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.
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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.
After winding down June with discussions of our vey first William Castle film Homicidal (listen) and queer director Roland Emmerich’s summer tentpole Independence Day (listen), we’re heading back to 1981 to check out Joe Dante‘s seminal werewolf film The Howling.
The Howling sees television journalist Karen White (Dee Wallace) attend a psychiatric retreat with her husband Bill (Christopher Stone) after being attacked and traumatized by local serial killer Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo). It isn’t long before Karen realizes that the retreat is actually a secret cult of werewolves, and they’ve already got their sights set on Bill.
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 394: The Howling (1981)
Make note of that smiley face sticker and snag that conveniently-placed jar of acid because we’re talking Joe Dante’s stealth werewolf classic The Howling (1981)!
Join us as we discuss the film’s deviations from its source material before doing a deep dive into this very tongue-in-cheek, self-aware horror film. It honestly feels like a precursor to Scream, in many ways!
Plus: Roger Corman (again!) those incredible special effects, differentiating “color movies” from “movies in color,” and why queer icon Elisabeth Brooks has us going “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!”
Cross out The Howling!
Coming Up Next: We’re tackling our very first Ken Russell film with a look at his controversial 1984 erotic thriller Crimes of Passion!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 508 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.