Podcasts
Getting Up Close and Personal With ‘Closet Monster’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
I Love Wood.
After finishing off March with a journey back into the world of erotic thrillers with John McNaughton’s 1998 classic Wild Things and marveling over the low budget delights of Toby Wilkins’ 2008 creature feature Splinter, we’re kicking off April with an explicitly queer film in Stephen Dunn‘s Closet Monster.
Closet Monster sees an artistic teenager named Oscar (Connor Jessup, Locke & Key) who is desperate to escape his hometown and the haunting memories of his turbulent childhood, but in order to do so must confront the monster lying within him.
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Episode 223: Closet Monster (2015)
Pull that metal rod out of your gut and embrace your queer rage because we’re discussing Stephen Dunn’s phenomenal(ly queer) 2015 film Closet Monster. Joining us for the discussion is Joe’s good friend Jonathan Hough!
Listen as we sing all the praises for Connor Jessup, who commands the screen in all of his scenes. We also discuss the film’s handling of internalized homophobia via body horror and argue about which of Oscar’s parents is worse,
Plus: Buffy the hamster, how to pronounce Xavier Dolan’s name, gay tests, lots of personal testimonies and some ticker ideas for Fox News should they decide to listen to this episode.
Cross out Closet Monster!
Coming up on Wednesday: Things are getting weird and surreal as we discuss Yorgos Lanthimos’ hilariously horrifying 2017 film The Killing of a Sacred Deer.
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for more than 235 hours of additional content! This month, we’ve got episodes on make-or-break horror movie endings, the latest Children of the Corn film, season 1 of Amazon Prime’s Swarm, and Renfield. Our audio commentary for the month will be on Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses.
On the DL.
After spending June on explicitly queer texts like Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (listen) and William Castle’s Homicidal (listen), it’s only appropriate that Horror Queers celebrate the American holiday with a blockbuster film with a not-so-secret gay connection.
In Independence Day, an unlikely group of people come together when the human race faces extinction from a threatening alien race. After spaceships destroy every major city, pilot Steven Hiller (Will Smith) must team up with secret tech genius David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), as well as the US President (Bill Pullman), to execute a daring plan to save the planet from annihilation.
Along for the ride are the two saviors’ romantic partners – WH Communications Director Constance (Margaret Colin) and stripper Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox) – plus eccentric scientist Dr. Okun (Brent Spiner), who is at the center of the film’s most horrific set piece.
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 393: Independence Day (1996)
Today, we celebrate our Independence Day…courtesy of gay German director Roland Emmerich.
As the summer blockbuster celebrates its 30th anniversary, we’re looking back on an alien disaster film that scared young Trace (thanks to that alien autopsy scene) and turned Will Smith into a star.
Plus: the death that upsets the most; bemoaning Vivica A. Fox’s career; pondering what could have been with the casting; why Smith’s bravado and the film’s patriotism doesn’t always work for Joe; and plenty of riffing on the atrocious sequel.
Cross out Independence Day!
Coming Up Next: We’re retreating to the country for some questionable therapy courtesy of Joe Dante’s 1981 classic, The Howling!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 503 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Forbidden Fruits, Saccharine, Evil Dead Burn, an audio commentary on the utterly ridiculous sequel Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf (1985), and the conclusion of our Requel Tier coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat.