Podcasts
Dissecting Two Very Different Films With ‘Escape Room: Tournament of Champions’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
Physical Media 4Eva
After tackling a contemporary sequel last week with Insidious: Chapter Two, Trace and I figured we should do it again. This week we’re dissecting the sequel to queer director Adam Robitel‘s immensely popular Escape Room, which was released in 2021 as Escape Room: Tournament of Champions.
In the film, survivors Zoey (Taylor Russell) and Ben (Logan Miller) return to New York in an attempt to discover the secrets behind the mysterious Minos Corporation. Instead, they’re lured back into the game with a fresh batch of survivors, including “pain freak” Rachel (Holland Roden), influencer Brianna (Indya Moore), and alcoholic priest Nathan (Thomas Cocquerel).
What Zoey and Ben don’t know is that someone is pulling their strings by creating a very unique new killer escape room experience. Depending on which version of the film you watch, the secret game master is either <spoilers> Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll) who survived the first film OR Claire (Isabelle Fuhrman), whose presence in the Extended Cut suggests a whole new direction for the franchise.
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Episode 238: Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021) feat. Reyna Cervantes
Be on the lookout for clues because we’re headed back to Escape Room with Adam Robitel’s sequel, Tournament of Champions (2021). With the help of returning guest Reyna Cervantes, we’re discussing both the Theatrical, as well as the Extended Cut of the film (jump ahead to the ~1hr 10min mark to hear about the new beginning and end!)
Expect Minos-levels of conspiracy as we try to figure out the timeline and rationale for the two cuts.
Plus: our fave new characters and traps, retconning the original film’s end, needing more Isabelle Fuhrman and James Frain, and what we want in a possible third entry (and why it definitely *won’t* be rated R).
Cross out Escape Room: Tournament of Champions!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re tackling an iconic queer horror text: the Alfred Hitchcock classic, Psycho (1960).
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for more than 252 hours of additional content! This month we’re going all in on the Insidious franchise with a episode discussing our thoughts on each entry, as well as delivering a full-length episode on the new film Insidious: The Red Door. We’ll also have episodes on the Netflix sequel Bird Box: Barcelona and the Set Rogen-produced horror film Cobweb. Plus: our audio commentary for the month is on the original Bird Box!
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.