If you're looking for more horror outside of the mainstream, look no further than
Unsung Horrors, a podcast about underseen horror movies. I'm Lance and I'm Erica.
Every other week we'll cover a horror movie with fewer than one thousand views
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and part of the Someone's Favorite Productions podcast network. Hello there, and
welcome back to the disc Connected. I'm here with Alexandra Heller Nick, who
is a director, writer, editor, producer. Everything extraordinary. Alexandra,
thank you for doing this again. Hi, nice to be here, Thank
you for having me. I have wanted to have you on here for ages
because genuinely, and I truly do not say this to everybody, but you
are one of two or maybe three people that if the name Alexandra Heller necklace
is on the back of a physical media release. I have to have it.
It goes on the wish list immediately because it is always fascinating. That's
really nice to hear because it's such I'm sure so many of your guests have
said the same thing. It's quite in sealer work. You sort of sit
in your little bubble, quite literally, when you're recording, you're in like
a little bubble. So it's really nice to know that there's a sort of
at least one grateful recipient leaf on the end of it. Now that I've
started doing some of this, yeah, there's some of it where you get
lost and not really understanding if people are ever even going to care. So
I get it, and I'm glad that you're out there still working, because
man, it is overwhelming the number of titles that you've been on, the
number of books that you've written, and I'm I'm just happy to be able
to know that you're out there doing the work. It's a joy being here.
Thank you for inviting me. Well. One of the reasons just all
the work over the last year. I feel like We've gotten so many announcements
from you, and I'm going to highlight that I think is the most recent
one at the moment, You're gonna be Kindergarten Cop four K from Keno Lawber.
What the heck really excited about that one? That is with my friend
and my very long term colleague of mine, a guy called Josh Nelson.
Josh and I used to do a radio show together in Australia on a very
well known community radio station here in Melbourne called Triple A, and Josh moved
to the United States around twenty sixteen, I think, and I just missed
him. I just missed talking to him about film that sort of you know,
we would catch up once a week and do our radio show together and
doing commentaries together is kind of filled that gap. And yeah, I think
Kindergarten Cop was the last one that we recorded together. And I just I
mean, I love the film and it's always a challenge, I think too,
because it's quite outside the sort of normal stuff that I do. But
it's such a comfort film for me, and it's always a bit of a
challenge, I think, to kind of try to bring a critical approach to
a film that you love on that kind of passed out on the couch with
a hangover kind of level, and Josh always just raises the bar for me,
like he's really the you know, I have a lot of really wonderful
colleagues, but without failed, Josh is always the one that really kind of
make demands that I lift my own game. So it was it was a
delight just doing it with Josh, And yeah, it was it was a
challenge. It was a real challenge because, as I said, it's so
you know, I do mostly kind of horror or expectation films, and so
that one is very much out of my my typical area. But no,
I'm we're both really happy I think with the with the final product on that
one. Well, your your typical arena. I mean, you mentioned horror,
but it is so much more than that. I mean, there are
books focused on female horror filmmakers. They're you know, one of the biggest
ones, of course, is the Reprevenge Films book You've written on Suspiria specifically
you've written on fan footage films. Is the Reprevenge film book that the one
that you still get the most like overall feedback on and people reading and reaching
out about. It's a really good question. Interestingly enough, I think probably
the most successful book that I've had in terms of sales and widespread kind of
coverage and response was my twenty twenty book, which is called One Thousand Women
in Horror. And that's the closest that I've come to really doing like a
coffee table book, like I really want to sort of step away from I
wanted to do do something fun. I really wanted to step away from doing
the kind of more kind of academic survey style, kind of in depth stuff.
I wanted to do something that I found fun and that would reach a
different audience. So that book, certainly, you know, that's the kind
of book that people would give each other for Christmas, whereas stuff on Rape
Revenge you're probably not going to give somebody unless you know them pretty well,
You're probably not going to you know, it's not really a stocking filler.
Doesn't make Amazon stocking filler list that book. But that being said, I
mean it really raises an interesting question about how you, as an author,
how you view the idea of reception. Because without failed my work on Rape
Revenge. So there's the original book that came out in twenty eleven, and
then I wrote a quite heavily revised second edition which came out for the tenure
anniversary in twenty twenty one, which has like a whole new chapter and it's
yeah, it's quite a different book in many ways. But I also wrote
a book on Abel Ferrara's Miss forty five. So I've written a couple of
books on rape revenge, and without fail, when I go to film festivals
or when I do public speaking, that's the book that people want to talk
to me about, without fail, and it's never I mean, I guess
it doesn't surprise me now, but when I first started talking about it,
the thing that I wasn't expecting was men. A lot of men want to
talk about that book, and in really interesting ways in that a lot of
men who are survivors themselves come to rape revenge films, certainly not all survivors,
but come to rape prevenge films which are predominantly about you know, male
perpetrators and women survivors. And it's sort of a cathartic process for men,
for male survivors just as much as women survivors. Right, these films sort
of really help some people, you know, for some people, they are
obviously very traumatic and horrible, and I certainly don't expect everybody to have the
same reaction to these quite challenging films. But I think that was the thing
that I wasn't I wasn't prepared for, was how many men who are survivors
who might not have the same kind of social or cultural framework to talk about
their experiences as some women might. These men really want to talk to me
about their books, and a lot of them it's almost asking for permission,
you know, like is it you know, like and it's always hypothetical,
but it's like, you know, if a man was if there's a man
who's a survivor and he finds these films helpful, does that mean that he's
a bad guy? Like really those kind of that conversations at that kind of
level, and it's heartbreaking, it's devastating, and of course it doesn't make
you a bad person. These films can be hugely cathartic. And I'm not
the only person that sort of has written about that and talked about that.
Yeah. I put out a video early early this year about how some of
these traumatic films people go to for a sense of catharsist not just about assault
or sexual assault, but I mean even religious trauma or I mean some of
these, even like loneliness, people just find solace in feeling absolutely accepted in
some of these, and specifically with rape revenge. It's it's obviously a bit
of an awkward topic because who's going to come out and say this is my
favorite genre. That's the first thing. But there are some people that they
can be somewhere that you turn too often and really get not enjoyment, it's
not even the right word, but it's more of feeling seen, and it's
so important to have people like you speaking about it out there. I think
these films, you know, whether we're talking about something kind of extreme like
rape revenge or even like like you said, like you know, during lockdown,
I think that a lot of horror things, like you know, like
pandemic films, seems like zombie zombie films or kind of other viral they kind
of give us a language, you know, they give us a kind of
a kind of reference point, like how do we talk about these things,
how do we feel about these things? How do we you know, how
do we kind of frame these things in our brain? You know, when
September eleven happened, there was like there's been a really amazing writing about it
in that so many people who were there in New York described it as like
it's just like a movie, because they there's no other real point of reference.
So movies, I think when it comes to trauma or experience in general,
you know, screen culture I think can give us a kind of toolkit,
a kind of discursive toolkit that kind of provide, you know, often
in a very kind of loose way, a kind of way to kind of
conceive of stuff, even if it's not to talk about it, just to
kind of get our own heads around stuff, which is you know, for
me, which gives it enormous value. There are so many different nuanced ways
just to speak on stuff like this, and there are so many people that
probably would speak on it if they felt free to. But the way that
you approach some of these topics one thing that I'm a huge fan of.
I've listened to multiple times, so I'm gonna throw it out there for everybody
to try to seek out. You did a sort of a podcast called Somebody's
Watching with Eleanor, and it's all about male nudity, and it's so enlightening
to really just think back on how if somebody's not here pointing this out.
I'm not ever going to think that there's something odd about this. But the
way that you and the other expert on there in Eleanor just drive into everything
it felt so important and needed. Ellenor is a really profound person. She's
a really brave There's something about her like she's she's so brave and so thoughtful.
Yet nothing about her comes across as pretentious or like she's kind of performative.
She's just so kind of in her persona. She's very sort of gentle
and very kind of matter of fact. So to tackle that, and I've
gone blank, You'll have to forgive me. I've gone was it Professor Lehman?
I think he's I think that's the name. Let me who's whose work
on masculinity is something that I've admired, you know, for years, and
I actually cite him in my Rape Revenge book and just this extraordinary thinker.
Yeah. No, that was one of the most exciting conversations I've had have
because even for me sort of certainly compared to Professor Lehman, I'd not really
kind of kind of dived in depth into the concept of of especially male full
frontal nudity or wasn't something that i'd really sat down, like I'd never written
about that specifically, But again, so much of my work has sort of
pivoted around that, you know, the idea of that. So that,
yeah, that was such a rewarding experience and provided me with a really interesting
way to kind of rethink my own work. You know, the yeah that
I do really I agree with you, Like just to hear Professor Lehman,
you know, really the master really like the kind of expert on male full
frontal nudity, if you will, And he would embrace that label ethic.
So I don't say, but I'd say that in a sort of cutting way.
I say that is a kind of compliment. Remarkable man, remarkable thinker,
very generous with his ideas. A lot of academics get a very kind
of upity, and nothing about that with him at all. Like he's such
a generous communicator, and he just he's so excited and he wants people to
kind of join into his sort of thought processes. Just lovely stuff. Well,
funny enough. That's one of the reasons I wanted to bring up some
of your work because so much of even just like the visual essays that are
obviously about something that you're passionate about, but they are they're done in a
way that are magnetic. I guess, in a way that not only am
I absorbing just simply the words that you're saying, but I feel drawn into
wanting to research the topic more. And that is the sort of thing that
I'm striving to do in everything I'm editing for some of these discs, And
it's it's just amazing to hear some of the topics that you've broached on,
and one of the things that's been a big part of it, obviously is
gender. And I would love to hear from someone like yourself just explain,
just as kurts or as obvious as you want to, why it's important for
us to highlight gender still in twenty twenty three. Yeah, it's it's a
really good question. My wonderful colleague, League Gambon, who I believe you
have cross paths with, the excellently Gambon. He was telling me recently that
there are these forums. I don't go to these forums, but he said
there's one in particular where they it's a lot of sort of older gentlemen and
they just they like there's kind of like a running gag apparently that like,
oh God, it's Alex talking about feminism again. Then you know they're gonna
kind of cranky about it as well. Can't she talk about it? You
know? And it's such a classic, But it's like, not everything's about
gender, And it's like, well, when you live in a gendered body,
when you live in a racialized body, when you lived in a when
you live in a body that is othered in whatever way that is, you
know, it could be in terms of ability, gender, sexuality, whatever,
you know, if you live in a body that is broadly culturally others,
everything kind of is about that, you know, Like and to me,
that's the power of horror, is that horror has always been about gender.
And I'm quite conscious for me, like I'm certainly like I identify as
a feminist, that work can mean very different things to very different people,
and I feel that it's commonly weaponized in ways that people do I think in
quite a deceptive, unwholesome manner in that they kind of work from an assumption
of what feminism is without defining their terms. And that's why we have,
you know, we have people that are that are transphobic who call themselves feminists,
you know, so and then you have people that have the exact opposite
ideology who also call themselves feminis. So it can get very deceptive. So
I'm very conscious of how people weaponize the word feminism. First some yeah,
for unwholesome reasons to kind of you know, they come in with a bias
on what that word means. So I'm very conscious of, like, of
course I'm a feminist, but you also have to add to that, well,
you know, I'm not a turf, like I embrace my transgender sisters
and brothers and non binary folk, you know, because I'm not an asshole.
It's it's just that easy, right, I mean, that's what feminism
is, Just like, don't be an asshole, Like it's like most you
know, just don't don't be horrible, don't be hateful, don't be shit.
So that's that's what feminism is to me. But you know, even
sadly in twenty twenty three, you kind of need to actually spell that out.
So I tend to use the phrase gender politics in that I talk about
gender politics. And what I find that for me that enables is that it
also and this comes back to what we were just talking about. That also
gives me space to talk about masculinity because I'm not just talking about women,
you know, I'm not just talking about about you know, half half of
the picture. Like to me, it's about gender polar it's about much broader
things about how gender is defined and utilized and how gender works as a kind
of sort of governing concept or point of difference culturally and socially. And it's
it's in film from the very start of film history, you know, like
you go back to something, I'm fascinated. I think it's an eighteen eighteen
ninety eight film. The execution of Mary, Queen of Scott's could be eighteen
ninety five. I'm going from memory here, but it's like it goes for
like ten seconds if that, and it's literally just Mary going up to the
shopping block and having her head chopped off. So it's a really important film
because it's like it's really the first special effect, you know, a horror
special effect that we have in cinema. But of course, the woman who
plays Mary Queen of Scott's was not a woman. It's a I think it
was an accountant for the film company called Robert Thomas or Robert Tommay, and
that character is credited as miss Robert Tommy or missus Robert Thomas, but it's
him. It's a man in address, so you know, like the queer
history of horror is the history of horror from the get go, from the
start. So yeah, gender politics gives me a much bigger space to talk
about these things in the word feminism because I don't have to kind of go
through this sort of rigmarole of kind of trying to defuse people's biases when they
come to that term. And that doesn't mean that I'm anti feminist or anything
like that at all. Like I very confidently define myself, you know,
very comfortably define myself as a feminist. But yeah, especially when I'm dealing
with people that I don't know, which is what you know, when you're
doing a video, I say, when you're doing a commentary, you're talking
to people that you don't know, And yeah, I just don't want to
spend half an hour of every commentary defusing the history of what the word feminism
means. To end up with that statement like just don't be an asshole.
Like the funny thing is that ideology I swear. It can apply to half
the incendiary terms that people are just lit by nowadays. I mean, one
of the biggest ones in the US over the last few years has been woke,
and half the people when they hear that word, they don't even know
what the hell it means. They can't define it. They just know what's
their boogeyman they I think about. You know, even ten twenty years ago,
it used to be the big kind of cliche like woke. To me
feels like the kind of contemporary manifestation of this earlier phrase, which is political
correctness gone mad. It's like, what does that actually mean? Like,
what does that actually mean? Again? It just comes down to don't be
a dick, like, don't be a dick, don't be an asshole,
and suddenly woke. Yeah, Like it's this slippery, homorphous, hugely weaponized
concept that it's like it's an onion. You peel it, you peel it,
you peel it, and then the onion's gone, there's nothing inside.
It's just ridiculous. This sort of rhetorical you know, what's the phrase that
I'm after? It's deceptive, you know, it kind of takes us away
from you know, like the word I have a bugbear with the word problematic
too, and that people use the word woke, and they use the word
problematic to shut down conversation. It's like, oh, this is problematic,
full stop, end story. And it's like no, no, no,
that should be the start of the conversation, right, and work should be
the start of a conversation, and it never is. It's like, go
woke, go broke, like a kind of final line, and it's like
it just means nothing. It's this hollow yeah, kind of catch, you
know, this hollow kind of thing, and it's it's political correctness gone mad.
That's that's where we start to have really interesting conversations. And the tragedy
of the time that we live in is that it's used to the opposite effect.
It's used to shut down confistration and some things you shouldn't have conversations about,
right, Like it's not that it's not that everything is open for debate,
because we come back to just don't be an asshole, right, And
with that surrounding gender, I think that's where we find a lot of the
problems why it still needs to be discussed, because I'm always fascinated just how
ignorant I am when certain facts come out and you find out this is the
first female winning Oscar, first female director that won an Oscar or something,
and it's way later than you'd ever imagine, or this was only the seventh
film directed by a female that we know of, and it's like the fifties
and you're like, wait, hold on, what now, let's discuss this
because that's crazy to me. So yeah, the books that you've written and
the way that you're out there spreading this, it's not even just about separating
fields in any way. It's understanding where we are so that we can start
to bring those fields closer together. It's interesting. I've just submitted the manuscript
for my next book. The title is still being debated with my wonderful publisher,
God bless them. They're very patient with me. But it's on women
directed films about witches and witchcraft. That's the topic. And when I say
that to people, they're like, so that maybe that's like five ten films.
It's like I've got like sixty or seventy. And it goes right back
to the silent Ero. You know, things like Lenny uh not Reef and
styles sorry not Lenny the Prince Akhmed. I've gone completely blank on her name.
Please forgive me. I'm terrible. I'm going to look this up.
It's like it's it's literally the first full feature length Lotty Renninger. I always
forget her name for some reason. Nineteen twenty six, nineteen twenty seven.
It's the first feature length an animated film ever made. Wow, it was
by this amazing German animator. And you would know her style if you saw
it. It's it's she does this. She did this sort of beautiful sort
of shadow puppetry style animation, kind of silhouette, just absolutely gorgeous. And
you know, the figure of the witch in that film is incredible. So
you know, we have Maya Darren of course, the incredible American experimental filmmaker.
Like history is full of women who have made films about witches and witchcraft,
which to me is really interesting because witchcraft and the kind of historical idea
of witches as a kind of broader kind of concept, there's a really interesting
parallel with women's filmmaking. You know, the idea that filmmaking is a kind
of male domain and that women who dabble in this is sort of messing with
like male knowledge. You know that the sort of the you know, the
kind of the kind of male science is sort of in opposition to the idea
of the kind of of kind of feminine knowledge that is sort of embodied in
the figure of the witch. But it's not just horror, so it's it's
you know, obviously things like Annabilla is the love Witch and you know,
I Think I am not as I am not a witch. The amazing film
by I Think She's a Welsh Zimbabwean filmmaker came out a couple of years ago,
which is incredible. But the second hocus Pocus film was directed by a
woman, the second Nanny McFee film was directed by a woman. The Bewitched
film with the cole kitment was directed by women. So it's yeah, it's
really interesting. It's a really interesting when you start sort of thinking about women's
filmmaking outside of that kind of top ten listical Hey, can you believe women
make films? Which I think that we're still at a little bit. I'd
like to think that we're slowly moving past the listical way of thinking about women's
filmmaking, because when we kind of step beyond that, we start to get
some really interesting kind of histories come out of it, and for me,
that was one of them was just how many women had made films about witches
and witchcraft. Yeah, and that's what it all always comes back to to
me, because you hear some of these facts, are like, well,
hold on, because we're just not discussing a lot of these that actually exist.
So let's just educate on that rather than in a sense like almost hiding
the history or in all realities, belittling the achievements of other people and raising
up others. Absolutely, and a lot of it comes down to really practical
things. And this takes us back to physical media and home entertainment in certainly
with women's and I'm not just talking about horror or expectation film, but women's
filmmaking in general. The issue has been as much about distribution and archiving as
much as it's been about women getting money to make films in the first place.
And the same thing applies to, you know, to queer filmmakers,
to filmmakers of color, to black filmmakers, so it's not just women.
I think that that's the kind of useful example of these kind of other filmmaking
practices, But I'm always really excited by the concrete role that home media has
to play in both archiving and distributing these films and finding these films in the
first place. And it's not just Criterion, you know, it's not just
these wonderful, hybrow kind of companies. It's people like Terror Vision, It's
people like Vinigers Syndrome. It's people like Arrow that are really in the guts
of the archive finding these women directed treasures and really doing the hard yards on
resis, storing them, on distributing them, on you know, getting them
to people that will value them and will appreciate them. So actually, genuinely,
certainly for Horror and Expectation, I actually think we're living at a really
exciting time for women's filmmaking history in that these films are really coming out from
places that you would not necessarily expect. Terror Vision in particular, and Brad
Henderson I think need particular acknowledgement and Viniga Syndrome as well. You know,
the stuff that they're digging up is just jaw dropping to me, Like,
really exciting stuff is coming out from these people in terms of women's filmmaking history.
I fully agree. Yeah, there's you know, having worked behind the
scenes with Brad on some of the releases already, it is always enlightening to
hear how much he respects the filmmakers and how much he desires diversity through everything
that he's doing. I have a mental respect for Bread and what he's hit
there. He's the king. And it's why I can't I can't come at
this kind of question of of you know, women's filmmaking and gender politics and
genre. I just can't come at it as a girl's versus boys thing because
there are so many proper allies. The American genre film people are doing incredible
work that I can't list everybody who's doing this amazing work. You know,
Saturn's core. You know, these these amazing people are really doing incredible work,
and they're not. You know, that's a really great example. I
hate to sort of narrow down on him personally, but you know he would
He's not the kind of person that be like, oh, you know,
I'm here saving women's filmmaking. You know, he's not that. He's just
he's too busy working to kind of you know, ask for credit, you
know, for that for that kind of stuff. You know, he's too
busy doing the grunt work, like the really hard work of finding this stuff.
And yeah, to me, like, that's that's he's a proper ally
And I don't know how he would feel about me saying that, so I'm
sorry. I'll make sure to link him too this part specifically, everybody should
be buying TerrorVision. Everybody should be buying you know, Vinigers, Syndrome,
AGFA, you know all of these great you know a lot of the partner
labels from Vinegar Syndrome these, It's really exciting stuff. I'm constantly surprised with
the stuff that I see being put out. It's like I never thought,
you know, I mean there's stuff that you know, like that I got
off like Cinemageddon like fifteen twenty years ago, and it's like getting like a
Blu ray release. It's like, are you kidding me? Like it's so
exciting if I can mention Cinema againton, can I do that? No?
No, No, we're not canceled yet. There's another inflammatory right right.
You You bring up a great point, and I really want to highlight something
especially we had a discussion about this today, and my discord actually is a
lot of people are looking at the idea of film Mark Cavell somehow is pretentious,
which is hilarious to me. But beyond that, one part that is
really associated with that is not just the archiving aspect of the physical film,
but accessibility. Because archiving film, if it's locked in a vault somewhere,
it's safe, but that does nothing for me and the education of all of
us. We need to be able to see this film, consume the art,
pass it around, learn from it, and not only that, embrace
those filmmakers and see what else that they've had on the impact of film.
So all of these home video companies, it is so important that they're out
there and available. So completely agree absolutely, I mean, and the thing
that I love about these labels that I've mentioned is that, you know,
there's a kind of there's an audience that will buy anything that Terror Vision put
out just by virtue of the quality of their work. And there's a trust,
there's like a consumer trust that companies like TerrorVision and Vinego and Viniger,
Syndrome, you know, the partner labels Arrow, you know, so many
of these companies, even Quinolaba. You know, there's a trust that some
you know, what is what what these companies put their energies into into bringing
us is worthy of is worthy of our attention, And there's a kind of
consumer good will there that cannot be faked, Like you can't buy that,
and it's it's extraordinary because it puts these films into the hands of people who
might not normally watch or consciously go out of their way to watch films directed
by women filming, you know. And and I think that's that's really part
of the the excitement and and the preciousness of what we find happening in physical
media at the moment, especially in the films of you know, not just
horror and expectation filming, you know, pornography, and these these are areas
that are you know, I don't mean to dissc Criterion, because Criterion is
imaginable, incredible, but you know, there's you know, there's sort of
there's these BFI criterions at a highbrow you know, and these companies that I'm
talking about are dealing with very different kinds of film but putting the same kind
of you know, giving these giving these releases the same kind of attention and
can that to me, it's it's just indefinable how important this work is because
this is the work that people like, you know, where I am in
Australia, you know, the National Film and Sound Archive here would never put
the attention into some of the Australian films that I've seen Umbrella really focus on,
you know, and they've kind of had to kind of do it on
their own to really bring these releases to light and to help them find their
audience because these sort of more formal film bodies, I think still have this
kind of you know, high brow, lowbrow thing, and you know,
sometimes some films might break through that, you know, things like Suspiria or
but it's very rare. It's very very rare. Funny enough, the highbrow,
lowbrow thing really brings to light something else that you did earlier this year,
which is you were invited to Spain to be a part of a film
festival. And film festivals are such an interesting topic of conversation because it's great
that film is getting out there, and then we're just not seeing a lot
of those films ever again, So I mean, the first thing, how
did that feel? How did that feel going all the way across the world
to be judging this massive film festival. It was huge both personally and professionally
for me, like, I hadn't traveled since lockdown. So where I am
in Melbourne in Australia, we had I think we had the second longest lockdown
in the world, next to a city somewhere in Argentina, I believe.
So we really didn't come out of lockdown until late twenty twenty two. No,
sorry, twenty one twenty twenty one, let me get the date right
there. And it was it was very difficult. It was very very difficult.
I mean Australia had lockdowns, but Melbourne had very long, long,
long lockdowns. So just I mean, that was the first time that I
traveled wow overseas, and yeah, you know, I was sort of saying
to you before we started recording, like Melbourne has quite you know, a
decent population, but there's not really the kind of horror community or kind of
cult film community that you get even in cities that are much smaller in the
United States. You know, it's a very small community. So my people
mostly most almost completely are in the Northern Hemisphere. So it was really nice
just to go back and find my people again, you know, sort of
you know, people that I'd known online for a long time, like Alex
West from Toronto, who's wonderful, Kim Newman in the UK, everybody's god,
you know, just the most beautiful human being I think I've ever met
in my life. And just being around my people. So if anything,
I mean, Citrus just felt like like school camp. It was like a
sort of horror or cult film nerd boot camp like it was. It was
incredible. But I do find film festivals really be exciting just as a kind
of broader concept and citchs. I have to say Monica and how they treated
us like royalty. And if you ever want to go to an international film
festival, a genre film festivals, put citches at the top of your list.
It's it's magic. It's just an incredible, incredible experience and I can't
I can't rave about it enough. But yeah, film festival, so I
used to do for years. I did sort of you know what I now
call like the meat grinder of new releases, like I would sort of you
know, sort of you know, like there's a new film coming out and
I have to review it, and I don't do that anymore. I feel
like I did my time in the yeah, you know, with the grinder
of new releases, and there's there's value to that, and there's virtue to
that, but to me, it kind of had a shelf life. So
my my new release film criticism tends to focus now on film festivals, where
I kind of, you know, I will go to a film festival and
I will spend two weeks, you know, watch five films a day and
just like blah bla, do four or five hundred world reviews of every single
film that I see, and it's it's like going to the gym. Like
it's like it's like good camp, like sort of exercise the muscles, and
I love it. I love it. But you're right, like I,
so many films fall through the cracks, and it's again, you know,
it's interesting because it's places like I was speaking to a colleague at Arrow today
and they're they're I'm not going to say what title it is, but they've
picked up a film that played quite well on the film festival circuit last year
but effectively vanished after that, and it was like, this was a great
film and nobody talks about it anymore and it's sort of been forgotten. So
it's really lovely that these films are sort of given this sort of second life
if you will. You know that these are films that are never going to
make the multiplex circuit. You know, they're not going to play, They're
probably not going to be picked up by Netflix. You know that they're they're
just going to fall outside. So what happens to them after that? You
know, they might go really well on the festival circuit, but what happens
to them after that? And yeah, Home Entertainment unfortunately can't pick up all
of them, but I think does do incredible work in picking up the slack
for at least catching some of these films before they sort of lost completely.
And it's heartbreaking when films, you know, really good films do vanish,
right, Yeah, and with film festivals not only you know, is it
something that if they're going to one of these places, they're hoping for distribution?
But if you don't get that, what is the next rung of the
ladder down? Like, if you have a bit of a disappointing play,
what is the next step other than languishing and literally being a lost film?
You are stuck in an area where people can't they can't see it, they
don't know anything about it. So they don't think they're missing anything. And
for some reason, people think that if it's not Top Gun two or something,
it doesn't exist. It's not a film to them. They don't even
know that it's art that's out there. Yeah, I think we're lucky in
horror in particular and that we have shut Up Shut It does a huge amount
of work in kicking up these films that really would just not find a home.
Also, and it's not necessarily. What I like about the curation is
that it's not necessarily films that have been like a quote unquote hit on the
festival circuit. I think there's something very intuitive. You know, Sam Zimmermon
needs particular referencing here. I think he's a very intuitive programmer and curator for
Shutter, amongst all the many other things that he does, and that he
he just has a gut feeling for what will work, and he really believes
in the films that that that you know that that shot of picks up and
all the people that you know it shut are are great. But Sam in
particular, I think has a real intuitive, kind of a real instinct for
what for what will what needs to be sort of salvaged from this sort of
festival circuit film festivals. One of the things that is attached to this that
I'd really love to hear about is you you judging it and considering by the
photos and living vicariously through your travels, it seemed that you had a wonderful
time, So just the work that goes into that. Did you feel this
immense pressure? How did you feel stepping into those days where you're giving scores
to things and talking with your peers and making the best of it. One
of the best things that ever happened to me as a film critic was working
as a film festival programmer. Very briefly, but I was gifted with the
experience of seeing people like James Shapiro, Luke Mullen, e from Ursuoy,
these great film people. Just seeing how they worked close up was such a
gift to me, and James in particular, you know, and all of
them that film programmers in general, I think are a lot kinder to film
than film critics are, and James, you know, James's kind of drum
beat was always it's really hard to make a film, and that was a
gift to me and it changed completely changed the way that I worked as a
film critic because it's like, yeah, it's actually really hard to make a
film, and most film critics don't think like that. There's this sort of
Rottweiler like attack, attack, attack, and it's like it's really expensive and
it's really hard to make a film, and that any film gets finished to
completion, whether you like it or not, is almost neither here nor there
because it's so hard to make a film, and coming to judging for film
festivals with that fundamental belief actually makes it especially with peers that you know,
I was gifted, you know, just the most incredible for Sicha's you know,
an A Torrent, the great Spanish actress, was on our jury.
Kim Newman, My King, who I've already mentioned, David Fine, an
American god that I adore, and Jimpallard, who was the guy that really
started and ran the Calm film festival market for decades. So you know,
these people who were really sort of very much at the top of their game.
So seeing how they kind of approached film and how they worked it was
a very generous experience, I have to say, very positive, not really
bad vibes, like there wasn't like it would be a very different experience.
I think talking with film critics purely about it, you know that it was
with this sort of these sort of industry peers. It was a really exciting
thing and I find that it was very rewarding and very intuitive. I have
to say that we didn't There wasn't a lot of deliberations. We had a
lot of prizes to give, so there was like which film gets which award,
but we were also very much on the same page of what films were
really you know, the cream floats to the top. So it was such
a positive experience and there was real respect for the craft of filmmaking. So
even films that didn't that were in competition, that didn't get an award,
there was nothing petty or bitchy. Was always like good. I can't believe
these people made a film like they finished their film, whether it whether it
works for me or not. As I said, it's almost besides the point,
because it's so fucking hard to make a film. One thing that people
never point out about some of these not only is it difficult to make a
film, but somebody that has no income coming from this the first time they're
doing it, and they're they're doing it with no studio backing or anything like
that. When they make a movie, they're basically signing up to work on
this thing for months to get it out. And it's not it's not the
asylum. It's not where they're they're put into a machine that has support and
they're putting something out in nine days. It's this is their life for months
and months and months. If you love respects months like you're lucky because you
know often if you I mean, I know it's not rare, but I
know people that have made movies on their credit card. You know, when
you go in and you don't know if you're going to finish it, you
know, and you kind of have to wait for you know, if you're
doing all the work, you're waiting for money come in so you can pay
people, or you know, if you're working on a budget down from that,
you're not even paying people. It's you know, you've got favors coming
in. There's a whole kind of complex balancing act, and you never you
don't know what's you know, we even know from like big, big,
big budget productions, not every film that goes into production will finish. Not
every film that goes into production, even if it is finished, will get
released. You know. That's the kind of weird time that we're living in
now. You know that they might get shelved for tax reasons or whatever.
It's really hard to make a movie, and anybody who does it, whether
I like your movie or not, like, Wow, you made a movie,
just bravo. That's incredible to me. It's incredible to me that anything
gets finished. Ever, yeah, I agree, funny enough behind the scenes
some of these. I'm just looking around at the massive styles, massive piles
of discs I have around me some of these, like it's I feel the
same way about some of these releases. You know, they find film reels
in some coffee shop in South America, and they find the director alive and
the hills of Switzerland, and they get all these things together on some of
these and you bring just this amazing context to so many of these releases.
And this year alone, the number of releases that have come out. I
would love to hear just how the year, how you feel about the industry
as a whole, because I mean, you've been on the Psycho collection this
year, Kids from Umbrella on Kindergarten cop Like I would not have guessed that
six months ago. There's so many the partner labels that you've done, You've
done Gasper no Way titles this year. It's it has been such a lovely,
lovely time just to see what you bring to the table on some of
these. So how does it feel overall as a whole. What's your temperature
of the industry at the moment. I'm really positive about it for partially,
you know, for the reasons that I've already said, just in terms of
like this kind of you know, in the trenches archival work, but this,
you know, and it's so important, like I can't I can't emphasize
that enough. But for me personally, in terms of the work that I'm
getting, I'm very grateful to be getting it, and I certainly feel that
there is a kind of renaissance of physical media. Just in terms of the
work that's coming to me. I'm always sort of impressed by the breadth of
the of the kind of work that is available. So, as I said,
you know, it's not just sort of high brow films, it's not,
you know, I've had the good fortune a couple of years ago I
worked on some Bourbon films for the ber Fire, which was a delight,
but not everything has to be Igma Bourban. You know, you can you
can have Infernal Rapist and that's okay, and it's you know, and I
love that I'm at a point. And I don't mean to sound like cocky
about it, but I feel like I've I feel like I've been doing this
long enough that it's I can kind of I feel like I've earned the right
to be at the point where people will bring me the Virgin Spring by in
mar Bergmann and also bring me Infernal Rapist. Like I kind of it's like
good, this is how things should be. It's like a universe in harmony.
And you know, while I've sort of been, I guess emphasizing this
sort of more sort of low budget, sort of more sort of culturally denegrated
material, kind of exploitation film, I do think it speaks to a much
of a very healthy kind of landscape or terrain for for home entertainment in general,
and that we are getting a real diversity of stuff coming out. You
know, it's not it's not it's not just sort of high brass stuff that
we think should be celebrated. Interestingly enough, though the most controversial you know,
all of the stuff that I've done on like rape film and you know,
really kind of violent exploitation film. Without doubt, the most controversial film
that I've worked on that had the most heated uh noise on social media was
for Keno Lauba and it's actually one of the commentaries that I'm probably the most
proud of. And it was with Josh Nelson, which was cool as Ice
for king O Lauba, people lost their minds, Like people were really angry,
really really angry, and really offended. It was fascinating. There was
one guy on Twitter was like, there's no like he listened Josh and I
buy names like these are just made up names. There's no way that these
people really exist. Okay, come on, And that was that was really
fascinating to me because I think, you know, I had this idea of
like low bra hybra being a kind of related to budgets, you know,
like you know, big budget kind of impressive, highbrow movies and lower budget
infernal rapist type stuff. But then you get something like cool as Ice in
this in the middle, and you had the response to that, and funnily
enough, I think that that that was probably one of you know, the
people that actually did listen to the commentary. We got really positive feedback for
that, and that's yet to this day. That's probably one of the commentaries
that I'm the proudest of in a way which I think surprises people. But
why shouldn't Cool as Ice have exactly attention? You know, It's a really
interesting film. It speaks to a moment of time in a way that I
think not a lot of other films from that year ado. I think it's
a fascinating movie that is hilarious. I'd love to hear what anybody has to
be offended by that. I mean, you bring up a good point with
being proud of some of these releases, and as somebody that's getting into,
you know, doing visual essays and commentaries myself, what are what are you
most proud of? What are the ones that you feel like should have the
biggest impact and what you've done so far? That's a really good question.
I'm only going from memory here, so I'm just this isn't like me having
gone through a list of everything that I've done well, when you've done so
many, this has got to be her the video I say that, I
think I'm the proudest of and a lot of I have to say here,
I don't do I don't do visual editing. So I you know, there's
wonderful people like Jonathan Zaraen, so many people that do the kind of nuts
and bolts. You know, they get the visuals together. You know phil
Escott at Second Sight really you know, they are kind of co authors in
these in these video essays. You know, I record the audio, I
write the script, and I do all the research and I record the audio
and then I give them to a genius who pulls together the visual So that
needs to be acknowledged. I think that it's a collaborative thing. But the
one that I think I'm the most proud of was with Second Sight for a
film called Swallow, which is just Carlo Mirabella Davies. I think the director's
name is my apologies if I've gotten that wrong. It's a recent film twenty
nineteen. I think movie. It's an incredible movie, right, and I
love that movie so much. And Carlo is an extraordinarily thoughtful and generous and
kind filmmaker. I think there's an enormous compassion and intelligence to his work that
you don't normally see that kind of combination of But I believe I'm going from
memory here, but I think the audio that I submitted for that video essay
was about an hour and a half. I think it was about the run
time of the actual film, and I think it was I believe I could
be mistaken in my apologies if I've got the name wrong. I believe it
was Phil Escott who edited that together and actually made it kind of coherent.
But yeah, like that's a film that I I just can't speak more highly
of. And to be you know, I mean, so many of these
films, you know, with commentaries very close together. I was able to
do idol Apino's Outrage for Imprint the wonderful people at Imprint here in Melbourne,
Hi Josh, and very close to that, I was able to do with
Josh Nelson more than Color by Lynn Ramsay for Fun City Editions. And they
are two films that I never thought would get out on Blu Ray. They
and they came very very close together, and they just sort of arrived in
my inbox, you know, these invitations to do commentaries for those films,
and it was really exciting. It was such an exciting thing. It's like
these are films that that I never thought would ever get released, let alone
have these kind of considered, really thoughtfully put together packages. Trouble every Day
is another one which recently came out the the Claar Dni films Trouble every Day,
Like, I never thought that I would see that, you know,
a on a really solid home entertainment release, that that had that we that
we have now. So they're the ones that leap to mind. But I'm
forgetting so many things. Session nine is another one for Second Sight, like
that was just a delight to work on. But Arrow, sorry, no,
I was just gonna say, I'm always baffled what Second Sight is able
to get for some of these releases. And even Swallow is a great example,
because I there's something about that film. It was released at the perfect
time, because I think twenty nineteen is right, like you said, because
I had I had a four year old and a three year old at that
time, and we had just we had just sort of recovered from my youngest.
We thought that he might have pika like the individual in Swallow has,
and he for thirteen months straight he was spitting up constantly. We couldn't get
actual food in him. But everything that wasn't food he put in his mouth
immediately, and it was it was a rough time. And then watching that
movie was just, God, this is beautiful, but this is also terrifying.
I saw that at a fantastic fest. I think it might have been
the North American No, the US premier, I'm not sure. My apologies
if I've got that wrong. And you know, the kind of you know,
synopsis, the blurb of the film is, you know, there's basically
like a pretty little young blonde thing and she she eats funny things. You
know, she swallows thumbtacks and batteries and and poops them out, you know
that sort of Aha. So there was a lot of you know, there's
a lot of kind of you could see that there were guys, and there
was let's let's watch let's watch this chick eat weird shit, you know,
and the way that the place that that film goes. And I remembered quite
early on in the film thinking if this wasn't good, like where this should
go is so cutting edge and so brave, and there's no way it's going
to do it. And it's exactly where it went. And I was just
so excited by this film because I just didn't think it would have the guts
to do what it did, and it does, and it's such a you
know, I don't want to give it away for people who haven't seen it,
but it's I think, on the subject where it goes to. I
think it's one of the most powerful and timely films on this particular thing.
And these poor guys at a fantastic Beast, you know, they went in
few it was like, hey, she's got a sort of she's got to
poop bad a battery ah ha ha, and it got somewhere so whoa,
and you could just see them like Frozen. It's a magic film. It's
a really magical film. And I mean Second Sight is a really good example
when it comes to acquisitions. You know, I talked about Brad Henderson,
but Chris at the Second Sight is such an intuitive person when it comes to
acquisitions, Like he really just gets it sometimes, you know, I wonder.
I mean I've not talked to him about this side. I don't want
to, you know, put put words in his mouth, but I do
wonder, Like I think it's just instinct. I think sometimes he just is
like, you know what, I love this film and I'm going to do
it and it never misses, it never misses. So that kind of intuition
I think for acquisitions for home media needs a lot more acknowledgment and sort of
respect for that alone, because I think it's quite It kind of drives the
industry really, you know that the kind of gut feeling that sometimes dominates these
acquisitions as much as anything on a spreadsheet. It's exciting, it is.
And I mean the titles that they've gotten the big thing for a second sait.
It's not a it's not a genre. They're all across the board.
It's not it's not a well known film versus you know, a film that's
lesser known. It's not highbrow versus low brown. They kind of have everything
at Second Seit it's interesting. I've done quite a few Australian films for Second
Sight, which has been fascinating to me. You know, Umbrella, Umbrella
and in Print do some great work, were really really great work. So
I don't want to sort of denigrate what they're doing at all, but I
was really surprised to see this sort of wave of Australian films that Second Sight
picked up and put such enormous care into you know. I think the first
one that I did for them was Lake Mungo. Yeah, and then you
know picnicke At Hanging Rock and Chopper. Around the same time, you know,
I was working on I worked on a release of Snowtown. I can't
remember who that was for, and for someone else I did Romper Stomper.
These well, I think I believe all UK companies they were Snowtown I believe
was one on one films and I think Rompers eighty eight eighty eight. Yeah,
and they were you know, delights to work on, really delightful projects
to work on. So yeah, it was really interesting coming to those as
an Australian critic for a kind of international audience or for a UK audience,
because you kind of need to reframe a lot of the stuff critically that you
would sort of take for granted here in terms of you know, first nation's
history and these sort of more nuanced local kind of things, especially for you
know, something like Chopper or Picnic and Hanging Rock. You know that Lake
Mungo is a really obvious one, and even the title Lake Mungo, the
significance of that title for people in the UK might not be as kind of
common knowledge as it is here. Yeah, you're you're an ambassador of sorts
at that point delivering it. It feels a little bit like that. Yeah,
like almost like a little bit of a kind of kind of a kind
of summarized history lesson. Yeah. Well, and look at what they did
for The Nightingale. I mean everything on that release is that movie itself was
one that delivered that culture. It was like an ambassador for people to understand
what happened. Yeah, Second Sight did both the Babaduk and Nightingale. I
think and I believe that Josh and my commentary for Baba Duk is actually the
Australian four K release UHD release sorry of Baba Duk. I believe has our
commentary from the UK amazing made its way back to the homeland. Yeah,
okay, So we talked about some of the ones that you're more proud of.
What do you think are someones that are overlooked, some that people should
seek out that maybe you don't ever hear any feedback on that you'd love people
to check out. It's a really good question. Probably the stuff that I
did video essays for Yeah, yeah, I mean for commentaries I would say,
like I was fortunate enough a couple of years ago, again with Josh
Nelson, we did a couple of may West Common treats for Kino Lauba,
which was there was like a may West box set, and they were great.
They were really fun to do. But yeah, video, I really
I love doing video essays because I think as a I'm a very visual person
and I really like with a video essay and that you're not sort of restricted
in the same way that you are with a commentary to sort of you know,
focus on particular moments all kind of general themes or a video essay,
you have a lot more elasticity with time. You can sort of take one
shot or one scene and really stretch it out and really play with it.
And for me, just my critical style, I think, I really that's
what I really like doing, is like really getting getting deep into the guts
of like a camera composition or the particular framing or the mess on scene or
some aspect like that. And video essays give me a lot of to do
that that I feel is the most freeing. So yeah, I guess I
guess the video so rather than a particular release, I would say that that's
the form that I feel that I've kind of thrived in the most. Yeah,
I would agree. There's quite a few that you've done that I feel
like nobody talks about. And I know last year when I did the shelf
Shock Rewind Awards, I filled out my initial thing that I was looking at
for visual essays, and I think I had a list of like twelve,
and I think you were six of them. Can you remember? I'm curious
which one. Gosh, I probably have the notes somewhere on the computer still,
I can find them eventually. One that I really loved doing that because
I think I also had a written release on I've already mentioned the Second Sight
release of Session nine. Yes, that was a video essay I loved doing
because that was all about collar in that film. It's a film about collage
and the way that collage works in that film, and that's the kind of
thing. You couldn't do that in any other way. You couldn't do that,
You couldn't present that in any other format. It has to be visual.
It wouldn't work on a commentary because you're speaking about very specific shots at
very specific moments that kind of tie in back to each other. It's this
sort of patchwork, so that in a way, that's the one that I
think that really kind of culminates all of the things that I find the most
rewarding in doing a video essay. Yeah, and again much that depends on
the editor, you know, the visual editor. So I again really want
to amplify that I don't do I don't do the magic. I just give
them the words and these genius in people like Phil and Jonathan come in and
weave their magic. As someone who's been editing a lot over the last couple
weeks, I appreciate that Jared Gahan is another one. Jared Gahan needs a
shout out as well. He does some amazing, amazing video essay editing on
things that I've worked on. And there are people that I'm not forgetting to
mention, but I really want to put those names out there. I will
use the moment to highlight visual essays. I feel like as a whole are
being overlooked a lot. I feel like a lot of people are looking at
audio commentaries and that is like the gold standard, a bonus feature. If
this disc doesn't have an audio commentary, what's the point. But in all
reality, there is so many of these releases that you can put something in
a visual essay that makes zero sense in an audio commentary. You're not going
to do an audio commentary on the director's filmography, for example. Why would
you watch a movie with that playing in the background. It doesn't make a
lot of sense. So yeah, those visual essays that you can do documentaries,
you can highlight certain things in a scene, certain actors, and you've
done a great, great job with many of those, So yeah, people
need to check those out. It's interesting to look at something like the Arrow
Player. I did a video essay for the stylists for Arrow for their physical
release of The Stylist, which is an amazing film. But Arrow actually put
the video essay, the visual essay onto their streaming service as well as a
kind of package with the film, and I got a lot of feedback about
that, and I thought that was really interesting that the visual essay kind of
got a second life outside of the actual physical relief. Interesting. And I
know that Umbrella in Australia have just launched a streaming service COOKEDROLLI wow, And
I think that they're interested in doing a similar kind of thing of having these
kind of supplementary materials available on the streaming service, and I think that's really
exciting. I think that's a really interesting way to kind of revive some of
these extras that might have got lost the first time around. I love to
see more of that. I feel like in the States at least there's a
handful. Like I think it's the Glass Onion. The Knives Out sequel got
a commentary because Rian Johnson, the director is Brian Johnson. He's huge,
he's powerful or whatever, so it's the only reason to got a commentary.
But imagine how much more people could appreciate these things if you go on Netflix
and surf the features with these and not only increase the value of what people
are feeling, you know, gouged by nowadays because prices have doubled and tripled,
absolutely so much better. Yeah, yeah, no, I like it.
I think that's a nice that's a nice set of avenue that some of
this material is taking. It's almost sort of reversed the idea of physical media
being you know, yeah, the archive. You know, it's like,
actually you can put that back on streaming and kind of revive, you know,
breathe life into especially with the you know, the kind of things that
we're interested in. You it's all mostly it's REP cinema, So mostly you're
dealing with films that people it's not all rap, but mostly you're dealing with
films that people have already seen and they already have a relationship to. So
you're sort of breathing life back into that and it's lovely well, and the
big thing with REP cinema that a lot of us, you know, not
only are people associated with it, they have their own memories of it.
But one of the things that I really want to remind people of is those
films have a reputation. So when something plays, people are going in there
with some sort of bias already they have something, especially if they've never seen
it before. They you know, if they're going to a Rocky horror picture
show of screening, they've heard about this for decades and now they're finally going
to see it, and it's going to be really hard to live up to
that moment, so changes the way you view that film. It does,
and it's it's one of the you know, on a really kind of base
level, I think it's one of the great luxuries of doing film criticism.
Work with me with physical media and with home entertainment, is that you have
the gift like unlike really certainly the kind of as you know, the meat
grinder of new releases or you know, for me personally, with online writing
in general, you have the gift with this stuff and that you're dealing with
an audience that already is engaged. Yeah, you don't need to sell them
on the film. You know, for somebody to cough up thirty or forty
pounds for a Blu ray, Yeah, they've already got a connection to that.
And it might be that it's it's a new film that they've heard about.
But when you make that kind of like literal investment, Yeah, it's
buying a disc and bringing it home with you. You know, you're paying
attention in a way that's very very different to the way that people engage with
online criticism for me anyway, like that might have been the case for other
people, and you know, maybe that changes if you're writing for like The
New Yorker, But you know, yeah, I find that there's you're really
dealing with a committed audience and that's a gift. Yeah, that buy in
Like you phrase you had used earlier, you can't really buy that sort of
buy in. If people are already there, they're invested, and they're on
your site already exactly exactly. This is probably a pretty obvious question, but
really would love to dive into. You know, you have this diverse range
of writing and titles that you've contributed to. What are some dream titles that
would surprise us? Because obviously I never expect a kindergarten cop to get not
only two new commentaries, but have you be one of them that's going to
draw me in? So what are some that might just blow some people away
that you'd be like, if this is offered to me, this is a
dream title of mine. Oh wow, that's a good question. Probably a
lot of older stuff, I think, sort of older like black and white
stuff. So I mean Harvey off the top of my head, you know,
the James Stewart film like that would be like, you know, I
didn't even know if that's been released. Modern Girls, this amazing eighties film
that I'm obsessed with, which I believe has had a Blu Ray release I
think from Keno Laba. That being said, I have to say I'm not
particularly territorial, and this is quite controversial because I think different contributors have different
relationships to this. Sometimes there's like films that I love that I actually don't
want to be on, like i'd much rather. A really good example of
this is Kat Ellinger did an incredible commentary for Basseoir and I, you know,
the famous French it's called a rape prevenge film. But it's kind of
not that. I was so thrilled that Cat got that, like, you
know, like i'd much because I want to hear what she's doing. I
want to hear her thoughts on it, So I don't. I don't feel
particularly territorial. I don't think I've ever had a release come out where I've
been like I should have been on that, because even if it's stuff that
I have particular expertise in, it's not, you know, I'd rather hear
somebody else. If it's if it's a good critic, i'd rather, you
know, I mean, who doesn't want to hear Cat Elinga talk about anything.
She's amazing, right, So yeah, I'm pretty I'm pretty kind of
open minded with that stuff. I have to say, like, I don't.
I mean, in one of my books is on masks in Horror,
and I don't think I've ever done a commentary on a film that has sort
of heavily featured masks. But I'm not, you know, and I think
that's you know, that's obviously something that I could speak to very easily because
you know how many horror films have masks in them. But that being said,
like I'm not, I don't feel particularly territorial or that that's my terrain,
and certainly that's not the case with with with with rape revenge, or
with found footage horror, or with masks, Like I don't feel that kind
of possessiveness. I feel a little bit more. Maybe when I was younger,
I might have, but I feel a little bit more relaxed, right
right. I'll kind of hear what other people are bringing to the table,
and especially if I've written a book about something, like the book is kind
of like I kind of work my way through the material, like I kind
of resolved my relationship to that particular subject, So it's not like I'm kind
of itching to kind of be heard on a particular topic. Like I feel
like, you know, there's enough from me out there in the ether on
rape revenge films, And it's not saying that I don't want to do more
rape revenge films. You know, one of the I did Thriller or a
Cruel Picture for Vinegar Syndrome, which was an amazing experience. So I love
doing commentaries on these things that I've written about. I love it, you
know, witches like I haven't in the Witch Book, isn't that yet?
But I don't think I've done much on witches yet, so I would love
to. You know, it's always really lovely to revisit these things found footage
horror, especially, which I'm obsessed with. But yeah, at the same
time, I'm always very excited to hear other people, as long as it's
you know, somebody that like, like cat all into, like somebody who
I want to hear, right, I don't want to be bitchy, but
you know, if it's somebody that I'm not so into, maybe maybe I
won't be rushing to listen to it. But I still don't feel that,
you know, it's my terrain. You know, Well that's that's the next
question. Who's on that list? I'm just kidding. Alphabetical started a pull
it out. I've had it ready. I've been waiting for somebody to ask
Alexander, this has been incredible. Thank you so much for specding the time
today. My pleasure. It's been a delight. I would love to have
you back someday and if you ever get a chance, I would love to.
First off, I need to buy that book the moment it comes out.
I can't wait to read that, hopefully hopefully next year. As I
said, my publisher being very patient, so I will see hopefully twenty twenty
four. It's good to hear, all right. I will link everything for
Alexander Blow and if you have any questions, she's fairly approachable. So thank
you all and we'll see you next time. Thank you for listening to the
Disconnected podcast. There's one big thing that you could do to help the show,
and that is to leave a rating and review on the podcast service of
your choice. Thank you tell me no Hello. This is Chris Haskell from
They Live by Film. For those that don't know us, Adam Zach and
I we built a podcast over the last two years that's a combination of film
discussion from three very different perspectives, as well as industry interviews with the leaders
in Boutique, Blu Ray and four K community. We started with dev Crocodile,
but over time we've been lucky enough to speak with Aero Video, Severn,
Mondo, Macabre, Vinegar Syndrome, Radiant Syndicator, most of the OCN
partner labels. It's been a blast. You can find us wherever you podcast
and also actually recently as part of someone's favorite production podcast network. We hope
to see you online