Podcasts
Coralie Fargeat’s ‘Revenge’ Is an Informed Evolution on the Rape-Revenge Subgenre [The Lady Killers Podcast]
“Women always have to put up a fucking fight.”
While the rest of North America settles in for the cold winter nights of December, The Lady Killers are heating it up with a trip out to the dry and dusty French desert. They’ll relax and unwind by snacking on seductive lollipops and dancing by the pool on a fancy sex holiday with their hot French boyfriend. Unfortunately, it looks like a couple of unwanted visitors will be crashing the party. Thank goodness they’ve got Jen (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz) to guide them through.
Few corners of the Horror genre deal with the subject of female rage like rape-revenge. These complicated and oft-controversial films have a long history of exploitation and salacious violence that turn the stomachs of many viewers. But there’s no doubt that they also provide a liberating sense of empowerment and an aspirational vision of justice usually not available in our patriarchal society. For their first foray into the rape-revenge subgenre, The Lady Killers tackle Coralie Fargeat’s stunning 2017 film Revenge and find it to be both an informed evolution of this complicated classification and a neon entry in the annals of New French Extremity.
After retreating to a cave for some beer can surgery and hallucinatory drugs, co-hosts Jenn Adams, Sammie Kuykendall, Mae Shults, and Rocco T. Thompson will emerge transformed for a candid conversation about rape-revenge films, cinematic exploitation, and the nature of consent. Are they concerned with the verisimilitude of Jenn’s desert transformation? What do her pink star earrings say about feminine strength? Who is the story’s true villain and why does it feel so good to watch a film so gory? They’ll tackle these questions and more while sharing their love for this incredible female killer and her empowering metamorphosis. Because, as it turns out, women do always have to put up a fight.
Stream the episode below or subscribe now via Apple Podcasts and Spotify for future episodes that drop every Thursday.
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.)
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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.