Podcasts
[Horror Queers Podcast] 80s Slasher Meets Rape/Revenge in ‘The Ranger’
Let Them Snort Coke
Trace and I have spent the last few weeks discussing big (or Canadian big) budget films like The Blob and Jason X, so we’re pivoting to discuss indie festival film, The Ranger, which debuted at SXSW back in 2018. Thankfully we have help from punk extraordinaire Annie Rose Malamet of Girls, Guts & Giallo to help us make heads and tails of the subculture.
In The Ranger, a group of punks, fronted by Chelsea (Chloë Levine), flee the police in the city to lie low in the woods. There they run afoul of a chipper – and sociopathic – park ranger (Jeremy Holm) whose penchant for enforcing the rules includes plenty of homicide. Will the punks find a way to survive, or will they wind up like all of the other missing people whose posters are plastered in the local convenience store?
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, Libsyn, Google Play, and RSS.
Episode 65 – The Ranger (2018) feat. Annie Rose Malamet
In their attempt at social distancing, the boys abandon the city and head deep into the woods. Along for the ride is Girls, Guts & Giallo‘s Annie Rose Malamet, who schools the boys on all things punk (and Lisa Frank) so that they can understand the annoying teens in Jenn Wexler’s The Ranger.
Are you ready for two films in one? On one hand, we’ve got an 80s slasher throwback featuring punks vs authoritarians. On the other hand, we’ve got a (secret?) rape/revenge with lead character Chelsea (Chloë Levine) potentially being abused by her uncle (veteran director Larry Fessenden) or the titular Ranger…or both.
Up for discussion: what drug are these kids doing? What’s up with the wolf symbolism? Why does the film’s pacing suffer when the kills begin? And why doesn’t the film lean harder into punk?
Finally: Trace opens up about an unsettling encounter tied to the film that initiates a frank discussion about film festival reviews, as well as the relationship between directors, critics and the production of art.
Cross out The Ranger!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re time traveling back to the 80s to check out a vampire dive-bar and some Grace Jones performance art with 1986’s Vamp!
– Joe & Trace
P.S. Check out last month’s article on 1981’s Roadgames. You can find all of the old articles here.
P.P.S. If you subscribe to our Patreon you can listen to new episodes on Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man and Craig Zobel’s The Hunt (both of which are now available on VOD). Plus: a full-length audio commentary on Paul Verhoeven’s 2000 ode to invisible sexual assault, Hollow Man!
Podcasts
Shakespearean Education in the Vincent Price-Starring ‘Theater of Blood’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
Butch knows best…
After concluding May with discussions of the disaster “slasher” The Poseidon Adventure (listen) and Michael Biehn’s demon twink in the messy-but-watchable The Fan (listen), we’re heading back to the ’70s to discuss our very first Vincent Price film in Douglas Hickox‘s horror comedy Theater of Blood (1973).
In Theater of Blood, Vincent Price stars as Edward Lionheart, a disgraced Shakespearean actor who begins targeting the critics who shamed him. The gimmick? He’s taking inspiration from the death scenes in William Shakespeare’s plays! Aiding him is his daughter Edwina (Diana Rigg), who acts as the honeypot for her father’s macabre scheme.
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 388: Theater of Blood (1973)
Brush up on your Shakespeare and protect those poodles because we’re covering our very first Vincent Price film in Douglas Hickox’s horror comedy Theater of Blood (1973), a personal favorite of both Price and Diana Rigg.
Join us as we go all in on this somewhat episodic (but also educational!) proto-slasher, wondering if we’re supposed to know that’s Diana Rigg in hippie drag, and cackling at some of these murder set pieces.
Plus, “Handsy Dickman,” narcissistic gravestones, antisemitic stage makeup, and the ultimate debate: is it theatER or theatRE?
C/W: Attempted suicide, off-screen dog murder.
Cross out Theater of Blood!
Coming Up Next: We’re celebrating the premiere of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat with a look at the much-maligned 2002 adaptation Queen of the Damned!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 492 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.