Podcasts
[Horror Queers Podcast] Who Works the Holes and Who Does the Fingering in ‘Alien: Covenant’?
After leaving the world of camp behind in October, we began November on a slightly different note. Just last week, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of Interview With the Vampire with a look at the homoerotic subtext between Louis (Brad Pitt) and Lestat (Tom Cruise) and this week we’re looking at the homoerotic text between Walter (Michael Fassbender) and David (Michael Fassbender) in Ridley Scott‘s 2017 sequel Alien: Covenant.
In the film, the crew of a colony ship discovers an uncharted paradise with a threat beyond their imagination and makes the dunderheaded decision to colonize there, and must attempt a harrowing escape.
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Episode 48 – Alien: Covenant (2017)
It’s time to hop aboard the Covenant and head over to Origae-6….oops! We mean this random mystery planet that didn’t show up on any of our scans! But hey, it’s probably fine, right? Joining us for our colonization mission is Drew Dietsch, co-host of the GenreVision and Fin Flicks podcasts!
After kicking things off with a debate on who will work the hole and who will do the fingering, the trio dive into the long and convoluted history of how Prometheus led to Alien:Covenant. Why does it feel like two films? Why is the CGI so bad? Why can we not tell any of these characters apart? Why does the movie think we will feel bad about their deaths if their spouses do? We will try to answer these questions in what is admittedly a super-sized episode, but hey, at least it’s pretty.
And if there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that Ridley Scott needs to shut the fuck up.
In this week’s game: Put an android in a horror movie!
Cross out Alien: Covenant!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re deviating from our standard M.O. to discuss the colorful black comedy (that was almost a horror film) of Darren Stein‘s Jawbreaker!
– 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 our full-length bonus episodes on Doctor Sleep and Primal (aka Nicolas Cage vs. a jaguar on a boat).
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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