AIPT contributor Regina joins Nathaniel this week to talk about the psychological horror movie, 'The Other Lamb'. The movie is about an all female cult led by a male figure known as Shepherd. When the group are forced to find a new Eden, a young member named Selah learns more than she wanted.
Regina's writing can be found here: https://aiptcomics.com/author/reginacm/
Adventures in Movies! is hosted by Nathaniel Muir, Blake, and Danny. You can find Nathaniel on Instagram at nathaninpoortaste. Danny can be found on Twitter @default_player and on Instagram at default_player. Blake can be found on Twitter @foureyedhorror and on Instagram at foureyedhorror. You can reach us personally or on Twitter @AiPTMovies.
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Welcome to another episode of Adventures in Movies
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Looks at Dot, Dot, Dot. This week we're looking at a 2019 horror movie, The Other Lamb
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The Other Lamb is about a female cult who are led by their lone male leader named Shepherd
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one night they're driven out of their home and they go on a journey to their new Eden
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Along the way, one of the cult members, Sela, she learned secrets about the cult and she learns things about her past that make her start to question her faith and her life
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Now, before we begin with the show, I have a couple of some house cleaning here
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First of all, some spoiler warnings. This movie recently came out. Now, our discussion, we're going to avoid major spoilers
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but because we are talking about a movie and we'll be delving into some of the themes
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there might be some minor spoilers involved in it. So just a heads up
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We won't ruin any, we won't say anything that'll ruin your enjoyment of the movie, but we might reveal a thing or two
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that actually delves into the movie. Also, this week's show a little bit different
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Have a special guest. She's an AIPT contributor. She's a frequent guest on Adventures in Movies
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our podcast. And recently, she was the recipient of a shout-out from Joba Briggs, the host of Shudders, The Last Drive-In
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Regina, welcome to the show for the first time. Hi, everybody. All right, let's get into it
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The Other Lamb. So the Horror Renaissance, and like every few years you hear about
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oh, horror is making a comeback, that every few years has come up
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and we've been hearing a lot of that lately. Horror Renaissance is making a comeback
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Do you think the Other Lamb fits into the Horror Renaissance? it always seems like horror is making a comeback huh so yeah definitely in terms of especially
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thematically yeah a lot of times one of the tendons of the new horror renaissance is that it's
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about so much as there's a big focus on social commentary which horror as always have I guess it's more
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overt in these newer films and I would say the other lamb definitely fits the villain that sense
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I mean, the female gender politics is very strong. It's clearly making a statement here
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So I would definitely say that, yeah, it definitely fits into that new horror Renaissance
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Now, when people talk about the horror renaissance, it seems like they're referring to a specific type of pace also
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I'm thinking hereditary, midsummer, The Witch. get out not so much though it does have the social commentary you're referring to
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when people speak of the horror renaissance those are the movies that they're talking about
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they're not really talking about bloomhouse's truth or dare would you think would you say that the other lamb or what do you think of the pacing
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of the other lamb okay well the pacing is definitely very slow right very reminiscent
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actually of the witch now that you say the witch um the witch is a very very slow moving film But what happening with The Witch which I think is reminiscent of the other lamb is there a lot of tension building up a lot of this feeling of what going to happen next
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and it's really eerie. The Witch has crazy payoff, and it's an old movie, but still
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Not old, but it's out there. I'm not going to spoil the Witch in case anyone hasn't seen it
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but the other lamb, it's a slow, slow build, and all of a sudden, the pacing does switch up
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and I feel like it's maybe a little bit more could have happened during that pacing
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I mean, it does set up a feeling of dread. It does build the atmosphere
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It does definitely make you feel like this is a horror movie
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but just overall, though, there's just some, there's more issues with the pacing than there are benefits of it, I would say
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Yeah, the pacing is really interesting because you're right. It does definitely build dread
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It's the atmosphere is really cool. It's a very gray, dark movie, literally dark
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And the themes that it deals with are dark also. One of the things that are important in a slow, methodical, patient movie is you need a good story
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which you do have here. You have a very interesting story as to this cult of women that are being led by a man who's married half of them and says he's the father of the other half of them
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So it's a very interesting story as to what's going on there. And then you need interesting characters
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The pacing here, and you're right, it's very interesting. It's slow and it's patient. And you would think, and the direct correlation to me is that, yeah, the witch works out
5:16
but Hereditary is also a very slow movie, which was one of the things people didn't like about it
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But it very much built the world up. It built those characters up, and it gave you a backstory
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I think one of the faults of the other lamb is it lacks in any significant backstory
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You have no idea why the flock has gone to Shepard and how he's won them over
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And I think that ultimately ends up hurting it, even though you do have the great social commentary in it
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What did you think of the actual, kind of what we'll get away from story and stuff? What did you think of the production side of it
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I thought it was beautiful. Well, you mentioned how it's kind of like gray
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and kind of dark the atmosphere. I thought the movie looked like a beautiful painting
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I mean, it's just a beautiful movie to look at. And there are some really interesting things done with color
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Fold colors contrasted here and there with that sort of like drab background
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I think it was just a beautifully made movie. You mentioned acting
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In terms of acting, I think, our main characters, Sella and Shepard, do an amazing job
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They're very strong performances there, and the supporting actors, the other women in the cult, they're just so, like, they're very interesting
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I mean, like, even their performances, well, small are still kind of powerful
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It really does like sort of contribute to the power he has over them And it weird weird like sort of like um competitiveness between the flock right
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so um i think they give like really really strong performances but for sure like sell them the shepherd
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like they're killing it in the film uh you bring up actually a really interesting point is the competitiveness
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between the women because a lot of times when you deal with uh actually even when you hear about colts in real
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life. But there is that spirit of competitiveness between people. Everyone's always trying
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It's almost like politics. People are trying to get one up so they can be the favored person
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in the eye of the emperor or the president or the cult leader in this case. And yeah, it's a very
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beautiful movie. You're going to camera work. Also, I thought there was some angles in the movie
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that made the world look huge and the characters seem insignificant, which is kind of
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kind of what I kind of took out of the movie is that it was a cult trying to find their place in this huge world but unable to do so
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And yeah, you're right. Rafi Cassidy was amazing as Ella, her emotions, because she goes through a lot of emotions
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Anger is in there, fear, love, distrust, and trust are all in there
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And she does an excellent, excellent job. So, again, this is a minor spoiler
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but she's the main character. She's the one who kind of has a change of heart
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over the course of the movie. What did you think of her change in attitude
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as the movie progressed? Well, I'm going to just kind of give a tiny spoiler
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It's not really a spoiler at all. It's just sort of a small plot point
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So one of the things that the kids talk about since the beginning of the movie is how
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Salah is like a teenager, but she has not had her period yet
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And when she does have it, it sort of like goes with like her change of heart a little bit
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But I don't think there's enough. There's not enough. She's so devout
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She kind of makes a quick change, I think, like in her feelings. It's sort of like her eyes are opened up
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And, you know, you're talking about how like the scenery. It's so vast and huge
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And it kind of speaks to this idea of like the themes of the movie
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like if they have a shepherd, they're searching for their place in the world
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And there's a lot. They're looking for the new Eden, the new Eden
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But the other thing with the New Eden is that, you know, like we're told that
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what ruined Eden was because Eve took from the tree of knowledge, right
9:39
Because she like knew all of a sudden she knew she was naked, she told Adam or were naked, so they were cast out
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But I guess it kind of, There's a lot of biblical symbolism, and I guess, like, her period kind of goes along with it
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And if that's the explanation, it's kind of for, it's sort of like a weak one, I guess, like, for a change of character, change of heart
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So. Yeah, her, her change is a little bit sudden, considering how strongly she feels about the shepherd, about Shepherd, not the Shepherddy Shepherd, how strongly she feels about him initially
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Like, she, she loves him. I mean, she's infatuated with this person
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And there is backstory to it not from one scene to the next that it happens She does learn some things and she talks to some people But from it to go it basically went from one end of the spectrum to the other in the course of a couple of days
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And to me, that was a little surprising. Great acting. And she does a great job with showing that emotional range
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But it was surprising to me how quickly that happened, especially since the movie seemed so content on taking its time with other things
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you mentioned that The Witch has a really strong pay, a delicious payoff, as Black Phillip will say
10:55
What did you think of the payoff to this movie? I think it did have a good payoff, but I just really need to know
11:05
I can see how maybe one person got from point A to Point B
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but a lot of people had to get from point A to Point B to get the payoff we get
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which is brilliant to look at, and it's very rewarding, especially if you're watching this movie and you're kind of
11:21
find yourself being a little angry at the Shepherd and a little
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but it's just doesn't quite make sense how it gets there. I agree with you
11:35
I think the payoff is great. It's awesome, and it's a, it's saddest, you get satisfaction
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which is the most important part of the payoff for, Any sort of movie is a feeling of satisfaction on the audience side
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And there is that feeling of satisfaction when you get to the final moments
11:53
Production-wise, as on the directing side of it, it looks great. It's beautiful how the last scene looks
12:01
But you're right, it does still open up a lot of questions, which ultimately is kind of the central theme to the other lamb
12:09
Lots of good, lots of great storytelling. and very beautiful to look at, but there's a lot of why did this happen
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What if that happened? How did this get to that point type of thing
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So what are your final thoughts on the other lamb? And would you recommend it? I would recommend it
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I was thinking if I was teaching a class, I think he'd be an interesting movie to show in class
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because you can draw so much from the themes and the imagery and the symbolism
12:38
I like the film. I really did. Overall, I liked the film
12:44
Well, I had some issues with the pacing and a lot of questions about the characters
12:48
I overall, I liked it. Yeah, I mean, the other lamb, it's a story-driven horror movie
12:56
If you're into that, then definitely check it out. But it won't appeal to everybody
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And it definitely will not appeal to people who like mainstream horror fans. It doesn't have the standard jump scares
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It doesn't use those same camera techniques. It very much focuses on character and the beauty of the shot
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The imagery is very important to it. It's worth a watch. I would recommend it, but it does have a lot of caveat
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You can hear us. Every week here, Adventures in Movies looks at
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we will look at a different film that grabbed our attention. You can find us here on YouTube
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You can also find our podcast Adventures and Movies here on YouTube, or you can go to Spotter's and Movies here on YouTube. or you can go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or the website to just check us out
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We will talk to you next week. Bye
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#Cult & Indie Films
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