Music to Make Horror Movies By: Paul Jabara

Published January 4, 2026 by biggayhorrorfan

Joyful and energetic, Paul Jabara’s music helped define the mid-to-late ’70s. He co-created one of the greatest duets of all time, Enough is Enough, with Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand. His tracks with solo Summer, Last Dance, and solo Streisand, The Main Event, also lit up the dance floors, back when your grandparents were swinging into the wee hours with their navel bearing dress shirts and multi-towered heels.

Of course, the homosexuals among us will probably know him best for the iconic fruit-swirled track Its Raining Men. Sung by the irreplaceable Weather Girls, this tune has worked its way into the background of many a celluloid adventure, including the horror comedies Scary Movie and Vampires Suck.

Sadly, Jabara, who once had the herculean task of replacing Tim Curry as Frank-N-Furter in the Los Angeles production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, was one of the many queer creatives who lost his life to AIDS. His legacy will live on, though, via online play lists and the countless speakers that are still blaring his music from the streets of New York City to the rainforests of Borneo.

Review: Switch Killer

Published December 21, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

The editors of Queer Horror: A Film Guide had a herculean task and a couple reviews were accidentally double dipped. Two of us involved with the project covered 2005’s controversial Switch Killer. Here’s my (previously unpublished) take:

Switch Killer (2005)

Writer: Mack Hail, Jim Mills

Director: Mack Hail

Cast: Cara Jo Basso, Bishop Mann, Monique Chachere, Alix Agar, Susan Blonsky

Escaping her abusive fiancée by becoming a stripper in Las Vegas seems the perfect solution for Jamie (Basso) at first. Not only is the money good, but she has moved in with her ailing grandmother (Blonsky), who offers familial support. She has also begun a seemingly healthy relationship with Brooke (Chachere), a fellow performer. But unbeknownst to her, Brooke has been sleeping with other women from the get-go. Even worse, Bobby (Mann) her nasty ex, has taken his efforts to make some improvements in his life to a whole new level. After undergoing a sex change in order to win back Jamie’s heart, s/he tracks her down and begins slaughtering anyone that s/he perceives as a threat to their future happiness.

In a film conceived purely to titillate, director-writer Hail pulls out the stops with plenty of nudity, girl on girl action and bloodshed. From the film’s original title (Transamerican Killer) to scenes in which women are slaughtered while giving lap dances and one gentleman is murdered in bed while in the process of de-virginizing the recently transitioned Bobby, this piece of cavity causing celluloid is completely politically incorrect. Exploitation fans who enjoy the genre for its go for broke, juvenile hijinks will find much to admire here. Feminists of all varieties and members of the transgender community meanwhile are sure to be universally disturbed.

Granted, Switch Killer probably wouldn’t be given a distribution deal now, some 15 years after its genesis. It’s just too thoughtless. One truly hopes we now live in age when filmmakers can embrace outrageousness in celluloid without insulting marginalized communities – particularly ones who are more likely to be the victims of violence as opposed to being the perpetrators of it. – BK

Looking for something to do with all that extra holiday cash, by the way? I’ve heard that Queer Horror: A Film Guide looks great on every bookcase – no matter the size of the shelf!

http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/product/queer-horror/

The Backside of Horror: I Know What You Did Last Summer

Published November 30, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

The bathroom mash-up between Ava (Chase Sui Wonders) and Tyler (Gabbriette Bechtel) at the beginning of the flash forward portion of the recent I Know What You Did Last Summer sent me for a loop. I, like so many of us, am overwhelmingly trained to indulge in the straight narrative in film. Thus, I took it for granted that Ava was bound for a reunion with Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), her former sweetheart who had been introduced in the film’s starting moments.

It took me a moment to reorient my thinking and come to the conclusion that Ava was either fluid or bisexual, while simultaneously realizing that this particular series is one of the most diverse and inclusive slasher empires to ever exist.

That the current sequel was helmed and co-written by a powerful woman, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, probably has something to do with this incredibly welcoming spectrum.

Indeed, the 2021 IKWYDLS series, also created by another woman, Sara Goodman, began this creative product’s veer towards LGBTQIA friendliness. Besides Sebastian Amurusa’s gay best friend Johnny, the cast of characters there also included the very bisexual Alison/Lennon (Madison Iseman) and Margot (Brianne Tju).

While Iseman and Tju shared a true chemistry and several hot, intimate encounters, Iseman’s character also shared a passionate moment with Ezekiel Goodman’s Dylan. Dylan, who ultimately proved himself to be as emotionally chaotic and potentially dangerous as the rest of the participants in this take, very nakedly shared real feelings for Alison/Lennon.

In keeping with this vulnerability, Goodman’s buttocks ridden exposure here truly seemed to match the bared emotions of the person he was portraying. Socially, his brave mechanics also provided a little masculine exposure in a genre that often capitalizes on female flesh, adding a nice sense of celluloid equilibrium, as well.

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

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Flashback Interview: Debbie Gibson

Published November 8, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

Often as a journalist, particularly with online pieces, you discover that your writing has been archived or has vanished completely. Thus, I thought it might be fun to, occasionally, revisit some of my favorite work that was done for other publications. The below interview with the iconic Debbie Gibson was conducted for the Horror Society site in 2009. As the fall of 2025 saw the release of her truly inspiring memoir Eternally Electric, now seems the perfect time to revisit this sparkly blast from the past. First released in conjunction with this maverick singer-songwriter’s leading role in the initial Mega Shark film for the Asylum/Sy Fy Network, it is a joy to discover how present and exciting this quick interview still seems.

There are probably few people as unique as Debbie Gibson. As a teen, she wrote, composed and produced a wide range of top charting, unforgettable pop hits. Then refusing to accept the teeny bopping princess pigeonhole of a one faced music industry, Gibson slowly began to conquer the theatrical stage with a series of compelling appearances in popular Broadway shows and touring companies. Now, combining all of the above activities with her social activism (with particular concern given toward the security of female youth) and movie appearances (including roles in the horror-comedy Soulkeeper and in the deliriously fun sci-fi scare epic Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus), Gibson is entering a new era of entertaining with a renewed enthusiasm and a grand sense of humor. Thankfully, Gibson recently took time out of her busy schedule to answer some electric questions for Horror Society. Rest assured that once you’re through reading, it is bloody well guaranteed that just like everyone else who encounters her, you’ll never be able to shake your love for the grand and ever eclectic Debbie Gibson!

Brian: Who were your first performance influences – Barbra Streisand commanding that there be no rain – David Bowie showing off his blue jeans – A trumpet playing, tap dancing aunt?

Debbie: Babs for sure! Hello gorgeous!

Brian: Back at you! LOL! -One of the things that I am really curious about deals with performance. As an actress do you approach a song the same way as you do a role – i.e. create a character – or do different things apply due to the circumstance-at-hand?

Debbie: Great question! Sometimes I’m naturally going through something in my life that applies and emotions just flow. Other times, I get into character. It’s easier when I’m performing a theater role I’ve done 8 times a week because it’s like sense memory – I hear the intro and I’m back in the character’s shoes so to speak!

Brian: Naturally! – Having conquered so many different show business avenues, is there a type of character that you prefer to play – the waif, the strong determined ingénue, the woman of the world who can ultimately save the world from fang-hungry disaster?

Debbie: My fave was Sally in Cabaret! I love her for her bravery and for the fact that she is totally unapologetic. She is who she is and has no edit button, no filter. The common thread between all characters I love to play is spirit and spunk. Everyone from Belle to Éponine to Rizzo to Velma had sassiness!

Brian: Very true. – What has surprised you as being relatively easy to achieve in your career and what was something that took you aback because it was much more difficult than anticipated?

Debbie: The “transition” into theater came naturally to me. It wasn’t “easy” but, it was effortless in the sense that it was a part of my history. What I didn’t anticipate as being difficult is the politics of the music biz. For instance, after “Summertime”, New Kids had no radio hits off their current album. And, there are 4 other smashes on it…..but, radio play can be next to impossible. This has always surprised me – that the music being great is not always why a song gets played. And, the flip side – there’s plenty of mediocre music on the radio!

Brian: Don’t we know it! – Now onto the horror! When performing in Soulkeeper did you find yourself longing to branch out and play one of the nasty beasties as opposed to just playing yourself? Or did your enjoyably humorous take on yourself qualify as fun enough for you?

Debbie: That was fun enough! I love doing tongue in cheek kitschy stuff where I get to mock my own image!

Brian: You do have a great sense of humor! Having done several films, is there one on-set experience that stands out in your mind as being unique and special?

Debbie: Working with Dom DeLuise in what was once called Wedding Band. He was genius.

Brian: Love him! He was so funny in Haunted Honeymoon! – How did you approach your role in Mega Shark? Did you spend a lot of time trying to get under the skin of your character or did you just decide to go for a very natural and honest approach without a lot of background work. (Both very legitimate options.)

Debbie: There was no time for background work! I got less than a week’s notice so; I just put tongue firmly in cheek and had fun!

Brian: Well, I think you did a great job! – What was the most unusual and/or enjoyable part of your time on the Mega Shark set?

Debbie: Working without ever seeing so much as a picture of the shark! Just reacting to nothing!

Brian: That’s definitely a tough one! – Now, do you find any fears you might have had of colossal bridge chomping beasts has been eased after your Mega Shark experience. Also, due to the tremendous interest in the film, do you think you would return for a sequel or for a similar project?

Debbie: I’m now afraid more than ever to swim in the ocean! What if there’s a giant lobster? Seahorse? Speaking of…..I do hope there’s a sequel! Maybe I’ll go method this time and do some submarine training so I don’t look like I’m playing a video game when my hands are at the controls!

Brian: Debbie, thanks again! It’s been a thrill!

Gibson, of course, went on to appear in two other nature-wild extravaganzas – Mega Python Vs, Gatoroid (with Tiffany) and Mega Shark Vs. Mecha Shark. One of the early chapters of Eternally Electric also confirmed that she portrayed the birthday girl during one of Rick Moranis’ slapstick-charged scenes in the original Ghostbusters film. If she already wasn’t a legend…

http://www.debbiegibsonofficial.com

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Review: Babysitters Vs. Vamps

Published October 31, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

John Carpenter may have made babysitters fighting evil a classic horror trope with 1978’s Halloween, but young women have been banding together to confront monstrosities & other forms of injustice long before Michael Meyers was seared into our consciousness. Whether it was Irene Dunne & Jill Esmond trying to figure out who was targeting Thirteen Women in 1932 or Lee Remick & Stephanie Powers facing down a criminal mastermind in 1962’s Experiment in Terror, female empowerment in exploitation has been an entertaining must-have.

Nicely, in Babysitters Vs. Vamps, gay indie horror director-writer Brian Dorton focuses his tale around Lana (Scarlett Freeman) and Michelle (Cameron Dorton), two longtime best friends, who find themselves trying to outwit a body chopping cult in a small Southern town. Utilizing a quick running time and a sharp sense of humor, Dorton seemingly utilizes mostly local talent to create a fun and gory, feministic story here. Although nothing truly overt occurs, the gruesome gang at the center of the action is also decidedly bisexual, an important & diverse touch.

Documentary-style interviews, meanwhile, set the background. It seems something deadly has been brewing for years in this providence, with rumors swirling about a possible vampire cult. Unsurprisingly, it is one of the girls’ potential dates, an amorous young man, who leads Seth (Dorton) and his vicious crew to the house where the girls are ensconced for the weekend, watching over a newborn. Soon a nosy neighbor (Heather Harlow) and a potential hook-up are in Seth’s sights, with Lana and Michelle being prepped for his final course.

Highlighted by some impressive splatter and gallons of spewing blood, Dorton brings a quiet menace to Seth, acting-wise, while Harlow, a blossoming indie horror queen, brings the surest sense of timing to the obnoxious antics of her overbearing Deena, making her performance a standout.

As with many micro-budget productions, audiences need to have a forgiving spirit with certain aspects, production-wise. It also may strike some as odd that the titular creatures share little of the expected bloodsucking attributes of their more famous kin, ultimately coming off as more Manson like than supernatural.

Still, this is a solid example of the independent grit and artistic tenacity that it takes to make something fun and juicily violent out of very, very little.

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

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Second Look: The Eye

Published October 25, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

Almost inoffensively middle-of-the-road, The Eye, one of the countless remakes of popular Asian horror films that began to saturate the American celluloid landscape at the beginning of the 21st century, definitely has more to offer than its low critical rating & Razzie nomination might suggest.

Centering around the nightmarish results of a corneal transplant given to a blind musician played by Jessica Alba, the film contains one truly great visual twist at it’s midpoint. Locked as we are in the assault of Trump’s prejudiced America, the story’s residual look at how women of color are treated, especially when they are saddled with a further sense of otherness, is surprisingly resonant, as well.

Alba, whose performance was widely mocked, is also much better here than might be anticipated. Visually lush in presence, she was seemingly made for the silver screen. But she also took this assignment seriously, studying for months with sight impaired adults. Thus, she gives her Sydney Wells a quiet legitimacy.

She is anchored, cast-wise, by a young and bright Chloë Grace Moretz as a cancer-stricken youth. Parker Posey, meanwhile, as Sydney’s sister isn’t given much to do besides act protective, but she definitely adds glamour and pedigree to her all too brief scenes. Total Recall‘s Rachel Ticotin factors in, nicely, as well. Showing up, as other established talents like Betty Buckley and Faye Dunaway have done, in an explanatory cameo, she registers with professional pathos & helps lead the story to its bus burning climax.

DP Jeffrey Jur also adds some romanticism to the Pang Brothers’ original, fairly simple concept. With the determined nuance of a storyteller, he brings out all the rich fantasy inherent in Sydney’s career as a violinist in a major city.

These small touches may make this quiet reimagining a perfect rainy-day sleeper for those who like their horror with a gauzy, understated quality.

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

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Night Gallery Vamps: Diane Keaton

Published October 19, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

Sweetness and light sometimes mask untoward savagery. Thus, as a skilled purveyor of the harmless and quirky, the iconic Diane Keaton was the perfect choice to play a character with hidden layers.

While the prime example of this is probably her well thought out turn as the promiscuous schoolteacher in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, a wise producer took advantage of this celluloid anomaly earlier in her career, as well.

As the brisk and efficient Nurse Frances Nevins in A Room with a View, a first season episode of Night Gallery, Keaton initially is all soft eyes and the queen of modest answers for her prying, bedridden employer. But soon the crafty gent gets Nevins to admit to a history of jealousy and violent rages – especially when it concerns the hunky chauffeur who has promised to marry her. Knowing that his young and beautiful wife also has eyes for the man, the ailing codger sets up the unstable RN, allowing his darkest fantasies to come to life without even having to raise one finger.

Keaton’s effortless friendliness plays well here, naturally, but she wisely adds a studied steeliness to her characterization as Nevins admits to her less than wholesome reactions when under emotional stress. She is also perfectly paired opposite Angel Tompkins’ less than faithful bride. Tompkins, known for her work in such exploitation and horror films as The Bees, Alligator and The Naked Cage, equals Keaton here with a duality of agreeability and sin.

Assuredly, the horror environment was far from Keaton’s hallmark. But for fans of the genre, it is nice to know that she had one small credit in that field before her sad passing at the age of 79 in the fall of 2025.

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

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Nightmare 2 at Film Fetish Forum

Published October 16, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

This Saturday night, he’ll be inside us all!

For the third Halloween season in a row, I’ll be co-presenting movies with the amazing John McDevitt as part of the Film Fetish Forum at The Leather Archives and Museum in Chicago.

The selections this year, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 and From Beyond, couldn’t be gayer or kinkier and I’ll be sharing stories and curating a mini-A Nightmare 2 exhibit, featuring some of Mark Patton’s original artwork, as well.

Naturally, the theater at the Archive, filled with vintage gay erotica, is the perfect place to witness both films.

Further information is available below:

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 (1985) – Saturday, October 18 @ 7pm
Directed by Jack Sholder, USA, 87 mins
From Beyond (1986)
Directed by Stuart Gordon, Italy/USA, 86 mins
Co-Presented by Brian Kirst of Big Gay Horror Fan

TICKETING

Single Ticket: $10/General, or $8/LA&M Members & Students
Double Feature (Oct or Dec): $15/General, or $12/LA&M Members & Students
Season Pass: $100/General, or $80/LA&M Members & Students
Purchase your Single Tickets, Double Features, or Season Pass here
Must be 18 years of age or older.

Leather Archives & Museum, 6418 N Greenview Ave, Chicago, IL 60626

We hope to see every Midwest Krueger aficionado there!

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Horror, She Wrote: If the Frame Fits

Published October 14, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

As an episode filled with surprise twists, If The Frame Fits ended the second season of Murder, She Wrote on a bright spot.

For twelve seasons, as true fans often lovingly joke about, Angela Lansbury’s Jessica Fletcher had an endless supply of friends and relatives.

Here the action begins as she is coaching an old acquaintance, played by Norman Lloyd of Jaws of Satan (photo below), wherein Lucifer manifests himself into the body of a snake, with his mystery writing. Thankfully, the execrable task of analyzing his unpublishable scribblings is relieved when a crime is committed and Jessica is able to finally do what she does best – sleuth!

Norman Lloyd running from scaly hellspawn in Jaws of Satan

The list of suspects contains a bevy of television and film regulars. Chief among them is Deborah Adair’s Ellen Davis, an executive at a country club. Despite her professional appearance, Davis, Jessica eventually susses out, is having an affair with the victim’s husband. Her partner-in-cheating, Christopher Allport’s Donald Grainger also comes into range as he stood to inherit a huge life insurance policy upon his wife’s demise. John De Lancie’s quirky Binky. meanwhile, may have done it for the love of Ellen, whose feigned interest in him may have led him to a homicidal heart.

While the afore mentioned trio don’t have A Nightmare on Elm Street sequel or the like among their credits, they do have filmic fright alliances. Adair co-starred with television heartthrob Jack Scalia in The Rift (AKA Deadly Ascent– photo below), a water logged project about monstrous seaweed. Allport, meanwhile, memorably portrayed photog Freddy, who meets a grizzly end in the opening sequence of Gary Sherman’s Dead and Buried, a project that has developed a large cult following in the decades since its release. Lastly, De Lancie enacted the molesting Dr. Mott in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, one of the most popular thrillers of the early ’90s.

Perhaps most significantly, this entry in the ever popular detective show was helmed by Paul Lynch, a Canadian auteur whose credits include the original Prom Night (with Jamie Lee Curtis) and Humungous, a beast in the woods opus that ran perpetually on late night cable in the mid-80s. Which besides the lovely charms of the always affable Lansbury, might make this a real reason for fright fans to check this enjoyable early finale out.

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

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Halloween Retrospective: Innocent Blood

Published September 28, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

Like the divine Peggy Lee, who dominated the soundtrack of George Romero’s Monkey Shines, the iconic Frank Sinatra is given musical prominence in John Landis’ 1992 horror comedy Innocent Blood.

As the film revolves around a Mafioso powerhouse turned throat ripping vampire in the Little Italy neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Sinatra’s involvement was perhaps inevitable. Cannily, though, the producers include two numbers, That Old Black Magic & I’ve Got You Under My Skin, that echo, in fun and subtle ways, the supernatural mayhem that unfolds throughout this terror-stained romp. Thus, almost like the interludes used decades later in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, the tunes here add to the sense of fun and give viewers a nice feeling for the film’s time and place.

Unfortunately, upon it’s release, the project received middling reviews and even poorer box office results. While not perfect due to some odd pacing issues, there are still some amazing set pieces here, including ones stained by some mighty Steve Johnson effects.

Littered with cameos by the likes of Johnson and his then wife Linnea Quigley, who looks absolutely stunning in her brief sequence as a very surprised nurse, this project may ultimately be best known for hosting a cast of pre-The Sopranos regulars and for the joyous ways that character actor Robert Loggia and comedian Don Rickles rip into their characters, a duo of monstrous personalities turned literally monstrous by lead Anne Parillaud’s very Euro-like bite.

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

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