Podcasts
How ‘The Faculty’ Fails Its Outcast Queer Characters [Horror Queers Podcast]
Phooey!
After some DTV fun with Mirror Mirror last week, we’re not quite ready to leave high school behind. After years of requests, we’re finally tackling another Kevin Williamson joint: his collaboration with Robert Rodriguez, The Faculty (1998). Joining us for the fun is drag queen Pissi Myles from the My Spooky Gay Family podcast.
The meta film, which references The Thing and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (among others), features an all-star cast of adults including Famke Janssen, Robert Patrick, Piper Laurie, Bebe Neuwirth, and Salma Hayek. Obviously, its teen cast is nothing to scoff at, either, considering we’re talking about up and comers Elijah Wood, Shawn Hatosy, Jordanna Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Josh Harnett and Usher (in his film debut). And nearly all of the teens are heavily queer-coded!
In The Faculty, a group of outcasts must band together when their high school comes under threat from an alien invasion. As everyone they know is systematically taken over by parasites, the kids must survive long enough to identify the alien leader and restore Tommy Hilfiger-normalcy, which sadly means losing all sense of their unique queer identities.
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Episode 125 – The Faculty (1998) feat. Pissi Myles
We’re sticking with high school outsiders as we revisit Robert Rodriguez’s The Faculty (1998). We’re joined by Pissi Myles of My Spooky Gay Family podcast to discuss all of the film’s many, MANY queer elements, courtesy of screenwriter Kevin Williamson.
Aside from the homages to classic sci-fi, we tackle queer coding in Stokely and Casey, question why Zeke is such an asshole and absolutely rip into the terrible finale, which betrays nearly every character.
Plus: debating the Rodriguez vs Williamson elements, Joe bemoans how Usher was used by the Tommy Hilfiger tie-in campaign, the return of Trace’s Elijah Woods thirst, and debating the ingredients in Scat.
Oh, and we get personal about our bullying experiences in the locker room.
Cross out The Faculty!
Coming up on Wednesday: To celebrate the recent release of Spiral, we’re going all the way back to the beginning of the franchise with the 2004 opener, Saw.
– Joe & Trace
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, paired with “older” films like Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake and Mike Flanagan’s Ouija: Origin of Evil!
Podcasts
Shakespearean Education in the Vincent Price-Starring ‘Theater of Blood’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
Butch knows best…
After concluding May with discussions of the disaster “slasher” The Poseidon Adventure (listen) and Michael Biehn’s demon twink in the messy-but-watchable The Fan (listen), we’re heading back to the ’70s to discuss our very first Vincent Price film in Douglas Hickox‘s horror comedy Theater of Blood (1973).
In Theater of Blood, Vincent Price stars as Edward Lionheart, a disgraced Shakespearean actor who begins targeting the critics who shamed him. The gimmick? He’s taking inspiration from the death scenes in William Shakespeare’s plays! Aiding him is his daughter Edwina (Diana Rigg), who acts as the honeypot for her father’s macabre scheme.
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 388: Theater of Blood (1973)
Brush up on your Shakespeare and protect those poodles because we’re covering our very first Vincent Price film in Douglas Hickox’s horror comedy Theater of Blood (1973), a personal favorite of both Price and Diana Rigg.
Join us as we go all in on this somewhat episodic (but also educational!) proto-slasher, wondering if we’re supposed to know that’s Diana Rigg in hippie drag, and cackling at some of these murder set pieces.
Plus, “Handsy Dickman,” narcissistic gravestones, antisemitic stage makeup, and the ultimate debate: is it theatER or theatRE?
C/W: Attempted suicide, off-screen dog murder.
Cross out Theater of Blood!
Coming Up Next: We’re celebrating the premiere of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat with a look at the much-maligned 2002 adaptation Queen of the Damned!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 492 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.