Podcasts
‘Sleepaway Camp 2’ Celebrates Its Trans Villain [Horror Queers Podcast]
Touch That Tush.
August has featured an American giallo in Eyes of Laura Mars, a Spanish ghost story in The Others, and a Jewish horror comedy in Shiva Baby. Now it’s time to head back to literal summer camp with director Michael A. Simpson‘s very silly horror comedy: Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers (1988).
In this sequel to the notorious original, Angela (Pamela Springsteen) is all grown up and working as a camp counselor. She’s transitioned and is seemingly very comfortable with herself, but she can’t shake Aunt Martha’s pesky pious moral code. This sends her into a murderous rage whenever the other counselors – and even some of the campers – break her rules.
What follows is all manner of silly/horrible deaths, albeit with less of the great practical effects of the OG film. Still, it’s fun to watch Angela take out an entire camp in a film that not only lets its trans character be the villain, but also the protagonist and Final Girl.
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Episode 244: Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers (1988)
Return to camp with Michael A. Simpson’s Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers (1988) which finds Angela killing according to Aunt Martha’s conservative moral code.
We’re talking about Pamela Springsteen’s performance (and Felissa Rose’s absence), our love of Ally, and the film’s status as a self-referential horror comedy.
Plus: the lack of short shorts, poor editing, Molly’s end, and debates if the laughs subvert the “trans killer” trope.
Cross out Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re checking in the dysfunctional family at the heart of Park Chan-wook’s sole English language thriller, Stoker (2013).
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for more than 258 hours of additional content! This month we’re discussing horror tropes that gotta go, as well as episodes on Meg 2: The Trench, Talk to Me, and The Last Voyage of the Demeter. And to tie in with that last one, our audio commentary for the month will be on Bram Stoker’s Dracula (the Coppola one).
Podcasts
Shakespearean Education in the Vincent Price-Starring ‘Theater of Blood’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
Butch knows best…
After concluding May with discussions of the disaster “slasher” The Poseidon Adventure (listen) and Michael Biehn’s demon twink in the messy-but-watchable The Fan (listen), we’re heading back to the ’70s to discuss our very first Vincent Price film in Douglas Hickox‘s horror comedy Theater of Blood (1973).
In Theater of Blood, Vincent Price stars as Edward Lionheart, a disgraced Shakespearean actor who begins targeting the critics who shamed him. The gimmick? He’s taking inspiration from the death scenes in William Shakespeare’s plays! Aiding him is his daughter Edwina (Diana Rigg), who acts as the honeypot for her father’s macabre scheme.
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.
Episode 388: Theater of Blood (1973)
Brush up on your Shakespeare and protect those poodles because we’re covering our very first Vincent Price film in Douglas Hickox’s horror comedy Theater of Blood (1973), a personal favorite of both Price and Diana Rigg.
Join us as we go all in on this somewhat episodic (but also educational!) proto-slasher, wondering if we’re supposed to know that’s Diana Rigg in hippie drag, and cackling at some of these murder set pieces.
Plus, “Handsy Dickman,” narcissistic gravestones, antisemitic stage makeup, and the ultimate debate: is it theatER or theatRE?
C/W: Attempted suicide, off-screen dog murder.
Cross out Theater of Blood!
Coming Up Next: We’re celebrating the premiere of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat with a look at the much-maligned 2002 adaptation Queen of the Damned!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 492 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal Season 3 Episodes 5 & 6, Backrooms, Passenger, Leviticus, an audio commentary on the original Scary Movie (2000), and the return of our Requel Tier as we begin our episode coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat.