“Please. I’ll do anything you want. Anything.”
Who among us hasn’t fallen for a bad boy once or twice? Maybe he’s the cute senior trying to cheat off of us in Algebra. Maybe he jumped our car when the battery died outside the mall. Or maybe he’s our fiancé’s hot brother knocking on our door in the middle of a rainstorm just desperate for a towel. Whatever the case, we all know what it’s like to get pulled into an illicit, but ill-advised affair. Sure it seems exciting at first, but it rapidly spirals into the further regions of hell.
Julia Cotton (Clare Higgins) finds herself in a similar situation in Clive Barker’s decadent masterpiece Hellraiser. When she hooks up with her future brother-in-law Frank (Sean Chapman) just days before the wedding, she allows herself to taste the sinful pleasures not available in a relationship with the stable and kind, but slightly boring Larry (Andrew Robinson). Catching up with Frank years later, she’s surprised to find him a goopy mess of bones and flesh hiding in the attic of his family home. Frightened at first, Julia vows to help Frank rebuild by bringing hapless men back to the attic and killing them with a hammer. This sparks a stylish murder spree that leads Julia to find power and excitement for the first time in years.
The Lady Killers continue Bad Romance Month with a special Valentine’s Day episode celebrating this seductive murderess who won their hearts with her wicked stepmother vibes, deliciously ’80s hair, and the look of satisfaction on her face when she realizes she just might enjoy killing men. What is Barker saying about the connection between pleasure and pain? Does Julia actually love Larry? Why is the Hell Priest so attractive and why doesn’t the Female Cenobite get a name of her own? Would they kill for skinless Frank and what’s the name of Kirsty’s (Ashley Laurence) boyfriend again? Together, Jenn Adams, Mae Shults, Rocco T. Thompson, and Sammie Kuykendall will venture into the attic and explore the further regions of experience as they pledge their undying love for their Valentine’s Day Queen.
Stream below and subscribe now via Apple Podcasts and Spotify for future episodes that drop every Thursday.