Film

All posts in the Film category

Halloween Highlight: Slumber Party Massacre II

Published October 14, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

My favorite fall feature in (the late, lamented) Soap Opera Digest was their round-up featuring the performers talking about the horror movies that they had starred in. All these years later, I’m still thrilled whenever I discover someone known for their work on daytime in a terror project.

I grew up watching the CBS soaps, the channel my mother loosely watched as she went about her daily tasks. One of the plotlines that I most remember involved The Young and the Restless‘ then bad boy Paul (Doug Davidson). As many serial cads before him, he had gotten a mousy lass named April (Cynthia Eilbacher) pregnant. After she refused to bow into his pressure to abort the child, the two entered into a brief, unsuccessful marriage. Permanently rejected, soon thereafter, the quiet, downtrodden girl left town.

Flash forward: My senior year in college, I moved into an apartment with access to multiple cable stations and I was soon taping late night horror movies, left and right. One of my favorite discoveries was Slumber Party Massacre II. A zany, rock n’ roll infused cartoon, it also gave a nod to the complicated factors involved with burgeoning female desire and almost worked as a parody of the (even then) often by-rote practices of the traditional slasher film.

To my extra hyphenated delight, Eilbacher even popped up, in a series of frenzied flashback sequences, as Valerie, the first film’s now very traumatized heroine. 

Earnestly, this past weekend, while prepping to interview Deborah Brock, the film’s writer and director, onstage at a film event, I mentioned how much the presence of one of my favorite former soap actresses in the film meant to me. Gregariously, Brock let me know that Eilbacher was a true professional and a great actress to work with. In fact, as a practitioner of The Method style of acting, she got so worked up in her audition that she ran from the room, crying. Brock followed her into the hall and assured her that everyone in the room had been very impressed.

On set, Eilbacher’s intense commitment continued. She would often rock, rhythmically, by herself in the corner or crawl under the set’s bed to prep for the emotional scenes that were soon to follow. A number of crew members, concerned about her mental state, were soon placated by Brock, who informed them that the actress was just getting into character and was totally fine.

Thus, the next time you view the film – hopefully sometime this Halloween season – keep in mind that Eilbacher truly dug deep, allowing you to experience the true depth of Valerie’s longstanding torment, adding a vital component to the cult film’s long lasting, overall enjoyment. 

Or, thanks to Brock (pictured, above, at Laurie’s Planet of Sound in Chicago), you can forgo that serious look at thespianism and just focus on the film’s manic, guitar infused fun!

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

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!

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

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!

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

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!

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

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!

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Review: Saw, the Musical: The Unauthorized Parody of Saw

Published August 6, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

Saw, The Musical: The Unauthorized Parody of Saw is a significant win for the queer horror loving community. The creative forces behind it have taken this very hetero normative film series and created a filthy, tuneful gay romance out of it. Concentrating on the first entry’s easily producible setting and the chemistry exhibited between Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell there, playwright Zoe Ann Jordan has devised a super silly show containing a filthily erotic romance between Dr. Lawrence Gordon and his fellow captive Adam. The lyrics & music by Anthony DeAngelis and Patrick Spencer, meanwhile, perfectly echo Jordan’s outrageously constructed scenarios. Thus, amid the male leads’ lustful duets, brilliantly fun songs such as Just a Pig (in a Fucking Wig) are also offered up.

While this Chicago cast of the National Tour is headlined by Blake Friedman, a talented and very game opera singer, as Gordon and the squeakily enthusiastic Anthony Chavers as Adam, special attention must be paid to the divine Janey Elliot. Elliot superbly portrays everyone else in the cast, with a special emphasis on Jigsaw himself and the franchise’s runaway character, the tortured and troubled Amanda.

Indeed, while most of the show is played for laughs, Elliot and the rest of the team often find the emotional heart in Amanda, offering up a plethora of poignant moments and a couple of emotionally effective power ballads. Thus, amidst the expected blood and purebred giggling, we get the essence of what draws us to these stories and themes – the beating, eternally bruised heart of those who find themselves forever just a bit outside the mainstream crowd.

More information on the production, which heads out of Chicago on 8/11/24 for the next spot in its tour, can be found at http://www.sawthemusical.com.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Tom Drake: A Queer Horror Cyclops!

Published July 8, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

1957’s The Cyclops is one of the coolest Atomic Era fright flicks ever made. Definitely influenced by society’s growing fear of radical alteration delivered via a blast from a foreign power, this Bert I. Gordon classic takes place in an expansive Mexican valley where giant lizards, swooping aviary nightmares and a muscular one eyed human Kong rule the land. The distorted, almost ambient nature sounds provided by effects maestro Paul Frees and composer Albert Glasser also aid greatly in giving this piece a strange, spare mood.

Unsurprisingly for this fare, the plot is a straightforward affair. A determined woman, searching for her long-lost husband, teams up with one of his colleagues and a duo of shifty ne’er do wells to track him down. Of course, a forced landing of their plane finds them facing down the afore mentioned giant critters, including one that has a striking similarity to the leading lady’s lost love. 

Bolstered by the presence of celebrated fright femme Gloria Talbott (Daughter of Dr. Jekyll, I Married a Monster from Outer Space, The Leech Woman) as the heroine, the supporting players also provide a celluloid smorgasbord for the happily invested. Lon Chaney, Jr., as one of the nefarious hired hands, hits entertainment gold with one of his animatedly bugged out performances. As his partner in crime, Tom Drake, the eternal boy next door, also shines with booze-soaked gruffness. 

Interestingly, there are several debates, online, about whether Drake was a deeply closeted gay man or a bisexual in real life. (He was briefly married to a woman at the beginning of his career.) Personally, any degree of speculative lavender in a old school matinee idol is good with me and Drake, whose credits include Meet in St Louis (with Judy Garland), Cass Timberlane (with Lana Turner), Mrs. Parkington (with Greer Garson), Maisie Goes to Reno (with Ann Sothern) & Raintree County (with Elizabeth Taylor), was certainly that.

Even though projects like The Cyclops, much to the joy of genre fans, became more of his bread-and-butter fare in the latter part of his career, Drake continued to associate professionally with golden greats. 1971’s House of Black Death found him sharing the screen with Chaney again, along with such terror stalwarts as John Carradine and The Beast with Five Fingers‘ Andrea King. His co-stars in The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe (1974), meanwhile, included Cesar Romero, House on Haunted Hill‘s Carol Ohmart and Robert Walker, Jr. 

Ultimately, those mini-budget epics may not have captured the zany impact of The Cyclops, but they definitely provide interested viewers with a queer genre king for the ages.

Television Horror Hall of Fame:

Drake also guested on episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Project U.F.O. and Kolchak: The Night Stalker. His Night Stalker episode featured two of the show’s recurring guests – monster-in-a-suit maestro Richard Kiel and Piranha’s Keenan Wynn.

Va-Va-Villainess: Jayne Meadows

Published June 24, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

Often revered for her comic antics, the surprisingly creative Jayne Meadows was also a decorated feminist. She often played creative thinkers like Margaret Sanger and Elizabeth Barrett Browning on PBS’ Meeting of the Minds, which was created by her husband Steve Allen, exposing society to important female historical figures. MS Magazine even paid special tribute to her upon her death (at the age 95) in 2015.

The other surprising side to the eternally glamourous Meadows has to be the aptitude she had for playing characters who embraced the underside of society. Emphasizing her youth and looks, many of her first film roles in the ’40s found her playing spoiled society types. There, she threatened the happiness of such stalwart cases as Katherine Hepburn (in Vincente Minnelli’s moody and gothic Undercurrent) and Anne Baxter (in the more lighthearted The Luck of the Irish). The whimsical Enchantment (1948) was a nice detour in that more seductive course. This feature allowed her to play a stern, uncompromising type against David Niven, the project’s charming lead.

A veteran of 6 Broadway shows before her screen debut in 1946, one of her most highly praised early roles, though, was in the inventive noir Lady in the Lake (from that same year). Here, her dexterity with language was revealed, as she often cut away at her dialogue with a clipped antagonism. Her character here was also more of a deadly construct. While her other roles hinted at the possibility of evil deeds, this project found her committing them with vigor and resolve.

Nicely, her latter-day work contained certain diabolical elements, as well. While her kindhearted madame on an episode of Matt Houston (1983’s The Beverly Woods Social Club) was merely rouged a bit around the jawline, her self-involved cosmetics queen on Murder, She Wrote (1986’s Murder by Appointment Only) allowed her to employ her way with a quip and an arched eyebrow. Catty and demanding, she simply steals the show out from under such experienced performers as Robert Culp and even series star Angela Lansbury, herself.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Merle Oberon, Gothic Goddess

Published June 17, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

The gothic femme has had many celluloid idealizations. Off the top of my head, Vampira in Plan 9 From Outer Space, Carroll Borland in Mark of the Vampire, Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice & Fairuza Balk in The Craft all come to mind. My favorite morbid beauty may not be as obvious as those choices, but her classic countenance and illustriously macabre credits make her the ultimate queen of the creaky mansion in my cobweb strewn book.

This divinity is classic movie goddess Merle Oberon. In her multi-layered career, the singular Oberon not only enacted the tragic Cathy opposite Laurence Olivier in the idealized ’30s version of Wuthering Heights, but also faced down moustache twirling types in two popular films from 1944. Dark Waters found her amnesic heiress plunged into damp despair as a middle age grifter couple tries to kill her for her inheritance. Aligning with slightly brighter hues, her pertly happy Kitty Langley faced down Laird Cregar’s Jack the Ripper-like Mr. Slade in the fog strewn The Lodger. 

Interestingly, even one of her more traditionally romantic pictures has a moody patina about it. 1948’s Night Song saw her Cathy Mallory, a distinguished society belle, pretending to be blind in order to lure a sightless composer, Dana Andrews’ bitter Dan Evans, into her heart. Of course, even in post-50s Hollywood, this must have seemed like an ignorant screenwriting choice. Still, Andrews and Oberon give their characters a bit of regal undercurrent, especially as Evans discovers Mallory’s deception and, forgivingly, offers his affections to her in the final moments.

Adding a slight scent of danger to her celluloid allure, Oberon also enacted variations on the noir baddie. Deliciously conniving in 1946’s Temptation, she proved even deadlier ten years later as the seemingly innocent Jessica Warren in Universal Picture’s pulpy The Price of Fear.

Her own life story, though, may be the most tragic component of her artistry. A bi-racial child of rape, she hid her Asian ancestry in order to find success in Hollywood – a fact that only come out after her death from a stroke in November of 1979. The moody internal trauma this denial must have caused her adds to the texture of her celluloid legacy. The sorrow she embodied shows in her greatest performances, a lasting gift to movie lovers everywhere.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Music to Make Horror Movies By: Joanna Newsom

Published June 10, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

With her unique viewpoint and sharp, childlike phrasing, celebrated arthouse musician Joanna Newsom seems an unlikely choice to be a horror movie balladeer. But that is probably what makes the inclusion of her delicately punctuated Sprout and the Bean, used in both 2008’s The Strangers and this year’s The Strangers: Chapter 1, so cinematically effective.

In both films the song plays as the heroines of each piece, Liv Tyler and Madelaine Petsch respectively, celebrate a moment of solitude in a secluded home. Thus, the sweetness of the tune functions as a wonderful red herring. It is a calming lullaby that, ultimately, leads to an evening of twisted torture and bloody despair.

With talent running deeper than a knife slash, Newsom’s strange sonic world has definitely developed over three more albums — Sprout is featured on her simpler yet evocative first recording, The Milk-Eyed Mender. As 2006’s Ys and 2010’s Have One on Me are considered by many discerning critics to be modern classics, now seems the perfect time for the uninitiated to take a deep dive into her singular catalog.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan