Podcasts
Velma’s Queer Erasure in ‘Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
Mystery Mistress.
After kicking off March with discussions of the Kristen Stewart vehicle Personal Shopper (listen) and Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (listen), we’re getting a little silly with a deep dive into Raja Gosnell‘s live-action cartoon sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004) for its 20th anniversary!
In the film, canine sleuth Scooby-Doo (Neil Fanning) once again joins his pals Shaggy (Matthew Lillard), Velma (Linda Cardellini), Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar) when the Evil Masked Figure breaks into the Coolsonian Criminology Museum and steals a bunch of costumes that belonged to Mystery Inc.’s previously unmasked foes! What’s worse? E.M.F. is using them to create real monsters! It’s up to the gang to stop the monsters’ attack on Coolsville, while dodging the libelous attacks of television journalist Heather Jasper-Howe (Alicia Silverstone), who is out to discredit their investigations.
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Episode 274: Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)
Round up your free “miners” because we’re discussing Raja Gosnell’s live-action cartoon and Razzie “winner” Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004). Tagging back in for the conversation is returning guest (see our episode on the original Scooby-Doo film) Cory McCullough, aka Gory Cory!
Join us as we celebrate all things Scooby-Doo with a deep dive into the film’s plethora of monsters (including some that didn’t make it into the final cut!), ponder what could have been in the cancelled Scotland-set third film, and debate whether or not this is actually a stealth prequel to the first film.
Plus: Velma’s lesbian erasure, Seth Green‘s affinity for dating queer women, a controversial pay cut from Freddie Prinze Jr., a potential transphobic read and many, many more fart jokes.
Cross out Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re delving back into the world Universal monsters with a look at James Whale’s 1933 classic The Invisible Man.
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for nearly 300 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.
It’s been a busy month on Murder Made Fiction podcast. In addition to introducing a new co-host (Perfectly Good Moment‘s Amanda Jane Stern), we spent Pride Month tackling a wide variety of Leopold and Loeb fictional adaptations.
In 1924 Chicago, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb plotted to commit the perfect murder when they abducted and killed 14-year-old Bobby Franks. As Amanda outlines in her primer on the case, the men were caught almost immediately and the media circus that followed was billed “the trial of the century”.
Listen to Leopold and Loeb mini primer.
The fallout has reverberated throughout the last century as countless books, plays, musicals, and films have drawn on the case for inspiration. Some are more faithful than others, such as Richard Fleischer‘s 1959 drama Compulsion, which stars a young Dean Stockwell as Leopold and Orson Welles as the boys’ lawyer, John Darrow (named Jonathan Wilk in the film).
Listen to Leopold and Loeb: Compulsion (1959).
Then there are the texts that use the idea of queer-coded killers as a jumping off point, but confuse (or flat-out disregard) the details of the real life case in favour of jumbled fiction. That’s what happens in Barbet Schroeder‘s Murder by Numbers, which awkwardly introduces a tortured backstory for lead actress (and executive producer) Sandra Bullock. The result is an uneven film that misunderstands which of its two competing storylines are actually interesting (hint: it’s the Leopold and Loeb stuff with Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt).
Listen to Leopold and Loeb: Murder by Numbers (2002).
We ended up discussing other (often more successful) titles on Patreon, including 1992’s Swoon (a New Queer Cinema art-house take on the crime), Michael Haneke‘s 2007 Funny Games remake, and gay screenwriter Kevin Williamson‘s Scream, which proved to be a much more reverent and sly interpretation of L&L than we anticipated.
We wrapped up the month with a final summary episode about our favorite adaptations before chatting with author and archivist Erik Rebain, who literally wrote the book on Leopold (Arrested Adolescence) and maintains one of the foremost websites on the crime.
Watch our discussion on YouTube below (or listen here):
Next month: For July, we’re turning our attention to the Boston Strangler, with a look at films from 1964 and 1968, as well as the most contemporary version from 2023, starring Kiera Knightley and Carrie Coon.
Want even more true crime adaptations and Murder Made Fiction? Support the show on Patreon to listen to the aforementioned episodes, as well as a full-length primer on the case and 160+ hours of bonus content.
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