Troll Terror 101: Godsend

Published March 22, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

Somewhere in my media strewn apartment, there is a DVD of Raging Bull. I’ve had it for years, with every intention to watch it, but…

Of course, you can bet I if stumble upon my copy of 2004’s Godsend, featuring Robert De Niro’s other greatly acclaimed modern performance (lol!), all bets are off. That sucker is going in the player!

Before you judge me, though, let’s consider something. At the beginning of the 21st Century, after years of often stellar projects, De Niro seemingly made a purposeful creative decision to begin branching out into his (highly enjoyable) Troll Terror years. He did this via taking roles in projects like (the above mentioned) Godsend, Hide and Seek (2005) and Red Lights (2012).

Naturally, he was no stranger to the genre, having made appearances in the noir-ishly violent Cape Fear (1991), Kenneth Branagh’s pompous, sweat-tastic take on Frankenstein (1994) and the psycho thriller The Fan (1996). But it was with the poorly received Godsend that I think many critics and fans began to question his choices a bit.

A Mary Shelley-style Bad Seed knock-off, this film found De Niro in (spoiler alert) mad scientist zone. Playing genetics expert Richard Wells, he initially reads as kindly and benevolent. But things take a turn after he helpfully clones the dead child of Paul (Greg Kinnear) and Jessie Duncan (Rebecca Romijn). Upon entering his grade school years, Adam (Cameron Bright) starts to exhibit severe personality disorders while also beginning to act out with deadly intent. After some investigating, the Duncan’s discover that Wells has also imbued their child with DNA from his own psychotic, deceased offspring.

Bleakly impossible, the project wound up with a 3% Rotten Tomatoes score. But Bright, who visited similar territory in the bizarre arthouse adventure Birth, is actually truly effective as the psychologically twisted, less than originally named Adam. De Niro also subtly portrays the deep shift in Wells, bringing a chilling honesty to the scenes where his evil plan is revealed.

The fact that Kinnear, who was nominated for an Oscar, and De Niro, an honoree with multiple acting statuettes, both found this project worthy also speaks to its effectiveness. Wouldn’t any parent do anything they could to resurrect their suddenly departed offspring? A parent himself, De Niro surely responded to that aspect of the script, making this good kid-gone bad enterprise a repeat watch for me…and, hopefully, plenty of others.

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

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Queer Horror: Rondo Contender

Published March 16, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

Blow those jagged, limb-shaped trumpets! Queer Horror: A Film Guide has been nominated for a Rondo Award for Book of the Year!

This is especially cool since we’ve been named alongside such excellent publications as I SPIT ON YOUR CELLULOID: The History of Women Directing Horror Films, by Heidi Honeycutt. This also feels like a congratulatory vindication for Sean Abley and Tyler Doupé , our brilliant editors, who, for almost 10 years, guided this book from various scattered entries into a polished volume celebrating all that is LGBTQIA in fright movies.

Naturally, I’ve attached the link to the ballot here:

http://www.rondoaward.com/rondoaward.com/blog/

You can copy and paste it and send it along in an email to taraco@aol.com, if you’d like to vote. You have the option of marking your picks in all of the categories — or simply limiting it the one or two that you are most aware of and/or most passionate about.

& if brevity is indeed your bag – I have to say that CATEGORY 11 is an incredibly interesting option.

Hint, hint, hint…

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

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Hopelessly Devoted To: Gwen Verdon

Published March 9, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

One-of-a-kind Broadway diva Gwen Verdon’s work was, primarily, centered around her graceful onstage antics. Thankfully for devoted fans everywhere, she occasionally engaged in performances of the celluloid variety as well.

Most importantly, genre-wise, she gave a sexy yet sorrowful performance in 1973’s Deadly Visitor, part of ABC’s very popular The Wide World of Mystery film series. Based on a story by Fitz James O’Brien, a 19th Century fantasy author from Ireland, this particular episode focused on a young writer named Jamie (Perry King) who discovers that his room at a boarding house is haunted by a mysterious presence.

As Mrs. Moffat, the landlady of the specter ridden establishment, Verdon smartly uses her considerable training to sensitively illustrate the monologues she delivers to King’s Jamie. Widowed and lonely, she seduces the lad with a heartfelt need. Of course, when the driven & curious Jamie manages to capture and begins to experiment on the invisible entity, her character’s hysteria slowly builds. Like many a frightened heroine before her, Verdon excels in these moments of increasingly nervous activity, as well.

Interestingly, this teleplay was produced by Jacqueline Babbin, an entertainment juggernaut who gained fame for her work on All My Children. She is joined, behind the scenes, by another powerful woman, Lela Swift, who directs. Swift, who made a name for herself as one of the top directors of the original version of Dark Shadows, surely knows the atmosphere needed to make this story successful and several of the scenes here are truly chilling. In particular, Swift should be commended for the visceral moments where the audience can actually see the ropes, which are wrapped around the titular invisible creature, move up and down as it breathes.

Of course, fans of musicals probably aren’t too surprised by Verdon’s success here. As Lola in 1958’s Damn Yankees, she is the slippery incarnation of lustful evil. There, as the devil’s favored assistant, she tries to lead a troubled baseball player to the dark side forever.

Continuing this trend in the ’80s, but at a slight angle, she played a number of attention-stealing, nearly evil mothers in episodes of such shows as Fame and Hotel.

Of course, even though the theatrical lights dimmed, deeply, with her death at the age of 75 in 2000, she lives on in her excellent work, happily viewable with the simplest (yet incredibly effective) google search.

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

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GH’s Angel of Mercy

Published February 11, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

I am always down for mysterious killers and rampant cycles of death winding their way throughout the landscapes of my daytime dramas. Obviously, the parallels to the horror films that I love are heavily rooted in those storylines and those types of tales were what drew me to soaps in the first place.

Currently the deviously magnetic Cyrus on General Hospital, as enacted by ever versatile Emmy winner Jeff Kober, is playing angel of mercy in Port Charles by killing off prominent citizens with doses of heart attack causing digitalis.

First off, feisty private eye Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco), one of the show’s longest running heroines, met her end in the late fall of 2024. Dex Heller (Evan Hofer), the star crossed Romeo to teen queen Josslyn Jacks’ (Eden McCoy) Juliet, was the next to suffer an unexpected coronary.

The almost demise of Michael Corinthos (Chad Duell), another of the serial’s legacy characters, brought the fact that a killer was on the loose to light, though. Now, those suspicious of Cyrus are a veritable Rainbow Book Club.

This includes the program’s splintered (yet hopeful) gay couple, (often duplicitous) lab technician Brad (Parry Shen) and the upstanding Dr. Lucas Jones (Van Hansis.) Hospital administrator Portia (Brooke Kerr) is also on the case – even semi-teaming up with Brad, despite her misgivings, hoping to pave the way for more vacancies on the morgue slabs, not less!

Now, even Josslyn, in classic final girl mode, is dancing ever closer to the fire, sniffing around Cyrus’ lodgings, looking for clues. Her escapades last week even brought her into contact with character actor David Ury.

Ury, best known for his roles in latter day Rob Zombie projects like 31, added a bit of exploitation sleaze to the proceedings. As a suspicious slumlord manager, he added a danger factor to the young girl’s escapades, signaling that, despite everyone’s concentrated efforts, more death and destruction might be on the way for the beloved residents of this fictional Midwest burg.

I, for one, couldn’t be more excited.

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Lillias White

Published January 28, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

She’s won acclaim for her legendary stage work, sung background for Madonna in that icon’s heyday and now, with her scintillating appearance on Grotesquerie, she’s finally entered Ryan Murphy’s stable of talented femmes. Naturally, I can only be writing of the divine Lillias White.

Since the beginning, with her portrayal of Dorothy on the original tour of The Wiz, White has been a force. Proof of this power came with a Tony Award for her performance in The Life and a resume filled with consistent hits has followed that prime acknowledgement in the many years since.

Her versatility is also impeachable. While Glorious McKall, her character in Murphy’s latest horror piece, is definitely of the gun blazingly criminally minded, her first solo recording Get Yourself Some Happy is all about joy, and the tunes featured include one of the songs that (our high priestess) Judy Garland brought to celluloid heights at her home studio, MGM.

More information on Lillias and her spectacularly upbeat recording can be found at http://www.lilliaswhite.com.

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

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Dagger Cast 2025

Published January 7, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

It was a creative homecoming this past December when I joined Jared, my former producer, and Lindsey, my former cohost, for a year end wrap up chat on Dagger Cast. (Images from former shows are above.)

Besides wondering why Diablo Cody has never gotten her due as a horror queen and injecting some weighted yet positive critical assessments of The Substance into the proceedings, as in days of old, we look at how society and our own lives (and fears) color our reactions to the genre that we love the best.

In that vein, I reveal that I most felt I was in the middle of some terror filled plotline while listening to testimonies of the victims of sex crimes of the Catholic Church in a court room this past fall.

The summations of these true and celluloid horrors can be viewed at:

TRIGGER WARNING, elements of child abuse are discussed within this conversation. ****If you or someone you know has been abused, help is available at the National Child Abuse Hotline 800-422-4453

Fetish Film Forum 2025

Published December 28, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

Sticky, submissive, manipulative and gay. If any of those words stimulate a modicum of vibratory satisfaction within your being, then the Midwest’s coolest movie series, now entering its third year, may be something that bears checking out.

Indeed, John McDevitt, the programmer for the Fetish Film Forum, just announced the titles for 2025 and it looks like this may be the best year for this flog ridden event yet. Based at Chicago’s iconic Leather Archives and Museum, the screenings throughout the year will include Knife and Heart, The Bitter Tears of Petra Van Kant, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, which I will be co-presenting, and From Beyond,

To check out the rest of the program and to purchase single tickets or series passes, visit the link, below:

2025 Fetish Film Forum

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Thelma Houston

Published December 8, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

After it illuminated countless dance floors in the mid-70s, the magnificent Thelma Houston may have felt that there was no way to go but down for her iconic disco anthem Don’t Leave Me This Way. Flash forward forty some years, though, and this jumpy lover’s plea found its way into horror nirvana.

Featured at a key moment in Netflix’s very popular Fear Street: Part Two – 1978, this song gained a new life while exposing Houston to many eager young viewers.

17 albums into her career, this was obviously not her first terror film connection. Her song Keep it Light was featured on the soundtrack to Into the Night, one of the films that John Landis directed, post An American Werewolf in London and Twilight Zone: The Movie.

Even more importantly, Houston seems to be a horror fan, herself. She and Bunny Hall, a friend, pulled off a perfect Baby Jane and Blanche Hudson a few Halloween seasons ago.

Frightening up a new sonic spectacle ever year or so, you can also follow her future exploits (while exploring facets of her long ranging career) at https://www.thelmahouston.com/.

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

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The Witching Hour: Joan Fontaine

Published November 23, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

One of my favorite anecdotes about Joan Fontaine, one of my cherished golden age of celluloid greats, involves an opinion given by her only sister and bitter rival, Olivia de Havilland. After Fontaine published a memoir called No Bed of Roses in 1978, de Havilland supposedly sniffed, “No Bed of Roses? More like No Shred of Truth!”

That assessment is perhaps not surprising, though. Years before, in her only Hammer Horror film, Fontaine certainly proved that being an unreliable narrator was one of her cinematic strengths. As the vulnerable Gwen Mayfield in 1966’s The Witches, this Academy Award winning performer is filled with a whispered hesitancy. Naturally, the slight skittering in her tone indicates the fear that Mayfield has of losing hold of her sanity, post-nervous breakdown.

Cunningly, this underlying dread is taken advantage of by a powerful familial branch in a small English town. Hired as the head mistress of the local school, Mayfield is actually being manipulated for their nefarious means. Of course, as is the game plan, no one believes her once she tries to reveal the truth and it is back to the rubber room for her.

Thankfully, as ever resilient heroines before her, Mayfield grows sharper as the runtime expands. As waves of black magic mist around her, she eventually stops all rituals and pert sacrifices – just in the nick of time.

Nicely, as a bookend to Fontaine’s compelling presence here, there is famed British actress Kay Walsh as bestselling author and possible nemesis Stephanie Bax. Understanding this type of potential antagonism well, Fontaine is at her best when these two distinguished femme thespians go throat-to-throat.

One hopes that even Olivia might have recognized the beautiful symmetry in that.

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

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Va-Va-Villainess: Carrick Glenn

Published November 9, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

Before she played quirkily luscious victims in a duo of slasher flicks of varying pedigrees, actress Carrick Glenn paid an interesting visit to psycho street.

In an effort to boost ratings, The Doctors, a once popular, long running soap opera, began to embrace natural disasters, mad science and unhinged divas in the late ’70s and early ’80s. To that effect, Glenn joined the show as a short-lived character with diminishing mental returns. As Laura Young, a disgraced nursing student, she spent the winter of 1980 terrorizing the program’s longstanding heroine Dr. Maggie Powers (Lydia Bruce). Kidnapping Powers after a tornado wreaked havoc onscreen, Young was determined to prove to the powerful medical administrator that her chops as a caregiver were as keen as her clear-cut fashion sense.

Thus, labored scenes of a perspiring Powers, growing ever nearer to death, pleading with a resolute and ever more delusional Young were a staple that long January. Once discovered by Powers’ concerned friends and family, Laura went the way of most sympathetic nut jobs – the psycho ward.

Glenn, herself, went onto to delight many a horror fan as Sally in The Burning and Kathy in Girls Nite Out. Girls Nite Out, of course, is an enjoyable romp, where Glenn energetically enacts a typical coed college casualty. The Burning, on the other hand, due to Tom Savini’s special effects and several interesting cinematic angles (including Brian Matthews’ Final Guy), has become something of a modern classic in the genre. Glenn also gives her character discrete depth. Torn between wanting to maintain her virtue while also finding herself intrigued by the thuggish Glazer (Larry Joshua) and his efforts to bed her, Glenn practically vibrates with lusty indecisiveness. Her interactions are always charmingly honest, adding real life layers to an exploitive extravaganza.

Girls, though, turned out to be Glenn’s last major credit. (A short film, according to IMDB, marked her last onscreen appearance) While I managed to track down a pre-The Doctors wedding announcement, surprisingly little other information is available about her online. That several of her major roles are readily available for consumption may be the one saving grace of that tiny mystery. *

*Glenn’s The Doctors episodes are available for viewing at It’s Real Good TV.

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

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