Podcasts
‘Ginger Snaps’ and the “Curse” of Becoming a Woman [The Lady Killers Podcast]
“I get this ache… And I, I thought it was for sex, but it’s to tear everything to fucking pieces.”
We blame the curse of womanhood on Eve. The Bible tells us the first woman was tempted by a serpent to eat fruit from the tree of knowledge, thus dooming all of womankind with the pain of menstruation. And it often does feel like cruel and unusual punishment. Those who menstruate spend roughly one week per month doubled over in pain as ferocious cramps rip through our abdomens, followed by several days of uncontrollable bleeding and skyrocketing hormones. Although periods vary wildly from person to person and evolve over the course of a lifetime, there’s little most of us wouldn’t do to avoid the phenomenon entirely. Many horror creators have tackled menstruation, but few as effectively as John Fawcett . His 2000 film Ginger Snaps explores the power and pain that comes with crossing this bloody threshold while daring us to equate monstrosity with female power.
Ginger ( Katharine Isabelle ) and Brigitte ( Emily Perkins ) do everything together. These death-obsessed sisters have no friends but each other and spend their free time staging and photographing grisly recreations of their own violent demise. When a roving monster attacks Ginger on the night of her first period, the frightened teen begins a strange transformation. In addition to a newfound lust for the boys in her class, Ginger sprouts hair in her still-healing scars and finds a tail growing from the bottom of her spine. Brigitte turns to an older drug dealer named Sam ( Kris Lemche ) to help find a remedy for her sister’s increasing monstrosity. But Ginger’s not so sure she wants to be cured. She’s enjoying her newfound sexuality and a nagging desire to tear the world apart.
In the latest episode of Bloody FM’s The Lady Killers Podcast , co-hosts Jenn Adams, Sammie Kuykendall, Rocco Thompson, and Mae Shults, continue their celebration of spooky season queens. Over slices of mom’s comforting angel food cake, they’ll compare and contrast becoming a werewolf with the notorious “curse” of becoming a woman. From where does Ginger’s lust for destruction emerge? Why are these sisters so obsessed with death? Does Sam actually think about Brigitte like that and what’s going on with Pamela’s hair? As Halloween approaches, the Lady Killers will gather in a greenhouse lit by a full moon to chat about curses, creatures, and sisterly love.
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.
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.