Podcasts
‘Inside’ One of the New French Extremity’s Strongest (and Bloodiest) Entries [Horror Queers Podcast]
Gimme dat baby.
After wrapping up November with a look at cryptids in The Mothman Prophecies (listen), we kicked off December with a journey back into the land of giallo in Sergio Martino’s Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (listen). Now we’re heading to France to discuss everyone’s favorite pregnancy-related splatterfest in Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo‘s Inside (2007).
Inside sees newly widowed (and very pregnant) Sarah (Alysson Paradis) spending Christmas Eve alone as she waits to be induced the next morning. Unfortunately for her, a mysterious, scissors-wielding woman known only as La Femme (Béatrice Dalle) has designs on her unborn child, and will stop at nothing until she gets it.
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Episode 260: Inside (2007)
Watch the road and finish your knitting project because we’re delving back into the world of New French Extremity with a festive look at Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo’s 2007 home invasion film Inside.
Join us as we laud lead actresses Béatrice Dalle and Alysson Paradis for their visceral performances before putting the film’s narrative into the context of the 2005 French riots that serve as the background setting of the film.
Plus: a very emotive CGI fetus, the deadliest scissors you’ll ever see, and some very incompetent law enforcement officers.
Cross out Inside!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re feeling festive so it’s time to finally cover everyone’s favorite zombie holiday musical: 2017’s Anna and the Apocalypse!
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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!
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