Podcasts
The Lasting Legacy of ‘SAW’! [Horror Queers Podcast]
Who shit in the toilet?
We began the month by checking our reflections in Marina Sargenti’s Mirror Mirror and continued with a return trip to high school in Robert Rodriguez’s The Faculty last week. This week, we’re celebrating the release of Spiral: From the Book of Saw with a discussion of James Wan‘s influential debut film Saw!
In the film, photographer Adam Stanheight (Leigh Whannell, also the film’s screenwriter) and oncologist Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) regain consciousness while chained to pipes at either end of a filthy bathroom. As the two men realize they’ve been trapped by a sadistic serial killer nicknamed Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), flashbacks relate the fates of his previous victims. Meanwhile, Dr. Gordon’s wife (Monica Potter) and young daughter (Makenzie Vega) are forced to watch his torture via closed-circuit video.
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Episode 126 – Saw (2004) feat. Jenny Nulf & Lindsay Traves
Hello Zep, we want to play a game! So grab your blue filter and reverse bear trap because we’re talking James Wan’s debut film Saw! Joining us for the discussion are former guests Jenny Nulf (Fatal Frame and The Handmaiden) and Lindsay Traves (Batman: Mask of the Phantasm)!
Join us as we discuss the film’s “torture porn” moniker and how it served as a reaction to 9/11 (and other things) during the Bush administration. We’ll discuss the film’s legacy and admire the franchise’s adherence to its own continuity (for the most part).
We ask important questions like: Did Gordon actually cheat on his wife? Is Jigsaw actually a murderer? Would he be convicted in a court of law? What project management software does he use? And who shit in the toilet?
Plus, Jigsaw dioramas, sexy Billy the Puppet costumes, Trace’s Cary Elwes impression and that. Fucking. Ending.
Cross out Saw!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re heading to Hollywood to check out the necrophiliac pleasures in Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for tons of additional content! In May we’re doing a Ghosts ‘n Zombies theme with episodes on new films like Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead and Simon Barrett’s Seance, and episodes on “older” films like Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake and Mike Flanagan’s Ouija: Origin of Evil!
It’s been a busy month on Murder Made Fiction podcast. In addition to introducing a new co-host (Perfectly Good Moment‘s Amanda Jane Stern), we spent Pride Month tackling a wide variety of Leopold and Loeb fictional adaptations.
In 1924 Chicago, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb plotted to commit the perfect murder when they abducted and killed 14-year-old Bobby Franks. As Amanda outlines in her primer on the case, the men were caught almost immediately and the media circus that followed was billed “the trial of the century”.
Listen to Leopold and Loeb mini primer.
The fallout has reverberated throughout the last century as countless books, plays, musicals, and films have drawn on the case for inspiration. Some are more faithful than others, such as Richard Fleischer‘s 1959 drama Compulsion, which stars a young Dean Stockwell as Leopold and Orson Welles as the boys’ lawyer, John Darrow (named Jonathan Wilk in the film).
Listen to Leopold and Loeb: Compulsion (1959).
Then there are the texts that use the idea of queer-coded killers as a jumping off point, but confuse (or flat-out disregard) the details of the real life case in favour of jumbled fiction. That’s what happens in Barbet Schroeder‘s Murder by Numbers, which awkwardly introduces a tortured backstory for lead actress (and executive producer) Sandra Bullock. The result is an uneven film that misunderstands which of its two competing storylines are actually interesting (hint: it’s the Leopold and Loeb stuff with Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt).
Listen to Leopold and Loeb: Murder by Numbers (2002).
We ended up discussing other (often more successful) titles on Patreon, including 1992’s Swoon (a New Queer Cinema art-house take on the crime), Michael Haneke‘s 2007 Funny Games remake, and gay screenwriter Kevin Williamson‘s Scream, which proved to be a much more reverent and sly interpretation of L&L than we anticipated.
We wrapped up the month with a final summary episode about our favorite adaptations before chatting with author and archivist Erik Rebain, who literally wrote the book on Leopold (Arrested Adolescence) and maintains one of the foremost websites on the crime.
Watch our discussion on YouTube below (or listen here):
Next month: For July, we’re turning our attention to the Boston Strangler, with a look at films from 1964 and 1968, as well as the most contemporary version from 2023, starring Kiera Knightley and Carrie Coon.
Want even more true crime adaptations and Murder Made Fiction? Support the show on Patreon to listen to the aforementioned episodes, as well as a full-length primer on the case and 160+ hours of bonus content.
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