Podcasts
[Horror Queers Podcast] A Queer Director and a Star-making Lead Performance in ‘Happy Death Day’
If you haven’t been keeping up with the Horror Queers Podcast these last few weeks, you’ve been missing out! Since we launched back in mid-January, we’ve had the pleasure of discussing the Billy/Stu (b)romance Scream (1996), homophobia in Hostel (2005), the cultural renaissance of Jennifer’s Body (2009), the campy fun of Swimfan (2002) and the implied twincest in David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers (1988).
In the latest episode, we’re tackling out-and-proud director Christopher Landon‘s 2017 horror-comedy slasher film Happy Death Day and its surprising critical & commercial success. Also on the docket? Tree’s (Jessica Rothe) likability, queer inclusion in a major studio horror film and our porn-watching habits!
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Libsyn and RSS.
Episode 7 – Happy Death Day (2017)
Join Joe and Trace as they relive Happy Death Day, then die.
Join Joe and Trace as they relive Happy Death Day, discuss why Jessica Rothe is so great, then die.
Join Joe and Trace as they relive Happy Death Day, discuss why Jessica Rothe is so great, review “out” director Chris Landon’s career, then die.
Ok, you get the idea. The guys talk about 2017’s fun slasher entry, Joe tries not to laugh over “Baby Face” and Trace uses every opportunity to use Danielle’s acerbic dialogue.
Plus: this week’s inane game cribs from the wonderful Kill By Kill Podcast to investigate which of Tree’s many, many deaths the boys would prefer to go out on.
Cross out Happy Death Day! Coming up Wednesday: we get a late start to celebrating Women in Horror Month with an episode on Stewart Thorndike’s lesbian Rosemary’s Baby-esque film Lyle. Never heard of it? We hadn’t either! But it’s available to stream for free if you have Amazon Prime and it’s only 65 minutes long, so give it a watch before Wednesday!
– Joe & Trace
P.S. Be sure to check out all of our online articles right here.
P.P.S. As an added bonus, if you subscribe to our Patreon you can hear Trace take Joe to task for his lukewarm review of Happy Death Day 2U!
Maybe you haven’t thought about your good friend Sweeney Todd in a while, or maybe you have. The 2007 movie is a bit of a memory, though a fond one – it has a healthy 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, for what it’s worth. But 2023’s Broadway revival starring Josh Groban, who your mom thinks is “so talented” (she’s right!), was enough of a hit that its run was extended.
It appears we’re in a bit of a Sweeneyssaince.
For the uninitiated, Sweeney Todd is the story of a barber who kills his customers and disposes of the bodies by passing them off to pie shop owner Mrs. Lovett, who uses them as a special ingredient. But there’s more below the trap door.
Sweeney Todd isn’t just a late 70s musical that turned into a movie; it started as a penny dreadful called The String of Pearls: A Domestic Romance (author unknown), told week-to-week in the 1840s. Penny dreadfuls were essentially fiction zines featuring serialized stories that were usually horror-based and cost a penny, leading to the very literal nickname.
The String of Pearls differs from the more well-known Sweeney Todd plot in that it follows the investigation of a missing persons case that leads to the reveal of Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett’s arrangement, as opposed to the more modern iteration which treats audiences to the duo hatching their homicidal plan and then giving the worst haircuts ever. What a delightfully wild reveal that must have been if you were a reader in Victorian London after weeks of wondering what had become of the missing sailor carrying a string of pearls to deliver to a lovely girl.
Kristen and Will discuss the history and future of Sweeney Todd and works inspired by it this week on Guide to the Unknown. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to get a new episode every Friday.
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