Podcasts
A Comedic Take on the Stalker Thriller in ‘The Cable Guy’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
Free cable is the ultimate aphrodisiac…
After kicking off June with discussions of our very first Vincent Price film in Theater of Blood (listen) and revisiting the world of Anne Rice (kinda) in Queen of the Damned (listen), we’re stepping out of our usual area of coverage to discuss Ben Stiller‘s genre-adjacent black comedy The Cable Guy (1996).
In The Cable Guy, newly single Steven Kovacs (Matthew Broderick) gets more than he bargained for after he bribes his eccentric cable installer, Ernie “Chip” Douglas (Jim Carrey), for free movie channels. While attempting to woo back his ex Robin (Leslie Mann), Steven must contend with Chip’s desperate need for companionship. Chip’s relationship-building tactics quickly escalate into obsessive stalking, making for a darkly comedic take on thrillers like Fatal Attraction and Single White Female.
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Episode 390: The Cable Guy (1996)
Get ready to tell us where you like it as we head to Medieval Times because we’re discussing Ben Stiller’s Jim Carrey-starring black comedy The Cable Guy (1996) for its 30th anniversary! Tagging in for the conversation are Patrick Hamilton and Gena Radcliffe of the Kill By Kill Podcast.
Join us as we go all in on the oddly prescient (and highly media literate) film made famous by Jim Carrey’s $20 million paycheck. From Carrey’s incredibly creepy performance to a nightmare sequence straight out of A Nightmare on Elm Street, there are a lot more horror (and homoerotic) undertones to this film than you might expect!
Plus, that iconic karaoke sequence, sexy Jack Black and comparisons to Single White Female, So I Married an Axe Murderer and Scream.
Cross out The Cable Guy!
Coming Up Next: We’re licking the drain as we check in with the Catton family in Emerald Fennel’s not-remake of The Talented Mr. Ripley in her 2023 sophomore feature Saltburn!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 498 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.
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.