Podcasts
The “Dumb Fun” of Renny Harlin’s Homoerotic ‘The Covenant’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
Forgiven for Forgetting
After starting the year with one of the best horror sequels of all time in Hellbound: Hellraiser II, we moved into the hilariously smart German satire Killer Condom. Trace and I should have known the good times wouldn’t last!
With this week’s discussion of Renny Harlin‘s The Covenant, we begin a two-week stretch of poorly rated, very dumb thrillers. In the film, Caleb (Steven Strait) is a member of the popular Boys of Ipswich at an elite boarding school. He also has a dangerous birthright: the men in his family can use The Power to get what they want.
The trade-off? The more they use their abilities, the faster they age, as evidenced by his father’s (Stephen McHattie) condition.
Things change with the arrival of dangerous bad boy Chase (Sebastian Stan). Suddenly both Caleb’s relationship with Sarah (Laura Ramsey) and his 18th birthday ascension are under threat. Will Caleb survive long enough to fully come into his powers, or is he doomed to become Chase’s wi-otch?
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Episode 265 – The Covenant (2006)
Q: What do you get when you cross The Lost Boys with The Craft but make it awful?
A: J.S. Cardone and Renny Harlin’s The Covenant (2006), which features hot boy witches throwing globs of CGI semen at each other!
We have so much to say about this nonsense, including its overly complicated mythology and self-serious tone, villainous bisexual king Chase (played by Sebastian Stan), thankless damsels in distress, and addiction/gay allegories (paging Buffy S06).
Plus: insects vs spiders, throwing the script supervisor under the bus, and why Stephen McHattie should have had a bigger role!
Cross out The Covenant!
Coming up on Wednesday: Our dumb fun run continues with Christian E. Christiansen’s “baby Single White Female” film, The Roommate (2011)!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for nearly 284 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal S01E01, Mimic (1997), Founders Day and Night Swim, plus an audio commentary celebrating the 10th anniversary of The Babadook (2014).
Deadpool isn’t typical horror fare, despite the franchise potentially being the bloodiest throughout the Marvel kingdom. (And in spite of the titular main character breaking the Fourth Wall and acknowledging the audience, which some people may find as jolting as a jump scare).
And look, the guy’s divisive! For the average person, the 2016 movie Deadpool may have been their introduction to the character, with Ryan Reynolds giving the titular character an abrasive, dirty sense of humor that some might place in the edgelord category.
But the character was spawned from a comic book series that’s changed hands a number of times and continues to this day. Naturally, that means there are several different interpretations of the antihero formerly known as Wade Wilson, including some that dial down the chimichanga jokes (a common fandom shorthand for the Deadpool of the comics’ baser comedy instincts).
This week on Guide to the Unknown, Kristen and Will discuss the good, the bad, and the unfortunate of Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool. They also learn about some of the comic storylines that highlight a little bit more of the pain Deadpool goes through, which makes the overabundance of A Lot-ness feel more palatable to people who may not be into that sort of thing.
Breaking the Fourth Wall a la the man himself: This is Kristen, cohost and writer of these GTTU posts. This week was not great for Will or me and included hospital stays and beloved dog goodbyes. We blew off some steam with a punchdrunk episode in which I complained about Deadpool’s dearth of euphemisms for male genitalia. If that sounds like your thing, dig in! If not, proceed with caution. Ooh, we’re so edgy.
Subscribe to Guide to the Unknown on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to get a new episode every Friday.
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