Podcasts
Women Take Center Stage in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Death Proof’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
Butterfly Blues.
After closing out December with a look at Damien Leone’s Terrifier 3 (listen) and Sophia Takal’s Into the Dark entry “New Year, New You” (listen), we’re kicking off 2025 with a bang by concluding the Grindhouse double feature that we started last summer with Planet Terror (listen) and finally making our way to Quentin Tarantino‘s Death Proof (2007)!
In Death Proof, two separate groups of women (Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Zoë Bell, Rosario Dawson, Tracie Thoms and Mary Elizabeth Winstead) are stalked by a vicious serial killer named Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), who uses his “death proof” car to execute his murderous plans.
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Episode 316: Death Proof (2007)
Grab your belts and hop on the roof of that car because we’re discussing our very first Quentin Tarantino film in 2007’s pseudo-slasher/exploitation film Death Proof. Join us as we conclude the Grindhouse double feature that we started last year with Planet Terror.
From the debates about the film’s feminist messaging to Tarantino’s own disillusionment with the film, we have a lot to say! Plus: dialogue, dialogue and more dialogue, discussing the rest of the fake trailers, why Arlene/Butterfly (Vanessa Ferlito) is Joe’s favorite character and one Hell of a final shot.
Cross out Death Proof!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re heading to prom a few months early to discuss Brian De Palma’s adaptation of Stephen King’s first novel Carrie!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 358 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Bloody Axe Wound, The Creep Tapes S01, Squid Game S01 & S02, Wolf Man, and a brand new audio commentary on sci-fi bomb Supernova (2000) for its 25th anniversary!
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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