Hippopotamus

[00:00:05] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the Pugsley Crew Reviews podcast. I have with me Kerr 9000. How you doing, Kerr? [00:00:15] Speaker B: Hi. I'm not bad. How are you? [00:00:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm doing good. For those wondering, I'm pets. I didn't say. I don't think I ever do. I don't know anymore. How have you been? How have you been? [00:00:29] Speaker B: I've not been bad. [00:00:31] Speaker A: Keep him busy as usual, getting the reviews out. I noticed you had a recent review up for Batman on the arcade. [00:00:41] Speaker B: Oh, I put some footage up of me playing through it. I reviewed it a long time ago. I say a long time, a couple of years. But I found I'd got a load of footage of me playing through one of the missions that I'd never used, and it was quite good quality. So I thought somebody will probably enjoy watching the game. [00:00:57] Speaker A: Yeah, nice. Yeah. I haven't actually got around to watch them myself, but I'll have to have a look now when we finished, maybe. So today we are going to be talking about a film called hippopotamus. Kerr 9000 picked that film, well, in 2018 called hippopotamus. One was this film, the other one was about some gay resort, and I was like, I don't think that's the one Kerr is on about, so I'll grab the other one. Luckily, I grabbed the right film, otherwise this would be a very awkward conversation. [00:01:36] Speaker B: It is strange, though, isn't it? Our films come out with the same name. It's like a couple ago we did Jack Frost, and that's both for a warm family film and a horror film. [00:01:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And they came out around the same time, like a couple of months between them. I think the horror film came first, didn't. It's a strange name. Right? So I don't understand the name of why the film is called hippopotamus. There's no hippopotamus. Isn't it? [00:02:04] Speaker B: No. [00:02:05] Speaker A: There's a girl and a guy, and neither of them are hippopotamus. [00:02:10] Speaker B: The only thing why it's called hippopotamus is because her brain is supposed to be damaged in the hippocampus, is it? Or something? Right. Maybe when he says to her where it's damaged or something, she says, hippopotamus. [00:02:27] Speaker A: All right, fair enough. [00:02:29] Speaker B: So it's based off her fake saying of the part of her brain that's supposed to be the problem. [00:02:35] Speaker A: The hippocampus. Jesus, I didn't even know. What is her say? That for those who are unaware, hippopotamus came out in 2018, it is in the UK. It's rated age 15 and it's directed by Edward a. Palmer. It's a british film, I believe, because it seems to be. Do you know much of the director? I haven't seen recall anything else by. [00:03:08] Speaker B: Them, but I'd never seen the name before. [00:03:12] Speaker A: No. Same year. [00:03:14] Speaker B: I've basically read a brief. Apparently he's only directed four things, two of which are three of which are short. So this is his only full length film. [00:03:24] Speaker A: Fair enough. I didn't know that. We'll dive into the film then, with how it begins. Starts off straight away. Woman wakes up and you just hear a voice going, I've kidnapped you. Your legs are fucked. These are not the exact words. I'm going to keep your shirt. And you fall in love with me. And it's like, okay, that's a bit od to begin to start with. But obviously not a great deal happens throughout the film in some respects. It's basically all set in one room, apart from a couple of flashbacks. But the majority of the film is just set in one room. [00:04:15] Speaker B: It's largely just a two person piece. I mean, you could almost do it as a stage play in a theater, couldn't you? [00:04:21] Speaker A: Yeah, you could. It'd work pretty well, actually, wouldn't it? [00:04:27] Speaker B: None of the actors in it are people I know. I've never seen them in anything before. [00:04:31] Speaker A: No, same here. [00:04:33] Speaker B: But it's one of those films that. Because it's something that's quite grounded in realism, there's no zombies or vampires here. This is stuff that could really happen, I thought it's got the potential to be quite scary. And me and my misses watch a lot of true crime stuff. And quite a lot of women have been weirdly abducted by creeps who have really big sellers. Or, I mean, look at the fritzels where the guy had got his daughter underground in some bunker thing he'd built. Yeah, it's weird, but these things sort of do happen. They do? [00:05:08] Speaker A: Yeah. With this. I was a bit confused at first because it starts off with the woman being told all this information and then she's trying to work things out as the day progresses, or at least it seems like the day. And she's like a little bit miffed. And then all of a sudden he's like, oh, you need to take your pain meds and shit like that. And then she falls asleep and then all of a sudden he's repeating it. I thought, the fuck's going on here? Then why is he repeating, oh, yes, your legs are fucked. Yes, that's the terminology that was used by me for the film your legs fucked. And I was thinking, like, why is he repeating himself? And you could see when he was repeating himself, he was kind of like, as if to say, I can't be bothered to keep repeating myself. So from fairly early on, you realize that something's up with her not remembering stuff. But obviously I attributed it to something he had done. [00:06:08] Speaker B: Yeah. It's very much lean that way, isn't it, to make you think. [00:06:12] Speaker A: Yeah. And there's, like, slow bits of progress in her recovery where she's like, obviously her legs are fucked. She's got this big bandage around her head where there's an apparent injury of some sort. But as she's slowly recuperating from these injuries, she realizes that the head injury is not actually real. At least it doesn't appear to be or something. [00:06:45] Speaker B: Yeah. She breaks the mirror, don't she, to look at the back of her own head. [00:06:49] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And obviously the guy's watching her. So I think to myself, how often has he been watching her doing the stuff she's been doing? But he couldn't have been watching her much, because as it progresses, she's running around a room doing press ups and so on and so forth. And he doesn't know anything about her. [00:07:09] Speaker B: No. [00:07:10] Speaker A: Like I said to the Mrs. Because obviously I made her watch her as well. I was like, you'd expect him to have at least a camera in there. [00:07:18] Speaker B: Well, nowadays. Yeah. With all the technology at hand and how easy it is to set up, like, ring cameras and things, you'd think you'd go a bit more technical. [00:07:32] Speaker A: But while watching it, one of the things I wrote down is, like, how many times has he made her forget? Because I genuinely thought it was, like, the tablets he was giving her or something. Because at one point he gives her, like, four fucking massive tablets. And I'm like, I wonder if it's something in there that is making her forget what's been going on. [00:07:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Because he says it's painkillers and contraceptives, so she won't have periods and basically says, don't worry, I'm not going to rape you, it's to save the mess and whatever. And I said, do you think they're muscle relaxants and that her legs aren't knackered? She's just drugged. [00:08:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:16] Speaker B: I was down the same line as you, wondering if the pills were what they were and what they really were doing to her. [00:08:22] Speaker A: I wonder if there were anything at all, though, because as it turns out, there was nothing wrong with the legs, no pain meds. It seemed to be that he was repeat pete it while she was sleeping. She just repeated. He had a recording repeat saying your legs are broken and if you move, you'll be in fear of the pain and that kind of thing. Again, novels, words. Exactly. But basically it was kind of like, I don't know the right terminology for when you. [00:08:52] Speaker B: Physical conditioning. [00:08:55] Speaker A: Yeah, that one. [00:08:56] Speaker B: I think it's that I've not done psychology in years, but I did do it as part of my degree. But it's definitely the power of suggestion. [00:09:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's repeated throughout her sleep constantly. And obviously she's getting better as they're going along. And she's like, noticed that there's nothing actually wrong with us. She's like running around doing all this stuff to keep herself entertained. And then when he's there, she's like, come on, we'll try and walk again. And she's like, pretended to be really struggling and she doing it. I thought that was pretty good. But as the story starts to progress, she starts having flashbacks to certain things. And one of the flashbacks is of them, too, like having a meal or something. And one of the things I thought to myself was, and also the Mrs. Said the same thing is, were they in a relationship previously? Then they split up and now he's done this in a way to get her back. [00:10:06] Speaker B: Yeah, me and Mamus has very much thought the same thing at one point because we thought, were they together? And he sodded it up, did something, cheated whatever needs her back and has gone crazy, and basically come up with the most bizarre plot ever to get your ex back. [00:10:26] Speaker A: Yeah, that was one of my thoughts. The other thought was, did something else happen? Which he's now trying to get her memory back, which is what happened. And then I was like, is something else going on that we just aren't privy to yet? But it is an interesting film. I actually rather enjoyed it, considering it's just two people in a room for the majority of the film, I thought it was pretty good. [00:10:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it doesn't outstay its welcome. It's only 77 minutes long and it doesn't need to be a moment longer, really. It's perfect in that just as you think you're going to get bored, it peels another layer back and presents something new for you to ponder. [00:11:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I can agree with that one. [00:11:17] Speaker B: But it's definitely a one watcher in it. You'll never watch this again in your life. [00:11:21] Speaker A: No, I probably wouldn't watch it again. You know, all the twists and turns now. [00:11:25] Speaker B: Yeah, but I don't think the ending is entirely clear, what has fully, fully really happened. Because the thing is you start off and you think that he's a bastard and then to me at least, you feel a bit sorry for him later on. [00:11:42] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely different reasons. [00:11:47] Speaker B: And then you're stuck thinking, well, was he telling her the truth and he's trying to help her or is he trying to manipulate her and just keeps moving on from lie to lie? [00:11:59] Speaker A: That is one of the things I was actually thinking about is like, is the story true? Is the thing he is saying to her actually true? But she seems to remember it. But then again, is that being put. [00:12:12] Speaker B: There in her head, it doesn't really let you know, does it? You've only got his word and a few flashbacks in her head to go on and with things like hypnotism and you never know quite where you stand with this. [00:12:28] Speaker A: Exactly. I think that maybe he was telling. [00:12:31] Speaker B: The truth badly in that way. [00:12:35] Speaker A: Yeah. So basically the story is she was raped by her flatmate or. Yeah, flatmate. And say roommate, same thing, flatmate. She maybe sustained a head injury or just blocked it out, but she can't remember anything from before that night. And every time she goes to sleep she forgets everything. So he is trying to help her regain her memories and it seems successful in that she remembers it. They get it on and then all of a sudden she seems to stab him the mirror. So I don't know what's going on there. I was leaning towards him actually being. Trying to help get things sorted. But for her to react the way she did, did something else gone that you, again, not privy to or. [00:13:40] Speaker B: Did. [00:13:40] Speaker A: His plan of having her as a captive because it shows at one point, like different scenes of them to working to try and work it out and it shows like they literally talking about helping her. She's also in on helping herself. [00:13:58] Speaker B: When. [00:13:59] Speaker A: She'S drawing and they're talking about her and they sitting down chatting and then he seems to do different scenarios. Was this scenario a bit too far? And that's why she freaked out in the end because she was. He was holding her captive even though he wasn't really. He was really. You know what I mean? [00:14:17] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it's like in a way she's messed herself up because that might have been her chance to break this and remember. But then it's scary to have to face the fact that she was raped and that this guy was killed and all these other things happened. So did she just decide she couldn't face it all? Or is it just the innate human need for freedom? Was she just desperate to be free and to run off and didn't care whether it was for her good or not? [00:14:48] Speaker A: Exactly. But I would say she just wanted to be free. I think maybe the whole captive thing was a bit too much. I think maybe a different approach would be better. And to be fair, what should have been done if everything was true is they should have just formed the police at the time and dealt with it, instead of being like, oh, shit, I'll kill him, and run away and take her with me. And it's just like, okay, daft. [00:15:20] Speaker B: No, it is one of those films where you're just at the point where everything happens. You just go, okay. I'd have phoned the police. This would be over because they'd be dealing with it and hospitals would be involved, but then you'd have a lot shorter films around. Sometimes people have to make stupid mistakes to make the plot go the way you want it to go, I guess. [00:15:45] Speaker A: Yeah, that is true. That is true. [00:15:48] Speaker B: But daft. [00:15:52] Speaker A: Bloody daft. But it's understandable that he reacted the way he did in the initial smacking the guy off his misses. But everything after that was just stupid. Even the other guy was like, we need to phone an ambulance. And Garrett, help. And he's like, no, you listen to me. That's how he sounds in the film. But the other guy, who. Because all in all, there's four characters in the film. There's the captured girl, the capture a guy, the flatmate, who's the rapy guy, and then a friend who gives capturing guy a lift. I forgot their names. So he is. Then after the guy kills the rapy guy, he's freaking out in the car going, like, why did you get me involved in this? Why am I involved? And then he drops him off somewhere. People are going to wonder where this guy have just vanished to, or if he's just left in. They found him dead. You think people would be looking. [00:17:02] Speaker B: Yeah, but where they appear to be appears to be the middle of nowhere, don't it? Which I suppose why he couldn't get ring doorbell, camera things and security. But yet he did manage to have addictive phone and things to say all his stuff every morning. [00:17:22] Speaker A: Yeah, there was plenty of things. And obviously he was able to buy them because it seemed to be that they were, like, on a little tiny island across a little lake or something. [00:17:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:32] Speaker A: And he would have to roll back. [00:17:34] Speaker B: And forth originally I thought he was going to be, for some reason, underneath a zoo, probably because of the name hippopotamus, but also the fact he kept sneezing all the time. And I thought, there's got to be somewhere where allergies are playing him or poor. And I'm like, is that going to come into it? Are they going to be somewhere? And he's sneezing constantly, but it didn't really ever become a reason for him sneezing, unless that's when he wanted her to know he was there. He was purposely sniffling and clearing his throat and stuff. [00:18:06] Speaker A: Yes. Probably a good thought on it, because at one point he's watching her through the crack of the door. [00:18:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:15] Speaker A: And she's doing stuff and he just goes. And then she stops doing what she's doing and goes back. So maybe it is little thing like, I can see you. [00:18:28] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe he was conditioning her with it. When you hear these noises, you'll run and heel against your wall. [00:18:39] Speaker A: What do you think of the ending of it, then? Because like I said, after it all happens, after she gains her memory and stuff, she stabs him. I don't know why my thought process is, even though everything may be true, she probably still fucking freaked out by the fact that the guy has got her captive. At least to her it seems that way, but who knows? But then she stabs him, she runs off, gives quite a bit away, starts to untie the boat to leave the little island thing they're on. For some reason, she just randomly collapses. I have no idea why. [00:19:21] Speaker B: No, because she was never really ill, so there's no reason there. It's not like she's massively exerted in herself. He never really hit her when they were struggling and she stabbed him. So he seems to have been feeding her enough and giving her enough liquor. So there's no real reason she collapses, other than you won't be able to have the ending you wanted. [00:19:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:48] Speaker B: Which obviously you could have had the same ending without a lack of reasoning. Or if she turned around and changed her mind and gone to apply pressure to his neck and he recaptured her or something. It just seemed we want her to pass out so the cycle can start again. So she's going to pass out? [00:20:10] Speaker A: Yeah. I am confused. All right. After she escapes and she collapses, obviously the guy goes and Geza and takes her back. But the blood that was spraying out of his neck and all over the place, how the fuck did he even live? [00:20:26] Speaker B: Yeah, it does seem a lot of blood. [00:20:29] Speaker A: Like, she must have stabbed him in the throat or something. [00:20:32] Speaker B: It's possible to live through wounds like that, but only with proper medical attention. I don't think you're going to put some bandages around your own neck and just wait it out. You know what I mean? But maybe he had a prit stick. [00:20:46] Speaker A: And just rubbed it on his neck. Obviously the cycle starts again, but instead of her being captive, he says something along the lines of, oh, your surgery went well. Unfortunately, he's been a little bit of memory loss, so we're going to try and get you back on your feet, that kind of thing. [00:21:08] Speaker B: Yeah. So basically he's trying the whole thing again with a different scenario. [00:21:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:13] Speaker B: And it's thus painting the idea that this cycle is going to continue again and again till either she does remember or kills him. [00:21:21] Speaker A: Yeah. I think, obviously, I enjoyed the film. The film wouldn't happen if he had got the police involved straight away, but you should have got the police involved. [00:21:35] Speaker B: Words of advice. If you're watching this and you happen to knock somebody out and kill them in self defense, don't run off to an island with a comatose person, phone the authorities and get it all. [00:21:48] Speaker A: Normal choice. I agree. [00:21:51] Speaker B: You can't say we're not informative, if anything else. [00:21:54] Speaker A: Exactly. Be sensible. But, yeah. What did you think of the film overall, then? Would like to hear what you got to say. [00:22:10] Speaker B: I think it's quite a good, strong film for a limited cast and you can tell there's not a massive budget to it. And clearly it's somebody's first full length film. If I'd made this as a first film, I'd be well over the moon with it. Yeah. Maybe in the future we'll see something else from this person with some money injected into it, but pretty good film. Not going to change the world, but six or seven out of ten territory, maybe that's fair enough. [00:22:44] Speaker A: I rather enjoyed it. I thought it was pretty interesting and I actually like the mystery around it of, like, why he's captured her and why is he repeating himself? What's going on there? I didn't like the ending in a way, in the sense of she fucked him up, repeatedly stabbing him and he was literally on the floor, like, pretty much dead. And then he somehow back to having her in there. I think that was a little bit, I guess, bit of a shit bait and switch. But up until that point, I rather enjoyed her. It's just a shame that she collapsed for no reason and he somehow was fine. He seemed a bit like when he was walking off, he seemed kind of curled up as if he was in pain or something. But the blood all over the fucking room. After she'd stabbed him, there must have been about five gallons of it. I don't know how much a gallon is. At least six pints of blood. [00:23:54] Speaker B: They oversold the injury she'd done on him a bit. If you're going to have him live. [00:23:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:59] Speaker B: He's supposed to be a normal man, not Jason Voorhees, like. Other than small little complaints, I think it's pretty good. [00:24:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Like I said, the mystery part of it was probably the most interesting thing. Just find out why she's there, why she's got memory issues and all that. And it's quite interesting. I would definitely give it about seven out of ten as well. I enjoyed it. Apart from the ending, I thought that was a bit. It's one of those things where a lot of films will have a twist and I don't think it needed it. It didn't need the twist at the end where it's like, oh, she escaped, but then she's captured again by the same person who clearly should be dead. I know they do that in a lot of thrillers where the bad guy, you think he's dead, but he's not dead, and he comes back for you. But it didn't seem the right kind of. [00:25:10] Speaker B: Film, little things like that. This seemed quite realistic, so it was like tacking an almost fantasy ending onto something real. The ending could have been, he's dead, she runs off, gets on the boat, the film ends and we don't know whether it was fake real or you'd still have the same thing where it's left to the viewer's imagination. [00:25:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And it could just be all this is his obsession and that none of this stuff was true, we'll never know. But if you've got anything else to add about the film. [00:25:49] Speaker B: No, I think that's it. I thought both the actors in it were pretty good to say they're people. I don't know. [00:25:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I have no idea. [00:26:00] Speaker B: Believable. [00:26:04] Speaker A: Yeah. I did have some issues when I was watching it with. Sometimes it seemed like it'd be a little out of sync sometimes, but I don't know if that's just my stuff playing up. But other than I was, fine. But, yeah, I think that is going to be us with this, then. Anything you would like to plug, Kerr? [00:26:22] Speaker B: No, just basically ker 9000 on YouTube and TikTok and everything. And there's more of my talk about films as well as games on there. [00:26:32] Speaker A: Nice well, that about wraps it up for us, then. Check out the film if you haven't seen it. Hippopotamus. It's 2018. Like I said, this one is about, not about a closed down gay lounge bar thing. It's not that one. That seems like it'd be a different film altogether. Anyway, bye, everyone. Thank you for tuning in. It's been a pleasure, as always. See you soon. Bye bye. [00:26:59] Speaker B: See you. Bye.