Podcasts
The Literal Battle of Gender Identity in ‘Der Samurai’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
Draw Two.
After getting fancy (and super duper queer) with Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, we entered the gooey world of David Cronenberg in his masterpiece The Fly and we unpacked the white privilege in Bernard Rose’s Candyman. Now, we’re wielding our katanas and visiting the small German village at the center of Till Kleinert’s psychosexual thriller Der Samurai.
Set in a small German village, Der Samurai sees a bloody game of cat-and-mouse ensue between a young, straight-shooting police officer (Michel Diercks) and a villain (Pit Bukowski) who wears a dress, wields a large sword and has a predilection for beheadings.
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Episode 141 – Der Samurai (2014)
Grab your katana and white dress because we’re heading over to a small German town to discuss the internal struggle of the queer cop at the center of Till Kleinert’s surreal film Der Samurai. Joining us for the discussion is Transploitation co-creator Ten Backe!
Come along for the ride as we wade through the film’s dream logic to interpret what this film is trying to say. We’ve got a look at small town queer life, coming out via baptism, questions surrounding gender identity and one very erect penis.
Plus, attacking queer culture through pink flamingos, decapitations galore, a town literally covered in blood, more Freeway plugs and our beefs with James Woods and Isaiah Washington.
Cross out Der Samurai!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re finally tackling a top request from listeners: David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows.
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for tons of additional content! This month, we’ll have episodes on Nia DaCosta’s Candyman, James Wan’s Malignant, Netflix’s series Brand New Cherry Flavor, as well as an audio commentary on 30 Days of Night and a minisode on weird horror films.
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.