Podcasts
[Horror Queers Podcast] Queering Up Cannabis in ‘Reefer Madness’
A Gay and Rapey Mr. Tumnus.
After pranking everyone and their mom in April Fool’s Day and doing blow with Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, Joe and I getting into a whole new set of shenanigans this 4/20 by taking a hit with the crew of the reefer den in Andy Fickman‘s Reefer Madness!
In the movie musical, a mysterious Lecturer (Alan Cumming, X2: X-Men United) visits a small middle-America town to warn them about the dangers of marijuana by showing them an anti-marijuana propaganda film called Tell Your Children. In that film, young Jimmy (Christian Campbell, Trick) and his sweet girlfriend Mary Lane (Kristen Bell, Veronica Mars, Frozen) are seduced into smoking the deadly plant by the inhabitants of the reefer den: street tough Jack (Steven Weber, The Perfection), battered housewife Mae (Ana Gasteyer, Mean Girls), college dropout Ralph (John Kassir, Tales From the Crypt) and neglectful mother/neighborhood slut Sally (Amy Spanger). Depending on the person, marijuana is shown to have disastrous effects on its user, including turning them into rapey dominatrixes, and sometimes even cannibalistic psychopaths
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 69 – Reefer Madness (2005)
Happy 4/20, y’all! We’re celebrating with a pack of giggle sticks, a chocolate brownie-scented DVD box and a movie musical! That’s right, we’re discussing the TV film adaptation of the stage musical adaptation of the 1936 propaganda film: Reefer Madness! Just hope we don’t turn into cannibalistic murderers like some of the people in this movie.
Before we take a hit, we go into our own personal histories with marijuana and discuss the circumstances that led to the original (and absolutely terrible) 1936 film. From there, it’s a one-way trip to toke town which inspires an impromptu Alexis Schitt impersonation from Joe and an in-depth discussion of….the movie Burlesque?
We quickly course-correct and praise the great Alan Cumming (who portrays no less than three characters in the film), Ana Gasteyer (Trace’s choice for film MVP), Amy Spanger (Joe’s choice for film MVP), a dominatrix Kristen Bell, a cameo-ing Neve Campbell, a creepy Steven Weber and Christian (brother of Neve) Campbell, aka the Human Dimple.
Warning for the faint of heart: this film is patently offensive to everyone, so no PC police here! We’ve got jokes about race, rape, queerness, women, men and, of course, drugs (would that it had been mere heroin!). Oh, and don’t forget about blasphemy: we’ve also got Alan Cumming as goat Satan, Jesus singing about weed and stripper angels. And watch out for those singing carnivorous clams!
And if you really want to have some fun, take a drink (or a hit) every time Trace says he loves something about the movie.
Cross out Reefer Madness!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re going back to the ’80s to visit the Freelings and Reverend Kane in Poltergeist II: The Other Side.
– Joe & Trace
P.S. Check out this month’s article on 1981’s Looker. 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 Mike Flanagan’s Hush and Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers, which are part of the “Trapped In Your House” horror theme we went while everyone is practicing social distancing.
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.
Looking for New Episodes of “Chucky” on Peacock? Here’s What Changed
‘Mountain Man’ – Joe Manganiello Will Battle Zombies in Upcoming Horror Movie
‘The Blair Witch Project’ – Original Stars Release a Statement Asking Lionsgate for Residuals & Recognition
‘Trap’ – Official Trailer Previews a Wild New Horror Experience from M. Night Shyamalan
‘The Exorcism’ – Russell Crowe Stars in Horror Movie Formerly Titled ‘The Georgetown Project’
