Podcasts
Reboarding the Ishimura For a Discussion About the Original ‘Dead Space’ [Safe Room Podcast]
Before listening to this week’s discussion, be sure to dive into last week’s episode of Horror Bytes: our indie showcase show!
In Space, no one can hear you stomp.
Space horror has always scratched a similar terrifying itch for me, not unlike aquatic horror. Both settings are inherently isolating, and inhospitable locals are shrouded in darkness, concealing god knows what kind of terrors. The lack of oxygen is also slightly problematic. And while Dead Space certainly wasn’t the first to capitalize on the volatility of space, it was one of the first to damn near perfect.
Taking a more action horror approach to combat and combining the atmospheric dread and industrial, blue-collar influence of Ridley Scott’s 1979 masterpiece Alien, Dead Space was a recipe for mainstream horror success. The game effectively revitalized horror on consoles which, for the time, were only seeing mainstream success from big tentpole survival horror franchises. Dead Space filled a void at a crucial time, providing unprecedented alien stomping carnage, suffocating environments, and truly hellish monster designs that felt reflective of their world.
So, before the Dead Space remake is released at the end of the month, Neil and I take a trip back to Issac Clarke’s first encounter with Necromorphs, Dead Space’s unique approach to combat, and our hopes for features included in the remake. – Jay Krieger
Safe Room is a weekly horror video game discussion podcast with new episodes every Monday on
iTunes/Apple, Sticher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Linktree for additional streaming services.
Feel free to follow the show and hosts on Twitter:
Safe Room | Neil | Jay
Next week sees Safe Room delving into two of Dante’s most divisive outings in the Devil May Cry series as Devil May Cry 2 and Ninja Theory’s DmC: Devil May Cry celebrate their 20th and 10th anniversary respectively. If you have thoughts and feelings on either of those games, then let us know on Twitter.
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.
You must be logged in to post a comment.