Podcasts
[Horror Queers Podcast] The Evolution of the Gay Slasher Film from ‘Hellbent’ to ‘Killer Unicorn’
Who has a cigarette and a bump?
Happy Pride Month, everyone! After spending May getting nostalgic with the 1998 animated classic Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, dancing our hearts out in 1987’s Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II and heading to Korea to discuss Park Chan-wook’s masterpiece The Handmaiden, we’re kicking off Pride Month with a double-bill of queer slashers: Paul Etheredge‘s Hellbent (2004) and Drew Bolton‘s Killer Unicorn (2018).
In Hellbent, a group of gay friends is celebrating Halloween in West Hollywood, California, a neighborhood that’s being prowled by a killer wearing a devil’s mask. One of them, Eddie (Dylan Fergus), who works for the police, brings the others through some woods to check out a recent murder scene. They ignore the mask-wearing killer, who follows the group to a club, where he starts decapitating them one at a time.
In Killer Unicorn, a Brooklyn party boy (Alejandro La Rosa) is excited to go to Brooklyn’s Annual Enema Party, but the night takes a turn when he is attacked by a stranger. A year later, he gives his social life a second chance, but a man wearing a unicorn mask is killing his friends one by one.
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, Acast, Google Play, and RSS.
Episode 76 – Hellbent (2004)/Killer Unicorn (2018) feat. Sam Wineman
To kick off Pride Month, we’re hosting a double feature tracing the journey of the all-too-rare queer slasher film (things sure have changed in the last 15 years!). The two films up for discussion? 2004’s Hellbent and 2018’s Killer Unicorn. Joining us is Sam Wineman, the director of Shudder’s upcoming queer horror documentary!
First up, we’re heading to Los Angeles to attend the West Hollywood Halloween Carnival in Paul Etheredge’s Hellbent. After marveling at the fact that this film was even able to get made, we’ll discuss the film’s lengthy production, portrayals of various queer archetypes and how each of us sought out queer media in the early 2000s.
Next, we’re walking the streets of Brooklyn to party it up at the Annual Enema Party (because that’s a thing) in Drew Bolton’s Killer Unicorn. We’ll discuss the in-your-face queerness of the film, which is both good (a queer love scene, poppers representation and some very, very queer-themed deaths) and bad (drug abuse stereotypes, mean characters and an ill-advised & mishandled rape subplot).
It’s going to be a party to die for, y’all!
Cross out Hellbent and Killer Unicorn!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re continuing Pride Month with a magic illusionist show and a very, very queer henchman as we watch Clive Barker’s Lord of Illusions!
– Joe & Trace
P.S. Check out this month’s article on 1986’s extremely upsetting In a Glass Cage. 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 bonus episodes! Since every new horror release has been delayed, we decided to go with a creature feature theme this month, so you can listen to full-length episodes on Deep Rising and Arachnophobia, as well as an audio commentary on Snakes on a Plane!
Podcasts
The Sexual Politics of Ken Russell’s Controversial ‘Crimes of Passion’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
After kicking off July with discussions of queer director Roland Emmerich’s summer tentpole Independence Day (listen) and Joe Dante’s seminal werewolf film The Howling (listen), we’re tackling our very first Ken Russell film in his controversial 1984 erotic thriller Crimes of Passion!
Crimes of Passion sees successful fashion designer Joanna Crane (Kathleen Turner, Serial Mom) moonlight as a sex worker named China Blue. Complications arise when she is targeted by two men: one a lonely, married electronics store owner (John Laughlin) who falls in love with her while spying on her, and the other a psychotic, predatory preacher (Anthony Perkins, Psycho) who seeks to “save” her using a bladed vibrator name “Superman.”
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 395: Crimes of Passion (1984)
Huff those poppers and wield that bladed stake vibrator thing you stupid douchebag, because we’re talking our very first Ken Russell film in his messy-but-fascinating erotic thriller Crimes of Passion (1984)!
Join us as we do a deep dive into what Joe describes as a John Waters fever dream. It’s a film that boasts fantastic performances from Kathleen Turner and Anthony Perkins (in a role we would deem “brave” for the actor), who electrify the screen when its not focused on the torturous mundane existence that is heterosexual marriage.
Plus, X-rated MPAA woes, that “magic” trick, silhouette sex, debating the mixed messaging of the ending, and genuinely wondering when the hell Joanna sleeps!
Cross out Crimes of Passion
Coming Up Next: We’re tackling one of Stephen King’s worst adaptations in Lawence Kasdan’s baffling 2003 misfire Dreamcatcher.
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 512 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Forbidden Fruits, Saccharine, Evil Dead Burn, an audio commentary on Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (aka Howling II: Stirba – Werewolf Bitch), and the conclusion of our coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat on the Requel Tier.
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