Podcasts
[Horror Queers Podcast] Beef and His Beef in Brian De Palma’s ‘Phantom of the Paradise’
The real Josie and the Pussycats.
As October ends, so to does our eight-week Camp Marathon. We’re going out with a musical bang as we discuss Brian De Palma‘s Phantom of the Paradise on the heels of its 45th anniversary! Over the last several weeks you’ve heard us explore the gonzo twists in Netflix’s The Perfection and analyze the sociopolitical commentary in Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs and party it up at the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane in the remake of House on Haunted Hill. Oh, and don’t forget our surprise bonus episode on our live recording of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge with special guests Mark Patton (Jesse), Robert Rusler (Grady) and Kim Myers (Lisa)!
In Phantom of the Paradise, a disfigured composer (William Finley) writes his music for a woman he loves (Suspiria‘s Jessica Harper) so that she will sing it. However, a record producer (Paul Williams) betrays him and steals his music to open his rock palace, The Paradise. Betrayed, the composer dons a new appearance and exacts revenge on the producer.
Joining us for the discussion is fellow Bloody Disgusting writer BJ Colangelo, who might be the film’s biggest fan!
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Episode 45 – Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
Happy Halloween, fellow Horror Queers! And here we are: the final week of the Horror Queers eight-week Camp Marathon! We’re singing our hearts out, bathing in glitter and snorting just a *touch* of cocaine with Brian De Palma’s musical rock opera horror film Phantom of the Paradise! Joining us for this phantasmagorical ride is self-described Phantom nut BJ Colangelo! So grab your plunger and hop on board for this wild and crazy ride.
In what is a first-time watch for Trace, a second-time watch for Joe and a 4,987,523,496,084,237,698th-time watch for BJ, the trio celebrate the cult film’s 45th anniversary and all things Beef (Gerrit Graham).
Trace (wrongfully) questions the singing abilities of Jessica Harper, Joe discusses the upcoming documentary Phantom of Winnipeg and BJ connects the film to the 2001 masterpiece Josie and the Pussycats.
In this week’s game: Give Beef an origin story!
Cross out Phantom of the Paradise!
Coming up on Wednesday: We leave the art of camp and move into some real horror with the supremely homoerotic 1994 vampire film Interview With the Vampire!
– Joe & Trace
P.S. Be sure to check out all of our online articles right here, including our FINAL Horror Queers article, which is on Basic Instinct 2 (2006) of all things.
P.P.S. As an added bonus, if you subscribe to our Patreon you can listen to our full-length bonus episodes on In The Tall Grass and Zombieland: Double Tap.
After kicking off July with discussions of Joe Dante’s seminal werewolf film The Howling (listen) and Ken Russell’s controversial erotic thriller Crimes of Passion (listen), we’re heading to Maine to dissect one of Stephen King‘s most misguided adaptations in Lawrence Kasdan‘s 2003 misfire Dreamcatcher!
Dreamcatcher sees friends Henry (Thomas Jane), Jonesy (Damian Lewis), Pete (Timothy Olyphant) and Beaver (Jason Lee) reunite for their annual hunting trip in Maine. Their reunion is cut short when they find themselves caught in the middle of a war between a hostile race of farty-farty aliens and an elite US military unit led by Colonel Abraham Curtis (Morgan Freeman), who has been driven mad after spending decades tracking the extraterrestrials. When Jonesy is possessed by one of the aliens, the remaining friends seek out their disabled childhood friend Duddits (Donnie Wahlberg), who they believe has powers that can save Jonesy…and the world.
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 396: Dreamcatcher (2003)
Watch out for “ister gay” (oof), take some Gas-X and bite our bags because we’re talking Lawrence Kasdan’s baffling 2003 adaptation of Stephen King’s equally baffling novel Dreamcatcher.
Join us as we go all in on the farty-farty aliens populating this hilarious misfire that often feels like a bad Kevin Smith script. It’s a film filled with characters who get a single defining trait (if they’re lucky), played by respectable actors who are here for the paycheck (looking at you, Morgan Freeman).
Plus: blown-out assholes, using guns as telephones, pitying poor Donnie Wahlberg, and wondering why the hell this movie is called Dreamcatcher.
Cross out Dreamcatcher!
Coming Up Next: We’re going to be lounging around a posh Greenwich Village apartment as we check in on Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954).
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