Suddenly In The Dark (1981)

Episode 449, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: We have been doing older movies lately, bouncing back and forth. We just got off a, a request from the 1980s. That had me diving back into the eighties again because I just, we did a whole month of 1981 horror films, and that was one of my favorite series of films we did, just because I find that era, early eighties, late seventies.

So fascinating for horror because it feels like horror movies were getting, I don’t wanna say. More mainstream because they’ve always been kind of mainstream, right? But they’ve always dipped in and out of what I would consider, like maybe my parents would go see it, or maybe people would be talking about it at the water cooler at work.

Horror movies always been popular, but they always haven’t been like in your face. And it feels like in the early eighties, just that, that period of time there was such a boom that everybody was jumping on board with and independent cinema was still really active. And even, you know, we talked about the Friday, the 13th movies, how Paramount was making these movies under the table.

You know, because even though they were a big studio, they were doing these non-union pictures and secretly financing them and funding them and, and putting them in big theaters. But still, these were independent. Productions, studio productions masquerading is independent productions. And anyway, long story short, I love that era and I was going back and flipping through what other 1981 movies could we do and, um, I kind of fumbled into the foreign film area a little bit and realized that we haven’t done an Asian horror movie in a while, a long time.

Yeah. We’ve done like an Indonesian horror. Might be the last time we dove in there. Maybe we did one or two J-Horror or Korean ones. But this isn’t. Arena that you and I have just not done do justice to? I think me, I, I like going to the older films as well. I, I don’t know, I just, I think for me it’s about the history.

I like to see where horror was and where it is now. I like to think about what were, what were we fascinated by in the United States back in the early eighties as compared to what was being exported. You know, how much of this was being seen in other countries and what were other countries doing at that time in horror?

Were they even doing it? You know? And I stumbled across this movie that’s pretty notorious. It’s called Suddenly in the Dark, otherwise Known as Suddenly at Midnight. It’s a well-regarded film. It’s gotten a DVD release recently and. It’s from 1981, and the director who directed it was a very prolific South Korean director, directed hundreds of of South Korean films named Yung Namco.

I’m gonna butcher these Korean names, by the way. 

Craig: I didn’t [00:03:00 ] bother ’cause I knew I couldn’t say them. 

Todd: Yeah, I’m, I’m gonna do my best. But, uh, Y Namco did a ton of movies and Korean cinema just to. Kind of just be brief about it has really gone undergone a period recently of explosive growth. Korean horror movies are big now.

I think Squid Games was one people, you know, recently, world Cup two, but Train to Busan was a worldwide hit. There are a ton of Jay Horror and uh, K Horror, I guess you could say, movies that have been wildly successful around the world. The host back in the early two thousands was big. Oh, I was just gonna say, did we ever do the host we, because if we haven’t, we should.

That’s a great movie. We need to, it’s a fantastic movie. J Horror was getting its day in the, in the west, I would say for a little while in the late nineties, early two thousands, I guess, with the ring and dark water and the grudge. 

Craig: What was the one that we did where it was like in this village and like the kind of bumbling cop had to investigate?

Yes. I think that was a, people’s kids were getting [00:04:00 ] murdered or something. I remember that. It was long, but I also remember that it was really good and kind of heart wrenching. Like he was kind of this bumbling dude, but by the end you really felt bad for him. 

Todd: Yeah, it was really ethereal and it, it just kind of has a different way of presenting the story.

Right. The Wailing is what it was called 2016. Yes. 

Craig: Yes. 

Todd: Almost universally acclaimed. I think it’s got a 90, I’m looking at it right now. It’s got a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Was is that 

Craig: Korean? 

Todd: It is. Yeah. I couldn’t 

Craig: remember. 

Todd: Yeah. Very Korean. Okay. 

Craig: Well I’m glad that I have that point of reference because I’m gonna need something to draw comparisons to to this movie.

Sure. And I think the Whaling’s a good place. That movie did a lot of what this movie was doing in terms of suspense and storytelling and pacing, but I think it did it way better. Well, like 400 bazillion gazillion times better. 

Todd: It’s definitely a newer film, but I can see [00:05:00 ] similarities. Yeah. Well, Korean, and I’m no expert in this by any means, but I read up on it a little bit, and Korean cinema in the seventies through the eighties was really undergoing a a tough time because politically Korea was going through a tough time.

Right, right. You know, back to the early 19 hundreds, Korea was occupied by Japan. It was absolutely horrible time in their history. The early 19 hundreds. Yeah, 19 0 6, 19. It’s just funny. It’s just funny to hear it’s said that way. 

Craig: Referred to 

Todd: as, 

Craig: yea