Podcasts
Re-Evaluating the Trans “Twist” in ‘Sleepaway Camp’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
Judy Judy Judy
After five weeks of nothing but Camp films, including pageant mockumentary Drop Dead Gorgeous, 3D monstrosity Nurse, and a pair of shocking and offensive 70s titles from John Waters (Female Trouble) and Paul Morrissey (Flesh for Frankenstein), Trace and I – along with returning guest Ten Backe – have reached our magnum opus: Sleepaway Camp.
Robert Hiltzik‘s 1983 slasher is notorious for its final image, which reveals that main character Angela (Felissa Rose) has <spoilers> male genitals. The “twist” means the film has appeared on numerous listicles of “The Most Shocking Horror Films,” and garnered multiple think pieces about its insensitive homophobic and transphobic elements. Over the last five years or so, however, queer and particularly trans film critics have begun to reevaluate and reappropriate the film.
In Sleepaway Camp, introvert Angela and her cousin Ricky (Jonathan Tiersten) are sent away to summer camp by their emotionally fragile aunt Martha (Desiree Gould). Angela is bullied mercilessly by mean girl Judy (Karen Fields), but manages to make a sweet, albeit chaste connection with Paul (Christopher Collet). Unfortunately, there’s a killer loose at Camp Arawak and the body count is on the rise…
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Episode 188 – Sleepaway Camp (1983) feat. Ten Backe
For the last entry in our Camp series, we’re finally tackling Robert Hiltzik’s Sleepaway Camp (1983). Along for the short shorts and Judy of it all is returning guest – and big fan of the film – Ten Backe.
The big question is whether this film is homophobic and transphobic. Hiltzik doesn’t have a lot of thoughts on the matter, but we, and many trans film critics, do. Is Sleepaway Camp worthy of praise and (re)appropriation by the queer community?
Plus: comparisons to Friday the 13th, thoughts on Judy’s curling iron death, Art the pedophile cook, and the need for short shorts and male nudity!
Cross out Sleepaway Camp!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re tackling our very first made-for-TV film, as well as our first John Carpenter film (!) with 1978’s Someone’s Watching Me!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for more than 190 hours of additional content! This month, we’re discussing Netflix’s polarizing new Resident Evil series, the return of the Predator in Prey, as well as a pair of queer slashers in Peacock’s They/Them and A24’s Bodies Bodies Bodies. Oh, and we’ve got an audio commentary on Event Horizon for its (gulp) 25th anniversary!
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.