avish Parashar: I would say, oh real quick, I would say also that, like a lot of times in these movies.

Avish Parashar: With the authority does makes the situation far worse, you know.

Avish Parashar: it's like you're never supposed to.

Avish Parashar: You know, let them into this one room, but then the animal control comes in, or you can have it legal animal takes them and it puts them in that room and then.

Michael Worth: Yes, you just you just we're going to do that I know we're kind of pre writing a bit, but i'm curious our podcast because I was about to say.

Michael Worth: When the second warning is broken and the animals in the critical full Feral Is it the animals that do it themselves like spiked it or is it the fault and let's go let's try it let's see if we can make the fault of.

Avish Parashar: can be either use a combination, like the incompetent authorities set up the ability for the critters to do that, and then the critters take advantage of it, and then, so it kind of like both.

Michael Worth: yeah yeah.

Avish Parashar: Alright, then act three is just mayhem.

Michael Worth: mayhem.

Avish Parashar: This is we're going to get the both the creative ways the critters do bad things and also the creative ways the critters die.

Michael Worth: Yes, exactly doesn't all have to be murder, it can be just like social breakdown, you know what I mean like but yeah definitely like but truly naughty to evil right that's the spectrum we're dealing with right now we're dealing with the naughty to evil beyond mischievous right.

Avish Parashar: yeah and then a.

Michael Worth: This point that the protagonists needs to find out the weakness of the critter.

Avish Parashar: Right, I was about to say they kind of start learning.

Avish Parashar: What they need to yeah and usually something happens that hits close to home, like either they're attacked of the girlfriends or boyfriends attack or like a family member so like.

Avish Parashar: Something hits close to home up so stakes.

Michael Worth: Right and they come they find out the weakness and then they come up with a plan to defeat the creatures and at forest and putting the plan into action.

Avish Parashar: yeah and I think the coming up with a plan could add to be the end of act three of beginning back for but somewhere in there, they figured out.

Avish Parashar: Like a lot of times, maybe at the end of act three they figure out what the plan is of the critters are like Oh, we just saw there we may have but oh my God they're trying to you know, make the nuclear plant meltdown or something.

Michael Worth: Oh yeah yeah exactly exactly um and then act for is them putting the plan to place which.

Michael Worth: almost always involves.

Michael Worth: A giant genocidal detonation.

Avish Parashar: You don't mean yeah it's like how are we going to get them all in this one place a lot of times like one of the heroes, one of the protagonist is like the bait or something and then they create this plan and get them all together and then and then often there's you know.

Avish Parashar: The one like the main one that didn't die in the big explosion and then there's the final like one on one.

Michael Worth: Oh yeah there's a false there's a false ending with like the final.

Michael Worth: Final one on one with with head bad guy.

Avish Parashar: yeah Oh, and one thing we didn't ask is, are we opening with a prologue or a movie trailer.

Michael Worth: Well that's what i'm section right uh let me think about that let's look let's let's let's cue Leah the The pre lay and then we'll figure it out cuz I gotta think for about a minute on that.

Avish Parashar: Alright, so that brings us to the end of our outline section.

Avish Parashar: that's brings us doing.