Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Hello, hello. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Weird World Adventures, the podcast. I'm your host, Mallory.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: And I'm your occasional host, Michael.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: We're here to show you just how weird this world of ours really is.
So, as you know by now, I sure hope so. Anyway, we are counting down to season two of Weird World Adventures, releasing on Amazon prime this fall. Fall?
[00:00:26] Speaker B: This fall?
[00:00:27] Speaker A: This fall? As in, like, in a few weeks?
[00:00:30] Speaker C: Bum, bum, bum.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: For those of you listening in the future, this is fall 2025.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: Thanks for that explicit information.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Hey, I listen back sometimes. I have podcasts that I've gone back years into their backlog. Right. And then it's like, I don't know when we're talking about.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: All right, if you're listening in October 2025 and beyond, it's out now.
Regardless, you can watch Weird World Adventures Season 1 on Amazon prime now.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Right now.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Right now. And for more, make sure you go to mallorysadventures.com.
so, I wanted to play a little game with you, Michael.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Oh, boy.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: I want to know if you know which place, which episode I decided to feature today.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: Well, this is gonna be a bad game because I can see your notes there.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: You're lame. Well, then why'd you ask which one we're doing?
You can see it.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: Well, I saw it as I asked. Oh, I guess that's what we're doing.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: Okay, so.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: So, good game. Good game.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Well, you ruined my game.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: My psychic abilities without knowing what we're gonna do is Salem.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Well, yes, it is Salem, because you read my notes.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Oh, no. I saw those hidden folk, too, in Iceland.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: You did?
[00:01:52] Speaker B: Magnus told me you have to be psychic.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: And you saw it.
[00:01:55] Speaker B: A real life psychic.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: You went to the phallological museum and you saw that hidden folk penis in a jar. And whoo, boy, everyone else is gonna be like, that's an empty jar. But you.
[00:02:07] Speaker C: You saw it.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I did.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: Wow. Was it impressive?
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Pretty, Pretty.
Pretty.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Nice, Nice, nice. Anyway, it was December 2024 when we went to Salem.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: God, is that when it was.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Yeah, it was.
It was in. No, it was January 2025. December was the Smokies. You're right. And January 2025.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: Extremely interesting.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: So interesting content here.
[00:02:43] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: And it was a wonderful setting because there was snow.
And we actually got caught in a snowstorm while we were filming, which was really cool.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: That was very cool. The snow on the Bewitch statue looks great.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: It does.
[00:03:01] Speaker B: Made for some great pictures.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: You got some really good pictures of that.
That was really exciting. And we already did a lengthy Podcast with Mike Victa.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Talking about Salem and vampires and a bunch of weird stuff. So that was wonderful. So we're not going to feature Victa this time because we already did that.
So I thought it would be fun to highlight some pieces from our interview from Count Orlok's Monster Nightmare Gallery.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: Also. Very cool.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: Very cool.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: And what's going to be in the episode overall?
[00:03:31] Speaker A: In the episode overall, we have Mike Victor giving us a huge rundown on the history of Salem and the witch trial specifically, which was really fascinating.
We did the Witchboard Museum, which was also a really fascinating interview.
And we did Count Orlok's Nightmare Gallery, which is what we're gonna feature here.
And it was more. It was less about his gallery, the interview, because he has a fun walkthrough gallery of all these monster props and just giant pieces.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: Really impressive.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: Really impressive. But it was the part that we kind of focused on was his collection of really strange memorabilia down below.
[00:04:13] Speaker B: Yeah. He gives. Oh, man. What do you call it? He gives a different tour of that.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: It's like an extra VIP tour to go down into the dungeon area and see some of real artifacts.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: Books that are hundreds of years old.
My kind of stuff.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Yeah. It was very cool. So we're gonna give you a little teaser today from that part of the Salem. And then there's also a huge part of it where we were just. We stayed at this warlock house, which I'm sure we've talked about at length, but it was very cool. So we played around a lot at the warlock house because they had their Ciri set up to respond to spells. So you would say little spells, and Ciri would do different things around the house. And it was very cool.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: Very cool.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: She could set the room for a seance.
Yeah, it was pretty great. And if you watch the full episode at the end, you'll be able to see me get harassed by a potentially insane person.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Not potentially.
Just clearly insane person accosting you mid take.
[00:05:22] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: Full setup. Just comes running. He pulled off the road to harass you.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: He did.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: In front of, like, 50 people. It was.
It was wild.
That was by far the scariest part of Salem.
[00:05:38] Speaker A: Yeah. And the best part was that we just happened to be at the space that the Pokemon Go group was meeting, and they were all.
No one was gonna do anything about this, man. But they all had their phones out to record it in case I got attacked. No one was gonna stop the attack.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: I don't think a lot of them realized if it was a Gag or not, it was so crazy that it looked like it could have been on purpose. Like he was an actor we hired to come do this insane thing.
It made no sense. And if I was on the street, that's what I might have assumed.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: That's a good point.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: You're two people sitting in front of a tripod with a camera running, giving an interview, and this insane person just comes and just starts talking insane nonsense.
I would have assumed, like, well, this is, like, a punked episode or something, right?
[00:06:24] Speaker A: Yeah. And then there was that. That girl was like, are you okay Afterwards? Are you okay? I recorded the whole thing.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: I was. I was just sitting there, tensed, ready to tackle this guy.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: Probably the strangest thing that's ever happened in filming. I mean, for Weird World. I mean, like, it's one of the ones that caught me off guard and was very strange in a whole different way than the strange ones.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: You should post that somewhere.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: Oh, it's gonna be in the credits too.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: Oh, is it?
[00:06:58] Speaker A: Okay, he did us a favor because he didn't stand in the camera where you could actually see his face.
[00:07:04] Speaker B: Yeah, he anonymizes himself by just the.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: Way he's standing, and then he's just on a rant about just total nonsense, right? Yeah, it was pretty wild.
So if you stay tuned to the end, you can hear the rant to make sure you do that.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: Then he thanks you for your service.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: Yeah, he thanked me for my service.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: Total. Total.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: And then, like, harassed you for not giving me your jacket when the whole point was that I took off my jacket because I was in the Elizabeth Montgomery dress and we were at the Elizabeth Montgomery statue. Right, Right.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: If you had listened to the rest of the take before you interrupted it, you would understand why she's not in the jacket.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: Before you pulled your car over violently on the side of the road to run out of it and just beeline it for us to go off on a crazy rant.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: Anyways.
[00:07:51] Speaker A: Yep. Anyways, it's gonna be a great episode. Here is a sneak peek from Count Orlok's Nightmare Gallery.
[00:08:01] Speaker C: So, James, what inspired you to create the Nightmare Gallery?
[00:08:05] Speaker D: Well, I was a collector from the start. I started collecting monsters as soon as I knew what monsters were, and it progressed into what you see here. But it was a long time, and it's a long story, but CliffsNotes version is, I saw a haunted house when I was a kid in the mid late 80s, and the haunted house was down the street from where I lived in Jamestown, Rhode Island. And that haunted house changed my Life.
I saw the collection that this particular person had was so beautiful. And I could tell even as a young kid, that this was not stuff that I've ever been able to find in stores.
So after that Halloween, I asked my parents if I could call this person. And it was a small island where we lived in Jamestown, Rhode Island. And they said yes, because my parents knew his parents. And so I did. And he was nice enough to invite me over, and that was kind of it. He gave me catalogs and pointers on, you know, how to be discerning about monsters.
And it was off to the races. And I started a collection that kind of started to emulate his. And I started to do my own haunted house in the same town.
And it was never a competition because, of course, it was all volunteer. We didn't.
No one had to pay for anything.
And I did that through high school and college, and eventually we found this place in 2005, Salem, and we opened our museum in Salem.
[00:09:47] Speaker C: Why Salem?
[00:09:49] Speaker D: Well, there's a lot of other places I could have opened, but I probably would have lost my shirt.
Salem is a very unique place where there's a lot of dark tourism already happening.
And though I would have loved to open someplace a little bit closer to home, I was led up here by a person who had an attraction that was slightly similar.
And I was opening a museum for them at Spooky World in Boston, Massachusetts, at the time, in 05 06.
And they said, you know, I've got a place in Salem.
If I can do this, you can do this. And that's really kind of all it took.
It was powerful words in a way. So then I thought, well, I guess if you could do this, I could do this. What does he have? But I don't. And he pointed out the same thing.
And so we set out on an adventure in 2007 to open 285 Derby St. As Count Orlok's Nightmare Gallery. And that was a lot of fun.
And we were right in the thick of it, the edge of the thick of it.
And we moved to this location in 2017 and opened for the 2018 season, and we've been open ever since.
[00:11:13] Speaker C: Amazing. What was your first piece in your collection?
[00:11:15] Speaker A: Collection?
[00:11:17] Speaker D: The first piece that you probably still look at here is the Lugosi head downstairs, not the one upstairs, because I've swapped them out. But that one I purchased probably around 1990, 91.
The first piece I think I ever had is long gone, but I have one of the masks that I had when I was A kid. It's a Wolfman mask, but it's so old, and it was so, you know, it was assembly line made. So they're very thin. So it did not survive the 40 years, but the hair did. So I've got this outline of hair that came into bib and that's at home.
[00:11:56] Speaker C: What's your. I know this is gonna be a tough question. What's your favorite piece?
[00:12:00] Speaker D: That's an impossible question. Where are all my babies?
One of the highlights. Some of the highlights, I would say, you know, Meg Mucklebones from Legend, Poltergeist 2. I've got Reverend Cain up there.
I've got a giant scene of an alien attacking a predator character.
Those are great, but it's so hard to pinpoint like, a favorite sometimes. My favorite is the newest thing I've brought in.
So one of the newer things that I brought in last year was Creepshow and both the creep show pieces. Fluffy, who is the crate beast, and Nathan Grantham, who is the, you know, give me my cake Bedelia guy. And when he comes out of the grave, he's carrying, eventually in the movie, he's carrying a silver platter with Aunt Sylvia's head on it with some frosting and some birthday cakes. And so that's one of my favorite pieces. Newer pieces. But every year there's something new and something that I like best, but it's always different. You know, you might ask me tomorrow. Be a different thing completely.
[00:13:16] Speaker C: I have a controversial question for you here.
[00:13:18] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:13:19] Speaker C: I was talking to Mike at Spellbound Tours yesterday, and we were disagreeing. So I'm curious to hear your thoughts on who is the best Dracula.
[00:13:27] Speaker D: Oh.
[00:13:27] Speaker C: Or who's your favorite Dracula?
[00:13:29] Speaker D: I should say that is a much better framed question because best and framed are very.
They're hard because you can't say best of anything.
You can say what I like best. And I find I probably more often than not take people to task about confusing opinion and fact.
[00:13:49] Speaker C: Definitely.
[00:13:50] Speaker D: But my first Dracula was Frank Langella, and I believe that he's probably my favorite in terms of the movie as a whole because of where that. When. When I saw that. Because a lot of favorites depend on where you were in your life. I think that's my personal opinion. I'm not sure if there's scientific proof about that, but for me, anyway, I find some of the best movies or some of the movies I like the best in my life are the ones that I saw at a certain age. 14, 15, 12, that sort of thing.
Because you're at a very impressionable age. And if you've got something in your head at 12 years old and something new comes out. But, you know, I've never met a Dracula I didn't like. And that's true. Never.
[00:14:36] Speaker C: That's good. I was on Team Christopher Lee.
[00:14:39] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:14:39] Speaker C: And Mike was on Bela Lugosi's team.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: So Franklin Della is a good one too.
[00:14:43] Speaker C: You added another Dracula.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: He's great.
[00:14:45] Speaker D: There's lots of good Draculas. I mean, Gary Oldman gave a run for every everybody's money. And I mean, Jack Palance played Dracula and there's plenty more, but yeah, yeah, yeah. Never met a Dracula I didn't like. That's one of the things about doing this.
I find the more monster movies, the better.
I don't necessarily tend to think that remakes.
The popular conversation now is the remake of Nosferatu and everyone has their opinion.
I really enjoyed it and I have found that Most people, about 75, 73% enjoyed it more than didn't.
Some people just can't get past the mustache. But there's reasons for everything.
Eggers, the director, makes a beautiful period film and he tends to mix in supernatural elements with it, which I think is slightly different from a horror film. But it's beautifully done and I was a big fan. Not that you asked, but there you are, we're talking.
[00:15:49] Speaker C: Well, I'm glad. We want to see it very badly.
[00:15:50] Speaker D: Oh, I recommend it. Sorry, I didn't mean to give you any spoilers about the mustache.
[00:15:55] Speaker C: Oh, no, it's good. Now I'm gonna look for it. I'm sure I couldn't miss it.
[00:15:58] Speaker D: You'll probably see it. You'll probably see it.
It's right there.
[00:16:03] Speaker C: So what can people expect when they come here to your gallery?
[00:16:06] Speaker D: Well, I think if they're horror movie fans or fantasy movie fans or genre fans of any kind of.
They'll expect to come face to face with some of the best likenesses of monsters that are out there.
Many people have compared it to Madame Tussauds, but for monster lovers, which I like that comparison because they among museums and wax museums, they do the best work. But most of our monsters are made by people who work in film and television. So they're not made by necessarily people who work in wax museums. They were made for people who. Made by people who work for films. And realism is the goal and as it is for anything. But these people are very skilled and you will often find like just the best rendition of your favorite character. But we're always adding. So if you have been here and it's been some time, you'll have to come back because there's always something more to see.
Life size recreations of monsters and props. And we've got a terrific collection of life casts from actors, scenes and heads and makeup. And we've got even the movie playing in the vault as well.
Now, if you were to do our VIP tour, that would be a whole different sort of tour. Our VIP tour explores other versions, other versions of the other areas of the museum. The.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: The.
[00:17:35] Speaker D: The underpinnings of the museum, as I like to say, the dungeon.
And we talk about all kinds of things, including how I got into this and what we do to the monsters before they are set up upstairs.
And we have a fun time. And then we take you to the occult room, which is where we are right now.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: Well, that was really exciting. I really did love our time in Salem. And I can't wait for you guys to watch the episode which will be out very, very soon on Amazon Prime.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: Very exciting.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: Yep. Thank you guys so much for tuning in today. I'm your host, Mallory.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: And I'm your occasional host, Michael.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: Until next time, everybody stay weird.
