Podcasts
The Fowl Queerness of Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
After revisiting Troma’s The Toxic Avenger (listen) and Katsuhiro Otomo’s iconic anime Akira (listen) – with a brief stopover to celebrate our 350th episode and From Dusk Till Dawn (listen) – Trace and I are turning our attention to a classic: Alfred Hitchcock‘s 1963 film, The Birds.
Starring Tippi Hedren as a rich prankster, the film follows Melanie as she embarks on an epic ruse to troll Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), a man she meets in a pet store. Using her father’s connections to track the lawyer down, Melanie drives to the nearby town of Bodega Bay just as a series of unexpected bird attacks kick off.
After befriending local school teacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette), winning over Mitch’s younger sister Cathy (Veronica Cartwright), and running afoul of Mitch’s mother, Lydia (Jessica Tandy), Melanie becomes trapped as the attacks escalate.
Will Melanie stay out of the attic? Can the isolated Brenner house sustain an all-out fowl attack? And will anyone survive to tell the outside world what is happening in the small seaside hamlet?
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 352: The Birds (1963)
Alma! We’re covering another Alfred Hitchcock film with 1963’s The Birds.
It’s Hitch, so prepare to get technical with Trace’s production history and thanks to another essay from It Came From the Closet, Joe has a compulsory Melanie & Annie queer reading on deck.
Plus: the one scene that doesn’t work; our favorite pieces of editing; why bitchy Melanie is our fave; and this week’s game: sequel or remake!
Cross out The Birds!
Coming Up Next: In anticipation of Renny Harlin’s forthcoming sequel, The Strangers: Chapter 2, we’re opening up the Patreon vault to release our episode of the trilogy opener, The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024).
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 420 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Cry Wolf, The Long Walk, Him, The Conjuring: Last Rites and, to tie in with that last one, a brand new audio commentary on The Conjuring 2!
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.
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 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.