Podcasts
Heads Roll to a Femme Fatale in Tim Burton’s ‘Sleepy Hollow’ [The Lady Killers Podcast]
“You’re just in time to have your head cut off.”
As the autumn days wear on, horror fans around the world mourn the passing of spooky season and turn their lonely eyes to November. What better film to watch while finishing off the Halloween candy than Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow?
Adapted from Washington Irving’s 1820 short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” this icy film begins in an autumnal cornfield and ends on a snowy street just in time for a new century. Burton’s version of the story also features a surprising number of witches, a baffling appearance by Christopher Walken, and one of the most stunning villain reveal dresses in cinematic history.
Don’t be a goose and join The Lady Killers: A Feminine Rage Podcast as they dig into this transitional grayscale classic with an episode on the story’s vengeful killer, Lady Van Tassel (Miranda Richardson). Does she have a first name? Why does her sister live in a cave? What kind of master plan includes awkwardly-staged cunalingus from Jeffrey Jones?
Together, Jenn Adams, Sammie Kuykendall, Mae Shults, and Rocco T. Thompson will answer all these questions and more while discussing their feelings about Burton’s overall body of work, controversial performances, and the lingering terror of the original Disney short. They’ll figure out who governs the horseman while bidding farewell to the Halloween season and deciding once and for all, would they die for Lady Van Tassel?
Stream the episode below or subscribe now via Apple Podcasts and Spotify for future episodes that drop every other Thursday. Next up? We’re keepin’ things witchy by joining the coven within The Craft.
Aaliyah Innocent.
May was a busy subgenre-switching month. After kicking things off with disaster “slasher” The Poseidon Adventure (listen), we watched American Giallo The Fan (listen), then wrapped things up with Vincent Price’s horror comedy Theater of Blood (listen).
Now, in honor of Pride Month and the return of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire (renamed The Vampire Lestat for S03), Trace and I had to check out the straight-washed second attempt to bring Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles to life.
Back in 2002, director Michael Rymer pitched Hollywood on his vision for Rice’s second Chronicle book, The Vampire Lestat. Instead, the suits opted to adapt the third book, Queen of the Damned (likely due to the ancillary opportunities of the soundtrack, written entirely by Korn frontman Jonathan Davis).
In the film, Lestat (Stuart Townsend) awakens from slumber to reinvent himself as a leather-pant-wearing rocker. Lestat’s very public vampire persona attracts the attention of Talamasca novice Jesse (Marguerite Moreau), as well as the vampire’s maker Marius (Vincent Perez). But the nu-metal has the greatest impact on Akasha (Aaliyah), who awakens and promises to take over the world if her old foe Maharet (Lena Olin) doesn’t stop her.
Whose side will Lestat join? Will Marius help his fledgling or abandon him to public sacrifice? And does anyone actually care about Jesse? (Please note: that last question is rhetorical.)
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 389: Queen of the Damned (2002)
Practice your Egyptian accent and bare that midriff because we are talking the troubled “adaptation” of Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned (2002).
Directed by Australian Michael Rymer, this one was doomed by the suits before it was even greenlit (which happened AFTER all of the songs were written by Korn frontman Jonathan Davis). It’s a bit of a clusterfuck.
Plus: praising everything Aaliyah (RIP); critiquing everything Stuart Townsend (aside from his abs and leather pants); a soft queer reading of Marius; and bemoaning boring protagonist/audience surrogate JESSE.
Cross out Queen of the Damned!
Coming Up Next: We’re tackling Ben Stiller’s horror-adjacent dark comedy The Cable Guy (1996), in anticipation of its 30th anniversary!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 495 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.