Its Halloween time and some orange colored connoisseurs like their candy corn mixed with peanuts. But true terror babies, including the irreplaceable Sheena Easton, really prefer… the fright!
Yes, on her 1983 masterpiece Best Kept Secret, this queen of high school pop sings an anthem to all those who like their lives brimming, consistently, at the edges of scare!
Mainstream pop bliss and a true love of horror! Will life EVER get more perfect than that??
Well, maybe. Easton’s one true terror credit, John Carpenter’s Body Bags (1993), wherein she plays the sympathetic girlfriend of hair challenged Stacy Keach, is getting the deluxe Scream Factory treatment on November 12th, 2013.
And THAT should get the Deborah Harry stamp of approval, no?
Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!
After spending time as one of the whipped and chained at Father Lou’s Cathedral of Catholic Cranks, I have, generally, come to dread the mention of an unveiling of any sort.
Granted, there are always exceptions to the rules – one, in particular, being the fact that the amazing Bucket O’ Blood Books and Records at 2307 N. Milwaukee in Chicago, is unveiling something huge, today (and into infinity)!
Lucky celluloid hunters can get first the first peek at the store’s Halloween Happy Hour, beginning at 4 PM. BTW – I have heard rumors that it may involve a bevy of Graveyard Tramps floating around, as well!
While major media sites like Entertainment Weekly are making a hoopla over Die Hard‘s Hart Bochner and his caustic, fun appearance (as evil Chris’ influential father) in the current Carrie remake, true terror princesses know where the real excitement is — in genre goddess Cynthia Preston’s potent turn as the privileged momma of the kind Sue Snell.
In two scenes, in this well intentioned if slightly unsuccessful reimagining, Preston establishes her character as one of having presidential grace and extreme kindness. Her interaction with Julianne Moore’s working class Margaret, also, helps present just how frenzied our Mama White truly is. While, Preston’s Madame Snell radiates compassion towards her, Moore’s Margaret can barely contain her hateful anxiety. As Moore/Margaret digs pins into the flesh of her leg to remain steady, the viewers experience a scene of true body horror and witness, for the first time, the extremity of the character’s psychosis.
Preston in THE BRAIN
As a skilled (and journeyed) actress, though, Preston is not unfamiliar with witnessing fleshy slaughter. Perhaps best known, to the public-at-large, as murderous Mafia henchwoman Faith Roscoe on General Hospital, Preston actually spent much of her early career screeching around the borders of Canuck exploitation.
Her ivory innocence made such films as The Dark Side (87), Pin (88), The Brain (88), Prom Night III: The Last Kiss (90) and Premonition (99), incredible viewing pleasures. She, also, established an even firmer genre icon-hood for herself by appearing in such television productions as The Hitch-hiker, The X-Files, Total Recall 2070 and, most recently, in an episode of this season’s Hannibal.
Here, Preston, talks about her experience working with Moore on Carrie:
And, here’s hoping for many more years of genre joy from the radiant Preston!
Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!
Granted, I am blind to a lot of stuff – including criticism. (Although, I did get it, recently, when one online commentator called me a “dork” and another called me the “worst interviewer ever” re: my Danielle Harris video interview! Y–OUCH!!!)
But, the heroine of Jason Coffman’s latest thriller Still has got it really bad. After an attack, she discovers she is suffering from a rare condition called akinetopsia, or motion blindness. The complications from that are sure to be riskily adventurous as described in Coffman’s passionate Kickstarter campaign.
Coffman whom has already graced the independent cinematic landscape with such (shorter) offerings as Tape and The Gamma-Ray Man is sure to use every cent generated to create something truly unique and enjoyable.
Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan
If there were any justice in the world, I would have my own multi-level drive-in theater (playing banging Euro-trash, 24/7) in the middle of my studio apartment, that muscular Idris (IE: Hot guy!! Thanks to Christine and Valerie for the slang), sitting across from my writing group at Dollop Coffee Shop, would be moon-glowing over my every word — and awesome, eclectic musician Les Baxter would be every punk rock prom king’s totally slammin’ mentor!!!
Known to record collectors for his exotica jazz contributions, Baxter also conjured up amazing, swinging soundtracks to genre epics like Roger Corman’s House of Usher (1960), the US version of Black Sabbath (1963), Frogs (1972) and even 1982’s boy-is-cicada monster classic, The Beast Within.
Thankfully, the ever cool Sidewalk Records are trying to give Baxter his hipster due by reissuing his naughty soundtrack to 1969’s Hell’s Belles on a thick slab of (nearly eatable) vinyl!
Do you long for those good old days (in the late 80s and early 90s) when flicks by Wynorski, Corman, Schmoeller and DeCoteau were always popping up on cable, featuring appearances by the video box ladies that we all grew to love? As the Bloody Goddess can tell you, I certainly do! So, let’s re-visit a classic, now!
Proving that no one made (or makes) an entrance quite like her, DVD doll Deborah Dutch resonates, mightily in the first moments of Fred Olen Ray’s gritty 1994 effort Mind Twister. Though the film features everyone from Telly Savalas to Richard Roundtree, it is Dutch’s portrayal of the doomed Sheila Harrison in the opening moments that, ultimately, counts the most here.
Struggling against a demented transgressor, Dutch/Harrison eventually loses her life in a glass splattering frenzy. Though quickly dispatched, Dutch makes every second matter, providing the film with its most memorable moments. Her obvious stage training bursts forth – even as Harrison flies through the air to her doom.
“Turn and face the strange changes!” Yes, even those who aren’t fans of David Bowie (Does such a creature exist??!!??) are sometimes compelled to do what this master musician suggests. They simply have no choice.
Take Kathleen Burke’s exotic Panther Woman from the 1932 classic Island of Lost Souls and Susan Strasberg’s beautiful Karen Tandy from 1978 oddity The Manitou, for example. Both find their bodies going through increasingly weird scenarios – and both have to deal with the odd circumstances, head on.
Susan Strasberg
Lucky Midwesterners will get to experience the adventures of these highly memorable creations at October 19th’s anticipated Music Box of Horrors, a 24 hour film festival. Taking place at the historic Music Box Theatre, located at 3733 N. Southport in Chicago, this 2nd annual event, also, features screenings of Maniac Cop 2, Crawlspace and Possession along with special guests, including famed exploitation directors William Lustig (Maniac) and David Schmoeller (Tourist Trap).
(The Carrie remake will be upon us on October 18th– thus we celebrate the strong women in horror, science fiction and exploitation with Countdown to Carrie!)
It can be rough being a woman in horror and exploitation. Take the Brides of Fu Manchu in The Brides of Fu Manchu, for instance. Prime focus of the film, they are, yet not one actress portraying a bride receives billing in the opening credits. Bum rap!!
Janet Lockwood, who was the director of the Michigan Film Office from 1992 – 2010, makes up for previous femme negations in exploitation with her portrayal of the powerful, often nasty Cassandra Dregstone in 2003’s low budget (multi-pack orphan) Terror at Baxter U, though. In a film that features an idiotically murderous janitor and a monstrous chupacabra, Dregstone is by far the scariest thing on display. Whether cutting down errant students, scheming behind the backs of bumbling professor types or engaging in ancient ceremonies, Lockwood’s Dregstone steals the show, here, proving that even in overacted, micro-budget terror, women can rule the roost!
Until the next time, continue to worship at the altar of volatile women in horror – and
Oh, if I only had a brain! I’ve sung that to myself so many times that I’ve felt like a small town queer stuck caught in a community theater production of The Wizard of Oz, Sisyphus-style!
But who needs brains when they can experience the terror of Gray Matter?!? This stunning short film is an adaptation of a Stephen King story – and inventive filmmaker Red Clark tells me he only used practical effects (based on some amazing concept designs by Tom A. Denney)! Viva, au natural, baby!!
Check out the gooey, first look trailer, here!:
Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!
Let’s face it, half the fun of horror and exploitation is seeing some hot bodies frolicking around in the buff. And while I worship the female form, I believe exploitation definitely veers into the exploitive when only gorgeous women are on display while their male counterparts remain chastely buttoned up. Therefore, The Backside of Horror salutes the filmmakers and actors whom even up the score a bit by showing us instances of hot and juicy male flesh in their bloody celluloid fantasies.
Awesome genre auteur Fred Walton (April Fools Day) knows a thing or two about naked insanity.
In Walton’s 1979 horror masterpiece, When A Stranger Calls, lead psycho Curt Duncan (as passionately played by Tony Beckley) experiences a traumatic emotional breakdown in a men’s homeless shelter. Beckley’s nakedness, here, mirrors the raw agony that his character is experiencing.
Fourteen years later in his follow-up, When A Stranger Calls Back (1993), Walton executes a genius surprise scare. The murderous master in this one, William Landis (the chameleon-like Gene Lythgow) actually blends into the environment of the apartment of the film’s female lead for the final showdown. Stripped down and covered in paint, Lythgow flashes his muscular buttocks, several times, as his maniacal character meets his justified end.
Be sure to check back, often, for more The Backside of Horror.
Well, maybe. Easton’s one true terror credit, John Carpenter’s Body Bags (1993), wherein she plays the sympathetic girlfriend of hair challenged Stacy Keach, is getting the deluxe Scream Factory treatment on November 12th, 2013.
Big Gay Horror Fan 