Podcast: ‘Queens of the Dead’ Gets Uncertified

Last week, Certified Forgotten spent a whirlwind 24 hours at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, culminating in an hour-long conversation with Queens of the Dead co-writer and director Tina Romero. And while that wide-ranging conversation was only for the ears of our in-person audience, it also did not leave a lot of room for Matt Donato and Matthew Monagle to share their own thoughts on Romero's movie. Then again, what's the point of having a podcast if you can't talk about the horror movies you like?

Life is hard for small business owners. When Dre (Katy O'Brian) loses the headliner for her much-hyped drag show, she turns to Sam (Jaquel Spivey), an old friend and former performer, to help her pack the house. But Sam has two problems: first, he’s not sure if he can still connect with Samonce, his onstage persona who died alongside his confidence. And two? Brooklyn has just become ground zero to the zombie apocalypse, requiring Dre, Sam, and their ragtag group of drag queens and club kids to fight for their lives. The debut feature from Romero, Queens of the Dead is a horror-comedy that can only be summed up in one word: fabulous.

In this short excerpt from the episode, Matthew Monagle explains why Queens of the Dead overcomes his long-running frustrations with horror-comedies:

What does work is horror movies about characters who happen to be funny. And I think that's one of the big distinctions for Queens of the Dead. Tina, her cowriter, and her cast have managed to create this film that populates a lot of really interesting and funny people, that have great reactions to outlandish shit that happens around them. And because of that, it works as a horror-comedy, because the film isn't trying to force comedic beats into horror.

The Queens of the Dead episode of the Certified Forgotten podcast is now available to stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, or the podcast platform of your choice.