The Forgotten Horror & Sci Fi Filming Locations at The Batcave in Griffith Park / Hollywood History
A visit to the Bronson Caves in Griffith Park to check out some filming locations.
Transcript
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welcome everyone Adam the woo here
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today's adventure we taking us up to
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Hollywood to the Bronson caves better
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known and most prominently referred to
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as the batman caves from the original
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series where the Batmobile cruised out
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of its entrance but that area was used
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in a heck of a lot more films and TV
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shows mostly and what I am interested in
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the horror genre I'm inviting you to
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join me as I dive into a little okay
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history shall you most of the time frame
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of what I will be exploring is pre and
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up to the 50s the classic era let me get
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this straight you're saying some of the
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stuff from that air is a little more
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cheesy than frightening the Metrorail
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about to turn off here at Bronson F
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where the caves got their name and yes
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there is a correlation with Charles he
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changed his last name to Bronson because
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of this road he thought it made more
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sense than his real last name a nice
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little parking area here usually a
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little more full than this but there's
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still quite a few cars currently he felt
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by choosing that name based on the road
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that casting agents would have an easier
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time pronouncing it in turn getting him
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more gigs and he might have been right
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the majority of everything I'm on a show
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happened before the 60s Batcave even
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came to fruition starting with a 1958
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feature it took place right here at the
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entrance of where I'm heading in in the
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58 I married a monster from outer space
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police car and the female lead is
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pulling up to a barricade you see the
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concrete embankment which is still here
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Smokey the Bear has now
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procured the spot I've also read that
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it's scary documentation could date back
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to 1933 the vampire bath or White Zombie
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which is a classic favorite of mine keep
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in mind there is a laundry list of
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productions I'm gonna try to stay
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focused on the particular genre maybe
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kind of nestled into sci-fi a bit but
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stick in with the classic horror it's
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about a half a mile walk or so from the
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turning point back there have you had my
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sunglasses but the clouds kind of make
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it virtually not necessary and it's not
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too warm it's beautiful out nice and
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cool a little bit of elevation never
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hurt anyone
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well it might have but it's not really
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doing any damage to me at the moment
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here's the parking area down there and
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continuing on this pathway there's some
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houses right there they probably get a
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pretty good view it should be rearing
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its head momentarily okay I see it over
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there passing the fire hydrants there it
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is see the hole in the side of the huge
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boulder I did pass a few people on the
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way up hikers but pretty much its
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expansive out here when it comes to
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space so you know I'll put this back on
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if it's necessary but I'm kind of all in
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my own little little area doesn't seem
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to be a lot plenty of elbow room plenty
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of fresh air most of what I will be
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referencing is available to find very
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simply a lot of its out and about the
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full movies so you can kind of follow
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along if you so choose also the majority
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of the scenes that this cave was used
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for are towards the end of all the going
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to be mentioned films know all the
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monsters and creatures throughout the
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course of the movie
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you know kind of the ending the
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crescendo they would go into their
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layers the beasts aliens creatures lairs
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was standing over that direction but I'm
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gonna go around to the back side of this
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how looks like a mouse originally I
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thought I'd be away from from others but
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that wasn't the case there's quite a few
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in this vicinity looks like a face and a
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mouth right there there's the mouth nose
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and eyes 1950 no 91950 91951
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unknown world there's the wide shot
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there's the close-up of the two
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characters and back to the white shot
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you can kind of see on the side closest
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to me the dirt has fallen now things
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change over goodness almost 70 years
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within I view that iconic sign over
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there on the side of the mountain and
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I'm gonna go up top and kind of perch
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right there on that rock in the center
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to get the night of the blood beast
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angle certainly getting my cardio having
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this doesn't help much during this
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endeavor I gotta continue up a little
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bit more they were watching from a good
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distance up on this ledge so notice the
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the cave they are the back end of the
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cave down in ground level and they were
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right there looking over and downward
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towards that there's a labyrinth that
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someone has created down there out of
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smaller rocks as well that everyone is
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utilizing going back down as always a
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little more difficult shoe is untied
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kicking up some dust here someone's been
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drinking a little bit
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Oh My yes whoo I could have taken a
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tumble and a more direct angle where
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he's emitting from the side of the hill
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the side of the the cliff like he'll if
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you will that was something that most
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likely gay people from that time frame
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nightmares in the evening they might not
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have they might not have had a slumber
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some evening as this you know the seeing
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this thing it gets to the side of this
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this rock another full length feature
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had this floating this floating sphere
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kind of nestled in a canyon area where
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the side of each mountain connect which
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my best guess would be would have been
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floating right here the original
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invasion of the body snatchers is
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another one that really comes to mind in
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this area spa get glasses are fogging up
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I'm gonna go in but that's just one of
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the dozens upon dozens of productions
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took place also in 58 earth vs. the
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spider that warning sign there posted a
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full-size massive spider bigger than the
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height of a human it's pretty terrifying
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nonetheless I'm going in from this
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perspective cameraman would have been
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standing precisely where I am notice the
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two kind of protrusions and angles of
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either side it's very dark in here but
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that's it still no spiders yeah at least
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none that are gargantuan I would be a
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miss not to mention this John Wayne and
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The Searchers would have rode his horse
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down that very embankment right there
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that's a little side note and you know a
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little off subject but it you got to
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kind of mention the
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the historic John Wayne moment once
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again stating it has been overfilled
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with dirt but Natalie wood would have
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been sitting right up against the side
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of this corner stuff like that just kind
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of blows my mind a little bit so much
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history around these parts okay back to
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the creepiness just look at that cavern
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very the ambience is thick pay no
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attention to those laughing and giggling
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that are in here pay no attention to
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those having that are not a Friday we're
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going back to the subject it was also
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from this side that the 1956 it
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conquered the world starring Peter
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Graves has some prominent moments and
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where I just was there was quite a bit
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of activity you have the military out
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about to battle this thing absolutely
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horrifying look at that also when that
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was a very young Dick Miller you might
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remember him from gremlins the burbs
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he's there with his helmet on and notice
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the little cusp there where the dirt
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meets the rocks that would be right
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about their modern-day versus the 50s
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starting to put two and two together it
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seems as if they use the around the back
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for the entrance more than the front
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Batman side more because the the
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formations are a little more pronounced
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at least that's that's my best my
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opinion because what you see when you
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first approach is pretty fantastic but
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not quite as dramatic as the other end
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it's also pretty neat when they blasted
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through this for the rock quarry
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you know just the pattern the texture on
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the side right here it's very distinct
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and noticeable a brain appeared from
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another planet and you could see kind of
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the see how it just kind of encloses it
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they once again used this right there as
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they made their entrance which really
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wasn't the entrance it was around the
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back and then a hideous talking brain of
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very large proportions appeared right
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here
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okay use your imagination a brain is
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talking to us now that's a birds
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that's a that's a bird chirping in
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attack of the crab monsters the guy
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walks along the ledge there where the
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dirt meets the rest of it and enters in
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here to his demise not a spider this
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time but a a large crab he was being
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very cautious as he kind of peeked
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around this corner unbeknownst to him he
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didn't know it was in there as shown
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here and way back then less dirt had
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fallen on that corner before entering
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the tunnel if this is the spot the crab
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monster in all its glory chomping down
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on its victim whoa oh there's plenty
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more camp Vacanti get about the late
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50's the Cyclops where they use this
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space to impose a one-eyed retina
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creature
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it was huge his head was Hugh they like
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blew his head up like massive and
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proportion to the other characters even
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a version of Dracula used this as his
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living accommodations you could see the
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light at the tunnel there on the far end
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which means he would have been right
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about there this is not wanting to focus
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it's very dark under here it's all
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Dracula's doing dangu you thanked cape
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thing whoo I had some garlic on me and I
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got it it solved the problem the angle
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would be more kinda like that and they
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mounted a lantern or some sort of light
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on the side of the wall there the whole
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reason he was standing up waiting is for
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for her to walk into his
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his establishment and that was just
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outside with the backdrop of that hill
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that's not me making that noise that's
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someone else in there giving thee the
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ambience sound effects now this is where
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she was walking she had no idea what was
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in store once she went inside this
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cavernous section also walking in from
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that direction from robot monster was
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this he was wearing a helmet a space
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helmet but it was a gorilla carrying
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someone would have been heading my right
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mind or heading my very direction maybe
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I could plan my departure on this truck
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seems like they might have where
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someone's on top of it though someone's
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hitched a ride on top so maybe I'd say
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probably take them if I take the side
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seat that would have been right here you
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could see a once again a lot more dirt
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has kind of fallen down the side and
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just out of frame in that would be the
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Hollywood sign you would never known it
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just so much happened out here look at
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this look at this gentleman he's got
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that's just like looking like a target
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of sort kind of circulating out of his
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out of his chest and it'd have been like
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more or less right around this section
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give or take a few feet covered quite a
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bit a lot more than I was expecting to
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get through it had a couple spots in
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mind but then I started to kind of dig a
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little deeper
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giant spider
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now it's just a talk there is one more
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that I must that I must mention kind of
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keeps up with the same vein from those
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from the 50s the same kind of I even
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though I came out decades later and I'm
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going to end with this one it's a good
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one
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and it was took place right over there
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one of the two there were two endings
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this was the secondary ending where
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Bruce Campbell fell asleep for way too
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long he slept too long in the in the
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cave when he awoke it wasn't how he
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expected it he comes riding up on his
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horse and wow that is really just maybe
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an inch or two out of frame of the signs
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just around that corner would be the
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sign up there on the top of the hill so
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I'll just kind of first you see up on
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the the top of the peak the little there
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it is so you first you see a little
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satellite and the tower up there and
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then that sign so they just just got it
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out of the out of the view referring to
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army of Darkness he exited exits the the
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saddle on the horsemen walks over to his
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car and they barricade him in everything
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more or less matches up right about
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there and I will I'll go I'll go back in
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well one last time just to kind of show
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when he walks towards the camera
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for the final for the final moments
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this place is a real beehive of activity
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there's a lot of people wandering around
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and inside and areas exiting with the
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sea rather decent-sized beard there was
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quite a bit of scrap metal and you know
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little pieces of junk scattered all
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around
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probably the vehicle yeah well maybe not
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to vehicle to vehicle it was in there
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with him so not really sure what the
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scrap metal was but it was all kind of
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layered around here that's gonna do it
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I'll see you in the next video the vlog
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is over had a pretty good thing going
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there for a moment and then the battery
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I was using ran out of juice
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someone down there's having a moment I
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knew there was something about that cave