Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

Vacation Month kicked off with a deep, uh, cave dive, into one of our personal favorite films: Neil Marshall’s 2005 masterpiece The Descent. Then we explored the world of perversity (and goat-fucking) in Nico Mastorakis’ 1976 video nasty Island of Death. After that, we traveled to Fiji to have our wildest fantasies fulfilled in…..Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island (oof). Now we close out Vacation Month with Colin Minihan‘s under-appreciated 2018 thriller What Keeps You Alive.

In the film, Jackie (Hannah Emily Anderson, Jigsaw, USA Network’s The Purge) and Jules (Brittany Allen, Jigsaw, It Stains the Sands Red, Amazon’s The Boys) are a couple celebrating their first anniversary at a secluded cabin in the woods belonging to Jackie’s family. From the moment they arrive, something changes in Jules’ normally loving wife, as Jackie begins to reveal a previously unknown dark side — all building up to a shocking revelation that will pit Jules against the woman she loves in a terrifying fight to survive.

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Episode 88 – What Keeps You Alive (2018)

We’re heading to a cabin in the beautiful woods of Muskoka, Ontario to celebrate the anniversary of the two lovely ladies at the center of Colin Minihan’s 2018 thriller What Keeps You Alive!

After discussing the implications of the film changing the protagonists of the original script (a heterosexual couple) to a lesbian couple, we’ll then delve into the film’s only real acknowledgment of the struggles of being gay (in a sequence that is quite personal to Joe). Yet we can’t deny that the film has quite a few insightful things to say about relationships, especially its emphasis on the importance of communication (ya know, so you’re not blindsided by the fact that your spouse is actually a psychopath). That it’s anchored by two stellar lead performances doesn’t hurt, either.

Plus, we’ll (rightly) laud the film’s memorable rowboat set piece (yes, really), gush over the blacklight-lit montage that cleverly uses Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” and feel equally frustrated with the film’s protracted third act.

Cross out What Keeps You Alive!

Coming up on Wednesday: We’re joining Peter Neal on his Italian book tour in Dario Argento’s Tenebrae!

– Joe & Trace

P.S. If you subscribe to our Patreon you can listen to bonus episodes! For August, we’ve got audio commentaries on Deep Blue Sea and The Cabin in the Woods, as well as additional episodes on Deep Blue Sea 3 and Jay Baruchel’s Random Acts of Violence.