Podcasts
Allergic to Exposition in Robert Eggers’ ‘The Witch’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
Good for her…?
After kicking off February with a look at one of the lesser-loved Michael Crichton film adaptations in Sphere (listen) and being introduced to the batshit insanity that is the Drew Barrymore-starring Doppelganger (listen), we’re continuing our February coverage with a look at Robert Eggers‘ debut film The Witch (2015).
Set in early 1600s New England, The Witch sees a Puritan Separatist family being preyed upon by an evil witch that lives in the nearby woods. When she takes the family’s baby, the blame falls on eldest daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), who must convince her mother (Kate Dickie) and father (Ralph Ineson) that she is not the feared witch of the woods.
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Episode 374: The Witch (2015) feat. Becky Darke
Bring your baby-sized mortar and pestle and cherished silver cup to the party because we’re discussing Robert Eggers’ feature directorial debut: the audacious folk horror film The Witch (2015)! Joining us for the conversation is Hammer Time podcast co-host Becky Darke!
Join us as we marvel at all of the research Eggers did to ensure maximum authenticity, crafting a period film thats as scary as it is stomach-churning. That it all ends in a (somewhat debatable) “good for her” ending is just the icing on the cake.
Plus: big witchy tits, inky darkness courtesy of all the natural lighting, being “allergic to exposition,” and a ringing endorsement from the Satanic Temple.
Cross out The Witch!
Coming Up Next: We’re unlocking the Patreon vault to revisit our thoughts on Scream VI (2023) in advance of the release of Scream 7 (2026).
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 456 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal Season 3 Episodes 1 & 2, Whistle, The Strangers: Chapter 3, Saim Raimi’s Send Help, a new audio commentary on 10 Cloverfield Lane and our continuing coverage of Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House (2018) on the Requel tier.
It’s been a busy month on Murder Made Fiction podcast. In addition to introducing a new co-host (Perfectly Good Moment‘s Amanda Jane Stern), we spent Pride Month tackling a wide variety of Leopold and Loeb fictional adaptations.
In 1924 Chicago, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb plotted to commit the perfect murder when they abducted and killed 14-year-old Bobby Franks. As Amanda outlines in her primer on the case, the men were caught almost immediately and the media circus that followed was billed “the trial of the century”.
Listen to Leopold and Loeb mini primer.
The fallout has reverberated throughout the last century as countless books, plays, musicals, and films have drawn on the case for inspiration. Some are more faithful than others, such as Richard Fleischer‘s 1959 drama Compulsion, which stars a young Dean Stockwell as Leopold and Orson Welles as the boys’ lawyer, John Darrow (named Jonathan Wilk in the film).
Listen to Leopold and Loeb: Compulsion (1959).
Then there are the texts that use the idea of queer-coded killers as a jumping off point, but confuse (or flat-out disregard) the details of the real life case in favour of jumbled fiction. That’s what happens in Barbet Schroeder‘s Murder by Numbers, which awkwardly introduces a tortured backstory for lead actress (and executive producer) Sandra Bullock. The result is an uneven film that misunderstands which of its two competing storylines are actually interesting (hint: it’s the Leopold and Loeb stuff with Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt).
Listen to Leopold and Loeb: Murder by Numbers (2002).
We ended up discussing other (often more successful) titles on Patreon, including 1992’s Swoon (a New Queer Cinema art-house take on the crime), Michael Haneke‘s 2007 Funny Games remake, and gay screenwriter Kevin Williamson‘s Scream, which proved to be a much more reverent and sly interpretation of L&L than we anticipated.
We wrapped up the month with a final summary episode about our favorite adaptations before chatting with author and archivist Erik Rebain, who literally wrote the book on Leopold (Arrested Adolescence) and maintains one of the foremost websites on the crime.
Watch our discussion on YouTube below (or listen here):
Next month: For July, we’re turning our attention to the Boston Strangler, with a look at films from 1964 and 1968, as well as the most contemporary version from 2023, starring Kiera Knightley and Carrie Coon.
Want even more true crime adaptations and Murder Made Fiction? Support the show on Patreon to listen to the aforementioned episodes, as well as a full-length primer on the case and 160+ hours of bonus content.
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