For all those who thought the team-up of Danny Trejo and Mariel Hemingway in Rise of the Zombies was the ultimate in undead expression, inventive writer-director Cody Knotts has something even better planned for you: the awesome sounding Pro Wrestlers Vs. Zombies!
Headlined by Roddy (They Live) Piper, this body flipping bit of mayhem, also, features the saucy antics of aggressively sexy Adrienne Fischer (the lead of acclaimed low budget indie It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To) and oft viewed gay male porn star, Matthew Rush.
Check out the official trailer and website, below:
When it comes to fashion Big Gay Horror Fan can’t tell a jean jacket from a leather thong.
Thankfully, talented director Tommy Faircloth truly knows that a sense of style has other ways of being murderous. His acclaimed 1995 film Crinoline Head features a lead killer whom wears his mother’s skirt on his scalp while going about acts of bloody mayhem.
A fan favorite from far back, due to various theatrical runs and a VHS distribution, Faircloth is currently raising money to offer his zany slasher homage on DVD.
To get a glance at vintage production photos, past press and to learn how to support Faircloth’s current efforts, be sure to visit https://www.facebook.com/crinolinehead!
High school reunion? Forget it! But a reunion of the casts of 1981’s Just Before Dawn and 1982’s Slumber Party Massacre (which has high queer appeal for lesbian author Rita Mae Brown’s script participation , its female director and strong female characters)?!? Big Gay Horror Fan is all for that!
Thankfully, the wicked and wizened powers-that-be at Cinema Wasteland (www.cinemawasteland.com) are holding just such get-togethers over the weekend of April 5th, 2013 in Strongsville, OH. JBD’s Jamie Rose, Chris Lemmon and director Jeff Lieberman will be on hand for signings and screenings while Brinke Stevens, Debra DeLiso, Joseph Johnson and Michael Villella (the original Driller Killer, himself!)will be on hand for SPM.
Of course, Stevens is a horror powerhouse with endless credits in the genre. 1998’s Victoria’s Shadow, one of her little known efforts, is certainly for Brinke fanatics only, but the Stevens on display here is delicious. Stevens has always been incisive in her portrayals involving the dualities of certain characters (see Haunted Fear and Teenage Exorcist) and her Victoria in Victoria’s Shadow is no exception. Bitten by a vampire as a young maiden in the 19th Century, Victoria is reawakened to the modern world with a fervent hunger. Stevens radiates with unrestrained evil as she tears into old men and her old beau’s girlfriend with eye flashing vengeance. A particularly groundbreaking scene features Stevens’ Victoria feeding on a child whom she has strung up, upside down, from a tree. A set piece constructed of skulls in the film’s final moments gives the eternally beautiful Stevens a haunted resting place, as well.
While not as well versed in the antics of terror, Stevens’ Slumber Party co-star Debra DeLiso was the heroine of the ski slope slasher Iced (1988, written by and co-starring fellow SPM guest Johnson) and made a deliciously aggressive appearance on cult television show Sledge Hammer as an extremely athletic, revenge minded member of a satanic cult.
Portraying Angel on the 1987 “State of Sledge” episode (Season 1, Episode 14), DeLiso is an unrepentant, comic delight. Whether slinging around weights, jumping from air vents on top of the series’ regulars or maniacally leading the charge to rescue the cult’s leader played comedian Mark Blankfield (Jekyll and Hyde…Together Again, Dracula: Dead and Loving It), DeLiso is always an eye catching delight.
Be sure to catch up with Stevens, DeLiso (and Big Gay Horror Fan) at this weekend’s Cinema Wasteland!
Big Gay Horror Fan has NEVER dated a zombie. Don’t get me wrong. I’d hang with a zombie. It’s just that I’ve haven’t ever been asked on a date!
Miles and Todd, on the other hand, feel an immediate attraction in Michael Simon’s very fun 2007 short Gay Zombie. They might even be able to get past the fact that Miles is a zombie if it weren’t for the shocked patrons at Todd’s local watering hole and yoga classes. Of course, fate and a seemingly helpful psychiatrist (never trust authority, yo!) may have other plans for the two.
The talented Simon embraces the silliness of the situation at hand. But beneath the zombie makeovers and dick gags, he gets at something more serious. With a light touch, he ably addresses the extreme prejudices that the queer bar crowd have for all those outside of their Lady Gaga loving norm. He, also, nicely deals with the bittersweet fact that some relationships, no matter how desired, simply aren’t meant to be.
Fine performances from Brad Bilanin as Miles, Ryan Carlberg as Todd and Robin McDonald as the therapist make Gay Zombie a very pleasant, surprisingly thoughtful way to spend 20 minutes.
You can find more about Gay Zombie (including details on how to purchase it) at www.gayzombie.net.
“You’re just a kid, you know that? But, you’re a naughty little boy!” – Kristi to Kevin, “Out of the Dark“
The last time Big Gay Horror Fan played sports in the nude, he was 6 months old and playing kick ball in his momma’s tummy.
Thankfully, for appreciators of fine male flesh, handsome Cameron Dye (The Last Starfighter) shows just what he is made of while playing a game of one on one in 1988 slasher/police procedural Out of the Dark.
Dye with Mayo-Chandler
Centering around a group of phone sex worker/actresses who are being murdered by a psychotic clown, Out of the Dark can be recommended almost solely by its amazing cast. Filled with genre regulars like Karen Black(Trilogy of Terror, Burnt Offerings, House of 1000 Corpses), Karen Witter (Buried Alive, Popcorn, Midnight, The Vineyard), Starr Andreeff (Dance of the Damned, The Vampire Journals, The Terror Within, Amityville: Dollhouse) and Karen Mayo-Chandler (Stripped to Kill II, 976-Evil II, Hard to Die), OOTD, also, features cameo appearances from exploitation regulars/faded Hollywood greats as Divine, Lainie Kaizan, Tab Hunter (whose bit as a surprised motorist is some of his best on camera footage) and Paul Bartel. Add character actors like Geoffrey Lewis, Bud Cort (Harold and Maude), Silvana Gilardo and Tracy Walter into the mix and you have a low budget cinephile’s paradise!
Here, Dye plays Kevin Silver, a photographer with access to all the victims, as his girlfriend, Kristi (perky Lynn Danielson), works with them. As police investigators examine the consistently half-naked Silver’s muddied past, he and Kristi decide to unwind with a game of basketball. Kristi has other ideas, though. As Kevin/Dye goes to take the first shot, she pulls down his shorts giving the audience a nice view of his svelte globes o’ loving! Later as things continue to escalate, the two seek further solace in a passionate romp in a sleazy hotel, offering us a nice side view of Dye’s healthy assets, as well.
Dye and Danielson.
Of course, this being a (slightly predictable)exploitation gem, even though Kevin/Dye often shows us, here, that he has nothing to hide – the film’s final scene just may reveal he has more circus mayhem in his blood than previously thought.
Proving that male beauty translates well in any language, here is a French trailer for Out of the Dark featuring many of this film’s highlights:
Be sure to check back, often, as Big Gay Horror Fan (https://www.facebook.com/BigGayHorrorFan) frequently exposes (the all too infrequent) male nudity in horror films!
Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!
As Big Gay Horror Fan and his pink posse (Apocalyptic Kitten, Deadly Johnson) troll the cobweb strewn, cobblestone streets of our remote Transylvanian village, there is only one thing that we’ve discovered – we’re getting older!
Unfortunately, Vassili, the aging hustler at the center of Gael Morel’s recent French language thriller Our Paradise, is experiencing the same thing. While still virile and handsome, Vassili is finding that his kinky Parisian clients are gradually looking for thrills among the younger set. After one such encounter, filled with unconscionable violence, Vassili happens upon a beaten youth, an assumed victim of cruising warfare. When the mysterious young man will not reveal his past or true age, Vassili christens him Angelo. Soon, the two find themselves drawn into a torrid affair and they become partners in crime. Vassili can’t control his rage, though, and soon the duo, now desperately in love, are on the run. While dreaming of a perfect haven, the two visit Anna, an old friend of Vassili’s. Drawn to Anna’s young son, the couple’s dream of a fairytale life is threatened, once again, by Vassili’s anger (toward his older upper crust clients) and Angelo’s ultimate compliance.
Morel works with distinct beauty, here, creating a nightmare landscape of often haunting sexuality. Much like Badlands (in which Sissy Spacek falls in with Martin Sheen’s charismatic murderer), Stephane Rideau brings much sensitivity to his brutish Vassili. The tenderness he shows toward Dimitri Durdaine’s Angelo, draws you into his world despite his repellant qualities. Durdaine, meanwhile, is a brilliantly smooth cipher, causing Rideau both joy and sorrow. Morel seems to reason that youthful energy is a golden factor, yet a severe case of the Peter Pan Syndrome can have tragic overtones, as well.
You can watch the trailer for Our Paradise, which also features an elusive appearance from frequent European horror vixen Beatrice Dalle (Inside, Trouble Every Day, Betty Blue), here:
Big Gay Horror Fan always seems to be chasing his tail. Yep, those same old self doubts and insecurities consistently seem to be getting him down.
Thankfully, St. Louis, Missouri’s most creative team, Randy Hall and Jason Klefisch, have a better idea. They are Chasing Monsters instead.
As Chasing Monsters Productions, this dynamic duo is currently in the midst of developing a five part series.
Part 1: Teddy
Already available are the apocalyptically awesome Part 1: Teddy and the tense, claustrophobic Part II: Garage.
Teddy features a moody, almost wordless discourse on how the end of the world can affect a child’s favorite toy. Garage, meanwhile, proves that summer camps are not the only place where the sex = death motif can rule.
Be sure to keep up with the inventive Hall and Klefisch and their further cinematic journeys at:
As pink studded buildings collapse and the twisted spirals of despair clutch at his nightmare ridden feet, Big Gay Horror Fan reaches out, desperately, and always the ebony Rapunzel-like hair of stage goddess Patricia Morison comes floating past. Clutching at it, he is once again, pulled from his hideous dreams, waking up to a new morning.
Regal to the point of otherworldliness and always exquisitely beautiful, exotic Patricia Morison gained eternal fame as Cole Porter’s muse for his classic 1948 musical Kiss Me Kate. For many, this artistic opportunity saved her from appearances in a variety of low budget Hollywood programmers. But, for cinematic fetishists in the know, these cheap wonders always highlighted Morison’s eclectic grace.
In 1943’s Calling Dr. Death, Morison radiates with concern as Stella Madden, Dr. Mark Steel’s (Lon Chaney, Jr.) prized assistant. But Morison always allows a tone of mystery to pervade her actions – a grand move as Stella soon appears to know more about the death of Steel’s wife than she is letting on. Indeed, during a nightmarish sequence Morison finds herself running between shadowy, toppling set pieces in a brilliantly conceived dance of guilt. The presence of Chaney and J. Carrol Naish (The Monster Maker, House of Frankenstein) along with the moody direction of Reginald Le Borg (The Mummy’s Ghost, Weird Woman) makes this among Morison’s more fright based efforts. But, the dedicated Morison always gave up the exploitation gold in a number of other genre projects, as well.
As Mrs. Hilda Courtney in the 1946 Sherlock Holmes adventure Dressed to Kill, Morison truly gives distinguished Basil Rathbone (Tales of Terror, Queen of Blood, The Black Cat, The Mad Doctor, Tower of London) a run for his money. She excels at sophisticated villainy here, but she is obviously having the most fun when duplicitously disguised as a homely working class matron. But whether grand or downtrodden, Morison shows all her fabulous colors here making one marvel at the fact that the studio system never figured out a grand scheme for her.
In 1947’s Queen of the Amazons, Morison shows much spunk and zeal as Jean Preston. Determined to find her missing fiancé in the wilds of the jungle, Morison sparks immediately with Robert Lowery as experienced guide, Gary Lambert. The two are destined for romance in the Hepburn-Tracy variety, but only after it is discovered that Preston’s fiancé has fallen in love with the vicious and vengeful Zita, the queen of the jungle. Morison’s gritty elegance here is in direct contrast to the extremely awkward (thus thoroughly enjoyable) performance of Amira Moustafa as Zita.
Be sure to check back often as Big Gay Horror Fan (https://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan ) frequently exposes the wondrous exploitation foibles of the most glorious femmes of entertainment.
Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!
Every since he was expelled from Mother Superior’s Dungeon of Heathen Delights, Big Gay Horror Fan has been short on inspiration.
Thankfully, televison writer Ed Waters and skilled director Peter Carter (whom also helmed the 1977 backwoods horror and Hal Holbrook starrer Rituals) had plenty of guidance from 1979’s Alien when creating 1981 television film The Intruder Within. Interestingly, this tale of an oil rig crew facing down a toothy, skeletal creature, also, has many elements of John Carpenter’s The Thing remake (a stranded group of blue collar workers being possessed by an unknown creature) which wasn’t released until 1982.
Being a television flick there isn’t a ton of grue, here, and the explanation of the creature’s origins is never quite clear (something about man’s primitive ape form being trapped beneath the sea centuries ago) – but Carter truly has a way with the character actors who decorate this piece. Their grizzled charm along with the crude animatronics and monster suits employed give this enterprise a fun, retro charm of it’s own.
As the head of the rig, television maverick Chad Everett gives this damp and mouthy outing his all. Tears well up in his eyes when contemplating the fate of a female member of the crew, impregnated by the beast. His eulogy for the young man played by Matt Craven (who would face an even nastier demise as ‘shishkebob’ Steve in Happy Birthday to Me the next year) is, also, filled with heart and sorrow, yet Everett is always believable as a man capable of taking on a foreign beast.
Meanwhile, television regular Jennifer Warren brings strength and sass as Everett’s capable partner in crime. Tragically, co-star James Hayden whom plays Harry, the infected crew member who causes the most damage, died not long after making this drilling gem from a heroin overdose. An acolyte of Al Pacino, Hayden was an accomplished stage actor with a bright future. He had just completed a role in Once Upon A Time in America and Pacino (with whom Hayden appeared, in ultimately cut scenes, in notorious gay thriller Cruising) was reportedly devastated by this loss.
Balancing out future tragedy, though, this piece is rife with silly moments. The funniest just may be when the creature emerges fully grown from the above mentioned victim (portrayed with quiet strength by Lynda Mason Green who would go on to headline the War of the Worlds television series)not with blood ripping wails and flesh torn mayhem, but as a gracefully rising spirit.
So, tip your hats to television censors and budget constraints and check out The Intruder Within trailer, below:
And until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!
Redundancy is usually a bad thing (Um – Bush, Jr. TWICE, anyone?!?), but occasionally it has its benefits.
Take Wes Ramsey (Brotherhood of Blood, Dracula’s Guest), for example. Ramsey became a gay favorite by showing off almost all of his dramatic skills in the 2003 party boy on Mormon lad odyssey Latter Days. (And you thought Trey Parker and Matt Stone were being original!) Thankfully, this delightful thespian returned to the flesh filled scene of the crime, four years later, by showing off those butt checks again in demented horror-thriller Dark Honeymoon (2007, released 2008). Here, Ramsey also proved he has something in common with the esteemed Janet Leigh. Yes, his shower, as the masculine, girl banging Jay does turn out particularly bad!
Dark Honeymoon’s best attribute (sideswiping Ramsey’s moon, of course) is the amazing variety of former A-Listers who appear, briefly, to get done in by Lindy Booth’s deliciously insane Kathryn. Yes, Eric Roberts, Tia Carrere and Daryl Hannah all encounter this religious lass’ wraith (or do they asks the malicious trick ending) while the amazing Roy Scheider presides over it all with a watchful eye!
You can dive into the ‘wildly original’ antics of Dark Honeymoon by watching this quick, behind the scenes peek at:
Meanwhile, check back often as Big Gay Horror Fan (https://facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan)balances out the exploitation scale by focusing on male nudity in horror with The Backside of Horror!
Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!
Big Gay Horror Fan 