#nate tcl

[0-sunstranger-0]

oh, when will my husband (podcast) come back from the war (hiatus)

[felixcosm]

Turning a horror-comedy podcast into a bleak horror story by getting rid of the comic relief is such a good move for The Cellar Letters, I'm still thinking about it weeks later.

[sandybrett]

I was vaguely aware that a person or creature called Ringo would show up in The Cellar Letters at some point, but no further details. The name Ringo has not yet come up in my listen, but I did recently hear the episode where Nate finds the scarab. I was idly wondering if the scarab would stick around long enough to get a name, and if that name would be Ringo.

But it only just hit me... of course the scarab would be Ringo.

He's a beetle.

[vibinginthedreamlands]

TCL: Episode 74 - Session 3A Thoughts

Nate's miniscule, little brother energy "Hey John" on his voice memo was everything to me.

It's kind of really interesting that Nick's house has a grandfather clock chime in it, while his father's therapist's office has a clock ticking noise. I'm sure that's been in the last few episodes but it just occurred to me today. I really enjoyed when the clock chimed and the therapist's alarm went off at the same time, that was neatly ominous.

The fact that Nick's father had a babysitter who motivated him to commit the murder... and the fact that John is serving a similar role with Nate.... The man who instigates, who will feed him a singular line (keep reading and stop it)... it's not looking good for our hero.

Duuuudes, we're getting so close to the cult information, I'm shaking the bars of my cage/p

[neutronian]

nate saying that the bug's grown on him and he doesn't want to squash it anymore.

character 👏🏾 growth 👏🏾

also, someday i'm going to find a podcast where david plays a perfectly sweet, kind and charming person and i'm going to be suspicious until that character's dead.

[creepykingdom]

“Candy Corn” Premieres at TCL Chinese Theater

By Kayla Caldwell

Writer/Director Josh Hasty loves everything about the Halloween season - the feeling, the movies, the costumes. But he’s partial to classic horror movies of the 70s and 80s - Who isn't? - such as John Carpenter’s Halloween, Dark Night of the Scarecrow, and Happy Birthday to Me.

And that’s what inspired him to make Candy Corn, his directorial debut starring horror legends P.J. Soles, Tony Todd, and Courtney Gaines. “I wanted to take those [three movies] and create the framework to tell a story through a narrative that I had never seen before, which is what I did with the Dr. Death (Pancho Moler) and Jacob (Nate Chaney) characters,” Hasty told us at the film’s premiere at the TCL Chinese Theaters in Hollywood.

Candy Corn is a celebration of the “freaks,” the outsiders, following poor Jacob Atkins, who gets picked on brutally by local thugs in his small town. On Devil’s Night, they take it too far, leading Dr. Death to resurrect the tortured boy to seek his revenge.

They say write what you know. And unfortunately, Hasty knows what it’s like to be an outsider. “I was picked on all through school, whether it was, first for being smaller than everybody else, or later in life, it was being a freak for painting my nails black, dressing in all black, or wearing eyeliner — all the stuff I did that people in small-town Ohio thought was weird,” he said.

“That’s just something I know well,” he continued. “When you’re in that situation, you gravitate towards stories and films that paint the outcast as the hero… It’s not just about bullying as it is about being an outcast, being different, and sort of posing the question, ‘Who are the bullies? Who are the outcasts? Who are the real freaks?’”

Moler, one of the film’s stars, elaborated on this concept, saying that this kind of plot really sticks with you. It affects you. “You end up rooting for the villains at the end, which, not many people can do that. Rob [Zombie] is one of the people that can do that, and so is Josh [Hasty],” he said.

By the end of the movie, Dr. Death flips the script by calling all of the bullies the “freaks.” They’re the weird ones. “The freaks, as the ‘normal’ people see it, are just people minding their own business and trying to live life,” Hasty said.

Candy Corn’s message is personal and important, but it is very straightforward. Hasty did not want to be a part of the wave of indie horror films that leave you scratching your head at the end — not that there’s anything wrong with that! “I wanted my first film to really be something that meant a lot to me in a very deep-rooted way. And that is just a simple, classic story that is easy to follow and fun and entertaining,” Hasty said.

Speaking of simple, the movie’s title is one of the more straightforward symbols of Halloween, a sugary, polarizing treat. But don’t mistake Hasty for a candy corn addict. (He actually prefers Reese’s Cups - or used to, before he went vegan.) Most of the cast shared Hasty’s candy corn aversion, with Matt O’Neill, who plays Chet, joking, “The best place to put candy corn is inside a dead body, the way we did.”

In the film, the candy corn served a dual purpose. One, the candy corn in the cute, little Jack O-Lantern bucket was kind of an edible safety blanket for Jacob. Two, it was a way for resurrected Jacob to tag his murders, a little inspiration Hasty took from another favorite film of his, The Crow.

Like most indie movies, the struggle was real when it came to turning Candy Corn from a mere idea, into a fully-produced movie. But, Hasty believes he certainly lucked out with some things. For example, he wrote the role of Marcy with P.J. Soles in mind, he noted, “never thinking I would actually get P.J.”

Soles has been focusing on her family, as well as conventions and other fan celebrations, rather than working on films. As Hasty said, “She doesn’t need to work. She’s an icon.” But, as it turns out, Justin Mabry, one of the film’s executive producers and Deputy Conrad in the movie, is friends with Ben Scrivens from Fright Rags. Scrivens is friendly with Soles, and even has a T-shirt for her character from Halloween.

So Scrivens told her to check out the script, and just talk to Hasty. And their conversation went very, very well. “That was just a dream come true,” Hasty said. “She still gets offered stuff weekly and just doesn’t need to do it. So it really has to grab her, and she told me this after we finally got her. She loved it. We got on the phone, and it was just, it was absolutely incredible. To be inspired by John Carpenter, to be inspired by Halloween… and then to have one of the first three people Michael Meyers kills be in my film, it’s insane.”

But for Soles, Candy Corn checked all the boxes. “I get a lot of scripts, and I always look first to see if I get killed, and I didn’t in this, so I was happy. That was number one,” she said. “Number two, I liked the whole story, the bullying aspect is kind of neat… and something about Josh Hasty … made me feel like he was going to take care of me and not make me look bad. No ‘totally’s’ in any of the dialogue! I’m so happy I took a chance.”

But she’s not the only one who was thrilled to work with Hasty. The entire cast seemed enamored by him. “After talking to that guy [Hasty] for ten minutes, you know that he has something special. He has magic. He’s a genius,” O’Neill said, about his decision to join the film.

And Moler considered it an honor. “He wrote the role for me. How can you turn that down?” he said. He was also moved by the bullying storyline, which has led to some emotional meet and greets at screenings.

“I had no idea that Nate [Chaney] was playing the role as an autistic kid, and so to hear the dialogue between the bullies, it makes you root for Jacob towards the end, because no one wants that. I had people coming up to me after the movie telling me it made them cry when that was going on, because they have a nephew that’s autistic, or their son had dealt with bullying his whole life…” Moler said. “[They told me] 'for you to stick up for them… we rooted for you.' I was like, wow, that’s very deep. It made me feel like my job was done. Not only in the movie, but just, I was able to affect somebody in a positive way - even though it’s a horror movie.”

Candy Corn is available streaming and on video on demand now.

[0-sunstranger-0]

Relistening to the cellar letters and nate buddy, darling, my sweet boy man person, you would get killed so fast in a classic horror movie

[0-sunstranger-0]

I know I was busy, elbows deep in mold i was cleaning, when I first listened to it but nate and steve are actually so funny

[0-sunstranger-0]

The Cellar Letters where everything's the same except Nate doesn't know how to drive roundabouts and that's why he can't leave

[0-sunstranger-0]

respectfully, what the fuck is up with Nate's family??!?!

[0-sunstranger-0]

listened to Wellness check and by gods John and Nate sound like dumb and dumber, to me, the listener, who believes they know literally everything but forgets the MC's name every so often

[felixcosm]

[felixcosm]

[0-sunstranger-0]

So we all agree, John is somehow connected to everything that's happening, right?

[felixcosm]

FUCK JIM! ALL MY HOMIES HATE JIM!!

[felixcosm]

HE REMEMBERS HIM HE REMEMBERS STEVE HE REMEMBERS HIS FUCKING FRIEND!!!!!