Podcasts
The Queer Rage of ‘Eli’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
The Devil is in the Details.
After kicking off April with discussions of Matt Damon’s demon twink in The Talented Mr. Ripley (listen) and the perfect balance of horror and comedy in John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London (listen), we’re heading over to Netflix to look at Ciarán Foy‘s horror version of The Boy in the Plastic Bubble in the 2019 film Eli.
In the film, a young boy with a rare autoimmune disease named Eli (Charlie Shotwell) is brought by his parents (Kelly Reilly and Max Martini) to a private medical facility owned by Dr. Isabella Horn (Lili Taylor). After beginning an experimental medical procedure to cure him, Eli begins experiencing strange, seemingly threatening hallucinations of Dr. Horn’s past patients, and must figure out what’s really going on beore it’s too late.
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, Google Podcasts, and RSS.
Episode 278: Eli (2019)
Fog up your window and watch out for hallway ghosts because we’re discussing Ciarán Foy‘s 2019 shocker Eli! Join us as we dive into this horror story of a boy and his plastic bubble while, of course, applying a queer reading to it.
Plus: mosquito hawks vs. dragonflies, questionable medical procedures, jump scares aplenty, a chilling performance from Lili Taylor and one absolute gem of a twist.
Cross out Eli!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re headed back to the world of David Cronenberg to discuss his thematic Videodrome sequel eXistenZ (1999).
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 302 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal S01E04, Late Night with the Devil, The First Omen, Femme, Abigail and a brand new audio commentary on the original The Omen (1976).
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.
You must be logged in to post a comment.