Music to Make Horror Movies By: Eartha Kitt

Published October 11, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

Gaia – for who else but a goddess could have claimed her?!? – named her properly. Eartha Kitt is everything – the sun, the moon…an eternal star! Whether seductively commanding Adam West on Batman or terrifying the title character in Earnest Scared Stupid as the vengefully eccentric Old Lady Hackmore, she completely controlled the screen. Similarly, as a vocalist she was at home with the beautiful standbys of the Great American Songbook, sexy novelty tunes…and even sexier novelty rock ‘n roll!

Unsurprisingly, Kitt, who left this mortal coil at the age of 81 in 2008, lives on as a beautiful planetary presence in our celluloid dreams and at https://earthakitt.com/.

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

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Unsung Heroines of Horror: Elaine Stritch

Published October 9, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

She put the BROAD in Broadway, carving out an extraordinary career for herself on the stage. But those blinded by the sheen of her Tony and Emmy wins (and her association with such theatrical legends as Noel Coward and Stephen Sondheim) may not be aware that the magnificent Elaine Stritch has a couple grizzly genre credits to her name.

Significantly, in a time when the world was still afraid of lesbians, Stritch bravely enacted the role of Sapphic minded club owner Marian Freeman in the 1965 psycho-stalker thriller Who Killed Teddy Bear? Interestingly, the presence of the openly gay Sal Mineo as the disturbed busboy that the story focuses upon adds another lavender component to this gritty look at obsession and murder. Granted, Marian’s advances on Juliet Prowse’s Norah, the film’s heroine, are unwanted, affording her preferences the stereotypical ring of the perverse. But Stritch fills the character with as much dignity as she is able to while simultaneously applying her noted and uniquely salty perspective to the mix.

10 years later, Stritch sarcastically zapped her way through the second theatrical remake of The Spiral Staircase, as well. While a mysterious killer hunts down Jacqueline Bissett’s plucky mute adventuress, Stritch’s world weary nurse tends to the needs of Mildred Dunnock’s uncooperative matriarch character. Gravitating to the movie’s theatrical set-up of a winding mansion on a dark and stormy night, she ultimately provides the necessary diva antics while still remaining true to the take no bullshit essence of her character.

With two appearances in the British genre anthology series Tales of the Unexpected, an arc on the murder-mystery based soap Edge of Night and the effective voicing of the grandmother in the animated favorite ParaNorman among her further credits, the truly singular Elaine Stritch definitely earned her place among the notoriously unsung heroines of horror before her passing at the age of 89 in 2014.

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

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Lesbians in Horror: Human Experiments

Published October 8, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

Human Experiments

Long before Angela Bettis’ quirky May, Buffy’s beloved Willow and even The Hunger’s sensuous Miriam Blaylock, there were lesbian characters in horror. As an example, acclaimed indie actress Wesley Marie Tackett tackled the role of Jimmy in the odd 1979 WIP-mad scientist terror offering Human Experiments. Despite the biases of the time, Tackett fully embraces all of Jimmy’s rough and often predatory edges.

But as much as one has to acknowledge Tackett’s courage and skill in bringing forth all of the antagonist nature of this perennial inmate, it is also important to make a historical note of how damaging characters like Jimmy were/are to societal understanding and acceptance of the LGBTQIA community as a whole. A woman who tries to terrorize another woman into acts of sex only highlights the perceived perversion of our culture. Thankfully, roles that demonize the gay community are further and farther between…but we still have such a long (and hopefully creatively bountiful) way to go.

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Nichelle Nichols

Published October 4, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

The physical materialization of an iconic figure, Nichelle Nichols will forever reign over all spatial frequencies with a Vogue cover coolness and a steely strength of purpose. Sacrificing her musical theater ambitions to continue giving the Black community a powerful presence on ’60s network television via her work on the original Star Trek television series, she eventually made it to the recording studios, giving some standards (and an original or two) a sassy makeover.

Thankfully for horror fans, she also brought a commanding energy to the ‘80s offering The Supernaturals, as well. As Sgt. Leona Hawkins, Nichols mixes toughness with compassion – traits that are especially useful when a group of undead confederate soldiers begin to pick off her charges. Why don’t you do right, indeed!!!

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

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Brian Dorton’s Truly, Madly

Published September 19, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

When I was a pre-teen, my mother and I looked like we were exactly the same age. Other high schoolers would avoid us in movie theaters, sitting rows away, muttering to their friends that they wanted to watch the movie in peace. Their idea of fun wasn’t witnessing two kids holding hands and making out the entire time, fer christ’s sake! My mom, of course, ate this assumption up. I, quite understandably, was revolted. I would beg her to set the record straight. “Tell them we’re not boyfriend and girlfriend, mom,” I’d whisper as loudly as I could. But she would smile softly to herself and say, “Oh, I couldn’t possibly do that, Brian. It’s really not a big deal. Let them think what they want.”

Years later, this type of closer than close genetics goes the extra (psychotic) mile in Brian Dorton’s truly fun looking horror-thriller Truly, Madly. Here, a widow seems to take an especially violent approach to her child’s burgeoning homosexuality.

With a Blu-ray release scheduled for 2021, all eager fans of LGBTQIA influenced genre films can keep up-to-date with this project’s bloodily familial progress at: https://www.facebook.com/trulymadly2019.

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Guitar Wolf

Published September 13, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

As the heroes of the trans-positive rock ‘n roll zombie epic Wild Zero, Guitar Wolf should have a special place in the hearts of LGBTQIA terror freaks.

As hypnotically cool live performers, they should definitely appeal to lovers of music, worldwide, as well.

http://www.guitarwolf.net

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

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When Sex was A Horror: Letter from an Unknown Woman

Published September 12, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

The Hays Code assured that no fictional sinners went unpunished in imaginary celluloid universes for decades. This prehistoric advisory measure was especially devoted to making sure that anyone who dared to have sex onscreen paid an unforgettably epic price.

Thus, Joan Fontaine and Louis Jourdan suffer grandly in 1948’s opulent Letter from an Unknown Woman. After being abandoned by Jourdan’s Stefan Brand, a famous piano playing cad, after one night of bosom heaving passion, Fontaine’s adoring Lisa Berndle faces down single motherhood, a loveless marriage and typhus. Brand, meanwhile, finds his career drifting away due to his excessive debauchery and finishes out this scenario facing the wraith of an angered nobleman’s dueling pistol.

Almost gothic in its sumptuousness, this tale is further highlighted by Fontaine’s theatrics, especially as she enacts Lisa’s childhood curiosity in the film’s first act, and by Jourdan’s almost aching early career handsomeness.

The Genre Boudoir:

Jourdain added continental flair to 1977’s Count Dracula, 1982’s Swamp Thing and its 1989 follow-up, The Return of the Swamp Thing. Fontaine, famously did award winning work with Hitchcock in such dark melodramas as Rebecca and Suspicion. She later brought an appropriately grandiose hysteria to Hammer Film’s 1966 small town cult epic The Witches.

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Scott Free

Published September 6, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

On the rare moments when one is able twist a thought or two away from the many social disasters that are plaguing us, it’s easy to remember that the world is actually populated with a ton of cool people. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you got to associate with one or two of them. LGBTQIA musician and activist Scott Free has been a longstanding voice for queer artists in Chicago, hosting a decades long performance showcase called Homolatte and being a very loud reminder to queer festival organizers that actually booking gay acts is a necessity for their events to be a true source of pride and awareness.

A few years ago, we spent a lot of time together working on a show called Zombie Bathhouse: A Rock Musical. To this day, friends still tell me how his lyrics for that project totally nailed aspects of their own lives, a true testament to his empathy and talent. His latest work, The Last Revolution, is a social call to arms that has deservedly gotten tons of praise and attention and, as with the majority of his work, really raises an eye on the tremulous circumstances that we are now facing as a nation.

Obviously, it almost goes without saying, that It’s truly been my honor to know Scott as a collaborator and friend and it’s truly my pleasure to welcome you to visit more of his fine output at http://www.scottfree.net/ and http://www.zombiebathhouse.net/.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Beach Reading with Mark McLaughlin

Published September 5, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

Considering that the COVID pandemic cancelled any official beach book reading this summer for most citizens of the world, you are hear-by invited to extend that seasonal literary occurrence indefinitely and in whatever setting that you most desire.

A good place to start, literature-wise, might be Human Doll: A Novel by Mark McLaughlin. Described as Myra Breckenridge meets horror novel, this one might appeal to Drag Race fans with its sharply satiric look at drag culture and plastic surgery.

More information on this book and others written by McLaughlin, a Bram Stoker Award winner, is available at https://www.facebook.com/HumanDollANovel/ and https://bmoviemonster.com/.

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Kurtis Mantronik

Published August 30, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

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At 6’6”, Kurtis Mantronik could certainly qualify, via physical stats alone, as one of the Kings of Hip-Hop and Dance music. But his supreme talents as a producer, DJ and writer, including a stint as the founder of the legendary Mantronix, place him fully in that category, as well.

The inclusion of his Big Band B-Boy on the Return of the Living Dead II soundtrack has also earned him a place in horror movie history, but this Jamaican-Arabian wonder is continually reinventing himself (as a lifetime honoree in the arts) at http://www.kurtismantronik.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/KurtisMantronixOfficial.

return-of-the-living-dead-part-ii

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

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