November 3, 2025 • 37 mins
On this special bonus episode we break down Queens of the Dead (2025), Tina Romero’s vibrant, queer twist on the zombie genre. Set during a Brooklyn drag party turned undead apocalypse, the film blends camp, chaos, and heartfelt social commentary. Tina, daughter of horror legend George A. Romero, takes up her father’s mantle while carving her own path, infusing the classic zombie formula with drag culture, inclusivity, and a fierce sense of identity. We discuss how Queens of the Dead celebrates legacy, reinvention, and the power of community even at the end of the world.
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Join us on Patreon for some extra scary fun!
patreon.com/BillandAshTerrorTheater
@BATTpod on twitter
BillBria@billbria
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https://www.slashfilm.com/author/billbria/
https://billbria.contently.com/
billandashterrortheater@gmail.com
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You can find more from us and our other shows at https://www.strandedpanda.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Welcome to another horrifying episode of Bill and Ashley's Terror Theater.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
On the Marquis.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
This week is twenty twenty five's Queens of the Dead.
So grab your glitter and your poppers. We're going to
see smanse all that after these ads we have no
control over.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Welcome back.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I'm Ashley Coffin, joined as always by my co host
in Terror, Bill Bria Bill. Happy day after after Halloween, Darling.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
How are you doing.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I'm great. I'm tired. I know you're tired too. My
voice pussy Willow's, Oh Willows. Uh yeah, we we raged hard.
Yeah last night, both of us on separate coasts. Oh yes,
I think we both realized that we were both up
until four in the morning.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Uh yeah, I got two hours of sleep, went to
work at seven.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Hell yeah, I got it. Still, I still got forever young.
I walked out of work at three o'clock. I was like, Bill,
I'm home.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
It's like the day is over. But yeah, I know,
it was a great It was a great time had
by both of us last night. And uh yeah, I
got to see a little mini horror marathon. I got
to attend a house party and uh saw Jack Black
randomly because it's very schedulous, so it's a it's a
wild time Halloween.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I like that you played it cool and didn't do
what everybody else does and probably ask for a picture.
Oh yeah, No, I would never ask like I would
let the celebrity be like do you want to get
a pit?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Like do you want a picture? Like I would be
cool about it.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
If I met a celebrity, I might like beat my
eyes might be popping out of my head, like it's
obvious that I'm affected by your presence, But I'm not
going to be like a dick about it.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah. Yeah. And of course the more you know used
to us to that intercounter you get, the better it
is and easier it is to just be like, hey,
it's just Jack. You know, I don't know him, but like,
you know, I know of him sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
He's just this guy.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
This is a guy in films and he likes to
hang out at the Vista Theater.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Oh I guess.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Happy Uh Dia dilosmertees for everybody who.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Uh yes, celebrate Tortos Day of the Did, which is
another cool holiday and some cool films uh based around
it too. Not all horror films. Obviously, Coco very famously.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
That's a horror film.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I'm not Coca is terrifying.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, yeah, animated like I feel like Wednesday Atoms. If
people put Disney things on in front of me, it's Disney.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Oh yeah, well then you do like the creepy forced
smile that she does afterwards. Yeah, but yeah, no, it's
uh But then again, you listener are listening to Bill
and Ashy's tear Theaters. So it's Halloween year round here.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
So yeah, if you're getting a bonus up today, you are.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Getting a bonus app And so even though the spooky
season is I guess officially technically over, it never ends.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
It's always spooky season here.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
It's always here.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
So why don't you tell the people what we're doing
today and how it came around.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Well, we are talking about, as you said earlier, Queen's
the Dead, the first feature film from director Tina Romero,
director and co writer. And this happened because through my
work with you know, slash Film discussing film as a
film journalist out here in LA and part of that circuit,
I and fortunate enough to have access to you know,
(03:38):
press releases and pr folks and other sort of access
to various distributors and studios and such. And I believe
I don't think. I don't if it was an email
sent to me personally or if it was sent to
our email ash, but I think that one of us
or both of us maybe got a solicitation saying, hey,
there's screeners available for Queens the Dead if you urged it,
you know, viewing it and maybe talking about it or
(04:00):
you know, doing something with it on your podcast as
part of just covering it for the press. And I
figured it's an appropriate film for us absolutely obviously, not
just the horror factor, but the you know, zombie apocalypse factor,
the Romero factor because Tina is of course George Romero's daughter,
and and the fact that it does take place in
(04:23):
and have a lot to do with a club culture
and drag culture, and I know that's something that you
ask you're a big fan of, and.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, I lived that club life for a couple of
years in my twenties as well. And that's why I
was laughing at a lot of their jokes, because I
was like, oh, I remember when I used to have fun.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Well, tell us a little bit about and tell the
listeners a little bit about that, Like what did that
entail for you in terms of like was there a
routine that usually did or was it just sort of
the vibe that you sort of followed well.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
We I think it was when the DJ hype kind
of started, like when like Tiesta's always been a big thing,
but it was like Martin Garrick's was around, and like Hardwell,
and this is before a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Started doing like the big big festivals.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
They were doing smaller venues, warehouse parties like out in
the middle. I went and saw Hardwell in a city
around us called Bethlehem at like this warehouse.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
It was so cool, and I mean, you know, we
did it.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
We would go out once twice a month, and you know,
we did that for a couple of years. And we
would go to Atlantic City, which is really close to me.
I would go to New York. Luckily living in Philly,
it is easy.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
New York.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Philly and Atlantic City are big for for the party scene.
There's an awesome party scene in Philadelphia and everybody's so cool.
You never really meet shitty people that like Atlantic City
if you go to like the nice clubs, like the
Las Vegas style clubs, the douchebags are in there, you know,
the bottle service douchebags.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Sorry, if you're one of them. You know, be cool,
Be cool to the poor people. That's all I want
to say. But you know, other than that, it's just
like it's a fun vibe. You never really, you know,
never had problems with people. I also grew up around
drag queens. I went to the Keys every summer for
a month in August with family friends. As I've said
(06:04):
at nauseum, but I got to hang out at a
young age. I got to see the drag queens, and
I got I was very inspired by them. They're the
reason why I'm not embarrassed to wear anything I want
to any event. I'm not embarrassed to be the most
dressed up person in the room. And I have a
confidence about what I want to wear and like how
(06:24):
I want to present myself. And I think that came
from being around a lot of dry queens and you know,
just being like I want to be I want to
be you. You know, look at this beautiful woman when
I was twelve and didn't really know and then growing
up and like going like I had my bachelorette party
down there, at that specific club Aqua. I'm friends with
some of the drag queens there now who I've known
(06:45):
for I don't know, fifteen twenty years, just from going
back and forth there, and it's it's there's I honestly,
there's just like nowhere else in the world i'd rather be.
I'm very lucky that can you know. Sometimes he's likeugh,
I'm kind of done with this. He does get you know,
he gets groped when we go there, but I'm like, see,
you know, but he's a good sport about it. He
always likes the girls. He always will come with me,
(07:08):
and you know, it's really fun. And I'm a huge
fan of Like I love that drag is mainstream now,
I guess to kind of say with Drag Race, but like,
I'm a huge fan of Trixie Mattel and Katya. I
love their YouTube show always Watching, where they just watch
Netflix shows and kind of break them down and make
fun of them. It's like my dream job. I am
a disciple of the Boulet Brothers. Drag Morda and swan
(07:30):
Thula is everything I love in the entire world. Not
only is it drag, but it's the horror, the filth,
the glamour, their whole their drag race is a horror
based and it is like they're really good friends with
like David Desmuchin and on their show, like the guest
judges every week are people who are very deep in
the horror scene and it's just, you know, like that
show's going on now, they're always doing something fun, and
(07:52):
you know, some of my favorite queens have been on
that show that I follow because of them, like Victoria
Elizabeth black A Bora Disaster Arena, which is probably one
of my favorite drag names of all time, Bitch Pudding
vander Vaughan odd Land Insider who was a drag king
who won one year, so good, Louisiana Purchase, which is
also one of the best names ever, Priscilla Chambers, Saint
(08:12):
Co Cocaine near A Herou, Dolly Asia Consent also another
good name. I could keep going, but I won't. And
then there's the drag race girls who are just above
and beyond what you know, like Alaska Thunderfuk of course,
Peaches christ who bj who guested on our show. I
was like star struck by her when she told me
(08:33):
she was just on therapy on Peaches christ podcast Will,
I'm like again, I could keep going. I'm not going
to It's a big part of my life. And they
did stuff in this movie that like like the liquor,
like the Drag Queen Liquor. There is Trixie Alaska and
a couple of the undergirls have a vaka line called
(08:54):
Serve and it's very funny, and that's very much what
it felt like they were doing in this was kind
of like pointing that out, So it was fun in this.
I laughed at the entire time. This movie was one
hundred percent for me. I really loved I love this
movie so much. I was having a hard time when
people were getting knocked off because I loved the characters
and I didn't want them gone.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah. Well, I think the thing that's really interesting about
this film, and I'll get to that in a second,
just because I don't have as nearly extensive a relationship
with drag as you do, very very small. But I
will say that just living in New York City for
fifteen years, obviously I wasn't really part of the club culture,
but I went to my you know, I went to
bars and clubs in my time, and I love that
(09:34):
this film really does capture that vibe specifically of the
New York scene. I also have a friend who I
you know, they were my supervisor at the Met Opera
for years and years, and they have a drag identity
which they were telling me about, which we, you know,
sort of bonded over in terms of like the sort
of you know, there's like almost like a superhero secret
identity aspect to it, you know, which they touch upon
(09:56):
in the movie here. Yes, but yeah, I think that
what's interesting is zombie apocalypse movies tend to be well,
I mean, first of all, there're a dime a dozen nowadays,
so like there's so many and it's very hard to
stand out from the pack, you know, just generally being
a zombie movie or at least the beginning of a
zombie apocalypse movie, because these things tend to go sort
of one of two ways. And again this is a
(10:16):
very big generalization, but either it's you know, a group
of characters sort of banding together and trying to fight
this horde of you know, encroaching dead, or it's a
group of people who find themselves thrown together, and then
it's they're sort of a microcosm of the decay or
the dissillusion of society, you know, where like things just
break down and like do not go well. Obviously, this
(10:40):
movie is about, you know, the first part where the former,
which is that you know, these people come together and
they are united generally as as a unit against you know,
this encroaching force. And I think that it's really clever
what this movie does in terms of carrying over that
sense of community and that sense of togetherness from the
(11:00):
subculture or just culture.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
And you see the feistiatus too, which is also fun
like they're so funny.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
But I think that ultimately the thing that that really
got me about this movie is the humor. It is
just consistently really entertaining and really funny throughout.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
So funny.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
So the plot is the film follows a group of
dry queens, club kids and frenemies who must put aside
their personal drama and use their unique skills to fight
the flesh thirsty undead when a zombie apocalypse breaks out
on the night of a giant warehouse party. And what
we see is it's actually happening like all over New York,
which I thought was really fun right.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Oh yeah, And obviously, you know, to talk about the
elephant in the room. As I said earlier, this is written,
co written, directed by Tina Romero, who is George A.
Romo's daughter. And you know, obviously when you are I
mean not to use the term because she's not a
huge celebrity, but when you're a nepo baby, yeah, and
you're kind of playing in your parents's you know, sandboxes,
(11:59):
so to speak. You know, it's like if Francesca Scorsese
was going to make a film about you know, the
Mafia or something right or something like that, right, you know,
it could be difficult obviously, where it's like, you know, oh,
you're not your dad and all that sort of thing.
I think what she's really clever at doing here is
the fact that, yes she's using zombies, and yes it's
ultimately a zombie apocalypse movie, but none of this really
(12:21):
feels like lesser Romero or something, you know another It
never feels like an imitation of her dad or you know,
trying to fit into that world or something like that.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
You know, Well, what I love is they make sure
to keep saying that over and over. It's so funny
because so I have a quote that she said, and
she said, we're so different aesthetically, So I really wanted
to introduce myself as a filmmaker and call out that
this is not a George Romero movie. And one of
the first lines of dialogue from one of the Queen's,
Julie j who discovers this blood trail while they're hunting
(12:52):
for their latest booty call at a church. The opening
to this opening had me in stitches. But that's what
they're yelling in this church. This isn't a Georgia Merrow movie.
She sat like shouts, and then a few minutes later
is attacked by a zombie and then the zombie priest
rips her apart like the sexy zombie priest.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
And she said that line felt important to me because
I knew this was in some way a risk to
jump into the sandbox that he had created. I felt
very proud and responsible to carry on the Romero zombies
into twenty twenty five, and I wanted to hang onto
his rules and his monster and the spirit of him
as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
And I love that.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I love that. I think that the movie absolutely bears
that out. She does, because the zombies, just in terms
of their look, they really reminded me of Dawn of
the Dead era. Yeah, they're like bluish, bluish, that bluish
skin which is kind of a stand in for like,
I guess, you know, Rigor Mortist skin or something like that,
but it just has that special look to it that
only really it feels like only Romero used and you
(13:50):
know now she's using it too. There's also some really
neat little Easter Egg cameos throughout the movie. Gaya Galen
Ross turns up as a stern nurse. Tom Savini's the he's.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
The mayor of New York, but he was sitting in.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
The president the President.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
What did he pop up in something recently or was
it like Halloween Kills or I feel like he was.
I keep seeing him as these cute little cameos and things,
and it makes me happy. He was grumpy Grandad, my
grumpy favorite uncle. I'll still never forget he was so grumpy.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
And also I think I saw in the credits that
Greg Nicataro, who you know, obviously has the longest tree
with the ram or had the longest, has the longest
as well, who took over like the Creep Show brand
for Shutter and everything like that. He worked on some
of those special effects makeup apparently too.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
God, when we did VHS Halloween, I'm sorry that this
is popping into my head.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Now.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Did we talk about the fact that that was at
the Halloween House?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (14:47):
The last one that that was that very famous makeup
we did talk about, right, Okay, we did. I don't know,
Sorry break jumping in there. But it's my favorite to
see these guys. I've gotten very familiar with all of
their faces obviously over the years. But Shutter does these
documentaries or I guess they're documentaries where they break down movies.
They you know, they have so many different ones. There's
all these different episodes and it's usually the same group
(15:10):
of kind of experts who are telling us all these
different things. And I love when they have the makeup
guys in there.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Yeah. Oh, by the way, the Tom Zovidi appearance, you
were probably thinking it was Terrifier three. That was it.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
That was it, That was it, that was it.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
But yeah, so you know, obviously Tina is not trying
to distance herself from her father's work, and she's really
embracing it, but in a way that I think feels
wholesome and healthy and not lazy or you know, exploitative,
you know, or opportunistic. You know. It's not like, oh,
I'm going to make one and everybody's gonna love it
sort of thing. It's more just an honest, like embracing
(15:44):
of that legacy and trying to carry it forward, but
in her own way, in her own voice.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Well, and then I think she takes it a little
deeper with the themes and the subtexts that like are very interesting,
like the modern zombification, Like through the brief nods to
the phone addiction, social media, Ramierre's linking the digital obsession
to the zombie metaphor, and like there's this one scene
where all the zombies are at the nightclub like kind
of dancing, but then they're all looking at their phone
(16:11):
and you're just like, oh my god. Because the the
you know, the queens keep you know, doing their tiktoks
or their live things to like tell people what's going
on or where they're going to be that night, because
it's this big party and they're all bailing on each
other and going to different parties, but like they have
a following, and it was very very modern.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I guess, oh yeah, it's definitely updated and what's what's
the name is it Yasmine, who's like the the big
star that sort of you know, full of herself. Yes, yes, yeah, yeah,
I love that at one moment. The fact that, you know,
because there's always sort of an element in these movies
nowadays where you know, there's so many of them, so
(16:51):
they have to sort of you know, differentiate from each
other and stand out and kind of play with the
tropes that you know, these these movies tend to use.
And so, for instance, just us an example, in Short
of the Dead, there's this aspect of like, if we
just act like the zombies, maybe they won't bother us
because they'll think them. So I like that that that
version of that in this movie and Queen's the Dead
is the notifications everybody gets on their phone for yazmins,
(17:14):
live stream or whatever, and so that instantly distracts them
and allows the people to escape, get up, to get out.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Knowing what I know from my crazy lifestyle, when they
are starting to in the beginning, they're taking some drugs
and they're popping Zandi bars, and in my head, I'm like,
that is the last thing you would ever want to
be on during a zombie apocalypse because they make you,
they make you sleep, they make you black out, they
make you tired. That's not an upper So I was like, oh, no, queens,
(17:43):
what is it sugar, Yes, smooches, scrumptious scrumpties.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, and uh that was Nico right man.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Those two were so funny.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Mos Patos in that role is just so funny.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I've danced in a cage before, by the way, and
it is a lot of fun at a vampire bar
in New Orleans. Top that you that you're not allowed
to take pictures in there.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
That's that's why you're hosting this podcast, right.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Oh god, it was so fun.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
It was so fun.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
But whenever I see the cages, I'm like, it's also
like a really safe place to be because people can't
get to you.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Oh yeah, But I loved the entire cast. I thought
everybody was really great. It was fun to see Margaret
cho pop up randomly. I'm like, lesbian power in this
movie is hot, Like there's I loved the mix of everybody.
And then they had a straight white dude in there
who they were just like teaching, like they were tearing
(18:38):
them down, but they're also like, he's the one like
us being like, you know, they're like, that's the day.
You know, she is not a she, she's a day.
He is a she, and you need to use their
pronouns right, And he's like, I don't know what's going on,
and it's just it's the script is.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
So smart and it's so funny.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
It so really is it really is? Yeah, it's it's
yet another showcase for Katie O'Brien, who has really been
popping off recently, and you know, a variety of roles,
like she's been the lead or co lead in Love
Life's Bleeding, the Rose Glass film. She you know, appeared
in Mister Impossible, The Final Reckoning, she appeared in Twisters.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
She's gonna appear I know her from So I didn't
see the Kristen Stewart wrestling movie.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Yeah, oh you should. It's really good.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yeah I can't. It's hard for me to stomach her.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Well fair enough, but like it does go to some
strange places that I think you'd appreciate, Okay, but yeah, no,
she's she's just kind of really uh, this fascinating new
uh person on the scene. And not new, of course,
because every actor, you know, they spend years in years
trying to make work their way up. So it's not
like she's just you know, turned up. But I think that,
you know, she's having a moment for a good reason,
which is the fact that she just has that special
(19:45):
blend of uh, you know, allure, but also integrity and
obviously strength. I mean, she has her moment here where
she's you know, taken down some zombies and everything like that,
which is pretty fun. And then yeah, I she's also
obviously you can roll with the punches in terms of
the comedy as well. But yeah, to a person, everybody
(20:05):
in this cast is just really really funny and really entertaining.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
I was shocked to see Rikyu Lindholm pop up as well.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, it's like, what are you doing here?
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Yeah, And she's such a fun presence in and I
think especially horror comedies, because she was in shoot, what's
the uh demon baby one that I can't remember the
name of.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Oh, isn't it just isn't it called like demon Baby?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
I remember?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I actually really liked.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
That one because she was funny in that she's very
naked in that one, She's very Isn't that the shower one?
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yeah? It is? Is that is indeed that one.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
A scene in that movie that lives run free in
my head is when the three of them are eating
po boys and just farting.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I think about it more than I should.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I feel like I have to say the name of
this now because people can check it out.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Isn't it just demon Baby?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
I swear to God, I'm looking up. I'm looking it
up right now. I'll see if I can find it.
It didn't seem like it was that long ago, but
maybe it was a little bit of a oh it
was a while ago. Uh. Time moves differently these days.
It feels like hell Baby. You're right, hell Baby. It
wasn't even baby, it was hell Baby. But yeah, so yeah,
it feels like kind of another, you know, extension of
(21:14):
that uh in that way. And she usually fun in.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
This and I liked I really liked the the the
girl who was in the hospital with her.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Yeah, she was great. She was great. Was that Jane?
I think the jam thinks. So.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Yeah, there was a lot of characters, and it's like,
even with them written down, I'm looking at it and
I'm like, I don't know who who? Yeah, well we
only I only got to watch it once because you
get a couple of time.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yeah, it's hard to watch after after one viewing. Yeah,
it's hard to remember everything.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
But yeah, I enjoyed all of it very very much.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
I like the main drag queen, the big girl who
was who you know, when she died, I was very upset,
the one who kind.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Of like sacrificed herself. She's like jes go, I'm like no.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
And I was really happy to see Jakel's ivy uh
turned up because I really did like them in the
musical version of Mean Girls movie that came out a
year ago. That movie is you know what, you can
say whatever you want, But I really did think that
they're a great presence, and I think that continues in
this movie for sure.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I did not see that. Okay, Nina West, That's who
I'm talking about. Oh, Seyenne Jackson was the bartender.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
I love him. He's always in Ryan Murphy's stuff.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Oh yeah, And so this this really does have a
really nice mix of you know, sort of quote unquote
name people and people that maybe you haven't seen before,
haven't heard meant much before. And overall, I think what's impressive,
you know, and sort of credit to Romero on is
the fact that it does feel like an ensemble, and
it never feels like, Okay, here's the star and then
like here's the other people.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
You know, sort of thing, right, Oh, agreed.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
It does feel like these these characters are all in
the same world. They're all in the same group, and
you know, none of them really feels like they stand
out in a weird way for the rest of them.
You know, I will say, you know, in terms of criticism,
this movie is not the scariest. You know, I don't
think it's trying to be right, but there's there's maybe
like one or two jump scares that I think are
effective but are even attempted. And then I think most
(23:05):
other stuff is really just going for the comedy more
than often than not, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah, I mean the movie tries to balance this horror
comedy and musical camp thing that's going on.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
The mix doesn't always kind of land cleanly.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
But it's fun and it's flashy, and it's kind of
like you have your laugh out loud moments, and you know,
fans going into this expecting like either a full horror
experience or a full comedy experience might be a little
caught off guard or caught in the middle of like
no feeling whether like do I like this or I
not like this?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
What's going on?
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Do I feel like I thought I was going to
see a zombie horror movie and I'm you know, at Cabaret.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Yeah, totally. And it also doesn't really add any new
like lore to the zombie as a creature. You know,
it doesn't like create like a new rule or it
doesn't like review.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
I like the phone stuff.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
I thought that was great. That was cool, I know,
I mean in terms of but in general, like you know,
in the sense that say, uh, you know, we're George
Romero's zombie movies would always attempt to sort of add
I don't know, some sort of new idea or new
concept to because I think that.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Oh, yeah, like the talking ones, Yeah, because he's underwater ones.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Yeah, the underwater they can walk underwater sort of stuff.
If of Land of the Dead. I feel like he
was always interested in that from his perspective, just because
you know, if you know anything about George Romeiro, like
at a certain point he kind of resented the fact
that he was just only known for zombie movies popular
culture wise, Uh and uh sort of felt like, Okay,
I'll make another one, but I gotta find something interesting
(24:31):
about it to make another one for you know sort
of stuff. And it feels like, I mean, there's obviously
so much innovation and originality around the whole concept of
this movie to start with that, I don't think Tina
ever felt like, oh, I got to add some new
like zombie, you know, sort of tropes or something or
new zombie interesting.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
These zombies aren't even kind of in it that much.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Yeah, they're just they're they're there, but they're the sort of.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Space for the personalities to really show through.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
So like it, if your look for a full on
zombie movie, I might dilute the urgency of you know
it kind of the apocalypse story is like happening in
the background and it doesn't seem very urgent.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
And that might be because of budget reasons. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
I mean, obviously I'm sure that they didn't have all
the money in the world to kind of make this.
But where it does work is you get to spend
the time with the characters and really enjoy them and
enjoy the dialogue they enjoy, the community and the chosen
family themes of this Like this film uses the drag
world to show how marginalized groups support each other in
ways when society collapses in ways that other people kind
(25:32):
of you know, you know, turn on each other. This community,
it's showing like they don't. And I loved that. And
it shows joy as resistance rather than giving into like
a bleak, we're never getting out of this. The story
finds like hope and performance, artistry and unity, turning survival
into its own like active pride, and I had the
(25:53):
themes of this were perfect.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
And really it's a zombie movie that doesn't even need
the zombies to be great, you know, like if you
took them out, it just replaced it with I don't know,
just writing people, you know, it would still be just
that good, you know, yeah, what else anything else we
would talk about?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Uh, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I think I think this movie is less about scaring
you and more about celebrating you, especially if you are
part of the queer or drag community. It's loud, it's messy,
it's heartfelt, and it's kind of like unlike anything else
you've seen in the zombie genre, and you get to
feel like, hey, there's I'm seen and they're making movies
about me, and I could you know the struggles of
(26:33):
losing your nerve to go back out on stage after
something happens, which is one of Sam or Simonse goes
through this, like I got scared on stage once and
now I can't go back. You and I are performers,
and you know that feeling, and sometimes if something happens,
it can be so hard to put the makeup on
and go back up on the stage. And there's just
(26:53):
you know, I liked a lot of the little side
stories with everybody. Everybody mattered, even when it goes a
little off the rails. When Margaret Show and her little
gang show up, Yeah it was fine, No, no, I
still enjoy everybody showed up.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
I was like, oh, here we go. This is going
to really sort of derail things. And by the way,
and expect them rats, I know. And by the end
of the Rats, I was like, oh no, don't leave,
you know what. I so like, Yeah, it really does
turn it around on you as a viewer in terms
of paying off everything that's introduced. Uh. Listening to you
talk about it brought up another idea in my mind,
which is the fact that I really like how this
film is simultaneously inclusive and exclusive in the sense that
(27:30):
you uh, you know, I'm speaking. It's a straight white
male here. You don't really need to have a background
in drag culture or you know, club culture or anything
like that to watch it, understand it, and enjoy it.
At the same time, it's not a handholding movie. It's
not like explaining to a generic white audience or straight
white audience. Okay, here's what this is about. Here's the definition.
(27:51):
Like there's no montage sequence where like somebody like narrates
over you know, like no like drag people getting ready
or whatever, like here's what we do with this, and
here's what we do.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
So that's had that one scene where it's like here,
here's pronouns, and here's what we do and how here's
how we explain them.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
And that's all you needed.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
And for the person who doesn't know about these things,
that's why they had the character of the brother so
that you could, you know, kind of see things through
the brother in law. That scene was wild when he
threw that axe, Like I feel like I would do
it too, but that was a bit extreme, just to
like kick things off.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
He throws an axe because he sees.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
The zombie and the first thing this dude does before
even like telling anybody about it, is smash a ax
for the for a fire, get up on the bar
and throw it at this thing where he misses and
it goes into I believe it's Kelsey's leg. And that
was so goddamn funny. And then they're just giving her booze.
(28:48):
They're like, you can't walk around because luckily Sam's a
doctor a nurse.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
So yeah, it was. It was just brilliant.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Yeah, So I think that I guess what we're both
saying tier to the listeners who maybe have yet is
the fact that, like, there's so much to enjoy in
this movie. There's so much to learn, there's so much
to explore, and there's there's so much weight to it
and and you know, substance, and you know, I think
that what's clever but also interesting is the fact that
(29:16):
the zombie aspect of it isn't necessarily even you know,
necessary or it's just sort of you know, yeah, like
we were saying earlier, like don't necessarily don't come to
this thinking, oh, I'm going to see like a hardcore
new like zombie crazy. You know, it's really not about that.
I think that's a bonus. I think that when you
watch this movie, like it's also got zombies in it,
(29:38):
which is pretty cool, you know, which is which is neat?
And it's hard. It's hard to make a good zombie
movie these days in terms of like standing out from
the pack, you know.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, And I think Rimero stayed true to her father's
slow moving zombie tradition, but she did give it that
modern twist. It's the undead, you know, shuffle through neon
lights and club beats and turning glam gore into an
art form. And I was like, it's very Blay Brothers
and that's yeah. I loved I loved it.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
So yeah, I think that. Unfortunately, you know, it's got
a very small release right now.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
It is it going to be on Shutter because I
saw Shutter backed debt.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Yeah, so it was distributed by both the IFC Independent
Film Company and Shutter, And I think the idea is
that once it finishes at small run in theaters, which
is started on the twenty fourth of October, my birthday,
it'll be it'll be on Shutter eventually for sure. And
I'm sure physical media too, because Shutter has been really
supportive of physical media, which is great. We love them
(30:30):
for that. Yeah, and I think that, Yeah, this is
going to be something kind of similar to a majority
of Romeiro George Rameiro's movies. You know, it finds its audience,
you know, throughout the years. It doesn't necessarily like have
a huge, splashy opening and then all that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
But yeah, if it is playing near you, wherever you
are in the country, like, definitely go see it because
it's a good time.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yeah, go say like again, if you see it on streaming,
it's it's like, I don't know, an hour and forty
minutes and it's fantastic. Yeah, it's not long, and it's
just a really fun, colorful watch, you know.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Yeah, And I'm excited to see what what Tina does
next in terms of she could make a sequel to this,
if there's a market for it. She could do she
could again follow in her father's footsteps and just make
another zombie ish film with new characters, you know, totally different,
or she could just go in a whole new direction.
(31:21):
I don't know where.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Well I'm going with her Hell yeah recommendations.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Oh I'll go first, we do know, don't we Okay.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
I mean I'm gonna just make it. I'm stealing Zombie Strippers.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
So Zombie Strippers from two thousand and eight was one
of my like I loved it so much.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
And this has like Robert England.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
It's got Jennet Jamison and it kind of starts not
unsimilar to this one. Like the one, the main who
you think is going to be like the main character
gets bit and that was Janet Jamison.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
She's you know, it's very so.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
The plot is with too many wars and too few soldiers,
a law develops a virus that brings dead marines back
to life. When a test subject escapes, he heads to
a strip club and effects dancer Jesse Jennifer Holland, who
becomes a zombie. The club's owner, Ian Robert England as
in you know, Freddy Krueger, discovers that undone Jesse pulls
in more money and he encourages the other girls to
(32:12):
get infected, including popular the most popular girl Kat Jenna Jamison.
Cat and her friends go along with the plan, but
then they start killing all the clients. And that is
directed by Jay Lee, and thank you jay Lee. That
movie is awesome. The ping Pongs, the ping pongs.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Oh that's great. I love that. Gosh. I don't know
what to recommend here because there's just so many options
in terms of like zombie comedies. I don't know why
I'm feeling like maybe, no, I don't know if that
that really fits. I'm thinking here, I should have thought
of that before. We Hey, it was four am a
(32:49):
Halloween lay before. So let me just reiterate that listening.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
That's not an excuse.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
It is an excuse. No, I totally I was there. No,
but yeah, I'm just like, excuse. I'm not saying it's
a good excuse. I'm just saying it is an excuse.
I don't know why I want to say this, because
I don't think it's actually appropriate, but I kind of
want to say A Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse,
which is the Christopher Landon directed zombie comedy from several
(33:14):
years ago. It's much more like Broie obviously than this
movie that's funny, yeah, from twenty fifteen. But then again,
Christopher Landon is an out queer filmmaker, and this was
one of his first efforts, you know, as a solo director,
and he did co write the screenplay as well, and
so even though it has a little bit of that,
(33:35):
you know, more sort of obviously like straight ish you know,
lens to it. It really does have a lot of
camp as involved too, which is pretty fun. Cloris Leachman
becomes a zombie at one point, yes, you know, and
it does have a cool you know lead in Ty Sheridan.
David Keckners in there too, is the Scout leader, and
(33:56):
similarly to a Queen's the Dead, it doesn't do anything
unquote new with the zombie creature, you know, it is
just it's kind of just another zombie comedy, you know,
at a base level, but it really is the comedy
and it's the vibe and it's the actors and it's
everything that's at the top of it that really makes
it special.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
So yeah, oh I love it. Few all right, So
we are wrapped up on that feature film. We have
a little bit of a feedback. You want to you
want to read a little feedback?
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Yeah? Absolutely. Uh So this comes to us from Christian
McMullen and they say, hey, Bill and Ash, firstly, thank
you for the show. I'm not the biggest horror fan,
but I dip in and out and you guys do
a great job of covering lots of what I enjoy
as well, so I always have a listen, and you've
introduced me to some new films as well or given
me the quote unquote balls to watch them. Even so,
(34:44):
I had suggestion for an episode for your consideration after
watching The Fly for the first time. What about a
top ranked body horror show. There is a lot to
choose from, so I'm sure it will be tough. I've
tried my ranking here and they ranked one The Thing,
two Scanners, three The Fly, four Bad Taste, and five
Hell Raiser. But I'm very certain there are others I
(35:05):
don't know about. Anyway, keep up the good work, Ash,
I don't know how you do it, as you seem
to be on every podcast and the pandit verse. Always
good to hear your thoughts. Buy from leads. I need
a break.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
I'm busy.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
It looked and busy as they say, Uh yeah, no,
I mean obviously, uh we.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Did our Shark exploitation one.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
So this something episode that we could consider for sure.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Because god, I mean, my favorite favorite body heart is
like Franken Hooker.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
Well, don't give it away now, Ash, you know, I'm just.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
He was I'm giving him some ideas.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
I could keep going and going and going and going
a racer heead okay.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
All right, Uh, if you're interested, Christian, I did do
it article for Slash Film which is a ranked list
of the most disgusting moments in David Kronenberg's philography. So
you might check that out for some more ideas too.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
What's that one, baby blood or something?
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Baby blood?
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Yeah, we talked about you want to you want to
watch something crazy? Yeah, Christian, baby blood.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
That won't be on my top five list, but you
will watch something crazy. I mean, I'm not saying I
don't love that, but there's so many better body hors.
But if you want a good time, you want a
good time, you go watch baby Blood.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Yeah, absolutely watch that and watch some more frank kenon
latter not just Franken Hooker, but also bad Biology. If
you want to see something really messed up.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Yeah, night breed back to Cronerg Well Barker yeah or whatever.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Oh he's in it?
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
What's that one? It's a Japanese one. It's like the
Iron Man to.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
One. Why Yeah? Yeah, that could be fun, could be fun.
We might talk about that. Thank you, Christian, Thank you, Christian.
And uh yeah, so happy November fiends. We'll have some
more stuff coming your way until the end of the year,
and obviously please uh if you have any more ideas
like that, let us know. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
We we love feedback and we love ideas.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Yes, thank you all for joining us for this episode
of Bill and Ashley's Terror Theater, part of the Stranded
Pen Network. You can find my work in the show
notes links below. Check us out on social media. You
can find this show at strandedpinda dot com and everywhere
else you get your podcasts. Join our Patreon at patreon
(37:25):
dot com. Slash Bill and Nash Terror Theater. If you
have questions or comments, please feel free to write to
us at Bill and Nash Terror Theater at gmail dot com.
We're dying to hear you and see you in Your
guide is
Welcome to another horrifying episode of Bill and Ashley's Terror Theater.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
On the Marquis.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
This week is twenty twenty five's Queens of the Dead.
So grab your glitter and your poppers. We're going to
see smanse all that after these ads we have no
control over.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Welcome back.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I'm Ashley Coffin, joined as always by my co host
in Terror, Bill Bria Bill. Happy day after after Halloween, Darling.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
How are you doing.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I'm great. I'm tired. I know you're tired too. My
voice pussy Willow's, Oh Willows. Uh yeah, we we raged hard.
Yeah last night, both of us on separate coasts. Oh yes,
I think we both realized that we were both up
until four in the morning.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Uh yeah, I got two hours of sleep, went to
work at seven.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Hell yeah, I got it. Still, I still got forever young.
I walked out of work at three o'clock. I was like, Bill,
I'm home.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
It's like the day is over. But yeah, I know,
it was a great It was a great time had
by both of us last night. And uh yeah, I
got to see a little mini horror marathon. I got
to attend a house party and uh saw Jack Black
randomly because it's very schedulous, so it's a it's a
wild time Halloween.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I like that you played it cool and didn't do
what everybody else does and probably ask for a picture.
Oh yeah, No, I would never ask like I would
let the celebrity be like do you want to get
a pit?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Like do you want a picture? Like I would be
cool about it.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
If I met a celebrity, I might like beat my
eyes might be popping out of my head, like it's
obvious that I'm affected by your presence, But I'm not
going to be like a dick about it.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah. Yeah. And of course the more you know used
to us to that intercounter you get, the better it
is and easier it is to just be like, hey,
it's just Jack. You know, I don't know him, but like,
you know, I know of him sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
He's just this guy.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
This is a guy in films and he likes to
hang out at the Vista Theater.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Oh I guess.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Happy Uh Dia dilosmertees for everybody who.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Uh yes, celebrate Tortos Day of the Did, which is
another cool holiday and some cool films uh based around
it too. Not all horror films. Obviously, Coco very famously.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
That's a horror film.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I'm not Coca is terrifying.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, yeah, animated like I feel like Wednesday Atoms. If
people put Disney things on in front of me, it's Disney.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Oh yeah, well then you do like the creepy forced
smile that she does afterwards. Yeah, but yeah, no, it's
uh But then again, you listener are listening to Bill
and Ashy's tear Theaters. So it's Halloween year round here.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
So yeah, if you're getting a bonus up today, you are.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Getting a bonus app And so even though the spooky
season is I guess officially technically over, it never ends.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
It's always spooky season here.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
It's always here.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
So why don't you tell the people what we're doing
today and how it came around.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Well, we are talking about, as you said earlier, Queen's
the Dead, the first feature film from director Tina Romero,
director and co writer. And this happened because through my
work with you know, slash Film discussing film as a
film journalist out here in LA and part of that circuit,
I and fortunate enough to have access to you know,
(03:38):
press releases and pr folks and other sort of access
to various distributors and studios and such. And I believe
I don't think. I don't if it was an email
sent to me personally or if it was sent to
our email ash, but I think that one of us
or both of us maybe got a solicitation saying, hey,
there's screeners available for Queens the Dead if you urged it,
you know, viewing it and maybe talking about it or
(04:00):
you know, doing something with it on your podcast as
part of just covering it for the press. And I
figured it's an appropriate film for us absolutely obviously, not
just the horror factor, but the you know, zombie apocalypse factor,
the Romero factor because Tina is of course George Romero's daughter,
and and the fact that it does take place in
(04:23):
and have a lot to do with a club culture
and drag culture, and I know that's something that you
ask you're a big fan of, and.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, I lived that club life for a couple of
years in my twenties as well. And that's why I
was laughing at a lot of their jokes, because I
was like, oh, I remember when I used to have fun.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Well, tell us a little bit about and tell the
listeners a little bit about that, Like what did that
entail for you in terms of like was there a
routine that usually did or was it just sort of
the vibe that you sort of followed well.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
We I think it was when the DJ hype kind
of started, like when like Tiesta's always been a big thing,
but it was like Martin Garrick's was around, and like Hardwell,
and this is before a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Started doing like the big big festivals.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
They were doing smaller venues, warehouse parties like out in
the middle. I went and saw Hardwell in a city
around us called Bethlehem at like this warehouse.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
It was so cool, and I mean, you know, we
did it.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
We would go out once twice a month, and you know,
we did that for a couple of years. And we
would go to Atlantic City, which is really close to me.
I would go to New York. Luckily living in Philly,
it is easy.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
New York.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Philly and Atlantic City are big for for the party scene.
There's an awesome party scene in Philadelphia and everybody's so cool.
You never really meet shitty people that like Atlantic City
if you go to like the nice clubs, like the
Las Vegas style clubs, the douchebags are in there, you know,
the bottle service douchebags.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Sorry, if you're one of them. You know, be cool,
Be cool to the poor people. That's all I want
to say. But you know, other than that, it's just
like it's a fun vibe. You never really, you know,
never had problems with people. I also grew up around
drag queens. I went to the Keys every summer for
a month in August with family friends. As I've said
(06:04):
at nauseum, but I got to hang out at a
young age. I got to see the drag queens, and
I got I was very inspired by them. They're the
reason why I'm not embarrassed to wear anything I want
to any event. I'm not embarrassed to be the most
dressed up person in the room. And I have a
confidence about what I want to wear and like how
(06:24):
I want to present myself. And I think that came
from being around a lot of dry queens and you know,
just being like I want to be I want to
be you. You know, look at this beautiful woman when
I was twelve and didn't really know and then growing
up and like going like I had my bachelorette party
down there, at that specific club Aqua. I'm friends with
some of the drag queens there now who I've known
(06:45):
for I don't know, fifteen twenty years, just from going
back and forth there, and it's it's there's I honestly,
there's just like nowhere else in the world i'd rather be.
I'm very lucky that can you know. Sometimes he's likeugh,
I'm kind of done with this. He does get you know,
he gets groped when we go there, but I'm like, see,
you know, but he's a good sport about it. He
always likes the girls. He always will come with me,
(07:08):
and you know, it's really fun. And I'm a huge
fan of Like I love that drag is mainstream now,
I guess to kind of say with Drag Race, but like,
I'm a huge fan of Trixie Mattel and Katya. I
love their YouTube show always Watching, where they just watch
Netflix shows and kind of break them down and make
fun of them. It's like my dream job. I am
a disciple of the Boulet Brothers. Drag Morda and swan
(07:30):
Thula is everything I love in the entire world. Not
only is it drag, but it's the horror, the filth,
the glamour, their whole their drag race is a horror
based and it is like they're really good friends with
like David Desmuchin and on their show, like the guest
judges every week are people who are very deep in
the horror scene and it's just, you know, like that
show's going on now, they're always doing something fun, and
(07:52):
you know, some of my favorite queens have been on
that show that I follow because of them, like Victoria
Elizabeth black A Bora Disaster Arena, which is probably one
of my favorite drag names of all time, Bitch Pudding
vander Vaughan odd Land Insider who was a drag king
who won one year, so good, Louisiana Purchase, which is
also one of the best names ever, Priscilla Chambers, Saint
(08:12):
Co Cocaine near A Herou, Dolly Asia Consent also another
good name. I could keep going, but I won't. And
then there's the drag race girls who are just above
and beyond what you know, like Alaska Thunderfuk of course,
Peaches christ who bj who guested on our show. I
was like star struck by her when she told me
(08:33):
she was just on therapy on Peaches christ podcast Will,
I'm like again, I could keep going. I'm not going
to It's a big part of my life. And they
did stuff in this movie that like like the liquor,
like the Drag Queen Liquor. There is Trixie Alaska and
a couple of the undergirls have a vaka line called
(08:54):
Serve and it's very funny, and that's very much what
it felt like they were doing in this was kind
of like pointing that out, So it was fun in this.
I laughed at the entire time. This movie was one
hundred percent for me. I really loved I love this
movie so much. I was having a hard time when
people were getting knocked off because I loved the characters
and I didn't want them gone.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah. Well, I think the thing that's really interesting about
this film, and I'll get to that in a second,
just because I don't have as nearly extensive a relationship
with drag as you do, very very small. But I
will say that just living in New York City for
fifteen years, obviously I wasn't really part of the club culture,
but I went to my you know, I went to
bars and clubs in my time, and I love that
(09:34):
this film really does capture that vibe specifically of the
New York scene. I also have a friend who I
you know, they were my supervisor at the Met Opera
for years and years, and they have a drag identity
which they were telling me about, which we, you know,
sort of bonded over in terms of like the sort
of you know, there's like almost like a superhero secret
identity aspect to it, you know, which they touch upon
(09:56):
in the movie here. Yes, but yeah, I think that
what's interesting is zombie apocalypse movies tend to be well,
I mean, first of all, there're a dime a dozen nowadays,
so like there's so many and it's very hard to
stand out from the pack, you know, just generally being
a zombie movie or at least the beginning of a
zombie apocalypse movie, because these things tend to go sort
of one of two ways. And again this is a
(10:16):
very big generalization, but either it's you know, a group
of characters sort of banding together and trying to fight
this horde of you know, encroaching dead, or it's a
group of people who find themselves thrown together, and then
it's they're sort of a microcosm of the decay or
the dissillusion of society, you know, where like things just
break down and like do not go well. Obviously, this
(10:40):
movie is about, you know, the first part where the former,
which is that you know, these people come together and
they are united generally as as a unit against you know,
this encroaching force. And I think that it's really clever
what this movie does in terms of carrying over that
sense of community and that sense of togetherness from the
(11:00):
subculture or just culture.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
And you see the feistiatus too, which is also fun
like they're so funny.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
But I think that ultimately the thing that that really
got me about this movie is the humor. It is
just consistently really entertaining and really funny throughout.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
So funny.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
So the plot is the film follows a group of
dry queens, club kids and frenemies who must put aside
their personal drama and use their unique skills to fight
the flesh thirsty undead when a zombie apocalypse breaks out
on the night of a giant warehouse party. And what
we see is it's actually happening like all over New York,
which I thought was really fun right.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Oh yeah, And obviously, you know, to talk about the
elephant in the room. As I said earlier, this is written,
co written, directed by Tina Romero, who is George A.
Romo's daughter. And you know, obviously when you are I
mean not to use the term because she's not a
huge celebrity, but when you're a nepo baby, yeah, and
you're kind of playing in your parents's you know, sandboxes,
(11:59):
so to speak. You know, it's like if Francesca Scorsese
was going to make a film about you know, the
Mafia or something right or something like that, right, you know,
it could be difficult obviously, where it's like, you know, oh,
you're not your dad and all that sort of thing.
I think what she's really clever at doing here is
the fact that, yes she's using zombies, and yes it's
ultimately a zombie apocalypse movie, but none of this really
(12:21):
feels like lesser Romero or something, you know another It
never feels like an imitation of her dad or you know,
trying to fit into that world or something like that.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
You know, Well, what I love is they make sure
to keep saying that over and over. It's so funny
because so I have a quote that she said, and
she said, we're so different aesthetically, So I really wanted
to introduce myself as a filmmaker and call out that
this is not a George Romero movie. And one of
the first lines of dialogue from one of the Queen's,
Julie j who discovers this blood trail while they're hunting
(12:52):
for their latest booty call at a church. The opening
to this opening had me in stitches. But that's what
they're yelling in this church. This isn't a Georgia Merrow movie.
She sat like shouts, and then a few minutes later
is attacked by a zombie and then the zombie priest
rips her apart like the sexy zombie priest.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
And she said that line felt important to me because
I knew this was in some way a risk to
jump into the sandbox that he had created. I felt
very proud and responsible to carry on the Romero zombies
into twenty twenty five, and I wanted to hang onto
his rules and his monster and the spirit of him
as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
And I love that.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I love that. I think that the movie absolutely bears
that out. She does, because the zombies, just in terms
of their look, they really reminded me of Dawn of
the Dead era. Yeah, they're like bluish, bluish, that bluish
skin which is kind of a stand in for like,
I guess, you know, Rigor Mortist skin or something like that,
but it just has that special look to it that
only really it feels like only Romero used and you
(13:50):
know now she's using it too. There's also some really
neat little Easter Egg cameos throughout the movie. Gaya Galen
Ross turns up as a stern nurse. Tom Savini's the he's.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
The mayor of New York, but he was sitting in.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
The president the President.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
What did he pop up in something recently or was
it like Halloween Kills or I feel like he was.
I keep seeing him as these cute little cameos and things,
and it makes me happy. He was grumpy Grandad, my
grumpy favorite uncle. I'll still never forget he was so grumpy.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
And also I think I saw in the credits that
Greg Nicataro, who you know, obviously has the longest tree
with the ram or had the longest, has the longest
as well, who took over like the Creep Show brand
for Shutter and everything like that. He worked on some
of those special effects makeup apparently too.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
God, when we did VHS Halloween, I'm sorry that this
is popping into my head.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Now.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Did we talk about the fact that that was at
the Halloween House?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (14:47):
The last one that that was that very famous makeup
we did talk about, right, Okay, we did. I don't know,
Sorry break jumping in there. But it's my favorite to
see these guys. I've gotten very familiar with all of
their faces obviously over the years. But Shutter does these
documentaries or I guess they're documentaries where they break down movies.
They you know, they have so many different ones. There's
all these different episodes and it's usually the same group
(15:10):
of kind of experts who are telling us all these
different things. And I love when they have the makeup
guys in there.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Yeah. Oh, by the way, the Tom Zovidi appearance, you
were probably thinking it was Terrifier three. That was it.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
That was it, That was it, that was it.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
But yeah, so you know, obviously Tina is not trying
to distance herself from her father's work, and she's really
embracing it, but in a way that I think feels
wholesome and healthy and not lazy or you know, exploitative,
you know, or opportunistic. You know. It's not like, oh,
I'm going to make one and everybody's gonna love it
sort of thing. It's more just an honest, like embracing
(15:44):
of that legacy and trying to carry it forward, but
in her own way, in her own voice.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Well, and then I think she takes it a little
deeper with the themes and the subtexts that like are very interesting,
like the modern zombification, Like through the brief nods to
the phone addiction, social media, Ramierre's linking the digital obsession
to the zombie metaphor, and like there's this one scene
where all the zombies are at the nightclub like kind
of dancing, but then they're all looking at their phone
(16:11):
and you're just like, oh my god. Because the the
you know, the queens keep you know, doing their tiktoks
or their live things to like tell people what's going
on or where they're going to be that night, because
it's this big party and they're all bailing on each
other and going to different parties, but like they have
a following, and it was very very modern.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I guess, oh yeah, it's definitely updated and what's what's
the name is it Yasmine, who's like the the big
star that sort of you know, full of herself. Yes, yes, yeah, yeah,
I love that at one moment. The fact that, you know,
because there's always sort of an element in these movies
nowadays where you know, there's so many of them, so
(16:51):
they have to sort of you know, differentiate from each
other and stand out and kind of play with the
tropes that you know, these these movies tend to use.
And so, for instance, just us an example, in Short
of the Dead, there's this aspect of like, if we
just act like the zombies, maybe they won't bother us
because they'll think them. So I like that that that
version of that in this movie and Queen's the Dead
is the notifications everybody gets on their phone for yazmins,
(17:14):
live stream or whatever, and so that instantly distracts them
and allows the people to escape, get up, to get out.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Knowing what I know from my crazy lifestyle, when they
are starting to in the beginning, they're taking some drugs
and they're popping Zandi bars, and in my head, I'm like,
that is the last thing you would ever want to
be on during a zombie apocalypse because they make you,
they make you sleep, they make you black out, they
make you tired. That's not an upper So I was like, oh, no, queens,
(17:43):
what is it sugar, Yes, smooches, scrumptious scrumpties.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, and uh that was Nico right man.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Those two were so funny.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Mos Patos in that role is just so funny.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I've danced in a cage before, by the way, and
it is a lot of fun at a vampire bar
in New Orleans. Top that you that you're not allowed
to take pictures in there.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
That's that's why you're hosting this podcast, right.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Oh god, it was so fun.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
It was so fun.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
But whenever I see the cages, I'm like, it's also
like a really safe place to be because people can't
get to you.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Oh yeah, But I loved the entire cast. I thought
everybody was really great. It was fun to see Margaret
cho pop up randomly. I'm like, lesbian power in this
movie is hot, Like there's I loved the mix of everybody.
And then they had a straight white dude in there
who they were just like teaching, like they were tearing
(18:38):
them down, but they're also like, he's the one like
us being like, you know, they're like, that's the day.
You know, she is not a she, she's a day.
He is a she, and you need to use their
pronouns right, And he's like, I don't know what's going on,
and it's just it's the script is.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
So smart and it's so funny.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
It so really is it really is? Yeah, it's it's
yet another showcase for Katie O'Brien, who has really been
popping off recently, and you know, a variety of roles,
like she's been the lead or co lead in Love
Life's Bleeding, the Rose Glass film. She you know, appeared
in Mister Impossible, The Final Reckoning, she appeared in Twisters.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
She's gonna appear I know her from So I didn't
see the Kristen Stewart wrestling movie.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Yeah, oh you should. It's really good.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yeah I can't. It's hard for me to stomach her.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Well fair enough, but like it does go to some
strange places that I think you'd appreciate, Okay, but yeah, no,
she's she's just kind of really uh, this fascinating new
uh person on the scene. And not new, of course,
because every actor, you know, they spend years in years
trying to make work their way up. So it's not
like she's just you know, turned up. But I think that,
you know, she's having a moment for a good reason,
which is the fact that she just has that special
(19:45):
blend of uh, you know, allure, but also integrity and
obviously strength. I mean, she has her moment here where
she's you know, taken down some zombies and everything like that,
which is pretty fun. And then yeah, I she's also
obviously you can roll with the punches in terms of
the comedy as well. But yeah, to a person, everybody
(20:05):
in this cast is just really really funny and really entertaining.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
I was shocked to see Rikyu Lindholm pop up as well.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, it's like, what are you doing here?
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Yeah, And she's such a fun presence in and I
think especially horror comedies, because she was in shoot, what's
the uh demon baby one that I can't remember the
name of.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Oh, isn't it just isn't it called like demon Baby?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
I remember?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I actually really liked.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
That one because she was funny in that she's very
naked in that one, She's very Isn't that the shower one?
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yeah? It is? Is that is indeed that one.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
A scene in that movie that lives run free in
my head is when the three of them are eating
po boys and just farting.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I think about it more than I should.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I feel like I have to say the name of
this now because people can check it out.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Isn't it just demon Baby?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
I swear to God, I'm looking up. I'm looking it
up right now. I'll see if I can find it.
It didn't seem like it was that long ago, but
maybe it was a little bit of a oh it
was a while ago. Uh. Time moves differently these days.
It feels like hell Baby. You're right, hell Baby. It
wasn't even baby, it was hell Baby. But yeah, so yeah,
it feels like kind of another, you know, extension of
(21:14):
that uh in that way. And she usually fun in.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
This and I liked I really liked the the the
girl who was in the hospital with her.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Yeah, she was great. She was great. Was that Jane?
I think the jam thinks. So.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Yeah, there was a lot of characters, and it's like,
even with them written down, I'm looking at it and
I'm like, I don't know who who? Yeah, well we
only I only got to watch it once because you
get a couple of time.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yeah, it's hard to watch after after one viewing. Yeah,
it's hard to remember everything.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
But yeah, I enjoyed all of it very very much.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
I like the main drag queen, the big girl who
was who you know, when she died, I was very upset,
the one who kind.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Of like sacrificed herself. She's like jes go, I'm like no.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
And I was really happy to see Jakel's ivy uh
turned up because I really did like them in the
musical version of Mean Girls movie that came out a
year ago. That movie is you know what, you can
say whatever you want, But I really did think that
they're a great presence, and I think that continues in
this movie for sure.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I did not see that. Okay, Nina West, That's who
I'm talking about. Oh, Seyenne Jackson was the bartender.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
I love him. He's always in Ryan Murphy's stuff.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Oh yeah, And so this this really does have a
really nice mix of you know, sort of quote unquote
name people and people that maybe you haven't seen before,
haven't heard meant much before. And overall, I think what's impressive,
you know, and sort of credit to Romero on is
the fact that it does feel like an ensemble, and
it never feels like, Okay, here's the star and then
like here's the other people.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
You know, sort of thing, right, Oh, agreed.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
It does feel like these these characters are all in
the same world. They're all in the same group, and
you know, none of them really feels like they stand
out in a weird way for the rest of them.
You know, I will say, you know, in terms of criticism,
this movie is not the scariest. You know, I don't
think it's trying to be right, but there's there's maybe
like one or two jump scares that I think are
effective but are even attempted. And then I think most
(23:05):
other stuff is really just going for the comedy more
than often than not, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah, I mean the movie tries to balance this horror
comedy and musical camp thing that's going on.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
The mix doesn't always kind of land cleanly.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
But it's fun and it's flashy, and it's kind of
like you have your laugh out loud moments, and you know,
fans going into this expecting like either a full horror
experience or a full comedy experience might be a little
caught off guard or caught in the middle of like
no feeling whether like do I like this or I
not like this?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
What's going on?
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Do I feel like I thought I was going to
see a zombie horror movie and I'm you know, at Cabaret.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Yeah, totally. And it also doesn't really add any new
like lore to the zombie as a creature. You know,
it doesn't like create like a new rule or it
doesn't like review.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
I like the phone stuff.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
I thought that was great. That was cool, I know,
I mean in terms of but in general, like you know,
in the sense that say, uh, you know, we're George
Romero's zombie movies would always attempt to sort of add
I don't know, some sort of new idea or new
concept to because I think that.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Oh, yeah, like the talking ones, Yeah, because he's underwater ones.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Yeah, the underwater they can walk underwater sort of stuff.
If of Land of the Dead. I feel like he
was always interested in that from his perspective, just because
you know, if you know anything about George Romeiro, like
at a certain point he kind of resented the fact
that he was just only known for zombie movies popular
culture wise, Uh and uh sort of felt like, Okay,
I'll make another one, but I gotta find something interesting
(24:31):
about it to make another one for you know sort
of stuff. And it feels like, I mean, there's obviously
so much innovation and originality around the whole concept of
this movie to start with that, I don't think Tina
ever felt like, oh, I got to add some new
like zombie, you know, sort of tropes or something or
new zombie interesting.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
These zombies aren't even kind of in it that much.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Yeah, they're just they're they're there, but they're the sort of.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Space for the personalities to really show through.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
So like it, if your look for a full on
zombie movie, I might dilute the urgency of you know
it kind of the apocalypse story is like happening in
the background and it doesn't seem very urgent.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
And that might be because of budget reasons. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
I mean, obviously I'm sure that they didn't have all
the money in the world to kind of make this.
But where it does work is you get to spend
the time with the characters and really enjoy them and
enjoy the dialogue they enjoy, the community and the chosen
family themes of this Like this film uses the drag
world to show how marginalized groups support each other in
ways when society collapses in ways that other people kind
(25:32):
of you know, you know, turn on each other. This community,
it's showing like they don't. And I loved that. And
it shows joy as resistance rather than giving into like
a bleak, we're never getting out of this. The story
finds like hope and performance, artistry and unity, turning survival
into its own like active pride, and I had the
(25:53):
themes of this were perfect.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
And really it's a zombie movie that doesn't even need
the zombies to be great, you know, like if you
took them out, it just replaced it with I don't know,
just writing people, you know, it would still be just
that good, you know, yeah, what else anything else we
would talk about?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Uh, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I think I think this movie is less about scaring
you and more about celebrating you, especially if you are
part of the queer or drag community. It's loud, it's messy,
it's heartfelt, and it's kind of like unlike anything else
you've seen in the zombie genre, and you get to
feel like, hey, there's I'm seen and they're making movies
about me, and I could you know the struggles of
(26:33):
losing your nerve to go back out on stage after
something happens, which is one of Sam or Simonse goes
through this, like I got scared on stage once and
now I can't go back. You and I are performers,
and you know that feeling, and sometimes if something happens,
it can be so hard to put the makeup on
and go back up on the stage. And there's just
(26:53):
you know, I liked a lot of the little side
stories with everybody. Everybody mattered, even when it goes a
little off the rails. When Margaret Show and her little
gang show up, Yeah it was fine, No, no, I
still enjoy everybody showed up.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
I was like, oh, here we go. This is going
to really sort of derail things. And by the way,
and expect them rats, I know. And by the end
of the Rats, I was like, oh no, don't leave,
you know what. I so like, Yeah, it really does
turn it around on you as a viewer in terms
of paying off everything that's introduced. Uh. Listening to you
talk about it brought up another idea in my mind,
which is the fact that I really like how this
film is simultaneously inclusive and exclusive in the sense that
(27:30):
you uh, you know, I'm speaking. It's a straight white
male here. You don't really need to have a background
in drag culture or you know, club culture or anything
like that to watch it, understand it, and enjoy it.
At the same time, it's not a handholding movie. It's
not like explaining to a generic white audience or straight
white audience. Okay, here's what this is about. Here's the definition.
(27:51):
Like there's no montage sequence where like somebody like narrates
over you know, like no like drag people getting ready
or whatever, like here's what we do with this, and
here's what we do.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
So that's had that one scene where it's like here,
here's pronouns, and here's what we do and how here's
how we explain them.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
And that's all you needed.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
And for the person who doesn't know about these things,
that's why they had the character of the brother so
that you could, you know, kind of see things through
the brother in law. That scene was wild when he
threw that axe, Like I feel like I would do
it too, but that was a bit extreme, just to
like kick things off.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
He throws an axe because he sees.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
The zombie and the first thing this dude does before
even like telling anybody about it, is smash a ax
for the for a fire, get up on the bar
and throw it at this thing where he misses and
it goes into I believe it's Kelsey's leg. And that
was so goddamn funny. And then they're just giving her booze.
(28:48):
They're like, you can't walk around because luckily Sam's a
doctor a nurse.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
So yeah, it was. It was just brilliant.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Yeah, So I think that I guess what we're both
saying tier to the listeners who maybe have yet is
the fact that, like, there's so much to enjoy in
this movie. There's so much to learn, there's so much
to explore, and there's there's so much weight to it
and and you know, substance, and you know, I think
that what's clever but also interesting is the fact that
(29:16):
the zombie aspect of it isn't necessarily even you know,
necessary or it's just sort of you know, yeah, like
we were saying earlier, like don't necessarily don't come to
this thinking, oh, I'm going to see like a hardcore
new like zombie crazy. You know, it's really not about that.
I think that's a bonus. I think that when you
watch this movie, like it's also got zombies in it,
(29:38):
which is pretty cool, you know, which is which is neat?
And it's hard. It's hard to make a good zombie
movie these days in terms of like standing out from
the pack, you know.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, And I think Rimero stayed true to her father's
slow moving zombie tradition, but she did give it that
modern twist. It's the undead, you know, shuffle through neon
lights and club beats and turning glam gore into an
art form. And I was like, it's very Blay Brothers
and that's yeah. I loved I loved it.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
So yeah, I think that. Unfortunately, you know, it's got
a very small release right now.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
It is it going to be on Shutter because I
saw Shutter backed debt.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Yeah, so it was distributed by both the IFC Independent
Film Company and Shutter, And I think the idea is
that once it finishes at small run in theaters, which
is started on the twenty fourth of October, my birthday,
it'll be it'll be on Shutter eventually for sure. And
I'm sure physical media too, because Shutter has been really
supportive of physical media, which is great. We love them
(30:30):
for that. Yeah, and I think that, Yeah, this is
going to be something kind of similar to a majority
of Romeiro George Rameiro's movies. You know, it finds its audience,
you know, throughout the years. It doesn't necessarily like have
a huge, splashy opening and then all that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
But yeah, if it is playing near you, wherever you
are in the country, like, definitely go see it because
it's a good time.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yeah, go say like again, if you see it on streaming,
it's it's like, I don't know, an hour and forty
minutes and it's fantastic. Yeah, it's not long, and it's
just a really fun, colorful watch, you know.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Yeah, And I'm excited to see what what Tina does
next in terms of she could make a sequel to this,
if there's a market for it. She could do she
could again follow in her father's footsteps and just make
another zombie ish film with new characters, you know, totally different,
or she could just go in a whole new direction.
(31:21):
I don't know where.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Well I'm going with her Hell yeah recommendations.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Oh I'll go first, we do know, don't we Okay.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
I mean I'm gonna just make it. I'm stealing Zombie Strippers.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
So Zombie Strippers from two thousand and eight was one
of my like I loved it so much.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
And this has like Robert England.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
It's got Jennet Jamison and it kind of starts not
unsimilar to this one. Like the one, the main who
you think is going to be like the main character
gets bit and that was Janet Jamison.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
She's you know, it's very so.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
The plot is with too many wars and too few soldiers,
a law develops a virus that brings dead marines back
to life. When a test subject escapes, he heads to
a strip club and effects dancer Jesse Jennifer Holland, who
becomes a zombie. The club's owner, Ian Robert England as
in you know, Freddy Krueger, discovers that undone Jesse pulls
in more money and he encourages the other girls to
(32:12):
get infected, including popular the most popular girl Kat Jenna Jamison.
Cat and her friends go along with the plan, but
then they start killing all the clients. And that is
directed by Jay Lee, and thank you jay Lee. That
movie is awesome. The ping Pongs, the ping pongs.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Oh that's great. I love that. Gosh. I don't know
what to recommend here because there's just so many options
in terms of like zombie comedies. I don't know why
I'm feeling like maybe, no, I don't know if that
that really fits. I'm thinking here, I should have thought
of that before. We Hey, it was four am a
(32:49):
Halloween lay before. So let me just reiterate that listening.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
That's not an excuse.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
It is an excuse. No, I totally I was there. No,
but yeah, I'm just like, excuse. I'm not saying it's
a good excuse. I'm just saying it is an excuse.
I don't know why I want to say this, because
I don't think it's actually appropriate, but I kind of
want to say A Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse,
which is the Christopher Landon directed zombie comedy from several
(33:14):
years ago. It's much more like Broie obviously than this
movie that's funny, yeah, from twenty fifteen. But then again,
Christopher Landon is an out queer filmmaker, and this was
one of his first efforts, you know, as a solo director,
and he did co write the screenplay as well, and
so even though it has a little bit of that,
(33:35):
you know, more sort of obviously like straight ish you know,
lens to it. It really does have a lot of
camp as involved too, which is pretty fun. Cloris Leachman
becomes a zombie at one point, yes, you know, and
it does have a cool you know lead in Ty Sheridan.
David Keckners in there too, is the Scout leader, and
(33:56):
similarly to a Queen's the Dead, it doesn't do anything
unquote new with the zombie creature, you know, it is
just it's kind of just another zombie comedy, you know,
at a base level, but it really is the comedy
and it's the vibe and it's the actors and it's
everything that's at the top of it that really makes
it special.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
So yeah, oh I love it. Few all right, So
we are wrapped up on that feature film. We have
a little bit of a feedback. You want to you
want to read a little feedback?
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Yeah? Absolutely. Uh So this comes to us from Christian
McMullen and they say, hey, Bill and Ash, firstly, thank
you for the show. I'm not the biggest horror fan,
but I dip in and out and you guys do
a great job of covering lots of what I enjoy
as well, so I always have a listen, and you've
introduced me to some new films as well or given
me the quote unquote balls to watch them. Even so,
(34:44):
I had suggestion for an episode for your consideration after
watching The Fly for the first time. What about a
top ranked body horror show. There is a lot to
choose from, so I'm sure it will be tough. I've
tried my ranking here and they ranked one The Thing,
two Scanners, three The Fly, four Bad Taste, and five
Hell Raiser. But I'm very certain there are others I
(35:05):
don't know about. Anyway, keep up the good work, Ash,
I don't know how you do it, as you seem
to be on every podcast and the pandit verse. Always
good to hear your thoughts. Buy from leads. I need
a break.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
I'm busy.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
It looked and busy as they say, Uh yeah, no,
I mean obviously, uh we.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Did our Shark exploitation one.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
So this something episode that we could consider for sure.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Because god, I mean, my favorite favorite body heart is
like Franken Hooker.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
Well, don't give it away now, Ash, you know, I'm just.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
He was I'm giving him some ideas.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
I could keep going and going and going and going
a racer heead okay.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
All right, Uh, if you're interested, Christian, I did do
it article for Slash Film which is a ranked list
of the most disgusting moments in David Kronenberg's philography. So
you might check that out for some more ideas too.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
What's that one, baby blood or something?
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Baby blood?
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Yeah, we talked about you want to you want to
watch something crazy? Yeah, Christian, baby blood.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
That won't be on my top five list, but you
will watch something crazy. I mean, I'm not saying I
don't love that, but there's so many better body hors.
But if you want a good time, you want a
good time, you go watch baby Blood.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Yeah, absolutely watch that and watch some more frank kenon
latter not just Franken Hooker, but also bad Biology. If
you want to see something really messed up.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Yeah, night breed back to Cronerg Well Barker yeah or whatever.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Oh he's in it?
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
What's that one? It's a Japanese one. It's like the
Iron Man to.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
One. Why Yeah? Yeah, that could be fun, could be fun.
We might talk about that. Thank you, Christian, Thank you, Christian.
And uh yeah, so happy November fiends. We'll have some
more stuff coming your way until the end of the year,
and obviously please uh if you have any more ideas
like that, let us know. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
We we love feedback and we love ideas.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Yes, thank you all for joining us for this episode
of Bill and Ashley's Terror Theater, part of the Stranded
Pen Network. You can find my work in the show
notes links below. Check us out on social media. You
can find this show at strandedpinda dot com and everywhere
else you get your podcasts. Join our Patreon at patreon
(37:25):
dot com. Slash Bill and Nash Terror Theater. If you
have questions or comments, please feel free to write to
us at Bill and Nash Terror Theater at gmail dot com.
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