Podcasts
The Campy Delights and Dicey Racial Politics of ‘The Skeleton Key’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
After spending the last few weeks on J.A. Bayona’s ghost story The Orphanage (listen), Jack Nicholson’s commanding performance in George Miller’s The Witches of Eastwick (listen), and a timely discussion of James Whale’s Frankenstein (listen), we needed some mid-aughts comfort food.
Enter Iain Softley’s 2005 film The Skeleton Key, a Southern Gothic tale about Caroline (Kate Hudson), an impressionable young hospice aide who takes a job at a remote plantation against the advice of her roommate, Jill (Joy Bryant).
Tensions abound between Caroline and the matriarch of the house, Violet (Gena Rowlands), who has very particular demands about how to treat her husband Ben (John Hurt). The rules extend to the house itself, which is bereft of mirrors and has a single locked door in the attic that Caroline’s titular skeleton key won’t open.
Clearly, there’s something more going on, and as Caroline investigates, she becomes more immersed in hoodoo, a practice she barely understands. With the support of the Devereaux’s estate lawyer, Luke (Peter Sarsgaard), Caroline will stop at nothing to ensure Ben’s safety, even if it increasingly means she’s putting her own future in jeopardy.
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Episode 360: The Skeleton Key (2005)
Lay down a line of protective brick dust and scream “I don’t believe!” because we are discussing Iain Softley’s 2005 Southern Gothic thriller, The Skeleton Key.
Starring Kate Hudson and Gena Rowlands, this Ehren Kruger joint has a great twist (or is it a reveal?) that may or may not have dicey racial implications.
Plus: not trusting Peter Sarsgaard, Black character exposition, the difference between hoodoo and voodoo, and the ending we still can’t believe a studio signed off on!
Cross out The Skeleton Key!
Coming Up Next: We’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of arguably the most controversial film we’ve ever tackled on the pod: Pier Passolini’s Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975).
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 437 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Tina Romero’s Queens of the Dead, Hulu’s remake of The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, new Oz Perkins joint Keeper, Predator: Badlands and, to celebrate American Thanksgiving, an audio commentary on the 1987 cult classic Blood Rage!
On the DL.
After spending June on explicitly queer texts like Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (listen) and William Castle’s Homicidal (listen), it’s only appropriate that Horror Queers celebrate the American holiday with a blockbuster film with a not-so-secret gay connection.
In Independence Day, an unlikely group of people come together when the human race faces extinction from a threatening alien race. After spaceships destroy every major city, pilot Steven Hiller (Will Smith) must team up with secret tech genius David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), as well as the US President (Bill Pullman), to execute a daring plan to save the planet from annihilation.
Along for the ride are the two saviors’ romantic partners – WH Communications Director Constance (Margaret Colin) and stripper Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox) – plus eccentric scientist Dr. Okun (Brent Spiner), who is at the center of the film’s most horrific set piece.
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 393: Independence Day (1996)
Today, we celebrate our Independence Day…courtesy of gay German director Roland Emmerich.
As the summer blockbuster celebrates its 30th anniversary, we’re looking back on an alien disaster film that scared young Trace (thanks to that alien autopsy scene) and turned Will Smith into a star.
Plus: the death that upsets the most; bemoaning Vivica A. Fox’s career; pondering what could have been with the casting; why Smith’s bravado and the film’s patriotism doesn’t always work for Joe; and plenty of riffing on the atrocious sequel.
Cross out Independence Day!
Coming Up Next: We’re retreating to the country for some questionable therapy courtesy of Joe Dante’s 1981 classic, The Howling!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 503 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Forbidden Fruits, Saccharine, Evil Dead Burn, an audio commentary on the utterly ridiculous sequel Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf (1985), and the conclusion of our Requel Tier coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat.