Podcasts
[Horror Queers Podcast] Debating Art Cinema vs Pornography in Bruce LaBruce’s ‘Otto; Or Up With Dead People’
The Horror Queers have spent the last several weeks checking out foreign horror films from Japan (the 2014 video game adaptation, Fatal Frame), France (controversial 2004 New French Extremity entry, Calvaire) and Canada (Cronenberg classic, The Brood, in honour of its 40th anniversary).
This week Trace and I – along with our guest, Kyle Turner – are checking out Bruce LaBruce‘s German/Canadian co-production, Otto; Or Up With Dead People (2008). The controversial film about a disaffected young gay man who may (or may not) be a zombie offers plenty of discussion fodder, including how audiences distinguish between art cinema, pornography, camp and queer cinema. There may also be some talk of animal sexual avatars and the explicit gay chest penetration scene in the film, which gets Trace all hot and flustered.
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Libsyn, Google Play, and RSS.
Episode 22 – Otto; Or Up With Dead People (2008)
There’s a queer zombie uprising in Berlin and the boys, plus special guest Kyle Turner, are on the case. The trio tackle Canadian director Bruce LaBruce’s challenging and subversive mainstream genre effort with a discussion on camp, the distinction between art cinema & porn, and whether or not the titular Otto is a melancholic young gay man or an actual zombie.
This episode is a must for any aspiring queer media scholar (Kyle knows his shit!), but it’s not all serious: we also discuss Gaga’s Met Gala lewk, CockyBoys porn and our reactions to the erect penis fucking a gaping chest wound.
Plus: Kyle takes over the game, challenging Trace and Joe to identify the creature or animal that best represents them in bed. You know you don’t wanna miss that!
Cross out Otto; Or Up With Dead People!
Coming up Wednesday: We celebrate the start of Pride Month with our newest film to date, Yann Gonzalez’s queer French giallo Knife + Heart. It literally drops tomorrow (June 3) on VOD!
– 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 listen to full-length bonus episode on Netflix’s The Perfection and, later this week, the new Octavia Spencer/Blumhouse film, Ma!
Podcasts
Ableism, Representation, and Perverse Sexuality in ‘Wait Until Dark’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
After concluding April with discussions of Ciarán Foy’s Eli (listen) and David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ (listen), we kicked off May with a revisit of Stephen Sommers’ delightful 1999 film, The Mummy (listen).
Now we’re headed into the past with Terence Young‘s adaptation of Frederick Knott‘s “disabled woman in danger” play, Wait Until Dark (1967).
In the film, recently blind Susy (Audrey Hepburn) is menaced by a trio of strange men, including sexually perverse ring leader Roat (Alan Arkin), “nice guy” Talman (Richard Crenna) and portly Carlino (Jack Weston). The men are looking for a doll full of heroin, which is located somewhere in her apartment, but she doesn’t know where!
Can Susy figure out the scam with the help of upstairs neighbor girl Gloria (Julie Herrod) or will she wind up hanging in the closet like Roat’s poor accomplice Lisa (Samantha Jones)?
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, Google Podcasts, and RSS.
Episode 281: Wait Until Dark (1967) feat. Ariel Baska
Smash all the lights and strike a match because we’re talking about disability horror, Audrey Hepburn and Wait Until Dark (1967).
Joining us for the conversation is disability documentary filmmaker Ariel Baska, who has a love/hate relationship with the film and its contribution to “cripping up.”
Plus: that famous jump scare, accusations of misogyny and ableism, the gross history of “Ugly Laws,” and the return of Trace’s recurring joke about Charade.
Cross out Wait Until Dark!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re going into genre-adjacent territory with a look at Gregg Araki’s horrifying adaptation of Scott Heim’s novel, Mysterious Skin.
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 308 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal Season 1 Episode 5, a double feature of Sting and Infested, Tarot and The Strangers: Chapter One. And our audio commentary for the month will be on Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell, just in time for its 15th anniversary!
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