Podcasts
[Horror Queers Podcast] Zemeckis Does Hitchcock While We Worship Michelle Pfeiffer in ‘What Lies Beneath’
Blonde Bony Heads.
It’s hard to believe that July is already halfway over! We began the month by (rightfully) praising the unfairly maligned 1997 teen slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer, and followed that up with a character study in Lucky McKee’s May. On this week’s episode, we’re traveling to a breezy lakeside in Vermont to check in with Michelle Pfeiffer and her totally not-a-murderer husband Harrison Ford in Robert Zemeckis’ What Lies Beneath, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary tomorrow!
In the film, recent empty-nester Claire Spencer (Pfeiffer) believes that her lakeside Vermont home is haunted by a ghost when she starts seeing a young woman’s image in their home. Her husband, university research scientist Norman (Ford), dismisses her terror as delusion, but as Claire moves closer to the truth it becomes clear that this apparition will not be dismissed. She soon learns that the ghost is from her husband’s past and might be trying to destroy her seemingly perfect marriage.
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 82 – What Lies Beneath (2000)
We’re traveling to a breezy lakeside in Vermont to check in with recent empty-nester Michelle Pfeiffer and her totally not-a-murderer husband Harrison Ford in Robert Zemeckis’ What Lies Beneath, which turns 20 this week!
Join us as we both marvel at Zemeckis’ fantastic (if overlong) homage to Hitchcock (Rear Window? Check. Vertigo? Check. Psycho? Check, check, check!), praise Pfeiffer’s mesmerizing performance and discuss how the film can be viewed differently in a post #MeToo world (there’s so much gaslighting in this film, y’all).
Plus, why doesn’t ghost Amber Valletta just tell Pfeiffer exactly what’s going on? Why does Diana Scarwid just disappear from the movie? And why does the subplot about spousal abuse come to absolutely nothing?
Cross out What Lies Beneath!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re going to the Welsh countryside to visit a bunch of kooky queers in James Whales’ 1932 classic The Old Dark House!
– Joe & Trace
P.S. Check out last month’s article on 2016’s queer(ish) slasher Pitchfork, and we’ll have a new article soon on 1977’s Alucarda. You can find all of the old articles here.
P.P.S. If you subscribe to our Patreon you can listen to bonus episodes! Since new films are actually getting released again, we’re going back to our regular Patreon format (meaning: no more theme months!). We’ve got an audio commentary on I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, as well as bonus episodes on Dave Franco’s The Rental, Sundance favorite Relic and Shudder’s new release The Beach House.
Coming Soon & Now Showing is a monthly series on Halloweenies that catches up on the latest horror headlines and round robins capsule reviews of new and old horrors.
This month, Michael Roffman and Justin Gerber discuss the blockbuster weekend involving Backrooms and Obsession. They also brush on some franchise news and dust off oldies for the first time: 1987’s Dead of Winter and 1977’s False Face.
Stream the episode below. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and RSS. New to the Halloweenies? Catch up with the gang by revisiting their essential episodes on past franchises such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, The Evil Dead, Chucky, Alien, and the Universal Monsters.This year? Hellraiser!
You can also become a member of their Patreon, The Rewind, for hilariously irreverent commentaries (e.g. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Re-Animator, Darkman), one-off deep dives on your favorite rentals (e.g. Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Manhunter, ), and even spinoffs like their recent run Fortune & Glory: An Indiana Jones Podcast.