Clever Ghouls

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In this minisode, Blair discusses some of the ideas and implications behind the costume design in Alien…and we explore the implicit sexuality and violence that makes up the design of H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph.

References:

• H.R. Giger
• More information on the xenomorph
• Costuming Alien by The Art of Costume
• The Making of Alien by J. R. Rinzler
• H.R. Giger, 40th Ed. by Andreas J. Hirsch
• Adam Savage checking out the Xenomorph costume from Alien: Covenant

The Clever Ghouls podcast, hosted by Maegan and Blair, is a show dedicated to watching, analyzing, and discussing the movies that make us think about them long after we’ve left the theater or turned off the TV. We bring quick wit and unique perspectives from backgrounds like art history, cinematography, psychology, analysis, public education, mysticism, mythos, and more to create a curated, inclusive conversation around the spooky movies we love. Tune in on your favorite podcast hosting platform to listen along, join the conversation, and chime in with your own observations!

Our intro and outro music was created for us by Josh Marshall. For more episodes and other spooky content, find us on your favorite social media platform through our handle: @CleverGhouls. Don’t forget to subscribe and share, and if you really like our content, please leave us a review. Or we’ll haunt you forever. Thanks for listening!

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In this episode, the Clever Ghouls wander off into deep space to discuss Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror sci-fi masterpiece, Alien. The film stars Sigourney Weaver and follows her and her crew through space on their commercial spaceship, Nostromo, as they investigate an unknown distress signal.  But once the crew finds an egg aboard, things quickly turn to chaos. Pull up a seat and follow along as we dig deeper into this classic film and discuss topics like gender roles and how this film set the tone for feminism in sci-fi, allegories of motherhood, the rampant sexual and phallic imagery in this film, why we fear the unknown, how sci-fi has changed as technology advances, and which Ghoulie would be the last one standing against a Xenomorph.

We are also THRILLED to be joined by our very first guest,  Sarah Sheppeck (they/fae/she). Sarah is the co-Editor-in-Chief of biannual queer fashion magazine just femme & dandy. Born and raised in upstate New York, she lives with her beloved pit bull, Chloe, and her horrible cat son, Rita Moreno. Find her on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok: @EpicSheppeck; and the magazine: Instagram @justfemmeanddandy and on Twitter and TikTok @femmeanddandymag They also do astro-drags and rootwork on a pay-what-you-can scale.

Related minisodes for even MORE content:

• Technostress: Sci-Fi & How It Reflects Our Societal Fears | Minisode w/ Maegan
• That Thing You Do: Let's Talk About Vibrators | Minisode w/ Blair
• Blue Collar Claustrophobia: The Costumes of Alien | Minisode w/ Blair

A note about the movie and therefore the subject matter of our discussions: Alien is rated R by the MPAA sci-fi violence/gore and language. Some content warnings to be aware of are: strobe effects, violence and mild gore (including mild body horror), implied penetration, and lots of jumpscares.

The Clever Ghouls podcast, hosted by Maegan and Blair, is a show dedicated to watching, analyzing, and discussing the movies that make us think about them long after we’ve left the theater or turned off the TV. We bring quick wit and unique perspectives from backgrounds like art history, cinematography, psychology, analysis, public education, mysticism, mythos, and more to create a curated, inclusive conversation around the spooky movies we love. Tune in on your favorite podcast hosting platform to listen along, join the conversation, and chime in with your own observations!

Our intro and outro music was created for us by Josh Marshall. For more episodes and other spooky content, find us on your favorite social media platform through our handle: @CleverGhouls. Don’t forget to subscribe and share, and if you really like our content, please leave us a review. Or we’ll haunt you forever. Thanks for listening!

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Let’s talk about sex, baby! Specifically solo sex; or, how the majority of us reach orgasm (hint: it may or may not require a couple of AA batteries). Join Blair as she explores the history of vibrators and how they impact modern society.

References: 

• The Technology of Orgasm by Rachel Maines
• The Psychology of Sex Toys (Psychology Today)
• Prevalence and Characteristics of Vibrator Use by Women in the United States (PubMed)
• Sex Toy Ownership By Type (Statista)
• Sales Share of Sex Toys (Statista)
• 2022 Statistics On People with Vibrators (SexualAlpha)
• Women Surveyed About Their First Sex Toy (Minna Life)
• OMGYes.com

The Clever Ghouls podcast, hosted by Maegan and Blair, is a show dedicated to watching, analyzing, and discussing the movies that make us think about them long after we’ve left the theater or turned off the TV. We bring quick wit and unique perspectives from backgrounds like art history, cinematography, psychology, analysis, public education, mysticism, mythos, and more to create a curated, inclusive conversation around the spooky movies we love. Tune in on your favorite podcast hosting platform to listen along, join the conversation, and chime in with your own observations!

Our intro and outro music was created for us by Josh Marshall. For more episodes and other spooky content, find us on your favorite social media platform through our handle: @CleverGhouls. Don’t forget to subscribe and share, and if you really like our content, please leave us a review. Or we’ll haunt you forever. Thanks for listening!

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In this minisode, Maegan (our resident psychology babe) discusses how mental illness and mental health facilities are often grossly misportrayed in horror films and how, even as unintending viewers, we can sometimes add to this negative stigma through armchair psychology.

The Clever Ghouls podcast, hosted by Maegan and Blair, is a show dedicated to watching, analyzing, and discussing the movies that make us think about them long after we’ve left the theater or turned off the TV. We bring quick wit and unique perspectives from backgrounds like art history, cinematography, psychology, analysis, public education, mysticism, mythos, and more to create a curated, inclusive conversation around the spooky movies we love. Tune in on your favorite podcast hosting platform to listen along, join the conversation, and chime in with your own observations!

Our intro and outro music was created for us by Josh Marshall. For more episodes and other spooky content, find us on your favorite social media platform through our handle: @CleverGhouls. Don’t forget to subscribe and share, and if you really like our content, please leave us a review. Or we’ll haunt you forever. Thanks for listening!

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Whatever you think you know about corsets, it’s (probably) wrong. Join Blair in this minisode as she goes over the history of corsetry and why the whole gasping thing is unequivocally incorrect when it comes to historical undergarments.

References:

• The Corset: A Cultural History by Valerie Steele
• Bound & Determined: A Visual History of Corsets by Kristina Seleshanko
• I Grew Up In Corsets (Bernadette Banner)

The Clever Ghouls podcast, hosted by Maegan and Blair, is a show dedicated to watching, analyzing, and discussing the movies that make us think about them long after we’ve left the theater or turned off the TV. We bring quick wit and unique perspectives from backgrounds like art history, cinematography, psychology, analysis, public education, mysticism, mythos, and more to create a curated, inclusive conversation around the spooky movies we love. Tune in on your favorite podcast hosting platform to listen along, join the conversation, and chime in with your own observations!

Our intro and outro music was created for us by Josh Marshall. For more episodes and other spooky content, find us on your favorite social media platform through our handle: @CleverGhouls. Don’t forget to subscribe and share, and if you really like our content, please leave us a review. Or we’ll haunt you forever. Thanks for listening!

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On this episode, the Clever Ghouls discuss Corpse Bride, the 2005 stop motion masterpiece written and directed by Tim Burton. The film follows the story of Victor, a young man in an 1800s-era Victorian town who finds himself married to a dead woman after practicing his vows written for his living fiancée. Victor must decide which is more frightening: hanging out in the land of the dead or committing to a lifetime of marriage.

This film is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) for some scary images and action, and brief mild language. We’d also like to make you aware of some other content that might be triggering: dead (but cute) animals, bugs, murder, abuse, gaslighting, skeletons, and a character who is a disembodied head. We welcome you to visit this film’s disclosure page on DoesTheDogDie.com. Furthermore, we briefly discuss the history of Jewish people prior to World War II and pogroms/massacres to which these communities were subjected. If this is sensitive subject matter for you, we encourage you to skip this episode and join us in our next discussion. 

Related minisodes for even more content:

• Speak Without Gasping: The Truth About Corsets | Minisode w/ Blair

The Clever Ghouls podcast, hosted by Maegan and Blair, is a show dedicated to watching, analyzing, and discussing the movies that make us think about them long after we’ve left the theater or turned off the TV. We bring quick wit and unique perspectives from backgrounds like art history, cinematography, psychology, analysis, public education, mysticism, mythos, and more to create a curated, inclusive conversation around the spooky movies we love. Tune in on your favorite podcast hosting platform to listen along, join the conversation, and chime in with your own observations!

Our intro and outro music was created for us by Josh Marshall. For more episodes and other spooky content, find us on your favorite social media platform through our handle: @CleverGhouls. Don’t forget to subscribe and share, and if you really like our content, please leave us a review. Or we’ll haunt you forever. Thanks for listening!

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Join Maegan and Melissa in this minisode as they talk about Cordyceps, the zombie fungus made popular by the video game turned TV show Last of Us. Maegan, the avid gamer, gives some context on societal and pop-culture importance and how this fungus is portrayed in Last of Us; while Melissa, bug scientiest extraordinaire,  gives some terrifying explanations on how Cordyceps function in the real world and how the scenario in Last of Us might not be quite as far-fetched as we'd like to believe.

Resources:
1. How a Fungus Turns Ants into Zombies:
https://www.uu.nl/en/news/how-a-fungus-turns-ants-into-zombies
2. Zombifying Fungus Bypasses Brain: https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/07/study-zombie-ant-death-grip-comes-from-muscle-contractions-not-the-brain/
3. How to Tame a Zombie Fungus: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/06/how-to-tame-a-zombie-fungus/562544/
4. Fungus Amungus (Radiolab Episode):
https://radiolab.org/episodes/fungus-amungus

The Clever Ghouls podcast, hosted by Maegan and Blair, is a show dedicated to watching, analyzing, and discussing the movies that make us think about them long after we’ve left the theater or turned off the TV. We bring quick wit and unique perspectives from backgrounds like art history, cinematography, psychology, analysis, public education, mysticism, mythos, and more to create a curated, inclusive conversation around the spooky movies we love. Tune in on your favorite podcast hosting platform to listen along, join the conversation, and chime in with your own observations!

Our intro and outro music was created for us by Josh Marshall. For more episodes and other spooky content, find us on your favorite social media platform through our handle: @CleverGhouls. Don’t forget to subscribe and share, and if you really like our content, please leave us a review. Or we’ll haunt you forever. Thanks for listening!

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In this minisode, join Maegan & Melissa as they talk about the sexiest (and kinda the scariest) creatures from folklore...Mermaids! Maegan gives us some background on our very first version of the mermaid, Melissa blows everyone's mind about how sirens aren't actually what we think they are, then we rant about how Disney got it WRONG, and talk about some of our favorite mermaid depictions in horror films.

NOTE: We are aware of the audio blip around the 00:50 mark. We were hoping it was an editing error, but it happens on the raw audio track so it seems our recording software ate it. Sorry! Forgive us! 

Resources:
1. "Sirens were Bird-women":
https://www.audubon.org/news/sirens-greek-myth-were-bird-women-not-mermaids

The Clever Ghouls podcast, hosted by Maegan and Blair, is a show dedicated to watching, analyzing, and discussing the movies that make us think about them long after we’ve left the theater or turned off the TV. We bring quick wit and unique perspectives from backgrounds like art history, cinematography, psychology, analysis, public education, mysticism, mythos, and more to create a curated, inclusive conversation around the spooky movies we love. Tune in on your favorite podcast hosting platform to listen along, join the conversation, and chime in with your own observations!

Our intro and outro music was created for us by Josh Marshall. For more episodes and other spooky content, find us on your favorite social media platform through our handle: @CleverGhouls. Don’t forget to subscribe and share, and if you really like our content, please leave us a review. Or we’ll haunt you forever. Thanks for listening!

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In this minisode, join Maegan as she digs into the representation of people of color, particularly MENAT and Black people, in horror films over the years, and how they often serve as plot devices and tropes.

Acronyms:

•  MENAT: Middle East, North Africa, Turkey
• BIPIOC: Black, Indigenous, People of Color

References:

• Reel Bad Arabs by Shaheen
• "Magical Negro" trope
• Orientalism by Said

Movies starring/written/directed by BIPOC:

• A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
• Zinda Laash (1967) / The Living Corpse
• Dabbe: The Possession (2013) 
• Under the Shadow (2016) 
• Night of the Living Dead (1968)
• Candyman (1992)
• The Girl With All the Gifts (2016)
• Train to Busan (2016)
• Under The Shadow (2016)
• And absolutely ANYTHING Jordan Peele has touched

The Clever Ghouls podcast, hosted by Maegan and Blair, is a show dedicated to watching, analyzing, and discussing the movies that make us think about them long after we’ve left the theater or turned off the TV. We bring quick wit and unique perspectives from backgrounds like art history, cinematography, psychology, analysis, public education, mysticism, mythos, and more to create a curated, inclusive conversation around the spooky movies we love. Tune in on your favorite podcast hosting platform to listen along, join the conversation, and chime in with your own observations!

Our intro and outro music was created for us by Josh Marshall. For more episodes and other spooky content, find us on your favorite social media platform through our handle: @CleverGhouls. Don’t forget to subscribe and share, and if you really like our content, please leave us a review. Or we’ll haunt you forever. Thanks for listening!

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On this week's episode the Clever Ghouls are discussing Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), summarizing the plot and breaking down various topics including redemption and salvation, intuition, manipulation, feminine virtue and sexuality, Fruedian connections to the original book,  supernatural vs. science, revenge and a special look into the amazing costume design of the movie. Our episode focuses on this specific adaptation of the classic 1897 novel, although you should check out the many other variations and inspirations that are out there! 

And to give a heads up about some content warnings for this episode, discussions will inevitably include  graphic violence including bloodletting, dismemberment, rape, self harm, depictions of mental facilities, torture, abduction & imprisonment, child murder, animal death and racial slurs. Head over to doesthedogdie.com for full details and additional content warnings.

Related minisodes for even more content:

• The Subliminal Art of Costumes | Minisode w/ Blair
• Speak Without Gasping: The Truth About Corsets | Minisode w/ Blair

The Clever Ghouls podcast, hosted by Maegan and Blair, is a show dedicated to watching, analyzing, and discussing the movies that make us think about them long after we’ve left the theater or turned off the TV. We bring quick wit and unique perspectives from backgrounds like art history, cinematography, psychology, analysis, public education, mysticism, mythos, and more to create a curated, inclusive conversation around the spooky movies we love. Tune in on your favorite podcast hosting platform to listen along, join the conversation, and chime in with your own observations!

Our intro and outro music was created for us by Josh Marshall. For more episodes and other spooky content, find us on your favorite social media platform through our handle: @CleverGhouls. Don’t forget to subscribe and share, and if you really like our content, please leave us a review. Or we’ll haunt you forever. Thanks for listening!