Podcasts
The Controversial Masterpiece That Is Brian De Palma’s ‘Dressed to Kill’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
The Ultimate Time Capsule.
We closed out August with a look at the horror elements in the non-horror film Shiva Baby, the trans empowerment of Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers, and Park Chan-wook’s English-language debut Stoker. Now, our first episode of September kicks off a month themed after one of Joe’s favorite sub-genres: the erotic thriller!
First up is Brian De Palma‘s controversial masterpiece Dressed to Kill.
Dressed to Kill sees high-priced sex worker Liz Blake (Nancy Allen) witness a mysterious woman brutally slay homemaker Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson). The police think Liz is the murderer and the real killer wants to silence the crime’s only witness, putting Liz in a tough situation. Only Kate’s inventor son, Peter (Keith Gordon), believes Liz. Peter and Liz team up to find the real culprit, who has an unexpected means of hiding her identity and an even more surprising motivation to kill.
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, Google Podcasts, and RSS.
Episode 246: Dressed to Kill (1980)
Grab your blonde wig, sunglasses and straight razor because we’re kicking off a month of erotic thrillers with the grandaddy of them all: Brian De Palma’s 1980 masterpiece Dressed to Kill! Joining us for the conversation is Austin-based queer film historian Elizabeth Purchell!
Join us as we trace the film’s journey from the mind of De Palma to a protested and picketed controversy among feminists and members of the queer community. It’s a film that’s all style and some substance, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t tackle the film’s more divisive aspects.
Plus: “beaver shots,” plenty of gay porn discussions, racist stereotypes, and the film’s connections to Cruising.
Cross out Dressed to Kill!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re continuing or month of erotic thrillers with a more recent (and slightly off-kilter) pick in Paul Feig’s incest-laden suburban noir A Simple Favor.
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for nearly 260 hours of additional content! This month we’re discussing A Haunting in Venice, The Nun 2, and we will also have two audio commentaries: one on Underworld and one on Saw II. Oh, and we’ll also have an extra special episode on 2021’s The Voyeurs to coincide with this month’s main feed theme of erotic thrillers.
After winding down June with discussions of our vey first William Castle film Homicidal (listen) and queer director Roland Emmerich’s summer tentpole Independence Day (listen), we’re heading back to 1981 to check out Joe Dante‘s seminal werewolf film The Howling.
The Howling sees television journalist Karen White (Dee Wallace) attend a psychiatric retreat with her husband Bill (Christopher Stone) after being attacked and traumatized by local serial killer Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo). It isn’t long before Karen realizes that the retreat is actually a secret cult of werewolves, and they’ve already got their sights set on Bill.
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 394: The Howling (1981)
Make note of that smiley face sticker and snag that conveniently-placed jar of acid because we’re talking Joe Dante’s stealth werewolf classic The Howling (1981)!
Join us as we discuss the film’s deviations from its source material before doing a deep dive into this very tongue-in-cheek, self-aware horror film. It honestly feels like a precursor to Scream, in many ways!
Plus: Roger Corman (again!) those incredible special effects, differentiating “color movies” from “movies in color,” and why queer icon Elisabeth Brooks has us going “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!”
Cross out The Howling!
Coming Up Next: We’re tackling our very first Ken Russell film with a look at his controversial 1984 erotic thriller Crimes of Passion!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 508 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 Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (aka Howling II: Stirba – Werewolf Bitch), and the conclusion of our coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat on the Requel Tier.