Podcasts
Internalized Homophobia and Tentacle Alien Monsters in ‘The Untamed’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
Tentacle Porn (no, really).
After traveling all the way to Sweden to look at the evolving friendship between Eli and Oskar in Let the Right One In, we changed up the pace a little bit with an off-kilter pick in Robert Zemeckis’ 1988 masterpiece Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Now we’re making our first journey to Mexico as we discuss the tentacle alien monster at the center (end?) of Amat Escalante‘s The Untamed (2016).
In the film, Alejandra (Ruth Ramos) and Ángel (Jesús Meza) are in a troubled marriage. The closeted Ángel is secretly having an affair with Alejandra’s brother Fabián (Eden Villavicencio). When Alejandra finds out, she seeks solace in her new friend Verónica (Simone Bucio), who tells her of a strange meteorite containing a mysterious creature that acts as a source of both pleasure and destruction.
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Episode 175: The Untamed (2016)
Strap in because we’re discussing our first Mexican film and boy is it a doozy! We’re going to be discussing all the internalized homophobia and tentacle alien monster sexcapades in Amat Escalante’s 2016 film The Untamed!
Join us as we try to figure out what the tentacle alien monster represents while, laud the film for its realistic (and graphic!) depiction of gay sex and then jump right into adding a new letter to the LGBTQIA acronym (someone alert GLAAD!).
Plus: meat-eating as a sign of masculinity, the importance of breaking tradition, questionable police interrogation rooms and a crater of copulating creatures.
Cross out The Untamed!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re tackling our newest release ever on the main feed in Jane Schoenbrun’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (which is currently available to rent on VOD)!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for more than 165 hours of additional content! This month, we’re discussing horror movies that make us cry, Shudder’s new zombie movie The Sadness, the remake of Firestarter, Alex Garland’s Men and an audio commentary on 28 Weeks Later to commemorate its 15th anniversary!
Aaliyah Innocent.
May was a busy subgenre-switching month. After kicking things off with disaster “slasher” The Poseidon Adventure (listen), we watched American Giallo The Fan (listen), then wrapped things up with Vincent Price’s horror comedy Theater of Blood (listen).
Now, in honor of Pride Month and the return of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire (renamed The Vampire Lestat for S03), Trace and I had to check out the straight-washed second attempt to bring Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles to life.
Back in 2002, director Michael Rymer pitched Hollywood on his vision for Rice’s second Chronicle book, The Vampire Lestat. Instead, the suits opted to adapt the third book, Queen of the Damned (likely due to the ancillary opportunities of the soundtrack, written entirely by Korn frontman Jonathan Davis).
In the film, Lestat (Stuart Townsend) awakens from slumber to reinvent himself as a leather-pant-wearing rocker. Lestat’s very public vampire persona attracts the attention of Talamasca novice Jesse (Marguerite Moreau), as well as the vampire’s maker Marius (Vincent Perez). But the nu-metal has the greatest impact on Akasha (Aaliyah), who awakens and promises to take over the world if her old foe Maharet (Lena Olin) doesn’t stop her.
Whose side will Lestat join? Will Marius help his fledgling or abandon him to public sacrifice? And does anyone actually care about Jesse? (Please note: that last question is rhetorical.)
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 389: Queen of the Damned (2002)
Practice your Egyptian accent and bare that midriff because we are talking the troubled “adaptation” of Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned (2002).
Directed by Australian Michael Rymer, this one was doomed by the suits before it was even greenlit (which happened AFTER all of the songs were written by Korn frontman Jonathan Davis). It’s a bit of a clusterfuck.
Plus: praising everything Aaliyah (RIP); critiquing everything Stuart Townsend (aside from his abs and leather pants); a soft queer reading of Marius; and bemoaning boring protagonist/audience surrogate JESSE.
Cross out Queen of the Damned!
Coming Up Next: We’re tackling Ben Stiller’s horror-adjacent dark comedy The Cable Guy (1996), in anticipation of its 30th anniversary!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 495 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.