Podcasts
‘The Faculty’ Explores the Horrors of Conformity [The Lady Killers Podcast]
“I always thought the only alien in this high school was me.”
In 1985, John Hughes set a template for high school archetypes in his classic film The Breakfast Club. The brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess and the criminal became part of our collective consciousness while expanding ideas of adolescent identity. But 13 years later, these stereotypical roles had begun to feel stifling. While reassuring to know that each identity is valid, the tendency to define your life by an external ideal could keep young adults from overcoming the fear of being themselves. In 1998, Robert Rodriguez applied a sci-fi lens to these classic archetypes in The Faculty, a teen horror film that explores the terror of conformity. A high school faculty taken over by monsters becomes the backdrop for a nuanced dissection of stereotypical expectations and discontent adolescence in a treacherous high school environment built to dehumanize.
Casey (Elijah Wood) is a nerdy student just trying to survive the day. While eating lunch on the bleachers alone, he stumbles upon a mysterious pod that comes to tentacled life when submerged in water. This discovery coincides with strange behavior from the school’s world-weary teachers and Casey begins to suspect a sinister force is taking over their bodies. Together with basket case Stokely (Clea DuVall), princess Deliliah (Jordana Brewster), athlete Stan (Shawn Hatosy), criminal Zeke (Josh Hartnett), and a new southern student named Marybeth (Laura Harris), they try to find the source of this sinister threat before aliens can take over the entire student body.
The Lady Killers continue Back To School Horror Month by revisiting this 90s horror classic. Co-hosts Jenn Adams, Sammie Kuykendall, Rocco Thompson, and Mae Shults reminisce about their own high school experiences while deconstructing teen archetypes and drooling over the A-list cast. Would they find Marybeth’s argument persuasive? Why do the female teachers become hotter as aliens? What kind of lipstick takes 72 minutes and has Josh Hartnett ever been hotter? So slam your nuts into the flagpole and meet them on the football field as they dig into something cherry-flavored with this cinematic gem.
“He’s tweaking you asshole! Let him fucking tweak!”
Stream below and subscribe now via Apple Podcasts and Spotify for future episodes that drop every Thursday.
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.
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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.