Zombie Book Club

Patreon Bonus Episode #1 | Queens of the Dead

• Zombie Book Club • Season 4

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What happens when a Brooklyn drag show collides with a glitter-dusted zombie outbreak? We dig into Queens of the Dead; from rhinestoned drills and throwing axe gags to a soundtrack that slides from Romero-esque synths into club heat. We talk cast highlights; Nina West’s grounding presence, Margaret Cho’s physical comedy, Katie O’Brien’s steady cool, Jack Haven’s scene-stealing Kelsey; and why names, pronouns, and chosen family matter. 


Under the glitter, the film is a community survival manual. Leadership shifts by need, not title. Drag isn’t costume; it’s equipment. Code-switching becomes a life-saving disguise as queens “drag up” as first responders to move through a hostile city. Representation isn’t a footnote—anxiety, addiction, and reconciliation arcs sit alongside gore, proving a zombie movie can do heart without losing bite. We close with what this homage borrows from Romero’s DNA—satire, memory, and a maybe-open ending—while staking out its own space as a cult-classic contender made by and for queer audiences.




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SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the bonus episode. We're on Patreon. That's where you gotta go. It's the bonus episode. Woo! Am I gonna do that for every bonus episode? Yeah, it's the bonus episode. It's the bonus episode. In the bunker. Don't worry about it. We're in the bunker. We are. We're in the bunker. It's a bonus episode. We're on Patreon. Our very first Patreon bonus episode.

SPEAKER_03:

Very first one. And it's about the movie we were dying to watch and have now watched twice.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I was really high for the first time and sober for the second time.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, Dan, you had just finished your work season and thus could uh imbibe.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And uh I think you were like, I'm gonna take two gummies and then you watch Queens of the Dead.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I I gotta tell you, um, my experience the second time around was so different than the first time around. I don't recommend watching this movie high.

SPEAKER_03:

How about you, before we say anything more, give us the like 30-second rundown of Dan's experience watching Queens of the Dead the first time?

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, time dilates when you're high. So, like, I remember just watching and I'm like, why are the scenes so long? And what are they even saying? And like, you know, uh a character would deliver a line. I'm like, why is the camera just holding on them for 45 minutes after they finished their line? And what is this even about? Who are these people? What's even happening?

SPEAKER_03:

So when I was starry-eyed being like, This is the best movie ever, you were like, Bali has no taste.

SPEAKER_01:

I was like, I I think this is a bad movie, guys. I don't think it's good. Uh, but I didn't want to tell you that because it would have broken your heart. It would have. Um, but also I I can't be trusted when I'm high. Um, I thought I was gonna have the Zom Beavers experience. Were you high when you watched Zombie? Yeah, I forgot that. Yeah, I was really high. Super high and similar experience, except it had beavers in it, so I laughed a lot. Um, yeah, second time watching it when I was sober, I realized that the point where I thought I'd been watching for several hours when I was high was actually five minutes into the movie. And I'm like, they have been establishing these characters for hours. What's happening? And there's there's a character who um purposefully speaks in a way that it's difficult to understand, and it's even more difficult to understand when you're really high. It's like it's like the drag queen equivalent to Boomhauer from Wait, who I don't find any of them difficult to understand.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, well, I do. I think that's your cishet man showing.

SPEAKER_01:

No, there's there's somebody that talks in a very specific way um that is difficult to understand. Who? They even make a joke about it in the movie. They do, yeah. They said they they they said a whole bunch of stuff, and then one of the characters is like, I have no idea what you just said.

SPEAKER_03:

Wait, who was who's the person who's difficult to understand? Um, scrumptious. Oh, I don't agree. I totally understood Scrumptious. They make they make the joke in the movie, Leah.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm not wrong. Was it Barry who made the joke? No. Okay. No, I'm pretty sure it was um it was uh Nina West.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, we should get into what this is about. So if you have not listened to the episode called We Are Dying to Watch Queens of the Dead, you could go and listen to that. It's got some fun facts about the episode and how we're feeling really hyped about it, but this is our actual review.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. At that point, we actually hadn't seen it yet.

SPEAKER_03:

So we were waiting to see it. We're hyping, and I had to talk about it because I've been like waiting for this movie from the moment that I heard that it was coming into fruition. I tried so hard to be an extra. I was not an extra. Tina Romero, my feelings are still hurt. It's okay. Because you made up for it by making a wonderful movie, which is about drag queens and club kids battling zombies, craving their brains during a drag show in Brooklyn, putting personal conflicts aside to utilize their distinct abilities against the undead threat. That's the IMDB summary.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think that's what would you add as a summary. I I feel like this is my summary and also like the warning. Okay. Which is this is a very unserious movie. Deeply. Um, it is camp. It is the campiest camp that ever camped. Intentionally. Intentionally. And it's like it's like if you're if you're watching RuPaul's Drag Race and they were doing like a really funny skit, and you were like, I wish that this skit would keep going and they turned it into a movie.

SPEAKER_03:

It's like I don't think it's that campy. I think it is. It's not that raunchy. No, I think that's it's not as raunchy as RuPaul. No, it's not that raunchy. But it is very funny and very campy. It's not Daytona Wind. Yeah. And it has an incredible star-set cast. First of all, Nina West, a very famous drag queen.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh, it plays Gin Z Tonic. Um, they are like the community anchor, they are the drag mother to Samance, and I believe Scrumptious.

SPEAKER_01:

Possibly Scrumptious. Yeah. No, we don't know that for sure.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. There's also uh Yasmeen, who is the drag queen who ditches on the night at the Yum Club. She's Yazmeen. Yasmeen. She's the mean uh but very commanding figure in the club scene. We've got Margaret Cho coming in in this. She appears about halfway through the show.

SPEAKER_01:

Um Margaret Cho has a a brilliant um physical acting bit with a drill where she's just kind of like she pushes it into a zombie's head and then like keeps on like tapping it forward.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, it's wonderful. It's also a glitter drill. It's glitter drill, yeah. Uh, we have Jack Haven who plays Kelsey. So uh Kelsey is a very ditzy blonde in a bandeau top and a mini jean skirt. And their Margaret shows Femme girlfriend.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh she also takes an axe to the leg.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, and uh sings a lot of songs. I actually would love to see the outtakes. There's not enough. This is my complaint. There are not enough YouTube outtake clips or like quotes uh that are pulled yet on the internet because there are some very quote-worthy moments, um, also some very song-worthy moments where she's just like in the club while people are doing other things with an axe in her leg and she can't move, and she's like sitting in the club alone with an axe in my leg.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm feeling kind of scared.

SPEAKER_01:

She she also at one point when uh when they're they're trying to do stuff, she's like, I have an axe wound, and they're like, Don't brag about it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, and Kelsey is she her, but the actor Jack Haven is they them, just for clarity. Yeah. Uh then we have Lick Licky Lindholm. I meant Ricky Lindholm. Sorry, Ricky. And maybe it's both. Um, who plays Lizzie, which is uh Dre, the club promoter and DJ's partner. Oh, okay. Uh, and a nurse.

SPEAKER_01:

I was gonna say, I don't think that's Dre, but Dre's partner, yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Dre and Lizzie are very important. Who you you would also know from uh um Oates and Garfunkel, which is a comedy show from the late 2000s.

SPEAKER_03:

Dre is played by Katie O'Brien brilliantly, and then we uh to build out the familial trio, we have Barry, Dan's favorite character. Oh, Barry. Barry is Lizzie's transphobic, queer phobic brother, who's also a plumber.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Uh he listens to a lot of podcasts.

SPEAKER_03:

He loves Joe Rogan, I'm quite sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, like they they had like a fake podcast that he was listening to, so like it could have been anybody, but like he's he's he's the type that's just like, I want to hear Joe Rogan tell transphobic jokes, tell me how to feel about trans athletes. Um, and also uh I don't know, I don't know where I was going with that. But he's that guy. Yeah, he's that guy.

SPEAKER_03:

And he's he is the uh Dre's brother-in-law, and so Dre calls on him to help them with a plumbing situation because everything is a disaster at the beginning of this movie. Nothing is going right with this club night they've planned, which is by the way, happening the weekend of Easter. So the resurrection takes on a whole new meaning.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh, there's a lot of bunnies, yeah. There's there's a lot of bunny outfits. There's a bunny mascot. Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, with blood all of it over its fur.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. And then there are a few other characters. Scrumptious, we mentioned, mentioned, is played by Thomas Matos.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. What was the other name for Scrumptious?

SPEAKER_03:

Uh, they kept calling them Nico. Nico. And Scrumptious said, Stop calling me Nico. Yeah, the whole movie.

SPEAKER_01:

It's like, call me Scrumptious. Yeah. And they wouldn't call him Scrumptious. So uh they they just kind of have a meltdown at the uh at the climax of the movie when when they're when they're like, you won't even call me Scrumptious.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, there's a lot of there's a lot of discussion of like um making sure you're using pronouns and correct names for people. And Barry is the worst offender. Barry, yeah. Barry just can't get it right. Yeah, Barry gets a lesson actually, I think from Scrumptious being like, they're a them. That's a she's a she. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

She's a drag queen. Yeah. And they're a they. Yeah. It's a good and you're behind.

SPEAKER_03:

Basically, which is a wonderful line. Speaking of, I feel like there's like so many great quotes. I need to go back and watch the movie and just like pull quotes for it. Um, it's set in present-day New York, as we said, and there's two competing clubs. So there's Yum, which is Dre's Club, and then there is Glitter Bitch. And Yasmin, Yasme, the drag queen, ditches Yum to go be at Glitter Bitch.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, they've got a thing going on where they're like promoting some kind of terrible vodka.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Which could be possible, could be responsible. It's I don't know if it's the vodka, is it the drugs that Scrumptius is dealing that are responsible for the outbreak?

SPEAKER_01:

But is it the rat that the that berry fishes out of the toilet? It could be the rat that was blocking the toilet. Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

We don't know for sure. Yeah, there's there's a lot of things that it could be, and they don't really say which one it is. Like it could like there's there's a lot of uh there's a lot of drugs. Yeah. Like there's a character who's a drug addict in a hospital. Uh there's a person who dies from a drug overdose and then becomes a zombie. But then there's other instances where like a person went to basically a grinder meetup at a church. Um, they have a different they have their own app in the in the in the movie called Skins, I want to say. Yeah. Um, and then there's this whole thing about uh the glitter bitch party where they have like dick-shaped donuts.

SPEAKER_03:

I loved the the dick-shaped donuts. Also, when Nina West was eating a vagina donut. Yeah. Or a sorry, a Volva labia donut. I guess a Volta donut Volva donut. And she was like, I don't really know what I'm doing with this. And she's just kind of like tentatively licking it. It's great. Um uh but there's it's there's an interesting thing happening here where uh I think one of the big themes we'll get into more later is is technology and phones specifically having an impact on our world where yum is a place with substance and heart and feeling and community, and glitter bitch very rapidly is clearly just about being there, getting your picture taken with the right drag queen, even when you don't know their name, so you can put it on your Instagram kind of a vibe. Clout chasers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, yeah, there's also a really funny part where they're using the skins app um to track the zombies. And it's kind of like uh the scene in Alien 2 where they have like the alien tracker on the gun, and they're like, they're in the they're in the walls!

SPEAKER_03:

So, Dan, how would you describe the zombie type in Queens of the Dead?

SPEAKER_01:

Incredibly slow. Um, if there if there was anything I could criticize the movie for that I wish was done a little bit better, it's just that I don't feel the urgency from the zombies. A lot of times they kind of just stand there and look at the people that they're chasing. And I wish that makes them funny. It it is it's it's fine. I I understand the choice to do that. I just wish it was a little bit more uh the stakes were a little bit higher with the zombies.

SPEAKER_00:

That's all.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, so these are hilariously slow zombies. Uh, if you know, like I would say that they compare to like um uh uh uh the dead don't die levels of slow zombies or Sean of the Dead zombies. A little slower than Sean of the Dead. I think there's no yeah, maybe not slower than the backyard zombies in Shawn of the Dead. I think it's clear level. They are that speed, they are standing there while you throw records at them.

SPEAKER_03:

But it makes them really great because uh, for example, my favorite zombie who I'm so hopeful is at Living Dead weekend this year, but they don't even have a picture of them on IMDB. I don't know who this person is. They go by Julie J. If you're out there and you know who Julie J is or like where to find them on Instagram, whatever, please tell me. Because they play and they have a name in the sh the um cast and productions, Zombie Queen. They're the one who is fully dressed up in drag, they've got this incredible blue hair and glitter outfit, and they're going to the church first to pray for their nana and then to get laid from choir boy 69. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Who's who she she finds on skins?

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, who is a zombie. Uh she gets bit. And that's my little bit of uh you can see her, she is the zombie that is on the cover of the um, it's not even a physical thing, actually. Isn't that sad? Yeah. She's the visual, she's the virtual cover. Tina, can we get a physical copy? I actually tried to find one to buy and I couldn't figure it out. You can only buy it as like an online streaming thing right now. But that's fair because MD is hard and paying for physical things is hard. Regardless, um, she's hilarious as a zombie. And when she first enters the club, she's just like trying to eat people very badly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Everyone just thinks she's just dancing and be a little drunk. And like she's like following one person, going for a bite, and then they move, and then she goes after another person, and they move, and then she falls over, and somebody's like, I'll have what she's having.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. There are so many iconic zombies that are perfect for cosplay. Yeah. Like, I really hope I see some of these zombies. So there's obviously Julie J zombie queen, but then there's the bunny suit zombie.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, bunny suit zombie was genuinely terrifying.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. And then I think the other one was like a fast food worker. They look like they had like a fast food worker hat on.

SPEAKER_01:

I think I somewhat remember that one.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Um, Dan, tell me about the zombie rats.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, zombie rats kind of like they there's the one that that Barry found in the toilet and tried to put in the trash can under the bar. And they were like, no, take it to the dumpster, because obviously that's a health code violation. Barry should know that. Um but you know, whatever. Barry's a plumber, he he doesn't have to deal with food. Uh so, anyways, that one you can see, it's got like red eyes. And then when he throws it away, I'm pretty sure it moves after, but they don't see it. But later on, I mean, I'm not gonna give any spoilers, but somebody gets locked somewhere and is attacked by hundreds of zombie rats.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, and uh, and yeah, so so uh this is a cross-species zombie virus.

SPEAKER_03:

It is also if you get infected, you become glittery and your forehead, your like brow becomes protruding, yeah, or starts to protrude, which it feels a little bit like an homage to a Romero zombo. A Romero Zombo. I call them glitter Romero zombies.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, glitter Romero's.

SPEAKER_03:

And they also have that Romero-esque uh feature where they uh sort of remember a little bit of who they are. So instead of going to the mall, they're going to the club, hence why the drag queen, Julie J, zombie queen, shows up at the club. They're also all looking at their phones.

SPEAKER_01:

So they're zombies with phones. Yeah. Also, there is a very specific um influencer that all the zombies stop what they're doing to watch when they live stream. Yeah. Let's talk more about what we love from the movie. Yeah. What do we love, Leah? You should do the first one. Uh, there's a soundtrack. First of all, the atmospheric score of the movie is perfectly Romero 1980s zombie movie with like that kind of blends into like uh an electronic dance vibe. Um also, there's some Kesha in there.

SPEAKER_03:

There's a lot of Kesha in there. There's a version of one of Kesha's songs that is sang at the very end by Drag Queen Samance, who has an incredible arc that I'm not gonna ruin for you, that I I have tried to find to listen to, and I haven't found it yet either. Like I want to hear that cover song. Yeah, there needs to be beautiful.

SPEAKER_01:

There needs to be a soundtrack album.

SPEAKER_03:

I've tried to find it. There needs to be Tina! This Tina is too underground right now, and I'm annoyed because it's fucking great.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, it's my favorite, favorite thing about it, and I think it might be the thing that um makes it a cult classic, but also is going to make it harder for some people to get, is that it's clearly by and for queer and trans people. So Tina Romero themselves is a queer person. I'm not sure exactly how they identify, so I'm not gonna make that assumption. Um, but the whole cast uh features a number of LGBTQ plus actors and performers that we've already mentioned. Um, but that means that not all of the references are going to be immediately meaningful for everyone. I feel like if you need to go to school to a school to like understand a little bit more what's happening, Queens of the Dead, watching any season of RuPaul's Drag Race will help you immensely.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Like uh you're gonna know what a death drop is.

SPEAKER_03:

You're gonna know what a tongue pop is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Was there tongue pop in?

SPEAKER_03:

There was tongue pops. You're gonna know what shade is.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's important to do it. No tea, no shade. It's important to understand both what shade and tea is. Yes. Um, in order to get this movie. And it's not a tree or a drink. It can be. I guess it could, yes. But often it's not.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And that's just like that's a very mainstream example of of where to get sort of some basic lingo and culture, but I think it's a good one. Um there are some really great jokes that if you don't have that context, I think might just like go over your head. And I don't want to say some of them because they will spoil things. But there's a great death drop joke, I'll just say that. There is that involves death.

SPEAKER_01:

Death is hilarious. Yeah. When it's in a zombie movie. Um, we've got some really good creative kills. Uh, you know, it kind of it steers away from heavy gun use. Like uh that was something that Tina put out before anybody knew anything about the movie, is that this is like a gun-free zombie movie. Um, and I think it really works because like, first of all, you're in New York City, so not everybody has like 15 guns in their closet.

SPEAKER_03:

Especially, I think, like at the um queer nightclubs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

People aren't packing their guns. Right. Um, there is a crossbow uh that the bartender has under the bar, and even mentions that it's still legal in New York City to have one. And Barry loves it. Uh but we have uh we have like like a glitter drill, for example. Like it's a it's a fully um glitter drill. Lambed up drill. Which now I want to take my Ryobi and start putting rhinestones on. We should.

SPEAKER_03:

We should. Because I was just thinking, I was like, I would buy that piece of that prop. Like, who gets to keep that prop? That's wonderful. Yeah. Uh, there's a moment where they just basically like go and use all their drag skills to create uh zombie armor. And a lot of their zombie armor is padding to like flesh out them hips and them titties. Yeah, no, the padding comes in handy. Yeah. Once that's actually an important survival lesson. Yeah. Somebody gets bit on the ass. We talked about survival and like zombie bite sleeves. Pad that ass. Yeah. Drag pads. Are a great tool.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And uh, and also it's just gonna, you know, it's gonna round out those curves.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, really show really flaunt it while also not getting bitten by zombies. You're gonna look hot. The zombies don't know if that's your butt or not. No, they don't judge, they just bite. And then when they bite, they come away with a mouthful of fluff and padding.

SPEAKER_03:

There's some really great kill scenes. Um, we've already mentioned a few with the drill, the rats, um, a mishap with the axe. That is truly wonderful to see. Won't say more about that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's honestly my favorite part because it's also so realistic that accidents happen.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. I will say the first time I watch it, um, the first, I'd say like the first half, I was just having a good time and I thought it was like really funny. Uh, the second half, I was like, oh shit, that like things are happening now and I am scared.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, I'm not gonna say it's the scariest zombie movie you ever watched, but there are stakes. Like, I don't agree with you that you know the zombies are slow, that there's never any points where it feels like there's risk involved. Like people die.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. The the zombies speed up when when it's important. There's just a few times where it broke my immersion, and that's that's really my only maybe because they were in heels, stiletto heels. Maybe. No, there was one time where they opened up the door and like the character was like face to face with them and I agree. That was a moment, but like they it it would have it would have hit so much harder if they opened up the door and then the zombies just rushed through, you know.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, but I think the zombies were surprised the door opened.

SPEAKER_01:

I think so.

SPEAKER_03:

I think their processing power is slow.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and you know what? I think that's fair.

SPEAKER_03:

Also, they're too busy looking at their phones.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So their response time is low. Oh, also, I don't think it's in our notes, but also there were some uh some prank influencers that showed up, you know, like uh kind of like raiders or like you know, the the the big bads in the outside world that are are uh up to no good, and they pulled a prank and then stole something that they were trying to that was gonna help them escape. It's true. And uh they and they were filming it for YouTube, which is hilarious. Dan, who was your favorite character? Was it Barry? It kind of was, um, because what I love about Barry is that Barry is like the inclusive member in this group of like in a in a cast of entirely LGBTQ plus IA Yeah, racially diverse. Racially diverse. Um like he was he was the one guy that was a straight white cis hetero guy. Um, and he was kind of he was kind of treated that way too. It kind of flipped the script uh uh that most stories have, which is usually like it's a bunch of hetero-white people, and then like one token other person.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, other than the cast notes, it would be other.

SPEAKER_01:

Other. Maybe they fit all the all the checkpoints in one. Um and also he was just really funny. Uh he was definitely like the uh well, not the comic relief, but a comic relief. Like he kind of balanced out the humor. Um, so like, yeah, he just brought balance, he brought balance to the force.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Yeah. And there's a whole there's a whole other arc to him and his like journey as a person. Yeah that I think is really beautiful.

SPEAKER_01:

He goes from from jerk to acceptance um throughout the the movie. And it's and it's wonderful because I think it's something that people need to think about if they're if if they have a hard time understanding uh people who are different from them, is that like you can just accept them and it doesn't have to change you.

SPEAKER_03:

No, you get to still be who you are, and it's even more awesome because people get to also be who they are.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I think it happens because for Barry, because like, yes, his sister is queer, um, she's married to somebody else who's queer, and or to Dre. And uh that enough, that alone isn't enough for Barry to get with it. But being put in a survival situation where he is not actually the most useful survivor, uh, he's not the person who's taking charge and like figuring it all out. And if anything, he fucks some shit up. Yeah. And then he's being saved by drag queens and trans people and queer people, I think like helps him realize oh, you know, I'm not the most important person in the room, literally.

SPEAKER_01:

They also give him a makeover. Yeah. Honestly, one of the funniest things was when um Scrumptious, Sam, Barry, uh, and uh and Gen Z Tonic, they uh they they they need to leave. And they were like, but we don't want to get harassed by police. And then they remembered that the mayor, played by Tom Savini, um, said that uh everybody needs to stay off the streets except for first responders. So they uh they all get dragged up as construction workers and uh healthcare providers, uh though hilariously, because everything is rhinestoned and ridiculous looking. And Scrumptious puts on their best like Brooklyn construction worker voice when some people show up, and uh it's hilarious because oh, that little tiny rhineston hat, hard hat.

SPEAKER_03:

Is wonderful. Yeah. That brings me to one of the themes that I really loved is exactly that is uh it it points out that all the world is drag, like being a human is drag, because uh when they they're like they learn that the people who are um first responders, like you said, aren't getting in trouble. They seem to be actually hurting other people, so they just decide to dress up as them, but as the most ludicrous, like drag versions.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, but then when they encounter the people who they think are cops, Scrumptious like pulls out the most um manly voice ever as they pretend to be a fireman. And it's a reminder of like the ability to code switch and to like all of it is like that's a that's a performance. That's probably a performance that they had to do as Nico a lot to survive. Um, and so they literally pulled it out to survive again in that scenario. And it's just like amazing to see that people can all transform and we're all uh putting on outfits, literally, in the way that we talk and dress to show up and in places to be more accepted. And like what are parts of our identity are armor, and what of them are like our truths?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So I thought that was a very cool. There's a the this is campy, but if you take a second layer look at it, there's a lot going on in terms of messaging and thinking through what it means to be human. Uh, my favorite character I already said was Kelsey. Um I've already mentioned a lot of the reasons why I love her, so I'll just add one more. She's constantly quoting astrology. So again, another in it's an inside joke. Like if you don't know astrology and you don't know who Channy Nicholas is, there's about five jokes that just aren't gonna mean anything to you. And I know that because I was cackling and Dan and Simon were just staring blankly at the screen. I don't think you would have gotten it, anyways. I did. Really? Yeah. I know who Channy is. You know who Channy is. You only know who Channy is because of me, though. Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean that I don't know who Channy is. Does everybody on this that's listening to this podcast know who Channy is? Are they that pervasive culturally now? Anyways, they're a famous astrologer. They have an app called Channy. And um Kelsey explains everything with astrological sky movements. So, like the reason why the club's not doing well in that moment is because of Jupiter's doing something, the Great Mollific. Yeah. Um was it is it Jupiter that's the Great Mollific?

SPEAKER_01:

I think so because she makes a Jupiter joke later on, too. Yeah. She's like, everything's going wrong, zombies are banging on the doors, uh, and she's just like, damn you, Jupiter.

SPEAKER_03:

It was pretty great. And also, fun fact, I learned in an interview with Jack Haven, who plays Kelsey, that they share the same birthday as Nina West. Speaking of astrology.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. Yeah. They can celebrate their birthdays together.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. You can do this last one.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know if we said it before, but the movie was made by Tina Romero. The daughter of George A. Romero. George Romero. So uh this is very much an homage to George Romero, her father. Um, and it honors the classic DNA of the zombie movie, but it's it's mutated into something new. She's not just copying dear old dad, she's making a new thing out of it, and it's entirely different. Like, you know, you wouldn't you wouldn't watch Knight of the Living Dead and be like, now let's watch the sequel. Queens of the Dead. Queens of the Dead. Um, it it wouldn't fit that way. It's its own thing, so it's not it's not she's making her own legacy, though paying homage to her father, George Romero.

SPEAKER_03:

Even the the ending feels like a Romero ending because there could be more.

SPEAKER_01:

There could be, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, Tom Savini shows up as mayor.

SPEAKER_01:

He's hilarious as the mayor because it's like it's definitely like a like a zoom background, like it keeps on like glitching out, and like you see people like bikini models in the back of the bikini models come in, like you see a hand come in and he's like swatting her away, and she's like got a tray of cocaine or something.

SPEAKER_03:

There's a lot of we're coming to get you, Barbara jokes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Also, um uh uh the uh the getaway vehicle is an Impala whose name was Barbara.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, so there's lots of fun things like that, and I think it's a great example of how uh you can be referential and reverent, but still be your own thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. I'm kind of I'm I'm I'm glad that it's its own thing. Um, I mean I I would have been happy either way. If it was if it was something that would have been canon to her father's films, I would have been happy about that. If it's its own thing, then I I think that's even better.

SPEAKER_03:

You don't think it could fit into the canon? No.

SPEAKER_01:

Why? Because they're glittering because it's camp, it's ridiculous. It doesn't follow any of the George Romero movie rules. There are the George Wait, we have rules? They are their own zombies. Interesting.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I mean, I guess it does say right at the very beginning this is not a George A. Romero film.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Uh but zombies are green glitter.

SPEAKER_03:

It does capture a lot of the things that George Romero did, though. It has social commentary. Um the characters are really well developed, the stakes are high, the soundtrack is very Romero.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh and yeah, it feels it feels like an homage to Dawn of the Dead with the phones to me. The phones are the mall now. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I agree with those things. I just don't think it's canon. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh so we're gonna we're gonna briefly go over our racist, sexist, capitalist, colonial, ableist misogyny of the living dead section, where we talk about uh diversity and inclusion and representation. It's been a long time since we've done this. Yeah, because we haven't talked about a movie in ages. Yeah. Uh it passes the race test. The cast is racially diverse. There's no tokenization that happens. Except for Barry. Except for Barry, but that's intentional.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh and it's, you know, nobody's race is the center of their character. It's who they are, but it's not the reason why they're there. Yeah. Uh there's obviously tons of femme characters that have a clear and strong arc. We have lots of they, thems, and femmes. Love it.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, yeah, and and uh at the beginning, um, Gen Z Tonic opens a show uh to the ladies and gentle thems. I love that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

That's how we should uh introduce everything nowadays. I like to say folks or y'all. I think those are great words, keeps it easy. Uh obviously passes the Vito Russo LGBTQ representation test, because that is the core of the film. Um, the only one that I don't think it passes is the Fry's disability representation test. Um, and I was thinking about it, like maybe one character, Samance or Sam, might have anxiety.

SPEAKER_01:

I think Samance has severe anxiety. Like we see that not only in the backstory, uh because she's she ran out at a previous point um from a drag show, and that's what causes tension between her and uh Dre, uh the owner of the club. So she almost runs out again before the zombies show up.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And then when dealing with a zombie situation, has a full out uh panic attack after someone doesn't make it in a hilarious way.

SPEAKER_03:

That's true. You know, I'm thinking about this more. There's also addiction. Addiction, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

There's there's one character who's straight up uh a uh an addict.

SPEAKER_03:

So there aren't physical disabilities, but there are um mental uh disabilities.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And I don't think because um there's there's the the the axe wound, but I don't think oh, I mean it's a disability in the sense that they are disabled in that moment.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. I guess I selfishly wish to see more people who start the zombie apocalypse with a physical disability. They're in a wheelchair, they have a walker, um, they have hearing aids, like things like that I think are interesting and not done enough. Yeah, but there is good mental health representation here. That's true.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, there's a lot of that.

SPEAKER_03:

Um I think this is actually a top-notch example of what inclusion looks like because everyone is family and welcome, even Barry.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, Barry, Barry is Barry is family. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Were there any things you didn't love about the movie, Dan, other than the zombies being too slow?

SPEAKER_01:

The zombies being too slow. Um, there were a few plot points that I didn't I wasn't fully invested with. Like the addict character, they do a good job of of highlighting that they're an addict, but by the end, the the solution is um the person that they're with is like, I'm a nurse and I can help you. I can prescribe PT to you. And they're like, Oh, well, I guess that's better than going to my drug dealer. And it kind of had like a after-school special vibe to it. I didn't really feel like it was a realistic way of dealing with uh an addiction.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I can see why you'd critique that. I think that um there was some strength in that for me, just because that storyline was really like the person who's the the addict whose name I'm not remembering right now. Uh, I think Jane? Jane.

SPEAKER_01:

It was Jane.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh Jane's addiction. Not sure if that was an intentional thing. I bet it was. Uh but they talk about their distrust of healthcare professionals and the healthcare system as a trans woman and like all of their bad experiences, and that they became an addict because of somebody like giving them pain medicine for something that was a physical issue. So I feel like the they were represented well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think everything up until the end was was good character building. Yeah. It's just like at the end, I I kind of it kind of lost me just because I'm like, that's not how you get unaddicted to things.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I think it was a quieter part of the movie.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, the first time I didn't really notice that arc as much as the second time watching it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's definitely the blue the the B plot. We don't see those characters very often.

SPEAKER_03:

There are uh that really my only other beef is like, what happened to Jax? Did I just miss it? So Jax is the person who uh is is another drag queen, and I'm not gonna say more about them, but they were a core person in the beginning of as the group of drag queens that are or dancers that are about to perform, and then I don't know what happens to them. I know that they get locked in the oh, that they were in a drag queen, they were a go-go dancer. I know they get locked in the go-go dancing cage, but after that, what happens to them?

SPEAKER_01:

They just stay in the cage. Yeah, that feels like unresolved to me. Um, so I feel like that arc was more about uh Scrumptious, aka Nico, um, coming to terms with the fact that their friend didn't make it, and there's nothing that they can do for that person. And that person was Scrumptio's only real ally at the place. Everybody else, Scrumptio was kind of not on the best of terms with, and Jax was the only person that they liked being around. I see what you're saying, and that was the only reason that Scrumptious had to stay.

SPEAKER_03:

You know what I'm realizing? I think I was really hopeful that Jax was gonna get cured or something.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's not gonna happen. Well, I'm still in denial. But I do appreciate that they didn't just immediately start killing zombies. Well, some people wanted to, but there there was a belief that like maybe we can help these people.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So, you know, they start putting zombies in go-go cages.

SPEAKER_03:

That was really smart. Although I was surprised that go-go changes or go-go cages actually have locks. Um, I don't know if that's realistic. If you're somebody who's a go-go dancer, can you let me know? I I was like, wait, they can they actually lock this?

SPEAKER_01:

Maybe they maybe the dancers themselves have the keys, but it's more to keep keep everybody else out.

SPEAKER_03:

Then you'd think it would be on the inside, anyways. That was that was like the one thing that kind of threw me. I'm like, wait a second, is this you know what? We're googling it. Um, because what I don't have as much cultural context is like club culture, because um, as somebody who is sensitive to sound and crowds, I don't really love clubs.

SPEAKER_01:

Um I've I've never been the up in the club kind of person myself. Um, I've I've probably had as many panic attacks in clubs as I've had okay times in clubs. Um, like equal parts, panic attack, and this is fine, I guess.

SPEAKER_03:

So when I wrote do go go cages have locks in my search bar, I got um nothing about them having locks. I got how to safely lock a smart bird in its cage. So I don't know the answer. We'll have to hope that somebody who is a go-go dancer will write to us and tell us. Yeah. Send us a voicemail. Yeah. I got a few more things I really want to talk about that are like themes that I think were fun. We've talked already about the phone part, but I what I want to talk about specifically is when the zombie bunny costume person literally has in their mouth an arm that is still grasping a phone, just the arm with a phone in it. Um, and it was also interesting and really true for me. I think there's always anxiety as technology develops about the skills that we're losing. And the married couple, Dre and Lizzie, didn't have each other's phone numbers. And one of them lost their phone. And like, I know your phone number. Yeah, and I know yours. I know your number. I know my mom's I know my mom's phone number. Hold on. Is there anybody else? I know our voicemail for Zombie Book Club Podcast, 614-699-0006.

SPEAKER_01:

I only know your phone number. And the phone number of the VA. Wow. Well, that's an important one. And the phone number of the unemployment office. Damn.

SPEAKER_03:

What's the unemployment office number?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I don't know. But you know what? If it came up on my phone, I'd recognize it. And then I'd ignore it.

SPEAKER_03:

It's like we lose skills when we gain technology. That's that is how these things work. Uh so there's definitely some anxiety in the film about that and what we lose when we become attached to our phones. And I've personally been working on not bringing my phone to the bathroom, and it's hard.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Um, we used to memorize phone numbers.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. You still know my childhood phone number. That's true. I know that phone number. You can say it because it's not my phone number anymore.

SPEAKER_01:

It's um 705-439-2265.

SPEAKER_03:

I love you.

SPEAKER_01:

And uh if you call that phone number and you ask for Leah.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my god, don't do that, please. Whoever has that number now doesn't deserve to be harassed. Um the other thing I think that's very cool is that Queens of the Dead is camp, but it's also a community survival manual disguised as camp.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. It it very much is about like we're going to survive as a community. Like there's no there's no real hero of the story. It's it's everybody or it's nobody.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, there's um a really interesting thing to watch is that there's no formal leader, and that leadership is situational, so it's the person who's most effective in the moment. It's not positional. There's no military saviors, there's no alpha dog.

SPEAKER_01:

The closest thing would be Dre, and that's just because she's the club promoter.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, but it's still, I don't even think, really, the case that she is or they I think they use they them pronouns Dre. So we should probably correct that. Um, you're listening to me live. I think they use let's just use they them to be safe. Yeah, we'll be safe.

SPEAKER_01:

And leave all this in because if this is how we practice. But yeah, that that leadership was challenged by the bartender whose name I don't remember. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, it was practiced, it was challenged. Dre's good ideas were challenged and then co-opted by the two white cis men in the movie.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Um there was a whole bunch of commentary there. Uh uh, so that was powerful. But I really appreciated that there was no like official formal leader because that's actually how we work in small groups. So we're gonna have an episode coming out soon with Ancestral Habits, my favorite Instagram page and Substack. And I actually just saw a reel from them that talked about this: that in small groups, um, human humans in our uh native way of living are actually like allergic to leaders and we're likely to uh shift people out of leadership roles. And and um, I think it's called the reverse dominance theory. But institutionally now we have these leader structures leadership structures that don't really fit with our nature as people. So in small groups, it actually is much like what we saw in Queens of the Dead.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, I I feel that.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Also, another lesson from the movie is that joy is gonna save us. There's a great dance scene where they're just like, fuck it, we're stuck in this club. People we know are probably dead. Let's just dance. Yeah, let's drink and dance. I don't know if I condone the drinking when there's a zombie apocalypse, but I understand the drinking.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't have a strong desire to dance, but I understand that some people do.

SPEAKER_03:

So you say that, but I think you love to dance. I think deep down, I think your programming as a hetero cis man has taken dancing from you, but because I see you bopping all the time. But I'm on drugs. No, not just when you're on drugs. You bop with me. I my hypothesis is that you don't want to dance in public.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I genuinely dislike dancing. I don't think that's dancing.

SPEAKER_03:

Bopping is not dancing, it is dancing.

SPEAKER_01:

No, it's not, it's different.

SPEAKER_03:

If you are moving rhythmically to the music with your body, you are dancing. No, okay, you can unpack that with your therapist.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't have a therapist.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, maybe you should have one. Maybe I should. Yeah. Uh, so that was a great line for me. Also, I there's a moment where um Barry gets called family. So Margaret Cho's character comes in uh with her other two backup people on what are those things called? Scooters?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, they're like a a segue. How was it a yeah? Well, no, they were scooters, they visualized segues, but they were they were electric scooters.

SPEAKER_03:

They come in on scooters and they're like, we gotta get out of here, we gotta go find this boat, whatever. Um, but family only. And then uh Dre says sort of begrudgingly, well, because uh Margaret shows characters looking at Barry being like, not you, okay. Like, you're not welcome. I think Margaret even says you're not welcome. And then Dre is like, Well, actually, they are family, like that's my brother-in-law.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh, and it reminded me of another thing that might have been a little bit queer-coded for folks who don't know. So in the South, especially, I would get questions um from other queer people asking me, Are you family?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh.

SPEAKER_03:

And at first I didn't know what that was. It was not a thing I'd heard before. We are family.

SPEAKER_02:

We are family.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, are you family is basically like, hey, are you a member of the LGBTQ community? Uh, and it was a secret way of asking in a place that was unsafe to be out for a very long time.

SPEAKER_01:

They uh also um they used to ask if you were friends of Dorothy.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, are you friends of Dorothy?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Uh referencing the Wizard of Oz.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um I forget her name. Julie Garland was very uh pro-LGBT um way back in the day when she was alive. So uh so if you're friends of Dorothy, that means that you're friends of gay people.

SPEAKER_03:

Thank you for mansplanting that to me. Thank you for heteromans planning that. Well, I'm embracing my inner berry. I heard it on a podcast. I'm glad you know. Um, and there's I'm sure tons of references that like I didn't get because I'm just one person with my own situational experience as somebody who's been into same-sex marriage and is queer, but I'm not trans and I'm not a club kid, but I've watched a lot of drag race. So I think that's why I was able to get a lot of it. And if you've not watched RuPaul's Drag Race, just watch one, watch one season.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

If you want to really suffer, watch the first season when everything's out of focus and really badly filmed. I can't watch the first season. Um, but honestly, any season after that's gonna be a good time.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I think season eight is like one of the best. The like peak drag race, but you know, there's there's some good ones. Yeah. I like RuPaul's drag race. Um, my favorite is when they do Snatch Game. What's Snatch Game? Do you want me to mansplain it for you? Yes, I do. Snatch Game is a game show that RuPaul made up um that's kind of like uh the dating game or Hollywood Squares, where there's a panel of uh people who are drag race contestants and they are asked by judges a series of questions, and uh the drag race contestants have to have um have to be in costume and doing uh an impression of a famous person and give funny answers to the questions.

SPEAKER_03:

That was a good description. It was my inspiration for Zombie Wing Game Show, which is nothing like that, by the way. I other than it's um arbitrary judging of who's winning. Uh, but you don't have to play a character, you just get to be yourself. Unless you want to play a character, which could be fun.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh but yeah, that is the best part. Also, sometimes sometimes they have musicals that are great as one of their competitions, and sometimes they don't. I love that they have maxi challenges, makes me think about maxi pads. Like there's just so many great things about that show. Um, I can't say enough about it. And Nina West is one of the contestants. I actually should look up which seasons Nina West and I'm gonna say 12. Because they should just watch a Nina West season. Nina. I think it's 12. So close. Um, they were a season 11 contestant, finished in sixth place, and they also got miscongeniality, which makes so much sense. Yeah. And then they were on all stars and represented the Trevor Project for a chance to get$200,000 to the Trevor Project. Nice. But they did not win.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, but they're an amazing person. If you know what the Trevor Project is, go check it out. It'd be a great thing to donate to after this episode. It's uh it's a sad story with an amazing outcome that is this foundation. I'm not gonna get into it. It's a long story. It's a long story.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I could uh I could mansplain it for you if uh if you're interested. No. Could you actually? Do you know what the Trevor Project is? I actually know. I know what it is, but I don't know the story behind it. But I could pretend to know. Let's not because I am a hetero cis white man, and I can pretend to know anything. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03:

Including that bopping your head to beats is not dancing. It's not dancing. No, it's just head bobbing.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm glad you agree with me.

SPEAKER_03:

You're basically a bobblehead. Yeah. Uh there is uh a couple of great quotes. One of them that I would like to say is this one. I don't remember who said this part, but they said, Do you know what kind of situation we're in? It's life or death. And then Dre very deeply says, It's both. It's always both.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And that made my little heart flutter. And I was like, Yes, this is why we talk about the real apocalypse on Zombie Book Club, because it is always life and death all the time.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, I have another Dre quote. Okay. Um, when they are getting ready to open the club um and everything's going wrong, uh, Dre says, Go out there because we're gonna open the doors. And they're like, but we aren't ready. And Dre says, We're never ready.

SPEAKER_03:

Yep. That's also real for being human. Yeah. Well, this was our first Patreon bonus episode.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Thanks everybody for coming to Patreon. Go participate in a poll. Let us know if you want to join our first live unrecorded book club discussion. For I can say it now because you're on Patreon, for Colson Whitehead's Zone One is the 15th anniversary of 2026 of that that book being out. Wow, I haven't read it yet. So I exactly. It's like been on the list and we need to get to it.

SPEAKER_01:

So and you know what? If you're not on Patreon and you're listening to this many weeks after we posted this on Patreon or years, um, you could go to Patreon and hear the next bonus episode uh and not have to wait for it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. You can also find us on Instagram at Zonny Book Club Podcast and the Facebook group, which I promise is better by the time you find it, maybe. Uh Zonny Book Club Podcast Zombesties. Yeah. Also, you could send us a voicemail at 614-699-30006, one of the three numbers I've memorized. Yep. I don't have it memorized. But the big place is come hang out with us on the Patreon. Come say hi in the welcome post. There's also a Discord that we're a big fan of, Brain Munchers Zombie Collective Discord. A bunch of different zombie podcasts are on that Discord if you want to check it out. Uh, but the book club is on Patreon. Check it out.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and you can cut you can let us know how you felt about this movie. On Patreon. On Patreon. Patreon! Patreon, it's where we put our stuff. I got a P now. Bye. Bye.

Contributor

Dan

Host
Contributor

Leah

Host