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Review: Slay Belles

Published April 16, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

Slay Belles

I would gladly attend a viewing party hosted by WI filmmaker Joe Trione, but any other kind of festivity… well…I would just have to, respectfully, decline. For Trione’s latest micro-budget epic Slay Belles, a ridiculously fun ‘80s slasher homage, takes place at a Christmas celebration…and almost no one comes out of it breathing!

Utilizing a script by James Wirth and a bevy of his drag performer friends, Trione shows his obvious love for the horror genre, old Joan Crawford melodramas, highlighted by Dear Ruthie’s fabulous appearance as a society mother, and queer nightlife culture here. Plot wise, as expected, a masked killer has escaped and everyone at Janelle’s (a delightfully buoyant Jaymes Mansfield) annual holiday charity event soon finds themselves in all sorts of bloody disarray. As the bodies pile up and those blatant red herrings begin to play strip poker, it is up to the heroine of the piece, played with sassy resolve by Dora Diamond, to get to the bottom of the mass slayings.

Quick paced, unabashedly revenant in its outrageousness and even filled with some tattooed eye candy in the form of Dylan Cherek’s festive decorator, this jolly enterprise will be making its debut on May 7th in Milwaukee, WI – https://www.facebook.com/events/1074214285934853/. The film will also be shown at Milwaukee Pridefest:  http://pridefest.com/2016/04/10/stonewall-screening-of-slay-belles-june-11/.

So, until the next time, hum a little holiday tune…and SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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In Appreciation of Sharon Stone

Published April 15, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

Sharon Stone

Horror fans will always remember her as the luminously supportive Lana Marcus whose encounter with a spider was one of the most memorable parts of Wes Craven’s Deadly Blessing, one wild ride of a horror film. (For those who have not seen this combination of slasher, sexually ambiguous surprise and demonic Mennonite-style horror – get to watching!) But more importantly, the multi-faceted Sharon Stone has always been a warrior for the gay community, raising countless funds for AIDS organizations and being a much visible beacon of support for years now.

Thus, it was not surprising that Stone has recently halted plans to film a project in Mississippi, one of several states that have recently activated religious freedom laws that cause grievous discrimination to the GLBT community. Granted, threatened boycotts by artistic entities hastened the reversal of such a law in Georgia, recently, and performers like Bruce Springsteen and Ringo Starr have cancelled events in North Carolina, another hotbed for queer hatred.

But, roles in such projects as Scissors, Calendar Girl Murders, Sphere, Total Recall, Catwoman (and so many other delicious thriller and science fiction cult classics) along with her vibrant activist history truly make Stone one of our own and worthy of special praise and generous thanks!

So…Thank you, Ms. Stone!!! I guess an araneae in the mouth equals grand compassion!

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Killer Fish/Amii Stewart

Published April 11, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

amii

1979’s Killer Fish was part heist flick, part disaster epic and part nature gone wild horror flick. Perhaps fortunately, The Winner Takes it All, the film’s end credit theme song, performed by the glorious Amii Stewart, is all disco, though.

 

 

Stewart, best known for her outrageous costumes (as witnessed above) and a popular (late ’70s) cover of ‘60s hit Knock on Wood, has also released an album featuring composer Ennio Morricone’s best known songs, which should further endear her to Euro exploitation buffs.killer fish

The gloriously bad Killer Fish, meanwhile, was recently released on Blu-Ray by ITV Studios and Scorpion Releasing after years of VHS obscurity.

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

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Kassie DePaiva: Evil Dead II Favorite Scores Emmy Nomination!

Published April 8, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan
Kassie1

DaPaiva delivered on a recent Castle episode, as well!

 

What could be better than a hurtling eyeball in the mouth? Well, probably not much. But Kassie DePaiva, whose spunky Bobby Joe in the seminal Evil Dead II suffered such a fate, has just been nominated for a Daytime Emmy for her work as the tragedy strewn Eve on Days of Our Lives. I imagine that honor has to rank pretty high up there, as well!

Indeed, DePaiva, whose other terror credits include 2013’s We Are What We Are, imbued all her storylines from her year and a half run on the show with an honest emotionality and sharp sense of the dramatic. Thus, this industry recognized honor is much deserved.

Nicely, the gorgeous True O’Brien, whom played Eve’s sensitive daughter Paige, was also nominated for her work, as well, in the Younger Actress category. Indeed, the fallout from the reveal of Eve’s affair with Paige’s boyfriend during the spring of 2015 was some of the best entertainment that the 50 year old soap had offered in awhile and kept ardent viewers glued to their television screens.

 

This year’s Daytime Emmy’s will occur on Sunday, May 1st. Here’s hoping that DePaiva and O’Brien take home the gold!

Be sure to check out http://www.kassiedepaiva.com and https://www.facebook.com/kassie.depaiva, as well.

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Pier Angeli

Published April 3, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan
pier folds

Folds: Pier wigs out!

 

Perhaps best known to celebrity connoisseurs as the tragic love of the rebellious James Dean, the beautiful Pier Angeli (1932-1971) had a respectable if unremarkable career in Hollywood during the 50s and 60s. Cult film lovers, of course, adore her for two of her latter day projects.

In fact, Octaman, in which she plays researcher Susan Lowry, has to one of the most amateur, and therefore memorable, eco-monster horrors ever produced while In the Folds of the Flesh, with its overtones of incest, Nazi exploitation and delusional double crossing, is one of the more bizarre and sleazier Euro terrors to emerge in the early 70s.

While Angeli attacks her sensual and murderous Falesse/Ester in Folds with calculated authority, she brought a much more sophisticated sexuality to many of the tunes on her 1959 recording Italia con Pier Angeli. Her take on Luna Rossa is a prime example.

The talented Angeli, who died at 39 of an overdose, has been memorialized, nicely, at http://www.annamariapierangeli.com.

pier octaman

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

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Sharkbait Retro Village: Satan’s Triangle

Published April 1, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

ST3

1975 television terror film Satan’s Triangle proves that not only is the devil a lady…but s/he is just about anything else s/he wants to be, as well.

Receiving a distress signal, the Coast Guard sets out to rescue an adrift boat, which just happens to be floating in The Bermuda Triangle. Due to the awful weather, rescuer Haig (Doug McClure) is forced to spend the night on the boat with the vessel’s sole survivor, Eva (Kim Novak), who, as luck would have it, is a stunningly beautiful prostitute.

As Eva describes the mysterious deaths of her fellow passengers, Haig comes up with logical explanations for their demises. A grateful Eva beds him, but when Haig’s associate arrives the next morning to retrieve them, it soon seems that Eva is not quite what she appears to be. ST2

While the film’s double twist endings surely would have warped the minds of any young viewers watching back in the day, director Sutton Roley also supplies some nice, dreamlike visuals here. Nicely,  Novak uses her feline eyes and the huskier growls in her vocal register to create moments of truly odd creepiness, as well.

A solid squad of grizzled character actors, including Jim Davis, Michael Conrad and Ed Lauter, add to the atmosphere nicely and the bizarre concept of Lucifer being responsible for the many disappearances in this fabled area, ultimately, allows Satan’s Triangle to fit right in with the best of those odd 70s television excursions into terror.

ST1

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

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Domestica

Published March 30, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

domestica

As hard as I try, there are always a few dishes piled up in my sink and a couple of crumbs decorating my counters. Thankfully, super talented filmmaker Zach Lorkiewicz has reassured me with Domestica, his latest short, that a messy household may actually be beneficial to my health!

Here, when a few flies disturb a perfect homemaker’s decorative set-up, the results are quite bloody! Played with understated comic precision by Meg Stanton, the humor of this piece is paramount, but, thankfully, Lorkiewicz is also a fan of the gooey visual, making the gore a prominent pleasure, as well.

Nicely, this splatter-ific package is a feat of style and atmosphere, as a whole, making one look forward to what wonders Lorkiewicz will pull off next. Hopefully, we will soon find that out.

 

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Daliah Lavi

Published March 27, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

daliah

Enacting the passionate throes of Nevenka Menliff as she endured the casual cruelty of Christopher Lee’s Kurt in Mario Bava’s Gothic horror The Whip and the Body surely gave the delicious Daliah Lavi some insight into those less fortunate than others.

Indeed, one need only listen to her dramatic vocalizing of Sympathy to grasp how deeply this exotic beauty, whose other groovy genre style credits include The Return of Dr. Mabuse, The Demon and Ten Little Indians, recognizes the plight of those in need.

 

Lovely…

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

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Hell of a Gal: The Loreley’s Grasp (1974)

Published March 24, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

Helga 1

(Hell of a Gal explores the films of the ever luscious Euro Vixen Helga Line.)

The Wild West, the Trans-Siberian Express, a Gothic mansion…you actually can take the stunning Helga Line anywhere. But…she’ll usually be playing someone ruthless when you do it!

1974’s The Loreley’s Grasp is no different. Taking place in a tiny German village and at the all girl’s academy that is located on its outskirts, this tale, directed by The Blind Dead’s Amando De Ossorio, finds Line scantily enacting the deadly siren of the film’s title.

Beguiling Sirgurd (Tony Kendall), the hunter that has been hired to protect the students, with her black, string laden bikini and frequent dashes through the lakeside brush, Line is all exotic sexuality here. With moody stares and pouty concentration, she is an eternally compelling figure even though the plotline dictates that Sirgurd ultimately ignore her wiles for the more straightforward charms of school marm Elke, played by the equally beautiful Silvia Tortosa, who also shared the screen with Line in 1972’s Horror Express.

Helga 2Full of obviously fake, but very bloody attacks (including several shots of beating hearts being ripped from chests) courtesy of Loreley’s alter-ego, a scaly green monster, this cheesy time capsule is enjoyable not only due to Line’s compelling attitude but because of its innate ludicrousness. While Kendall’s swarthy handsomeness is a plus, the character of Sirgurd has to be one of the densest Euro horror heroes ever. After being filled in by a local musician and a determined scientist about Loreley’s deadly origins, he still can’t figure out that she is the mysterious woman that he has encountered – even after she practically confesses to him during their initial seduction scene. Tortosa’s Elke is almost equally insipid. Despite the evidence of several brutal outdoor attacks, she is constantly sneaking out at night to confront Sigrud – often ending up being targeted by her slimy nemesis.

Interestingly, the Americanized version of the film inserted red flashes to warn audiences when the picture’s more gruesome elements were about occur and was retitled When The Screaming Stops. Barf bags were also provided as a gimmick for the more sensitive viewers, as well.

If they would have asked me, I would have told them to simply concentrate on the ample awesomeness of Line to draw folks in. Well…better late than never!

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

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Terrortory

Published March 22, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

bianca

There is nothing like a good anthology film and the ingeniously titled Terrortory, with a reported summer 2016 release, looks like it could fit into that category nicely.

Director-writers Kevin Kangas and Mark Wenger have also, wisely, included gorgeous indie Scream Queen Bianca Allaine (above), currently riding high due to the publicity for the upcoming Zombinatrix, among its cast members.

You can take a peek at the first official trailer at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFFHtcbxvAA

…and you can keep with all further activity at

https://www.facebook.com/terrortoryfilm  and http://www.terrortoryfilm.com/.

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

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