Podcasts
Terrifying Texts in Olivier Assayas’ ‘Personal Shopper’ Starring Kristen Stewart [Horror Queers Podcast]
Airplane Mode off…
After closing out February with discussions of Pedro Almodóvar gender-bending thriller The Skin I Live In (listen) and Neil Jordan’s not-campy-enough stalker film Greta (listen), we’re entering the heady world of Olivier Assayas in his 2016 chiller Personal Shopper, which features a stellar lead turn from Kristen Stewart.
In the film, a personal shopper (Kristen Stewart) in Paris refuses to leave the city until she is able to make contact with her twin brother who previously died there. Her life becomes more complicated when a mysterious person (or spirit?) begins contacting her via text message and her employer is found brutally murdered in her apartment.
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Episode 272: Personal Shopper (2016)
Do not take your phone off Airplane mode because we’re heading to Paris to discuss Olivier Assayas’ Personal Shopper (2016). Helping us sift through this fascinating, dense film is Trace’s better half (and frequent returning guest) Ari Drew!
Join us as we heap all the praise on Kristen Stewart before diving into all things supernatural (and technology!), linking the film to the recent wave of liminal horror films.
Plus: Joe “raps” (yes, really), fade-outs galore, the necessity of on-screen nudity, silly conversations about gorillas and one of the scariest scenes to come out of the 2010s.
Cross out Personal Shopper!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re delving back into the world of Alfred Hitchcock with a look at 1951’s Strangers on a Train.
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for nearly 291 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal S01, Episode 03, Imaginary, Immaculate, Love Lies Bleeding and our audio commentary for the month will be on Renny Harlin’s dumb-but-fun murder mystery Mindhunters.
On the DL.
After spending June on explicitly queer texts like Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (listen) and William Castle’s Homicidal (listen), it’s only appropriate that Horror Queers celebrate the American holiday with a blockbuster film with a not-so-secret gay connection.
In Independence Day, an unlikely group of people come together when the human race faces extinction from a threatening alien race. After spaceships destroy every major city, pilot Steven Hiller (Will Smith) must team up with secret tech genius David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), as well as the US President (Bill Pullman), to execute a daring plan to save the planet from annihilation.
Along for the ride are the two saviors’ romantic partners – WH Communications Director Constance (Margaret Colin) and stripper Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox) – plus eccentric scientist Dr. Okun (Brent Spiner), who is at the center of the film’s most horrific set piece.
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 393: Independence Day (1996)
Today, we celebrate our Independence Day…courtesy of gay German director Roland Emmerich.
As the summer blockbuster celebrates its 30th anniversary, we’re looking back on an alien disaster film that scared young Trace (thanks to that alien autopsy scene) and turned Will Smith into a star.
Plus: the death that upsets the most; bemoaning Vivica A. Fox’s career; pondering what could have been with the casting; why Smith’s bravado and the film’s patriotism doesn’t always work for Joe; and plenty of riffing on the atrocious sequel.
Cross out Independence Day!
Coming Up Next: We’re retreating to the country for some questionable therapy courtesy of Joe Dante’s 1981 classic, The Howling!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 503 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 the utterly ridiculous sequel Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf (1985), and the conclusion of our Requel Tier coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat.