Podcasts
[Horror Queers Podcast] Worshiping at the Altar of Grace Jones in ‘Vamp’
Adventures in Babysitting….With Vampires
After spending the past few weeks discussing Chuck Russell’s 1988 remake of The Blob, the much-maligned 10th installment in the Friday the 13th franchise (Jason X) and the punk-but-not-really slasher film The Ranger, we’re heading to New York to discuss Richard Wenk’s 1986 comedy horror film Vamp.
In the film, two pledges (Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler) try to bring home a stripper to impress their future fraternity brothers. Their search takes them to the After Dark Club, which just so happens to be run by a tall, performance art stripper vampire (Grace Jones). Mayhem ensues.
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Episode 66 – Vamp (1986)
We’re heading over to New York City (or is it Los Angeles?) to party it up with a vampiric Grace Jones in Richard Wenk’s 1986 comedy horror film Vamp! Joining us for the shindig is Cecil Baldwin, the narrator of Welcome to Night Vale!
Join us as Cecil educates us on the goings-on of 1980s New York City, which apparently is not actually filled with green and magenta lighting. We finally make our way to the emptiest strip club ever: the aptly named “After Dark Club”. While there, we’ll chat with Dedee Pfeiffer (sister of Michelle) before being seduced by a Kabuki’d out Grace Jones and her hypnotic performance art striptease.
We’ll try to label all of the films Vamp is trying to be (Adventures in Babysitting, The Warriors, Fright Night, etc.), while commending the film for not making Gedde Watanabe’s Duncan a racist stereotype (even if the movie forgets about him after the first act).
Oh, and does Trace make yet another Lizzie McGuire connection? You betcha!
Cross out Vamp!
Coming up on Wednesday: It’s April Fool’s Day, which means we’re covering…..April Fool’s Day (the 1986 slasher film, not the atrocious 2008 remake)! So grab your retractable knife and accept Muffy St. John’s invitation to her island mansion and get ready for a party to (not) die for.
– Joe & Trace
P.S. Check out this month’s article on 1981’s Roadgames. You can find all of the old articles here.
P.P.S. As an added bonus, if you subscribe to our Patreon you can listen to episodes on Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man and Craig Zobel’s The Hunt. Plus: a full-length audio commentary on Paul Verhoeven’s Hollow Man (2000)!
Aaliyah Innocent.
May was a busy subgenre-switching month. After kicking things off with disaster “slasher” The Poseidon Adventure (listen), we watched American Giallo The Fan (listen), then wrapped things up with Vincent Price’s horror comedy Theater of Blood (listen).
Now, in honor of Pride Month and the return of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire (renamed The Vampire Lestat for S03), Trace and I had to check out the straight-washed second attempt to bring Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles to life.
Back in 2002, director Michael Rymer pitched Hollywood on his vision for Rice’s second Chronicle book, The Vampire Lestat. Instead, the suits opted to adapt the third book, Queen of the Damned (likely due to the ancillary opportunities of the soundtrack, written entirely by Korn frontman Jonathan Davis).
In the film, Lestat (Stuart Townsend) awakens from slumber to reinvent himself as a leather-pant-wearing rocker. Lestat’s very public vampire persona attracts the attention of Talamasca novice Jesse (Marguerite Moreau), as well as the vampire’s maker Marius (Vincent Perez). But the nu-metal has the greatest impact on Akasha (Aaliyah), who awakens and promises to take over the world if her old foe Maharet (Lena Olin) doesn’t stop her.
Whose side will Lestat join? Will Marius help his fledgling or abandon him to public sacrifice? And does anyone actually care about Jesse? (Please note: that last question is rhetorical.)
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 389: Queen of the Damned (2002)
Practice your Egyptian accent and bare that midriff because we are talking the troubled “adaptation” of Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned (2002).
Directed by Australian Michael Rymer, this one was doomed by the suits before it was even greenlit (which happened AFTER all of the songs were written by Korn frontman Jonathan Davis). It’s a bit of a clusterfuck.
Plus: praising everything Aaliyah (RIP); critiquing everything Stuart Townsend (aside from his abs and leather pants); a soft queer reading of Marius; and bemoaning boring protagonist/audience surrogate JESSE.
Cross out Queen of the Damned!
Coming Up Next: We’re tackling Ben Stiller’s horror-adjacent dark comedy The Cable Guy (1996), in anticipation of its 30th anniversary!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 495 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal Season 3 Episodes 5 & 6, Backrooms, Passenger, Leviticus, an audio commentary on the original Scary Movie (2000), and the return of our Requel Tier as we begin our episode coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat.