Books

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Psychotic Women: General Hospital’s Kristina

Published April 18, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

General Hospital‘s Kristina Corinthos-Davis (Kate Mansi) has been acting like a case study out of House of Psychotic Women in recent episodes of the 62 year running show. That tome, Kier-La Janisse’s emotionally charged exploration of trauma, exposed the nervy, emotionally warped femmes of genre cinema and this longstanding soap character definitely would fit, perfectly, within its pages.

After losing the baby she was carrying last summer, Corinthos-Davis has definitely been at odd ends. The murder of her beloved sister Sam (Kelly Monaco) in the fall furthered that tremulous descent. That the dewily manipulative Ava (Maura West), the person she holds responsible for the death of her child, was still constantly underfoot, demanding cash and excessive favors from her family, provided this beleaguered character’s final push into murderous instability.

Sure that Ava was out to steal her younger sister away from her crime lord father (Maurice Bernard), Kristina cut the brakes to the car that was in her parking spot. Staying true to the dramatics involved with the daytime pedigree, the vehicle actually belonged, instead, to Rick (Rick Hearst), Ava’s lawyer and the father of Kristina’s other sister, Molly (Kristen Vaganos). 

Thankfully, Rick and Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst), his passenger, survived the crash that impetuous act caused, but now Kristina is sure to be driven even further into cascading unpredictability. Lucky (Jonathon Jackson), Elizabeth’s ex-husband and current paramour, quickly realized that she was to blame and Ava and Rick weren’t far behind him.

Now, Ava is blackmailing Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn), Kristina’s mother, and once Molly finds out who injured her beloved parent, worlds are definitely going to be rocked. This will surely keep this nutty heiress in emotional crosshairs for the months to come.

It might even be conceivable that, despite Alexis’ fervent efforts, she winds up in Ferncliff, the serial’s mental institution, bringing even more exploitation goodness to the canvas. Last utilized when the trusting yet gutsy Sasha (Sofia Mattson) was drugged and locked up by the evil Damon Montague, a little misadventure at the hands of an unstable doctor could definitely make Corinthos-Davis redeemable again.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Queer Horror: Rondo Contender

Published March 16, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

Blow those jagged, limb-shaped trumpets! Queer Horror: A Film Guide has been nominated for a Rondo Award for Book of the Year! 

This is especially cool since we’ve been named alongside such excellent publications as I SPIT ON YOUR CELLULOID: The History of Women Directing Horror Films, by Heidi Honeycutt. This also feels like a congratulatory vindication for Sean Abley and Tyler Doupé , our brilliant editors, who, for almost 10 years, guided this book from various scattered entries into a polished volume celebrating all that is LGBTQIA in fright movies.

Naturally, I’ve attached the link to the ballot here:

http://www.rondoaward.com/rondoaward.com/blog/

You can copy and paste it and send it along in an email to taraco@aol.com, if you’d like to vote. You have the option of marking your picks in all of the categories — or simply limiting it the one or two that you are most aware of and/or most passionate about.

& if brevity is indeed your bag  – I have to say that CATEGORY 11 is an incredibly interesting option. 

Hint, hint, hint…

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Queer Horror: The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

Published October 5, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

After a 9-year publishing odyssey, Queer Horror: A Film Guide is finally a reality. For a variety of reasons, not all of my pieces made the final cut. I will share some of those unpublished essays here, from time to time. A link to purchase the book is featured, below, as well.

The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

Writer: Rita Mae Browne, Amy Holden Jones (uncredited)

Director: Amy Holden Jones

Cast: Michelle Michaels, Robin Stille, Michael Villella, Debra De Liso, Andre Honore, Joseph Alan Johnson, Pamela Roylance, Brinke Stevens, Pamela Canzano

Beginning life as a script entitled Don’t Open the Door, director Jones heavily reconfigured writer Browne’s original work while still retaining that legendary lesbian author’s humorous, feministic intent here.

The plot, unsurprisingly, is typical ‘80s slasher fare. A notorious killer (Villella) escapes from the psycho ward, descending upon a group of momentarily parentless teens who are imbibing beer and pot while indulging in sexual antics. Yielding his drill like a phallus, the killer makes his way through the hard-partying population until the final act when the very pretty, very unpopular girl next door (Stille) puts a decisive end to his days of murderous marauding.

Low budget even by typical grindhouse standards, this film ingratiates itself by smartly emphasizing the real-life fear of losing one’s virginity with almost every death sequence and by broadening the perspectives of its feminine protagonists. Led by the subtly assured De Liso as Kim, the female teens here are more knowledgeable about sports stats than their male counterparts and gender stereotypes are subverted with all of the film’s maintenance support staff being played, nonchalantly, by women, as well.

Despite Browne’s involvement, the Sapphic action is ultimately understated here. Reversing expectations once again, the girls’ kindly coach (Roylance) is decidedly soft spoken. Only Canzano in her short scene as a carpenter gives off a decidedly gay vibe with her fun, efficient characterization.

Queer Horror

Hipster-Restaurant Regan & the Queer Book of Horror

Published December 31, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

As with many physical media collectors, my stacks of films are ever growing and sometimes years will pass before I watch something that I purchased at some dusky garage sale or found for supercheap online. Naturally, my bounty was further enhanced with the unfortunate decline of neighborhood video stores. I, for one, could not resist even the shoddiest looking homegrown horror flick if it was only going to cost me a buck or two. One night, while at my restaurant gig, one of my tables commented on whatever movie related t-shirt I was wearing at the time. We started chatting about films and I discovered one of them had appeared as an extra in one of the low budget terror extravaganzas that I had recently picked up. “I was the girl who pukes at the frat party in Terror at Baxter U,” she informed me, somewhat sheepishly. Photo ops, naturally, ensued.

Due to that encounter, I sped up my timeline for viewing this particular oddity. I found it to have its own set of weird, low budget charms – the most significant being the strange reveal of a May-December romance between an aged professor and one of his male pupils, resulting in a kind of extreme take on the Billy-Stu dynamic from the original Scream. Furthering the story, I was asked, soon after, to be one of a several essayists for an encyclopedia style book about queer characters and themes in horror films. Naturally, Baxter found itself a major place in my writing for that.

Flashforward almost 10 years and that book is finally almost ready for release. Thus, I send a word of thanks out to my very own hipster-restaurant Regan and, wherever she may be, I hope she is proud, in her own way, of the literary conduct that she inspired.

Meanwhile, more information on Queer Horror: A Film Guide is available from the publisher at:

Queer Horror – McFarland (mcfarlandbooks.com)

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Music to Make Horror Movies By: Connie Francis

Published November 29, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

In Great Pretenders – My Strange Love Affair with ‘50s Pop Music, her emotionally engaging memoir about her surprise life resurrection via the oft criticized radio hits of simpler times, critic and poet Karen Schoemer talks of the romantic, operatic essence of many Connie Francis love ballads, particularly Where The Boys Are.

But Schoemer also smartly makes note of the wild range of Francis’ material. Indeed, Francis knew how to add a little stomp and growl to a recording, making her a true, often unheralded rock ‘n roll momma.

This eclectic singer was even honored in one of the most memorable scenes in 1996’s The Craft. There, Helen Shaver’s recently economically liberated Grace buys a jukebox that plays nothing but Connie Francis singles!

But considering Francis’ otherworldly talent (and Asimov-ian choices in romantic partners), that celluloid sequence really comes as no surprise…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGIh0qAN-38

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan

www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Beach Reading with Mark McLaughlin

Published September 5, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

Considering that the COVID pandemic cancelled any official beach book reading this summer for most citizens of the world, you are hear-by invited to extend that seasonal literary occurrence indefinitely and in whatever setting that you most desire.

A good place to start, literature-wise, might be Human Doll: A Novel by Mark McLaughlin. Described as Myra Breckenridge meets horror novel, this one might appeal to Drag Race fans with its sharply satiric look at drag culture and plastic surgery.

More information on this book and others written by McLaughlin, a Bram Stoker Award winner, is available at https://www.facebook.com/HumanDollANovel/ and https://bmoviemonster.com/.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Book Review: Testament

Published April 2, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

Testament-f

At the midway point of Testament, queer horror writer Jose Nateras’ debut novel, the protagonist is speaking with an experienced LGBTQIA historian about the gothic happenings that are occurring in his life. As I read, I began remembering all the amazing journalistic mentors I’ve had in my career – Ralph P. Gernhardt, co-founder of Gay Chicago Magazine…Louis Weisberg and Larry Bommer of Chicago Free Press, all leaders in queer publishing and community reporting. The ability to have this personal connection to a piece of literature is ultimately why Nateras’ book is so important. It is so rare to have a complicated, sympathetic gay narrator as our guide throughout a genuine work of terror fiction.

The narrator in question here is Gabe Espinosa, an emotionally devastated Latinx man. Still recovering from a hasty suicide attempt due to romantic misadventure, he soon finds himself the target of an entity that seemingly wants to destroy him not only for his sexuality, but for his racial background, as well. This plot point is another of the significant pleasures of this quick moving 195 page tome. Nateras imbues Gabe with many of the concerns and conflicts facing minorities residing in an already marginalized culture. Fetishism, invisibility and lack of status and opportunity are all explored here with taut emotion and sensitive reasoning.

Nicely, there are magnified scenes of shock and intrigue here, as well. A frenzied mob attack on the CTA in Chicago is almost heart stopping in intensity while the film’s penultimate encounter is also viciously rendered. In fact, one almost wishes Nateras had utilized more descriptiveness in closing out these supernatural details. A longer climax may have actually benefited this already exciting and relatable story, allowing readers to truly grasp the combative nature that Gabe must employ to fight back against what is haunting him.

The fact that Nateras writes such compelling characters also comes in to play here, as well. It is easy to fall in love with Gabe and his friends, especially his ne’er do well, bisexual roommate Bryan, and to have had the pleasure of their company for a moment or two longer would have truly been a gift. Thus, Nateras should be proud of this spooky, culturally valuable work and I can’t wait to read his next efforts in genre writing.

https://ninestarpress.com/product/testament/

https://www.amazon.com/Testament-Jose-Nateras/dp/1951880153/

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

 

Thrift Store Find: Art Saves!

Published March 7, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

Rolling Stone

I first got The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll as a confirmation present from one of my uncles. For awhile I carried it with me everywhere. A day or so after that confirmation, my parents came to pick me up from some event. I had been confirmed with one of my mom’s students and he overheard some of the other kids saying that I was gay in the parking lot afterwards. He told my mother about this…and she was furious…with me.

“Why would they say that, Brian?!?” “What have you done to make them think that?!?” “Do you know how embarrassing this is for me?!? For my own student to come to me about something like this?!?” As she hammered away at me on the car ride home, I murmured soft responses back while burying myself in this book., wanting to disappear. But as I poured over epic black and white photos of Little Richard, David Bowie, a pre-fame Aretha Franklin, a pert Annette Funicello clinging to a properly attired Dick Clark… I suddenly knew that eventually everything would be okay…that the world was full of magnificence and unusual artistry and someday…it all would be mine!

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

 

Dagger Cast Divas!

Published November 22, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

Davette

As with many of us, I am tired of straight white men controlling the narrative. Therefore, I was thrilled by the two latest guests on Dagger Cast, the horror based podcast that I co-host with The Cell Phones’ dynamic Lindsey Charles.

Our Halloween show centered around Davette Franklin (above), a young black theater artist who curates an annual horror play festival. November’s show, meanwhile, finds me be very thankful for Sarah Yeazel (below), a comic book loving gay woman who is writing a series of essays about how cinema has shaped her life and sexuality.

You can listen to both episodes on Soundcloud (below) and other outlets like Spotify and iTunes.

Sarah

Happy aural journeys..and until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan