Podcasts
Scythe and the Stupid Man in Jean Rollin’s ‘Fascination’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
Tits Out.
We transitioned from Pride Month discussions of Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (listen) and ’90s nostalgia in Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: The Movie (listen) into summer blockbuster territory with Jaws (listen) last week. Now we’re inching the dial up a few years to discuss French director Jean Rollin‘s “lesbian vampire film” Fascination (1979).
The quotes are there because these characters, particularly the women, are much more sexually fluid, and there’s no actual vampires present (if anything this is a film about a cult!).
In case you’re unaware, Fascination is the story of a duplicitous thief named Marc (Jean-Marie Lemaire) who seeks refuge in a French castle with his stolen loot. He mistakenly believes the place is empty until he happens upon Eva (Brigitte Lahaie) and Elizabeth (Franca Maï), female lovers who allow him to hide but also tease that he must be gone by nightfall.
Marc, cocky and confident, takes no stock in the women’s words and quickly finds himself confronted by a group of women. The group does not seem threatened by him, and even appear to an ulterior motive. Has Marc found true love with Elizabeth or is this all a ruse to sacrifice him? Does Elizabeth actually care about her relationship with Eva? And how will the scythe that features prominently in the cover art come into play?!
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Episode 342: Fascination (1979)
Show your tits and grab that scythe because we’re talking our very first Jean Rollin text: 1979’s Fascination.
The lesbian vampire film is gorgeous and dreamy with several subversive twists, including the fact that this is not actually a vampire movie.
Plus: women in control, a truly shitty man, sheer veils, connections to porn and struggling with the feminist/class readings.
Cross out Fascination!
Coming Up Next: We’re hankering for pizza and a sleepover, so let’s check out the female written and directed franchise starter, The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)!
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Aaliyah Innocent.
May was a busy subgenre-switching month. After kicking things off with disaster “slasher” The Poseidon Adventure (listen), we watched American Giallo The Fan (listen), then wrapped things up with Vincent Price’s horror comedy Theater of Blood (listen).
Now, in honor of Pride Month and the return of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire (renamed The Vampire Lestat for S03), Trace and I had to check out the straight-washed second attempt to bring Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles to life.
Back in 2002, director Michael Rymer pitched Hollywood on his vision for Rice’s second Chronicle book, The Vampire Lestat. Instead, the suits opted to adapt the third book, Queen of the Damned (likely due to the ancillary opportunities of the soundtrack, written entirely by Korn frontman Jonathan Davis).
In the film, Lestat (Stuart Townsend) awakens from slumber to reinvent himself as a leather-pant-wearing rocker. Lestat’s very public vampire persona attracts the attention of Talamasca novice Jesse (Marguerite Moreau), as well as the vampire’s maker Marius (Vincent Perez). But the nu-metal has the greatest impact on Akasha (Aaliyah), who awakens and promises to take over the world if her old foe Maharet (Lena Olin) doesn’t stop her.
Whose side will Lestat join? Will Marius help his fledgling or abandon him to public sacrifice? And does anyone actually care about Jesse? (Please note: that last question is rhetorical.)
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 389: Queen of the Damned (2002)
Practice your Egyptian accent and bare that midriff because we are talking the troubled “adaptation” of Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned (2002).
Directed by Australian Michael Rymer, this one was doomed by the suits before it was even greenlit (which happened AFTER all of the songs were written by Korn frontman Jonathan Davis). It’s a bit of a clusterfuck.
Plus: praising everything Aaliyah (RIP); critiquing everything Stuart Townsend (aside from his abs and leather pants); a soft queer reading of Marius; and bemoaning boring protagonist/audience surrogate JESSE.
Cross out Queen of the Damned!
Coming Up Next: We’re tackling Ben Stiller’s horror-adjacent dark comedy The Cable Guy (1996), in anticipation of its 30th anniversary!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 495 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.