Podcasts
Taking a Bite Out of the Controversial ‘Hard Candy’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
I Fucking Hate Goldfrapp.
After spending our month-long theme on toxic masculinity with difficult watches like Funny Games (listen) and Deadgirl (listen), as well as an easier watch in Murder By Numbers (listen), we’re wrapping up the month with a look at David Slade‘s controversial 2005 film Hard Candy.
Hard Candy sees precocious teenager Hayley (Elliot Page) go to a coffee shop to meet Jeff (Patrick Wilson), a photographer she met on the internet. Jeff thinks he is in for a real treat, but after a bit of flirtation Hayley drugs him and straps him to a chair, revealing that she knows Jeff preys on teenage girls. She has a plan to wring a confession from him, but Jeff doesn’t plan to do down without a fight.
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Episode 257: Hard Candy (2005)
We’re wrapping up our look at Toxic Masculinity with David Slade’s feature directorial debut, Hard Candy (2005).
This secret rape/revenge film features powerhouse performances from Elliot Page and Patrick Wilson and plenty of uncomfortable moments.
Plus: comparisons to Promising Young Woman (and Saw X?!), a frank discussion of pedophilia, plenty of strategic framing, and the prequel we want to see.
Cross out Hard Candy!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re taking a reprieve from toxic masculinity and wrapping up November with our first foray into the world of cryptids with a look at Mark Pellington’s The Mothman Prophecies.
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After kicking off July with discussions of Joe Dante’s seminal werewolf film The Howling (listen) and Ken Russell’s controversial erotic thriller Crimes of Passion (listen), we’re heading to Maine to dissect one of Stephen King‘s most misguided adaptations in Lawrence Kasdan‘s 2003 misfire Dreamcatcher!
Dreamcatcher sees friends Henry (Thomas Jane), Jonesy (Damian Lewis), Pete (Timothy Olyphant) and Beaver (Jason Lee) reunite for their annual hunting trip in Maine. Their reunion is cut short when they find themselves caught in the middle of a war between a hostile race of farty-farty aliens and an elite US military unit led by Colonel Abraham Curtis (Morgan Freeman), who has been driven mad after spending decades tracking the extraterrestrials. When Jonesy is possessed by one of the aliens, the remaining friends seek out their disabled childhood friend Duddits (Donnie Wahlberg), who they believe has powers that can save Jonesy…and the world.
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 396: Dreamcatcher (2003)
Watch out for “ister gay” (oof), take some Gas-X and bite our bags because we’re talking Lawrence Kasdan’s baffling 2003 adaptation of Stephen King’s equally baffling novel Dreamcatcher.
Join us as we go all in on the farty-farty aliens populating this hilarious misfire that often feels like a bad Kevin Smith script. It’s a film filled with characters who get a single defining trait (if they’re lucky), played by respectable actors who are here for the paycheck (looking at you, Morgan Freeman).
Plus: blown-out assholes, using guns as telephones, pitying poor Donnie Wahlberg, and wondering why the hell this movie is called Dreamcatcher.
Cross out Dreamcatcher!
Coming Up Next: We’re going to be lounging around a posh Greenwich Village apartment as we check in on Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954).
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