Podcasts
Keeping Our Long Overdue Appointment With ‘The Wicker Man’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
“It is time to keep your appointment with the Wicker Man…”
After celebrating March’s Friday the 13th with a look at Steve Miner’s Friday the 13th Part III (listen) and revisiting Radio Silence’s Ready or Not (listen), we’re going back in time to cover Robin Hardy‘s seminal folk horror classic The Wicker Man (1973)!
In The Wicker Man, devoutly Christian police officer Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) travels to to the island of Summerisle in search of a missing girl named Rowan. Upon his arrival, Howie takes note of the strange behavior of the islanders and is appalled to find that they have abandoned Christianity in favor of a form of Celtic paganism championed by the island’s leader Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee). No one on the island seems to have ever heard of Rowan, but Howie is determined to find the girl before the community’s annual Harvest Festival, which is when Howie thinks the islanders might sacrifice the girl for the good of their crops.
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Episode 379: The Wicker Man (1973) feat. Sean Abley
Remove your clothes, jump through that fire and dance around the maypole because we’re finally discussing Robin Hardy’s 1973 folk horror classic The Wicker Man! Tagging in for the conversation is writer/director/producer Sean Abley, co-author of the recent book Queer Horror: A Film Guide!
Join us as we go all in on the three different versions of this stealth musical(!!!) and find ourselves in deep philosophical waters as we parse through its heady themes.
Plus: phallic symbols galore, jars of foreskin, a cross-dressing Christopher Lee (who has rarely been better), and debating the intent vs. impact when it comes to sacrificing a man for the good of the crops (it’s always for the crops, isn’t it?).
Cross out The Wicker Man!
Coming Up Next: We’re celebrating Easter with a look at the fan favorite franchise entry Critters 2: The Main Course (listen to our episode on the original Critters here).
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It’s always a cruel summer, but 2026 is about to get crueler.
To blow off steam, the Losers hit the road to visit all the towns in Stephen King’s Dominion. Derry, Castle Rock, Ludlow, Boulder, the list goes on. They’ve got miles to drive and so many (scary) sights to see. At the end of the day, though, they have to ask themselves: Which one’s the best? And, more importantly, what does “best” mean in this context?
Stream the episode below. PayDays and Nozz-a-La, optional. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).