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The Last of Connie

Published October 19, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

Leave it to Jada (Elia Cantu). She finally got a couple of clues and realized it might be uber-perky Connie (Julie Dove) that was behind all the disappearances and deaths that had been happening in Salem all summer long. Of course, for drama’s sake, Days of our Lives‘ finest detective was always a step or two behind everyone’s favorite, truly demented personal assistant. 

As a capper to her previous crimes, which included murdering Bobby (Blake Berris) and stabbing Rafe (Galen Gering), Connie deposited Melinda (Tina Huang), her long held hostage, in the lower-level vaults of the DiMera Mansion. After confronting Gabi (Cherie Jimenez), her mortal enemy, in that estate’s ostentatious living room, she added her to the cobweb strewn larder. Ever the amateur explosives enthusiast, she then tried to blow both of her captives up with a homemade bomb. 

It was then onto the Brady Pub to eliminate Ava (Tamara Braun). With that bloodthirsty deed ultimately interrupted by the heroic Stefan (Brandon Barash), the demented damsel was finally intercepted by (the now exhausted) Jada and soon sent packing to the luxuriously padded walls of Bay View. 

Overall, a fun, months-long jaunt, accentuated by Dove’s compelling eccentricity, this story’s long-lasting effects seem like they will be centered on the romantic contingent. Gabi now appears to be drawn to EJ (Dan Feuerriegel), the former business rival who saved her from the blast’s deadly effects. This puts Stefan, Gabi’s formerly ardent husband, into the orbit of Ava, the woman he protected and, much to Gabi’s chagrin, previously bedded.

It seems that Connie, whose truest aim was to permanently upend the lives of Gabi and Stefan, achieved her heart torn victory, after all.

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

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Hellraiser at Leather Archives

Published October 18, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

There Are No Limits!!! —- But ONLY for every sharp-faced Chicagoan who JOINS US this SATURDAY at the Leather Archives & Museum for the Hellraiser Double Feature!!! 

Attendees not only get to see 2 Clive Barker classics in the kinkiest body positive venue in town, but more surprises await them, as well – including a special Barker memorabilia exhibit & a between films visit from the doppelgänger of Kirsty Cotton herself! 

Intrigued? Then check out the link to the event, below!

Fetish Film Forum – Hellraiser (1987) and Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) Double Feature

Hope to see you there – and until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE,

Big Gay Horror Fan!

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My Sweet Psycho: B & B’s Luna

Published September 14, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

In the last month or so, the crazily unstoppable Connie (Julie Dove) has murdered Everett/Bobby (Blake Berris) and kidnapped Melinda (Tina Huang) on Days of our Lives. Her reign of terror in Salem, the show’s homebase, has now stretched across the many weeks of summer – and with Rafe (Galen Gering), one of her first victims since returning to the canvas, still recovering from the effects of a coma, it looks like she may be sticking around for a while longer.

In a surprise move, The Bold and the Beautiful entered into the psycho femme sweepstakes at the cliffhanger-end of their Friday, August 23rd episode, as well.  Then, the impossibly sweet Luna (Lisa Yamada) was not only revealed to be a twisted schemer, but a murderous one, as well. Upon discovering Luna kissing Bill (Don Diamont), a man who was assumed to be the young woman’s father for months, the show’s popular anti-heroine Steffy (Jaqueline MacInnes Woods) confronted her — and found herself drugged and locked in a cage. Many viewers, understandably, assumed that they were going to be treated to months of Luna furtively keeping Steffy hostage.

Surprisingly, the Bold scribes worked quickly here. Almost immediately, during her macabre conversations with the desperate Steffy, Luna revealed that she had murdered two men – crimes that she had pinned on her wayward mother Poppy (Romy Park). She was now planning to let Steffy die in the condemned building that she had trapped her in & then eventually convince the macho Bill to marry her. 

Steffy’s devoted husband Finn (Tanner Novlan) proved to have some previously undiscovered Columbo in his blood, though. Almost instantaneously, he figured out what was up and had rescued his bone dry, mighty bedraggled wife within days. After a facedown with her angry Aunt Li (Naomi Matsuda), Luna was arrested and confessed all to her very teary, totally shocked mother. 

Of course, Bold has made a practice of stretching out the storylines of the equally psychotic Sheila over the years. But sadly, weekly previews seem to indicate that Luna may be off the canvas for a while now. Still, the fun of watching Yamada, Matsuda and Park go for broke will linger in fans’ minds for many years to come. The powers-that-be should also be sent notes of appreciation for focusing, so dramatically, on their Asian cast members. It is still a very white, homogenized world on the soap opera format, and it was nice to see a little much needed diversity at play during this very fun, juicily gothic romp.

Let’s hope that there are more such stories on the horizon…and soon!

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

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Queer Actors in Horror: Mathews and Palillo

Published September 7, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

The Thoughtful Moods of Mathews!

Kerwin Mathews:

Ker-winning! Best known as the swashbuckling Sinbad in the Ray Harryhausen epic, the handsome Kerwin Mathews spent the majority of his latter-day career doing television and lower budget B projects. He did provide some Hollywood glow to the early Hammer thriller Maniac and in Dan Curtis’ Dead of Night, as well. His professionalism also rose above such material as the notoriously bad Octaman, The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, and a true cheapie called Nightmare in Blood, his final credit. Much like George Nader, another similarly built gay actor, Mathews had a long-term relationship with a man named Tom Nicholl and died, hopefully very contentedly, at the age of 81 in 2007. 

The Finite Raptures of Palillo

Ron Palillo:

Love Shack. Beloved to ’70s kids as the dimwitted Horshack on Welcome Back, Kotter, actor Ron Palillo also had some significant horror action on his theater heavy resume. Most notably, he staked a sharp claim as Jason’s first graveside victim in Friday the 13th Part 6. A few years later, he was one of the leads in the direct-to-video Hellgate – a project best remembered, perhaps, for his booty baring love scene. Partnered for 41 years, in an amazing testament of devotion, to a fellow actor named Joseph Gramm, Palillo died from a heart attack at the all too young age of 63 in 2012. 

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

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Jaclyn Smith’s Diva Vu

Published August 28, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

If the marketers back in the day had any sense, 1985’s Déjà Vu would have been renamed Diva Vu and they would have circulated ads for it in all of that era’s top gay magazines.  For this is the rare film that features (extremely complicated) acting legend Shelley Winters locking lips with a bewigged Jaclyn Smith, fairly fresh off her 5-year run as the glamourous, self-sufficient Kelly Garrett on Charlie’s Angels. Throw in a regal Claire Bloom, costumed with refined elegance and dripping with purely evil joie de veuve, & you have a minor gothic horror that is a perfect fit for those of a certain age and a particular preference. 

Plotwise here, we find a successful novelist named Michael (Nigel Terry) becoming fascinated by a long dead ballerina named Maggie (Smith). While doing research on her, he becomes convinced that he and Brooke (also Smith), his American actress fiancée, are the reincarnated versions of Maggie and her lover.   His encounters with a Russian psychic/hypnotist named Olga (Winters), an eccentric woman who claims to have known Maggie well, seem to reinforce this belief. But when Michael begins receiving threatening letters and spooky answering machine messages from Eleanor (Bloom), Maggie’s decades-deceased mother, he knows he is either losing his mind or that something sinister is afoot. Of course, when Brooke surprises him with a visit, during a break in filming her latest project, his deadliest fears become reality, and a fiery showdown is assured for all involved.

Lushly directed by Anthony B. Richmond, the cinematographer of such modern classics as Don’t Look Down and The Man Who Fell to Earth, the project’s biggest flaws seem to reside in it’s editing. There are times when the characters’ odd actions, specifically with Winters’ Olga, are not fully addressed, resulting in some awkward storyline issues. As the film reaches it’s end, it almost feels as if scenes are missing, as well, especially in reference to the deadly transformation of Smith’s Brooke. Otherwise, in one particularly amusing moment, a very naked Terry suddenly grows a pair of bright blue speedo-underwear — without even lifting a leg!!

But the true joy here is watching the leading ladies tear up the scenery. Smith, whose speaking voice already feels like a knife on velvet, is especially effective as Brooke descends into pure evil. Meanwhile, Winters and Bloom are simply dreamy in whatever situation that the trio of screenwriters slip them into. Whether Winters is demanding a vodka from an unwilling host or Bloom is coolly accessing a rival, their screentime is pure, queer heart capturing gold.

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

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Unsung Heroines of Horror: Bonnie Tyler

Published August 18, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

I truly enjoy how randomly connected life can be at times. A couple of weekends ago, after years of casually looking, I finally found an almost pristine copy of Bonnie Tyler’s Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fires in the dollar bin at Reckless Records.

Then this past Saturday, settling in for a lazy morning, I threw in my DVD of Urban Legend. I found myself delightfully surprised as I, sleepily, consumed my oatmeal and Ryze shake, having completely forgotten how much Tyler’s classic Total Eclipse of the Heart dominates the film’s incredibly memorable opening scene. How I ever wiped out Natasha Gregson Wagner’s ear shattering warble as she sings along to the tune in headless abandon, I’ll never know…but there you have it!

Of course, Tyler, notable for her distinctively gruff vocalizing style, had only a couple degrees of separation from the horror community to begin with. Her most lauded work, including Heart, was produced by the very dramatic, often bombastic composer Jim Steinman. Steinman, naturally, came to fame as the co-creator of Bat Out of Hell, Meat Loaf’s masterwork. Loaf, of course, is worshipped by terror kids for his dynamic take on Eddy in the legendary The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Wales’ most famous export, meanwhile, hasn’t been a slouch when it comes to other forms of gothic representation, herself. It’s A Heartache, her second most identifiable tune. is featured in Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City while Heart along with Holding Out for a Hero, her other smash, have been used to stylistic effect in projects like Scream Queens, Fall of the House of Usher, Dead Snow 2 and The Wraith. 

This may not be enough to appoint her the Official Scare Kids All-Time Favorite Soundtrack Diva — but it definitely puts her in the running.

Nicely, Tyler is still going strong – as witnessed at http://www.bonnietyler.com. Thus, there are hopefully many more spooky sonic treats to come.

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Lou Reed

Published August 12, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

I stumbled upon Simon Doonan’s book Transformer: A Story of Glitter, Glam Rock, and Loving Lou Reed this past spring at the Book Table in Oak Park. The exotically slim volume detailed how Reed’s poppy, gender stretching tunes supplied a shot of freedom and joy into the arm of the burgeoning queer community of the early ’70s. The book emphasized that while the troubled, often violent Reed was probably not a role model in his personal life, his artistic vision was definitely revolutionary for many.

Furthering his lavender outreach, one of Lou’s muses for many years was a Trans woman named Rachel Humphries. Throughout their often-volatile relationship, Rachel figured, importantly, in Lou’s art. She was the featured illustration on the back cover of 1974’s Sally Can’t Dance and inspired multiple songs on 1976’s Coney Island Baby and 1978’s Street Hassle.

Naturally, as both rock and horror are filled with rebellious creativity, Reed’s music has been featured in a number of terror-based shows, as well. Sweet Jane was a significant force in the recent Fear Street series, a 3-film project that thrived, importantly, on a Sapphic pulse. Titles such as Fear the Walking Dead, Zombieland, Suck and Blade: Trinity have also been lifted up by the inclusion of some of his most popular tunes. 

But for me, his creativity reaches its most nostalgic heights with 1989’s New York. This offering was my college age equivalent of Transformer, offering a suite of tunes that acknowledged the AIDS ridden, yet eternally magical LGBTQIA community as it stood then.

Unsurprisingly, almost 11 years after his death, Reed is still a guiding force for many – including a fictional serial killer. A poster of him appears, prominently, in the gothic lair of the titular Longlegs, this summer’s critically lauded tale of generational horror.

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

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The Supreme Reign of Batty Connie

Published July 31, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

Nothing makes me happier than a femme identifying slasher as the primary character in some ghoul stained epic. Horror has a number of them – with Pamela Voorhees from the original Friday the 13th, naturally, leading the top of the list. More recent additions include the titular subjects in projects like Lisa Frankenstein, Abigail and MaXXXine. These cinematic vixens have been completely unafraid to shed a little blood to get exactly what they want. 

Nicely, soaps have also given us a few of their own twisted ovarian baddies over the past couple years. 

Currently, the legendary Colleen Zenk has been careening her way across Genoa City on The Young and the Restless. After burning down a prison and pushing a recovering alcoholic (played by talented soap hopper Brian Gaskill) into the path of a moving vehicle, her demented Aunt Jordan has wound up with a huge casualty list. On that other network, Alley Mills deservedly won an Emmy for enacting Heather Webber’s latest reign of terror on General Hospital. As the poison wielding The Hook, she carved her way through both day and contract players alike with a Michael Myers sized abandon. 

Days of our Lives has not been idle either. In 2023, comedienne Kim Coles threw a dramatic twist into her resume by playing the murderously delusional Whitley King. King kidnapped the show’s longstanding hero Abe Carver (James Reynolds), nearly killing him and his beloved daughter (Sal Stowers) before she was apprehended. This summer, meanwhile, Julie Dove’s zany Connie Viniski is striking fear into the hearts of male Salemites, in and out of Horton Square. While Connie had made a couple minor appearances previously, recent surprise plot revelations have placed her squarely behind the knife that killed the suave Li (Remington Hoffman) over six months ago. 

Joyfully, her reign of terror has just begun. In order to keep her dastardly secret, Viniski recently stabbed the show’s (hopefully) resilient police commissioner Rafe (Galen Gering) in the back. That this crime took place over an open grave in a cemetery only added to it’s delightful macabre intensity. Now Connie seems to also be targeting Robert Stein (Blake Berris), her wicked co-conspirator, and Gabi (Cherie Jimenez), Rafe’s manipulative businesswoman sister. Of course, Connie is sure to talk over any plans she might make with her favorite conjured entity. The ghost-like apparition of Li is now a permanent resident at her breakfast table.

Importantly, despite her often-delusionary actions, Dove has added an almost chirpy innocence to Connie’s increasingly malevolent personality here. This little something extra has certainly endeared her to audiences – even as the character cuts a swath through the heart of their favored city. In fact, if Dove continues to add this sense of quirky charm to the role, Viniski will certainly become one of the show’s most memorable modern-day villainesses.  

At the very least, the weeks ahead are sure to be sparkly, bloody fun – particularly for those, like me, who relate to the subtle flourishes of insecurity that percolate throughout Viniski’s vengeful exterior!

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

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Rhonda in the Beyond

Published July 22, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

My boyfriend in Chicago in the early ’90s was best friends & occasional roommates with a talented actress named Rhonda Reynolds. Rhonda and I weren’t incredibly close…horror films made her physically squirm in discomfort…but she once acted in a short play that I wrote, and we had many of the same musical likes. In fact, I still have the L7 shirt that she got for me when she saw them open for The Beastie Boys in Chicago. Her future husband Robb was also a talented bassist. Robb and I spent one Saturday evening, in the Wicker Park apartment that I shared with Kelly – the afore mentioned boyfriend, pouring through my CDs and cassette tapes, listening to the latest Fugazi and other alt-rock/punk gems.

In 1994, Wreck, Robb’s band, released an LP on C/Z Records and they went on tour. I went to the kick off show with Kelly and Rhonda – procuring another band shirt that I had for decades. Rhonda, herself, soon took off for Los Angeles, landing a prominent gig opposite Lloyd Bridges in a sexy TV film about a small-town scandal called Secret Sins of the Father.

Going the way of many first relationships, Kelly and I broke up that fall. We did keep in touch for a handful of years after that, though, and I learned through him that Rhonda was landing other nighttime gigs, here and there. But my ears really perked up when I found out that she secured a job playing a ghost on an episode of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, a syndicated anthology series that was many a young genre fan’s entree into the macabre. I never could figure out when her episode was airing, though, and as the years passed, it became just one of the many interesting factoids that decorated the background of my existence.

Of course, as I age, nostalgia is ever nipping at my heels and, in a flush of newfound determination, I recently found her segment online. As you can see from the photos alone, she played her character, an apparition warning a family against impending dangers, with an ethereal potence. Of course, my viewing was amplified by my experience with her in my theater salad days and my sincere gratitude for having lived a life surrounded by so many uniquely creative individuals. But you can judge for yourself at….

A Spirited Update:

All these years later, Robb and Rhonda are still continuing their artistic journeys  — this time through the culinary arts. Their restaurant Masa, a celebration of Chicago style Deep Dish pizza, in East-Central Los Angeles is a smashing success with both locals and the city’s many visitors. 

https://www.masaofechopark.com/

Music to Make Horror Movies By: Cyndi Lauper

Published July 15, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

The recent announcement of Cyndi Lauper’s final concerts sent me traveling down memory lane.

One summer day in 2002, I discovered that I had some time to kill. As I biked around Lincoln Park, I recalled that Lauper was doing an instore mini concert & signing at the (late, lamented) Tower Records on Clark in Chicago. I decided to fill up a bit of my morning by attending. 

Little did I know that side trip would turn into an all-day adventure. 

After purchasing her (then) new EP Shine – which served as my ticket into the show, I was sent outside to wait. Two hours later, we were led back into the building…and there she was on a hastily constructed stage! It was truly awesome to see her perform in such close proximity. She even broke down & shed tears of joy when some of her hard-core fans began singing along with her on latest ballad called Water’s Edge – probably one of my favorite concert moments of all time. 

We then were put in another long line to meet her. I, honestly, thought about leaving, but I figured I had already put in a lot of effort & time. When I got to her at last, she happily signed my CD….but just as we were about to take a photo, one of her handlers approached her & told her that she could no longer personalize the signatures as they had to leave soon for the United Center (where she was opening for Cher — coincidentally, for that icon’s own never-ending, inaccurately entitled goodbye tour.)

“Oh,” she cried, “I don’t want them to hate me! I have to let them know!” A very sweet notion – & a moment captured forever by the employee who was taking our picture. The first shot here is of her getting the news & the second is of her addressing the crowd. I suppose I could also look at the experience as a lesson in life’s eternal sense of balancing expectations. My photos with her are kind of funky…but I did get the last personally addressed CD!

One song that she did not sing that day, but one that ultimately served as the opener for her set in the 2007 True Colors shows, was Hole in my Heart (All the Way to China). Taken from the soundtrack to Vibes, the bizarre ’80s comedy that saw her playing an eccentric psychic opposite Jeff Goldblum’s equally odd clairvoyant, this number is an underground fan favorite. 

Of course, in this critically maligned offering that phenomenon was played for humor. It would be decades later before Lauper, playing a Broadway musical loving private detective, would fully enter the world of horror in the Sweeney Todd inspired The Horrors of Dolores Roach. 

A Land of Terror Tunes:

Additionally, Lauper’s quiet storm ballad All Through the Night was used to grand effect in the well-regarded Netflix spook show The Haunting of Bly Manor. Her almost 300 soundtrack credits also include spots on such horror adjacent television programs as Ghost Whisperer, Bones and Medium, as well.