Hello everyone, this is Scott Weinberg, welcome back to a patron episode of 80s all over. This is a very special one and I'm going to let my co-host, Drew McQueenie, explain why. I, one of the things that I really love about being a member of Lafka is watching the way it has changed dramatically over the five or six years I've been a member now when I joined. Drew, and that would be the Los Angeles flag collectors association. Exactly. We collect flags of the world, we twirl them, we display them, and we march in parades. It's really, oh wait, oh I'm sorry I'm in my other organization, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. When I joined I was one of the younger people there, and it felt like I was sort of a loan on a generational island. That has dramatically shifted over the last few years and it has been delightful watching new members come in, change the way Lathka feels in our meetings and one of the members who I've really enjoyed, just your contributions. And I'll never forget the first meeting you showed up at where someone was brought up as a possible source of tribute or a possible figure of tribute and you went no bullshit on that and i'm like first meeting i am so happy this person's here now uh... let me introduce the one and only april wolf hi they for having me on him during my own bullshit to the our listeners who may not be, April does a podcast called Switchblade Sisters and every episode is a specific genre film and she sits down with a female filmmaker to discuss the film and all different angles. Just to give you a taste, this is what I sampled. Oh, and they just celebrated their first year, so they're like a 14 month old podcast, right, April? Mazel Tav. But just to give our listeners a taste, if you're not already downloading Switchblade Sisters, the first four episodes. She discusses Bone Tom Hawk with the awesome Emily Gordon. She discusses near dark with Karin Kusama. She discusses the invitation with Heather Madorazo, and she discusses Pan's labyrinth with the amazing Isalo Pez whose tigers are not afraid is still not out in America and is stunning. Would you agree April? It's one of the best kept secrets that we have in film right now I think. Yeah. April I want to just open this question. I have a few theories but it would be much more interesting coming from you.

Where does this bullshit theory that women don't like horror? Where did it come from? I think it's because of a general idea of women's disposition and being averse to violence. Violence is usually the sticking point. I think a lot of men think that or have saw that women didn't like violence,

but in my experience, it was the women who wanted more of it. And I think you're seeing that in the movies that women are making in the horror genre. Just look at raw. I just keep thinking about what is gore. And it's kind of like this desire for these terrible, disgusting things that we have that I don't think women You know, maybe they just didn't feel comfortable expressing that before but now everything is kind of out in the open Drew any theories on that why where did that that bullshit theory because I'll just say real quick what growing up my grandmother Everyone knows recorded knows, recorded horror films for me off HBO. My sister, more often not watching them with me, and my mother, while not really into horror, allowed it. So like the idea, when I got the early internet and I started seeing this women don't like horror thing, I thought, all right, well, that's just a silly cliche. Only a child would believe that. But it grew and grew. And I don't understand it.

It's nonsensical.

Drew, tell me if you agree with this theory.

April, I'd love to hear your theory. I think it's like any cultural geek keeping. I think there's a certain amount of it that is real and there's a certain amount of it that is inflated simply by volume. I think that there's probably,

look, one of the things about horror

that I didn't totally get when I was younger

was I felt weird about the fact that victims were so frequently one-sided in terms of horror. And there was an era during the 80s, especially, where it felt uncomfortable to me. And I have no idea, that wasn't me saying so women can't enjoy this but it felt weird and the movies that felt to me like the ones that crossed over from that were the ones where it wasn't just about victimization where it wasn't just like a laundry list of atrocity and where there were characters and actual things happening and I think that's always the thing that is just for me delineated the good and the bad and are. But I think that there is so much of the sort of red meat version of it that especially in the era where I was young, I could understand if somebody was turned off or put off on just a blanket level. But I think some of it's just the volume of people who try to be cultural gatekeepers. And you know, you can ignore that. Anybody who tries to tell you what you can or can't like or anybody who tries to establish what anybody else theoretically would or wouldn't like, that's just an exercise nonsense, I think. Yeah, I think my theory is that men and women like horror equally, it's just that men are often hesitant to admit that they were scared and women are not afraid to admit that a movie scared them. I really think that's it. Like, you... Yeah, I mean, and so then it becomes like, oh, this is for guys. It didn't scare me, and the girl would say, it scared the shit out of me, and I liked it. You'd say, oh, well, you're just a girl. Well, it was supposed to scare you. So there you go. Yeah, I just did.

It's like that. say it scared the shit out of me and I liked it. You'd say, oh, well, you're just a girl. Well, it was supposed to scare you.

So there you go. I just, it's like that nonsense thing that we got where women aren't funny. Anything to get a click, even if it's just nonsense. But yeah, so everybody downloads which blade sister, support the show, it's fantastic. And I think one of our main topics of discussion is going to be 80s horror.

April, I don't know your age and I won't ask it but I assume you are experienced in the vast realm of 80s horror to some degree. Yes I mean I was born in the 80s I will tell you that. Okay but as I've said so many times before my grandparents actually raised me and you and I started watching horror when I was very, very young. I mean, like the first movie I can remember watching was Sleep Away Camp when I was three. We had rented it from right aid. And that's the first movie I can remember. We just had a thing where I would sit on my grandmother's lap and my sister would sit on my grandfather's lap and we all had blankets that my grandparents would put over our eyes if they felt like it was something it was too much for us. Oh that's funny. And so they just had like a system worked out and it was very funny but there are there are also too many things that they were not quick enough with the blanket. I think that's part of the fun of when we were watching movies when we were younger and home video was really the primary source of a lot of our first exposures to the transgressive or the sort of boundary breaking. A lot of times our parents were in the room for that and there's inevitably the moment where it's already happened and then they react and I've noticed it with my own kids If I don't react half the time they don't realize something crazy just happened There's a lot of stuff that has gone by that where if I didn't react they were fine and my parents frequently Where the ones where I was like okay wait something interesting just went on and I don't know what Remember my parents took us to see a drive in of something and Excalibur and my mom was fine with most of it but during the early sex scenes I remember as clear as day her turning around and covering my eyes and making a big deal about it and every time I think about Excalibur I remember that odd memory and and but yeah it was violent as hell they didn't seem to care about that so much uh... uh... and you did you ever like growing up did you ever you guys ever um... love a horror movie and then be hesitant to show it to your parents because you thought they wouldn't they not only would they not get it but they might want to like curtail your activities no no in fact i mean ever like my grandparents um... i still call them every week and um... talk to them about the horrible things i've seen and so that's not i mean there there are older now so they were harder time getting through movies they've kind of fall asleep but if they're the good one i think that will actually keep them awake that i will tell them about it nice yeah i i being, you know, you'd be blown away by something like evil dad

or reanimator and I tell my sister

and I tell my friends, but don't bring it up at dinner because you don't want your mom to check out those movies and see what you're watching. Yeah, horror was never something I shared within my family. And, you know, I've talked before about the fact that my dad would shred Fangoria and treated it worse than porn,

like that magazine was 100% off limits in my house.

And so I got the message pretty early on that horror was not my parents bag. And so any of that that went on was away from them and the mistakes that were made were made by uncles or made by babysitters or, you know, it was a a baby it was an uncle who took me to the

exorcist when I was seven which for me was super young I can't imagine having seen something that transgressive younger April but we have a common friend Aaron Morgan who talks about seeing at the drive-in the beast within when he was three and that blows my mind. But no, April, you said you saw sleep away camp at three. Give us some of your other informative, impactful, early horror movies. April Fool's Day was very formative. Good one. Just even, I mean, walking, our video store was the right aid and so we would walk down there

and always see the April Fool cover.

Great cover.

What's your take on the infamous controversial ending

among horror fans?

Some love it, some hate it?

...