Queerifier Podcast

[queerifier]

A ★★½ review of New Fears Eve (2025)

I give New Fears Eve a 2.5/5 which honestly feels overly generous to me, but I bet that it would lower on a rewatch. On first watch, I didn’

[queerifier]

[thelostpassenger]

I am, am so happy for Amy Madigan's Oscar win for Weapons! SO WELL DESERVED!

[queerifier]

I saw an ad today for a daily injectable that you put in your lower abdomen for weight loss.

I feel like all y’all need to watch The Substance.

[queerifier]

I am hearing word that Scream 8 is already in the early stages of development, and I just want to say (as someone who loves the series and in fact plans to hopefully see 7 this weekend)…

This is getting utterly ridiculous. This small town can’t have THIS many psychopaths, THIS many Ghostface copycats, most of whom are ultimately after the same person.

This series needs to fucking end. Not only does Sidney deserve a happy ending, but so many movies treat their respective Ghostface(s) like the final one(s). Sidney and Gale even say in Scream 5 something to the effect of, “Let’s end this once and for all,” except they never do which is just cheap.

Stories need to have endings to be stories. They can’t just go on and on and on in the name of money.

[thelostpassenger]

The biggest argument that I see made against Byler is that, "Mike clearly isn't gay! He has been with a GIRL!" First of all, yes, he has - a girl to whom he can't say "I love you"; a girl to whom he writes letters that he signs "From, Mike"; a girl with whom he initially bonds during Will's absence and with whom he has literally nothing else in common; a girl repeatedly mistaken as a boy during the first series and whom Hopper (a firm anti-Mileven shipper since day 1) initially mistakes for Will; a girl Mike literally stumbles across while looking for Will; etc.; etc.; etc. There have been clues and evidence since the start. Second of all, bisexuality is a very real thing. Mike could have developed romantic/sexual feelings for El and still realized that he was repressing feelings for Will. Using evidence that someone has been with the opposite sex is absolutely not proof that they are straight. Bi/pan people exist. Vicki had a boyfriend before Robin. That has not been explained on the series and absolutely does not need to be. Thirdly, repression is also a very real thing. It still is, so it VERY much was a thing in 1980s Indiana. I am a millennial who was in high school from 2004-2008, and even I had a close female friend in high school whom I dated for like two years because I had been taught that I was supposed to. She was a close female friend, and I'm supposed to like girls, so this must be love, right? This must be my girlfriend. I have ALWAYS related SO much to Mike Wheeler because I have pretty much always sensed his queerness and repression. El has been Will to Mike and has been Sara to Hopper. Her happy ending absolutely needs to involve her figuring out who she is on her own terms without others projecting onto her.

[queerifier]

So many Stranger Things fans don’t seem to understand Will Byers as a character either because they are homophobic and/or because they equate kindness/selflessness with weakness.

[queerifier]

Episode 8 of Queerifier is out now on most places where podcasts can be heard! It's a short and sweet one in which I lay out my top five theories and predictions regarding where Stranger Things is going in its upcoming final act, Stranger Things 5!

[queerifier]

A ★★★★★ review of Weapons (2025)

Weapons is truly one of the greatest horror films ever made. I could go into detail about all of the reasons why - the healthy seasoning of

[queerifier]

I watched Talk to Me last night and Bring Her Back today, and the Philippous & Hinzman are now one of my favorite horror teams. Talk to Me is truly scary with a nightmarish ending, and it has a very relevant theme of disconnection in a digital age, while Bring Her Back had me sobbing at the end. Both also have INCREDIBLE performances. I can't wait to see what these guys cook up next!

[queerifier]

Where I Think Terrifier 4 Might Be Headed

I want to start by addressing Damien's announcement that Art's origins will be explored in Terrifier 4. A lot of fans are nervous, but I trust Damien and think that he respects the character enough and respects his audience enough not to give him some sort of sympathetic backstory about how terrible his childhood was. I think that Damien is being coy when he says that and that we're going to see one of two (or both) things: (1) we'll see his first kill, without there necessarily being a reason for it, and/or (2) we'll get a clearer picture of how he became demonic after his initial resurrection. I will eat my words if I am wrong, but I absolutely do not see Damien giving us a full backstory for Art as a human. With that out of the way, the main thing that I want to discuss is where I think Terrifier 4 is going thematically, tonally, and visually. Damien has also said that Terrifier 4 will be the most "experimental" of the series yet, and based on seeds planted in Terrifier 2 and the cliffhanger ending of Terrifier 3, I think that it's pretty clear where we're going in Terrifier 4. We're going to hell. Gabbie falls through a portal to a hell dimension (very likely the exact same one where the Clown Cafe is located), and Sienna vows to rescue her, making it clear to me that a good portion of Terrifier 4 will take place in a hell dimension and that that is likely what Damien means by "experimental." It's going to be Sienna in Hellish Wonderland, and it's going to be a lot of Clown Cafe sequence like nonsense. It will be very dreamy and surreal and have a lot of hidden symbolism, leaning extra heavily into the dark fantasy aspect that the Terrifier 2 and Terrifier 3 endings do. In fact, I think that while there, Sienna is going to go FULL angel mode. No longer will her armor be a costume; it will be real. We see grotesque creatures crafting it in a dream sequence in Terrifier 3 (Sienna is, I think, temporarily "astral projecting" into hell as she sleeps, which is likely what she does during the Clown Cafe sequence in Terrifier 2 as well). They are forging her armor from her dad's character, the armor she wears as a Halloween costume in Terrifier 2, except this is real. I think that they are angels preparing her for the upcoming final battle that we are going to see in Terrifier 4, and here's the thing…

Like I said, I think that she is going to go FULL angel mode, so in addition to her wearing real armor, I think that she is also going to develop real, actual wings. I think that she is a legitimate archangel or some mythological variation. She is even closely associated with butterflies. When we first see her in Terrifier 2, she is wearing a t-shirt with three butterflies. When we first see her new bedroom in Terrifier 3, we see art on her wall of three butterflies, but only two are visible on camera. We then see that same art right before the climax of the movie when she wakes up from the "dream" about her armor being forged, except now, only one is visible. This seems to indicate that Terrifier 2, Terrifier 3, and Terrifier 4 are each part of a three-stage journey for Sienna, and like a butterfly, her final form will involve wings. I am not saying that that will be the entire premise of the movie. After all, we're going to need Art wreaking some mayhem in our world, too, for this is to be a true Terrifier film, but I do think that it's going to be a decent portion of its plot, and if I am right about it leaning this hard into dark fantasy, I think that there will be fans who are upset, but I personally love those elements of 2 and 3, so I am so excited about this direction if I am right. It has steadily been building up to this in a very natural way, and I think that this would be the perfect way to wrap this story up.

[queerifier]

Out now wherever you listen to podcasts - episode 7 of Queerifier covering the 2020 horror-comedy Freaky!

[queerifier]

[twerklina]

I’ve been waiting since March to post this...

[queerifier]

I finally watched The Faculty recently, and while I admit that, in a lot of ways, the movie is super cheesy and the CGI has not aged well at all (I actually don't really mind it, though, because it was the late '90s, and that kind of visual effect at the time was still new and exciting), what really stands out to me is the movie’s surprisingly deep commentary on social division, displayed via super divided high school cliques. Even though the aliens are, for sure, the villains, their desire for unity and peace, however invasive and morally wrong, is such a smart metaphor for breaking down ridiculously rigid social structures.

There are such clever touches, such as a classroom lecture (a common trope in TV and film) that mirrors the movie’s central theme of order vs. chaos and the way that infected characters talk about feeling at peace (although it's unclear if they are themselves with the alien parasite's influence or if it is strictly the parasite speaking, and I honestly kind of like that unknown). It feels like a satirical but sincere commentary on how people divide themselves for literally no fucking reason, and in the closing sequence, it seems like the characters have actually grown and developed and have learned something from the aliens, which really gives the movie a lot more depth than I would have ever expected from a movie like this. I had such a good time with it!

[queerifier]

The Terrifier Franchise: Why the Bedroom Scene Still Reigns Supreme

When I first saw Terrifier 1 back in 2018 or 2019, I immediately loved and saw something special and truly unique in Art, and David Howard Thornton absolutely blew me away in the pizza shop scene with all of those expressions. Only after seeing Terrifier 2 in 2022 and realizing that I loved Art even more - WAY more - did I go back and rewatch Terrifier 1 and All Hallows Eve and realize how rewatchable that they are, especially Terrifier 1. However, here's the thing; Art is the best part of the first movie for me. The hacksaw scene is brutal, but it didn't truly shock me, and that could partially be because it had been spoiled - I found out about the movie because of people in horror groups on Facebook sharing memes with a screenshot of it saying things like, me cutting toxic people out of my life. It's memorable and innovative, but it's still ultimately a kill - an incredibly painful and creative one that hadn't been done in a slasher before - but still a kill. Art's main goal in that scene is to kill Dawn, and it happens in about 30-45 seconds or so. Going into Terrifier 2, however, I had no idea what to expect, and the bedroom scene SHOOK me - SO much more than the hacksaw scene did, and that's because of not just how creative and brutal that the kill is but because of how drawn out and truly sadistic that it is.

When I first saw that scene, I was almost immediately in utter shock and disbelief by what I was seeing, which amped up as the scene progressed and got worse and worse, but when he leaves the room and comes back with SALT AND BLEACH?! I was like, Holy hell, this is INSANE! This is legendary, groundbreaking horror. This is truly something NEW. It's not a kill scene - yes, Allie does eventually (and fortunately) die, but unlike with Dawn in Terriier 1, his main goal isn't to kill her but to torture her for as long as he can before he does so. As I said, Dawn was dead in probably 30-45 seconds. Yes, it was an absolutely agonizing and hellish 30-45 seconds that probably felt like an eternity, but Allie was likely in far worse pain and for much, much longer. By the time her mom gets home and sees what's happening, Art has likely been playing with her for an hour or two based on how unrecognizably mutilated that she is, and she is STILL alive! The literal bloodbath in Terrifier 3 is brutal and ridiculously gory, but again, it doesn't, offscreen, go on as long as Allie's kill does, and it's, in a way, kind of just the hacksaw scene redone except with a chainsaw and on a dude. It goes on for a long time onscreen, yes, but most of the carnage happens after Cole is already dead. I found it an insane scene, but I felt like the bedroom scene had already set the bar so high that it was hard for me to imagine it being topped in Terrifier 3, and, for me, it wasn't. I love Terrifier 3, and it's mean and brutal, but no single kill shook me the way that the bedroom scene did, and as excited as I am for Terrifier 4, I don't think that anything in that one will either, and that's totally fine if not. It doesn't need to be outdone, and that's partly what will always make Terrifier 2 so special to me and honestly my favorite horror film of all time - although it isn't just because of the bedroom scene; that whole movie is an aesthetic that The Midnight's "The Equaliser (Not Alone)" somehow captures perfectly. The final act kind of slips back into Terrifier 1 territory of just being a back and forth cat and mouse game that aimlessly goes on for a while, and while I'm not bothered by it, I understand why some people are. It definitely wouldn't have hurt the movie at all to cut some of that. However, that's literally the only fault that I can find in it. I love that movie SO much, and again, I don't know if Damien is ever going to be able to outdo the bedroom scene, but he also doesn't need to. One reason that I love this franchise is that, unlike franchises like Friday the 13th (no disrespect intended toward F13 fans - I own a boxset myself and enjoy parts 4, 6, and 7 especially), Damien isn't just making the same movie over and over again. Each movie so far has been its own, unique cinematic art (pun intended?) piece with its own vibe and aesthetic, and Terrifier 2 is definitely my favorite so far.

[queerifier]

Just in time for its upcoming Valentine's Day drop on Screambox, episode 6 of Queerifier covers Terrifier 3 and is out now wherever you listen to podcasts! (It is the longest episode of the show so far, and I am sorry for that - I trimmed it as much as I could, but it is a 2+ hour movie in which a lot happens!)