Podcasts
Investigating the Investigators: Paranormal Superstars Ed & Lorraine Warren [Murder Made Fiction Podcast]
The world of ghost hunting and paranormal investigation in the second half of the 20th century was dominated by one power couple. Demonologist Ed Warren and his clairvoyant wife Lorraine Warren traveled the world investigating various cases they would later make famous.
From Annabelle to Amityville, this duo claims to have consulted on 10,000 instances of paranormal phenomena from hauntings and possessions to the occasional cryptid sighting.
After founding the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR), the Warrens embarked on a lucrative lecture series while writing books about their more prominent adventures. And all the while they’ve maintained their infamous museum filled with cursed, possessed, or otherwise dangerous objects.
But were they devout researchers dedicated to helping others or opportunistic grifters out to line their own pockets? What skeletons might be lurking in the couple’s own closet and what would they do to protect their public image? In the latest episode of Bloody FM’s Murder Made Fiction Podcast, Jenn walks Joe through four decades of supernatural scamming from the couple’s humble beginnings to an ever-increasing cinematic universe.
And if you want even more Murder Made Fiction, be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where Jenn and Joe have ~80 hours of content included a bonus episode detailing the Snedeker Haunting and the curious case of the Annabelle doll, episode by episode coverage of Apple TV’s Smoke and Hulu’s The Twisted Case of Amanda Knox, and a full primer on Amanda Knox’s controversial story.
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.