Podcasts
[Horror Queers Podcast] The Queer Love Story at the Heart of ‘Copycat’
Squirrel Covers.
After closing out October with the one-two punch of Halloween horror in Trick ‘r Treat and Hocus Pocus, we are now shifting gears for November as we look at Jon Amiel‘s vastly underrated 1995 thriller Copycat!
The film sees Dr. Helen Hudson (Sigourney Weaver) deeply shaken after being assaulted by a deranged man (Harry Connick Jr.). She must now face her fears if she is to help solve a series of murders. Helen is a psychologist who has studied serial killers, but this case, in which the crimes seem modeled on the work of infamous deviants, is grimmer than most. With the help of two San Francisco police officers (Holly Hunter, Dermot Mulroney), Helen tries to come between the murderer and his next victim.
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS.
Episode 98 – Copycat (1995)
“We’re comin’ at ya this week with a very special episode (no, not that kind) in the form of the episode we did for Salem Horror Fest on Jon Amiel’s vastly underrated (and under-seen) 1995 film Copycat! Joining us for the discussion is the director of Salem Horror Fest themself: K Lynch!
“Join us as we wax poetic over the incredible performances of Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter and the implied lesbianism between their characters, raise our eyebrows at Harry Connick Jr’s “squirrel covers”-obsessed serial killer, and debate whether or not killing off the only explicitly gay character is homophobic.
“Plus, we’ll lament the fact that Copycat fell under the shadow of Se7en, which was released just a month prior. But never fear! We’ll sing the film’s praises and point out all the things it gets right, and why it should be remembered as a classic ’90s thriller.”
Cross out Copycat!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re going to be discussing a film directed by previous queer guest Carter Smith (see our episode on The People Under the Stairs) in the 2008 killer plant movie The Ruins!
– Joe & Trace
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for tons of additional content! This month we’ll have episodes on Run, The Witches, The Craft: Legacy and The New Mutants, plus an audio commentary on The Purge: Election Year to pair with this month’s stressful election!
Aaliyah Innocent.
May was a busy subgenre-switching month. After kicking things off with disaster “slasher” The Poseidon Adventure (listen), we watched American Giallo The Fan (listen), then wrapped things up with Vincent Price’s horror comedy Theater of Blood (listen).
Now, in honor of Pride Month and the return of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire (renamed The Vampire Lestat for S03), Trace and I had to check out the straight-washed second attempt to bring Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles to life.
Back in 2002, director Michael Rymer pitched Hollywood on his vision for Rice’s second Chronicle book, The Vampire Lestat. Instead, the suits opted to adapt the third book, Queen of the Damned (likely due to the ancillary opportunities of the soundtrack, written entirely by Korn frontman Jonathan Davis).
In the film, Lestat (Stuart Townsend) awakens from slumber to reinvent himself as a leather-pant-wearing rocker. Lestat’s very public vampire persona attracts the attention of Talamasca novice Jesse (Marguerite Moreau), as well as the vampire’s maker Marius (Vincent Perez). But the nu-metal has the greatest impact on Akasha (Aaliyah), who awakens and promises to take over the world if her old foe Maharet (Lena Olin) doesn’t stop her.
Whose side will Lestat join? Will Marius help his fledgling or abandon him to public sacrifice? And does anyone actually care about Jesse? (Please note: that last question is rhetorical.)
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 389: Queen of the Damned (2002)
Practice your Egyptian accent and bare that midriff because we are talking the troubled “adaptation” of Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned (2002).
Directed by Australian Michael Rymer, this one was doomed by the suits before it was even greenlit (which happened AFTER all of the songs were written by Korn frontman Jonathan Davis). It’s a bit of a clusterfuck.
Plus: praising everything Aaliyah (RIP); critiquing everything Stuart Townsend (aside from his abs and leather pants); a soft queer reading of Marius; and bemoaning boring protagonist/audience surrogate JESSE.
Cross out Queen of the Damned!
Coming Up Next: We’re tackling Ben Stiller’s horror-adjacent dark comedy The Cable Guy (1996), in anticipation of its 30th anniversary!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 495 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.