Favorite Films: Dummy Give Thumbs-Up to ‘Psycho Goreman,’ ‘Megan,’ ‘Creep,’ ‘Nosferatu’

Last March, we had the pleasure of catching up with L.A.-based psych-pop band Dummy ahead of their set at Treefort Music Fest in Boise. In addition to talking about their second album, Free Energy, and accompanying remix LP, Bubbelibrium DLC, Alex Ewell and Joe Trainor – each of whom plays multiple instruments – talked about their favorite movies. We present you with that portion of our conversation, if you’re looking for something worth watching this weekend.

—

What would you normally be doing tonight?

Alex Ewell: Playing video games and watching a movie. We’re boring. We’re married, Alex and I, and we’re just homebodies.

He would probably be playing a video game, and I’d probably be toiling away at a demo for hours on end. And then we’d watch a YouTube video or something, and make dinner. So after this [interview] is over, we’ll just make dinner and then watch Atlanta or something, because Alex is just start watching it.

The TV show?

Alex: I’ve watched it before, but Alex watched a season of it on an airplane or something.

Joe Trainor: I watched, like, four episodes on a plane. I tried watching it a couple of years ago, when the first two seasons came out, and then I never finished it. [I eventually] watched the third and fourth seasons.

What did you guys bond over when you met?

Joe: New age music.

Really?

Alex: Yeah. Both of us were really getting into ambient and new age music, and leaving behind guitar music to some degree. We’re both really into low-budget horror [films], and we also bonded over Marvel movies.

Joe: I liked the Marvel movies at the time. They were a guilty … [actually,] I didn’t feel guilty, because they’re entertaining.

Alex: They’re fun. But they’ve gotten horrendously bad. Just like cinema in general.

Can name a few horror movies you agree on, or a few you don’t agree on, or a couple that I probably haven’t heard of.

Joe: Well, we just watched The Substance the other night.

Movie of the year, right?

Alex: I’m so happy that movie exists. It was so fucking good.

Joe: Looking back, we also bonded over Paranormal Activity.

Alex: We both love found-footage [films]. The most mainstream version of it [is probably] Creep by Mark Duplass. Him and a friend of his [Patrick Brice] made it. “Mumblecore horror,” I guess [you could call it].

Joe: Very low budget. It’s tense and weird.

Would you count Steven Kostanski’s Psycho Gorman as horror movie?

Alex: I love that. It’s a comedy. That movie had us beaming after.

Joe: Have you watched Frankie Freako, his new movie?

No. I just heard about it.

Joe: We just watched it. It’s fine. But Psycho Gorman, everything about that movie … you can tell the love and care that [Kostanski] put into it, and the group effort they had to have to make that movie work. It’s just beautiful.

I love that scene where the girl’s in the bed and the mom’s telling her, “OK, you have to stop playing this game.” And she’s like, “It’s not called ‘The Game,’ it’s called ‘Crazy Ball’! The way that she says it is so reminiscent of my younger sister. Tucked in the sheets in everything. It was perfect.

Alex: The actors killed it in that movie. The dry humor was so good. As far as movies we don’t agree on, I really liked Longlegs, and Alex didn’t.

Joe: I thought it was … OK. It didn’t really come together, in my opinion. Another one we watched recently was Green Room. Oh, God, Patrick Stewart … that one fucked him up.

Joe: Yeah, after I watched that movie, I kind of stopped watching horror. We watched that right when we started dating, and I was touring a lot. I find that movie to be very brutal and intense and upsetting. After I watched it, I felt like I wasn’t as attracted to horror movies as I was before.

Joe: I’ll still watch every single trash one. We both loved Megan. That was awesome.

Alex: I’m trying to think of an obscure one.

You mentioned found footage movies. Is Skinamarink worth checking out?

Joe: I watched it. It was … whatever. It could have been a short film and been just as effective. In film and art, there are “vibe” [works]. I’m not really into vibe movies. I want a good, propulsive story. A movie can be slow and still have a propulsive plot and a propulsive story.

Alex: I really liked [the] Nosferatu [remake].

Joe: So good. There’s shots in that movie where I was like, “Goddamn. What the hell?” In the scene [in which Robert Johnson’s] “Devil’s Crossroads” is playing, we were like, “Holy fuck, so much effort went into that one shot.”

Alex: That’s another director [Robert Eggers] I really respect because of the amount of effort he puts in every movie.

Joe: He hasn’t gone wrong yet. Lighthouse, The Witch … The Northman is my favorite of his.

Alex: That movie is perfect. That movie being a flop is so stupid. It’s so cool.

Joe: Another one we watched recently was The Cursed. It’s a great Asian horror movie.

For more installments of Favorite Films, check out:

• Jacob the Horse Singer Digs Russ Meyer, Nolan, Tarsem Singh, William Friedkin

• Napalm Death’s Shane Embury Picks ‘2001,’ ‘Inception,’ ‘Forbidden Planet’

• Dying Remains’ Frontman Treasures ‘The Thing,’ ‘Suspiria,’ ‘City of the Living Dead,’ ‘Wounded Fawn’

• Heavy Heavy Low Low Vocalist Lists His Favorite Flicks as Halloween Creeps Closer

• Point Break 2 Frontman Cops to His Guilty-Pleasure Movies: ‘Mortal Kombat,’ ‘Terror,’ ‘Elvis,’ More

• The New Loud Pick Their Favorite David Lynch Films

• David Lynch Tribute: 10 Unforgettable Moments From His Films