TV
Fire & Rhinestone: The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula S4 Ep7 “Exorsisters” Recap

Today’s journey into demonology begins with the Boulet’s visiting their local priest. Swan spits acid onto a crucifix, and it’s clear this depraved duo isn’t here to confess. They disrobe and humiliate the clergyman, who’s left to cower in fear as they prepare for ritual sacrifice. Hell’s on Earth, and the Devil is making house calls.
The Challenge: Acting challenges are always fun, and this one tasks the monsters with starring in the horror short parody The Exorsisters. They must create something equally camp and horrific and model their preferred style of demon for the floor show. The winner should be a natural star of the silver screen because they’ll be featured in an upcoming DREAD horror movie production. To help them prepare, drag legend Peaches Christ returns to The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula to coach and inspire the perverted little parishioners. But first, a Fright Feat is in order: In homage to Peaches, the monsters have five minutes to draw on brows that serve the biggest chunky rainbow caterpillar-from-hell realness. Zavaleta, the Kween of Feats, wins again, and she’s given the duty of assigning roles. Zav is the Priest; Sigourney the Assistant; Dahli, Mom One; Saint, Mom Two; Hoso the possessed Teen. Rehearsal is rocky – Dahli and Saint attempt Jennifer Coolidge and “chainsmoking broad” voices, respectively – and it seems most are going overboard with camp. There must be a level of earnestness when doing camp, Peaches tells them. Otherwise, it’s a circus. An eleventh-hour reconfiguration is in order for this troupe.
The Drama: Even though she went home, it seems Jade Jolie accomplished what she came to do because everyone agrees she does belong on the cast – despite also agreeing it was her time to go. Sigourney returns to describe the vile Roach Acropolis, and we discover that perhaps the real Extermination was surviving the godawful overhead lighting. Regarding our resident glamazon, this may be her final chance at owning her filthy side; a glamorous demon is not the stuff of nightmares.
Floor Show & Judgment: The reigning Queens of Hell grace the stage and meet guest judges Ray Santiago (Ash vs. Evil Dead) and Misha Osherovich (Freaky). Exorsisters goes surprisingly well: Hoso gives Linda Blair a run for her money, Zavaleta performs a line delivery that had me spitting my drink across the room, and Sigourney’s Assistant role is ridiculously stupid in the best way. Next up, the floor show receives the harshest critiques of the season. Dahli is the first to be cut down a peg, and the Boulets criticize their jarring choice of whiteface for the short and their uninspired blood demon. Sigourney is praised for her campy Assistant, and she finally lets her filth fly with a Lilith-inspired demon draped in aborted children. Despite this, the final product is lacking in the actual material. Zavaleta is shredded due to a wardrobe malfunction and a performance that was a bit too high energy; while she oozed sex and death in classic Zavaleta fashion, it wasn’t new. Saint, continuing to ignore the judges’ request for more energy, wows as a fallen, bloody angel. But, her energy is repeatedly low, and the judges wonder if she’s plateaued. Hoso is the only one unscathed, and she wins the challenge for the second week in a row. Her possession skills and Beelzebub meets Beetlejuice demon are top-notch, and they turn it out with their keyblade prop. Saint is pitied once more, and she barely escapes the pits of hell while the remaining are up for Extermination.
Extermination: As the most diverse group in franchise history, the monsters realize they each represent a different minority within the drag monster subculture. Unfortunately, someone must die, and the bottom three head to the Chapel of Calamity to face Extermination. A perverse amusement, they are ziplocked to the wall behind a layer of latex. Which will succumb to fears of suffocation and self-sabotage? Back at the chapel, the Boulets wheel in their satanic sacrifice. After an extremely slow reveal, we see La Zavaleta is the unlucky victim. Over the course of the season, we found our favorite mean girl did indeed have a soul, but sadly, it’s hers no more.
Quote of the Episode:
PRIEST
Sent for a priest?
MOTHER TWO
My child is…
PRIEST
(A beat. Dramatically turns to camera)
Gay.
MOTHER TWO
No! Possessed!
Honorable Mention: Sigourney’s outfit didn’t quite hold up in the harsh light of judgment, but the floor show’s edit provided the shock and awe she was looking for.
Rating: I love an acting challenge (I’m still laughing at Zavaleta’s line delivery), the modeling was hellish enough for me, and the Extermination, twisted! (9/10 Spit Takes)
TV
The Creep Tapes: Mom (and Albert) (S1E6)

We’ve reached the end of The Creep Tapes Season 1! Whew, time flies.
This season has taken us through the wild kills of Josef (Mark Duplass) over an unspecified amount of time. From open wetlands to making a true crime story, Josef has shown us the depths of his maniacal depravity. Episode 6 follows in the footsteps of Episode 5 (Brandt) by showing us a deeper look into the psyche of Josef and what makes him him.
“Mom (and Albert)” follows Josef as he makes a surprise visit to his mother’s (Krisha Fairchild) house. Shortly into Josef’s visit, he’s introduced to her new beau, Albert (John Craven). Josef isn’t sure how to take his mother’s partner and does whatever he can to make the visit as awkward as possible. But will the awkwardness turn into murder? Will this be the first Creep Tape without a kill?
(Spoilers from here on out.)
First and foremost, we finally get what we’ve all been begging for…DONG! Josef throws a fit and runs away. His mother goes looking for him and finds him naked with half of his body (head first) in a jacuzzi. He eventually comes out of the hot tub and we finally see the penis of a madman. So, for those who stuck through the first five episodes just to see if we got it, well, there you go!
Everything about Episode 6 is freaky and paints Josef in somewhat of a sympathetic light. One of the things we learn is Josef’s unique obsession with Forest Gump. As someone who has only seen bits and pieces of Forest Gump on TNT over the years, I cannot really comment on if/why that is important. What I can comment on is the information that directly impacts Josef as a character.
When Albert arrives, his mother introduces Josef to Albert, saying, “This is my favorite son, Wolfie.” This lends us two important pieces. But before we unpack that, Josef’s mother reveals she still has his stuffed animal named Wolfie. We also learn that when Josef was six, he had a bad dream and ripped the wolf’s head off. His mother goes on to say that she didn’t sew it back on completely so that he remembered what he did. Josef has an age regression issue. He goes to check out his bed, and when he realizes it’s not his “special bed,” he throws a fit.
What does this teach us? The most obvious thing it teaches us is that Josef has been babied far too long. His mother calls him by the name that he calls his stuffed animal, which he ripped the head off of. From what we’ve learned, his mother has purposely stunted his emotional growth OR didn’t do anything to make sure Josef’s mental health was addressed from a young age. Returning to how he was introduced to Albert, she says that Wolfie is her favorite son. This either implies that Josef has siblings OR that his mother is also a pathological liar and is feeding Albert a false narrative of her life.
Given what we’ve seen to the point of Albert’s introduction, either of those two options is possible. By the time that Josef kills Albert, his mother doesn’t really seem too upset. Even though his mother shoots down Josef when he tells Albert that he wants to film with him, it’s clear she knows more than she’s leading on.
But that’s when we get the all-too-telling final shot of the season. Josef and his mother have a conversation on the ground next to where Albert is now buried. Earlier in the episode, Josef’s mother comments on how he breastfed for 6 years; he was also a biter. Cut to post-Albert kill. Josef and his mother awkwardly embrace and Josef suckles from her. It’s truly appalling and tells us all we really need to know.
Episode 6 was fantastic and gave us a proper backstory into who Josef is and why. Now we must take into account that Josef’s mother may be just as pathological as he is, but I feel there is some truth in what she says.
The Creep Tapes has been a welcome entry into Creep cannon, and if Shudder is smart, they will have already asked Duplass and Brice to start Season 2.
What did you think about this series? Was it everything you wanted from a Creep expansion? And what was your favorite tape?
TV
The Creep Tapes: Brandt (S1E5)

The Creep Tapes is nearing its finale, which is a damn shame! This season has been a blast to go through, and with any luck, we’ll hear news of a second season shortly. But there’s no need to sing our sorrows because we still have Episodes 5 and 6 to get through! Episode 5, “Brandt”, is the most experimental and mind-boggling of what we’ve seen thus far.
It’s difficult to get into this episode without spoilers, so fair warning.
“Brandt” finds Josef (Mark Duplass), who goes by Kyle, alone in a hotel room, patiently awaiting Brandt’s arrival (Scott Pitts). Brandt’s persistent tardiness slowly throws Josef into a spiral of psychosis and anger. A missed opportunity with a random hotel guest (Tai Leclaire) makes Josef angrier at a wasted opportunity. Will Brandt show up and finally meet his end at the hands of Josef? Or will This be Josef’s first kill-free tape?
This episode will surely ruffle some feathers regarding the lore of the franchise. It’s been made clear that editing goes into Josef’s tapes, which we’ve seen in some of these previous tapes and in the films. Josef spends most of this tape alone in this hotel room with Peachfuzz. And not just with the mask of Peachfuzz, but actual Peachfuzz. If you haven’t seen the episode, that might not make sense.
The scene that really makes Josef’s editing prominent is when he sits across from himself (as Peachfuzz) on the bed while they eat P.F. Chang’s—at first, this confused me. Is there a second person helping Josef commit these crimes? Then we get to the scene where Peachfuzz somehow cuts the power to the room while Josef is on camera doing something else. And this culminates in Josef getting knocked out by the butt of an axe when he opens a closet door.
Everything points toward Peachfuzz being a second person who is NOT Josef. When Josef wakes up from being knocked out, he is in the bathtub with his hands tied above his head. BUT when Brandt finally shows up, Josef slips out of his binds. So it’s clear that Josef put himself into this situation and edited the footage in a way that made himself out to be Peachfuzz.
Whether or not this episode will work for everyone is up in the air. It took a second rewatch for it all to really sink in. Josef’s mania is on full display here. When he thinks his victim will not be showing up, it leads him down a path of self-destruction. Even though Brandt does show up, Josef follows through with editing the tape in a way that propels the idea of Peachfuzz being a separate entity from Josef the man.
One of the things we learn early on in the episode is that this is Josef’s “first solo project.” We can assume this means Brandt will be Josef’s first Peachfuzz-less kill. But in the end, Peachfuzz wins and throws the axe at Brandt. What this also does is give us somewhat of a timeline to go on. At this point in the series, we’ve witnessed Josef kill people without the use of Peachfuzz. This leads us to assume that Brandt was early on in his kill list.
It will be fun to watch people pick apart and analyze this episode over the coming weeks/months, and I’m genuinely interested to see what audiences think of this episode. With one more creep tape left in the season, what do you think will happen? Will there be any more factually accurate Josef lore? Or will we get more of a deep dive into his unhinged, pathological lying psyche?