Tom's Top 3: October 28, 2025
Spooky Szn
Hi everyone! Welcome to this week’s installment of Tom’s Top 3 Tuesdays, where I highlight three pieces of content (Podcasts/Shows/Songs/Articles/etc.) that I found interesting or noteworthy from the prior week.
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[Movie] Focus Features - Bugonia
This may have just jumped One Battle After Another as my second favorite movie of the year… and you all know how much I love that film. Hell, I’m even going as Rocket Man (Leo’s character) for Halloween.
Bugonia, the latest film by Yorgos Lanthimos, is a wild ride full of wonderful performances. Most notably, Jesse Plemons is incredible in this film, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he got serious Oscar attention. The movie tough to pin down, but I would describe it as a thriller-comedy—full of social commentary, gruesome images, and laugh-out-loud moments, Bugonia has stuck with me in the week since I saw it.
[YouTube] StudioBinder - How to Scare an Audience with Very Little Money
In true Spooky Season fashion, it’s only right to share this wonderful video from StudioBinder about the making of John Carpenter’s Halloween. Overall, it’s a masterclass/case study on how to make a great movie on a small budget.
The video highlights a few factors that allowed the producers to hit the low $300K budget:
Creative Casting
They cast a young Jamie Lee Curtis for only $8K, which they knew would attract publicity because her mother was famous for Psycho
Basic Costumes
Most of the actors wore their own clothes
The famous Michael Myers mask is really an altered William Shatner mask that cost less than $2
Streamlined Production
Shot in South Pasadena and used many of the local parents and kids as extras
Used pre-owned props and reused fake leaves to make it seem like it was fall in suburban Illinois and not spring in California
The most expensive cost was the camera: $70K for a Panavision Panaglide steadicam
Cheap, But Iconic Score
Took only 3 days to compose
[Product] Whisker - Litter-Robot 4
We recently adopted an orange kitten, who we aptly named Chopper in honor of our favorite droid troublemaker from Star Wars Rebels.
Last week, we bought a droid of our own, the Litter-Robot, which automatically cleans Chopper’s litter box and notifies us when the litter needs to be refilled. Time will tell if it’s worth the lofty $700 price tag, but if you hate cleaning the litter box or have other pets that you don’t want getting involved in the litter box, then it could be right for you.
Right now, they have a $50 discount on the Whisker website, but I believe you can get $100 off at Costco. One thing to note: it is rather large, so make sure you have a dedicated space for it in your home (we’re still figuring out the best place for ours).
That wraps up this edition of Tom’s Top 3 Tuesdays. If you made it to this point, please drop a 1️⃣, 2️⃣, or 3️⃣ in the comments to let me know what you found most interesting/useful. And as always, please like and consider sharing with a friend who you think would enjoy! I’ll be back next week. ✌️