Podcasts
‘Dr. Death’ Asks If Christopher Duntsch Is a Bad Surgeon Or a Sadist [Murder Made Fiction]
Jenn and I have tackled ‘theme’ months before on Murder Made Fiction, including a month dedicated to Australian true crime, survival cannibalism and nearly two months on Ted Bundy.
For the first time ever, though, we’re tackling medical horror. Jenn kicked things off last week with a primer on Dr. Christopher Duntsch (listen), outlining the surgeon’s swift rise and even faster decline thanks to a drug addiction and a whole lotta hubris.
We’re spending the rest of the month looking at season one of the Peacock series Dr. Death (we’re also tackling S02 on Patreon if you want to hear us discuss Paolo Macchiarini). In the premiere, we discuss episodes one and two, which introduces Chris (played by Joshua Jackson) in several timelines: the week leading up to a disastrous July 25, 2012 surgery, his time spent playing football (badly) in 1991, and a brief glimpse at 2015 when he’s been arrested.
Duntsch’s adversaries are his colleagues, including “by the books” Dr. Robert Henderson (Alec Baldwin) and wisecracking Dr. Randall Kirby (Christian Slater). As the two men survey the bodies left in Duntsch’s wake, they begin to wonder two things:
- Is Christopher Duntsch a terrible surgeon or a sadist who enjoys inflicting pain on his patients?
- How, after so many years of botched surgeries, many of which resulted in the death or paralysis of his patients, does Duntsch still have operating privileges and a medical license?
These are the questions that ground the 2021 season, which hails from writer/creator Patrick MacManus.
P.S. In case you thought “this is just a doctor/medical show,” simply check out the foley work in the surgery sequences when Duntsch goes to town on people’s spines with a hammer. It’s absolutely horrifying.
Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where Jenn and I have 100+ episodes and ~73 hours of exclusive content including full primers on Duntsch and Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, episode by episode coverage of Dr. Death season 2, a spoiler-y review of David Midell’s The Ritual and 2016’s The Exorcism of Anna Ecklund, and a full primer on her 1928 exorcism.
Podcasts
Shakespearean Education in the Vincent Price-Starring ‘Theater of Blood’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
Butch knows best…
After concluding May with discussions of the disaster “slasher” The Poseidon Adventure (listen) and Michael Biehn’s demon twink in the messy-but-watchable The Fan (listen), we’re heading back to the ’70s to discuss our very first Vincent Price film in Douglas Hickox‘s horror comedy Theater of Blood (1973).
In Theater of Blood, Vincent Price stars as Edward Lionheart, a disgraced Shakespearean actor who begins targeting the critics who shamed him. The gimmick? He’s taking inspiration from the death scenes in William Shakespeare’s plays! Aiding him is his daughter Edwina (Diana Rigg), who acts as the honeypot for her father’s macabre scheme.
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Episode 388: Theater of Blood (1973)
Brush up on your Shakespeare and protect those poodles because we’re covering our very first Vincent Price film in Douglas Hickox’s horror comedy Theater of Blood (1973), a personal favorite of both Price and Diana Rigg.
Join us as we go all in on this somewhat episodic (but also educational!) proto-slasher, wondering if we’re supposed to know that’s Diana Rigg in hippie drag, and cackling at some of these murder set pieces.
Plus, “Handsy Dickman,” narcissistic gravestones, antisemitic stage makeup, and the ultimate debate: is it theatER or theatRE?
C/W: Attempted suicide, off-screen dog murder.
Cross out Theater of Blood!
Coming Up Next: We’re celebrating the premiere of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat with a look at the much-maligned 2002 adaptation Queen of the Damned!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 492 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal Season 3 Episodes 5 & 6, Backrooms, Passenger, Leviticus, an audio commentary on the original Scary Movie (2000), and the return of our Requel Tier as we begin our episode coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat.