R.I.P. Carla Laemmle!

Published June 13, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

She danced for Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and spoke the first words in the classic 1931 Dracula – and now the iconic Carla Laemmle has breathed her last breath on this planet.

This beloved host of 1999’s The Road to Dracula (and one of the remaining heirs to a Hollywood film dynasty), passed away on June 12th, 2014 at the age of 104.

Loving and appreciative of her fans to the end, Laemmle’s energetic spirit will always reside, though, in those glowing embers of gothic celluloid and the ever sparkling photos that she left behind.

R.I.P., Carla! May your current journey be much smoother than that legendary (cinematic) one from 70 years ago!

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Martin Cummins and the F13 Curse!

Published June 13, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

Poor Martin Cummins! 22 years after his Wayne in Friday the 13th, Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan got fried and grilled…

…his uptight government official in Seattle Superstorm got zapped and quickly extinguished, too!

Some guys just can’t win! Oh, well!

Happy F13, everyone,
Big Gay Horror Fan!

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(Bad) CGI Friday’s: Seattle Superstorm (2011)

Published June 13, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

While sudden rainfall has definitely destroyed one or two of my Batgirl costumes – at least it hasn’t turned me into (unrealistic) vibrating ash like some of the unlucky victims of the Seattle Superstorm!

No way to lend a hand!

After a meteor bound for Seattle is destroyed by the government, powerful storms soon begin to crystallize some unlucky folks while, also, knocking over buildings and whipping tons of underpaid extras around. Thankfully, journeyman actor Esai Morales is on the job as a former NASA scientist who works, mightily, to stop all of that superimposed fog and fake lightening from harming too many people.

With plenty of car crashes, explosions, smoking chemistry experiments and familiar plotline tropes, Seattle Superstorm definitely isn’t high art – but in watching it, every filmic dreamer surely realizes how super fun it would have been to make!

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

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The Backside of Horror: Corbin Bleu, “Nurse” (2013)

Published June 12, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

Let’s face it, half the fun of horror and exploitation is seeing some hot bodies frolicking around in the buff. And while I worship the female form, I believe exploitation definitely veers into the exploitive when only gorgeous women are on display while their male counterparts remain chastely buttoned up. Therefore, The Backside of Horror salutes the filmmakers and actors whom even up the score a bit by showing us instances of hot and juicy male flesh in their bloody celluloid fantasies.

Talk about your grand one upping! While Zac Efron spends plenty of time, shirtless, in the recent comedy hit Neighbors, his former High School Musical co-star Corbin Bleu does him one better in the deliriously fun horror romp Nurse.

As the Steve, the EMT boyfriend of newbie nurse Danni (cute and perky Katrina Bowden), Bleu kindly shows us his smooth backside as this young couple goes at it in a very unprofessional manner in the workplace.

Of course, no one acts particularly professionally here with lead Paz de la Huerta, as the titled psychotic Florence Nightingale, spending plenty of time draped in vinyl, dangerously high mini-skirts and often nothing at all!

Oh, well! Leave it to a former clean cut teen idol to balance things out a bit!

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

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Holy Bloody Confetti! Chatting with the Chicago Cast of Carrie, The Musical!

Published June 11, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

I left my prom dress at home – but the kind cast of Bailiwick Chicago’s production of Carrie, The Musical still allowed me to chat with them after a recent show.

Carrie, the Musical runs through July 12th, 2014 in Chicago at the Victory Gardens Theatre, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue. Further information is available at http://www.bailiwickchicago.com.

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

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Shark Bait Retro Village: Midnight’s Child (1992)

Published June 7, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

While, in reality, far too many women are still being sex shamed – I do believe if your nanny is a satan marrying, husband seducing bad-ass with a fake accent then maybe she deserves all the names that you can call her!

Sneaking on Marcy!

Such is the case when (former) soap opera diva Marcy Walker (playing Kate, a harried businesswoman) and the nubile Olivia D’Abo (as the pouty mouthed mistress of the devil) come face to face in 1992 television film Midnight’s Child. As D’Abo’s manipulative, murderous Anna lures Kate’s husband away from her while simultaneously making plans to turn her young daughter into the dark master’s newest conquest – Walker unleashes her verbal fury and is soon teaming with Anna’s distraught father in an attempt to bring the horn loving minx down.

Leaving the fire behind!

Of course, since this was made for the Lifetime Network, the more lurid aspects of the plot are played down here to concentrate on Kate’s guilt (as a woman having it all) and Anna’s sharp eyed plotting. Action sequences are, also, infrequent. Although, the opening moments efficiently portray a murder and an explosion at Anna’s Swedish convent school, helping to establish the sinister motives at play. Lovers of dark soap opera antics and devilishly infused plot lines should find that things move quite quickly and enjoyably despite the severe lack of bloodshed, though.

If anything, Midnight’s Child may even help raise social awareness- reminding employers to check the scalp lines of their potential in home employees to get the 666 on whether things are bound to have a distinctly fiery end.

The End?

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

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(Bad) CGI Friday’s: Deadly Swarm (2003)

Published June 6, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

I thought the buzzing of the gossips at Mary’s Delicatessen and Wine Shaft was bad…until I heard the overpowering hum of the (very fake) killer wasps of 2003 animals-gone-wild opus Deadly Swarm.

Unleashed by a demented scientist in a small Guatemalan village, these miniature beasts are soon attacking local conspiracy theorists, decorated officials and humbled drug couriers. But these unreal pests are good for something. They bring true meaning to the small town’s Day of the Dead celebration, and in a moment of (perhaps misguided bravery), they save a young lass from sexual assault. Yep! Leave the mace. Bring the wasps!

Of course, handsome Shane Brolly (the Underworld series) as a distinguished entomologist and beloved character actor Pepe Serna as a concerned lawman, just have to try to stop these destructive beauties in all their glory! But until they do, the Jaws plotline parallels (“We can’t stop this festival! Think of all the $ we’ll lose”) and multiple moments of frightened victims shooting into the massive swarm (Did they really think that would help??) make this one altogether stinging morsel!

Until the next time –

SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Review: Daddy’s Little Girl

Published June 5, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

“One way or another I’m gonna find ya
I’m gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha” – One Way or Another, Blondie

One summer afternoon, my brother and I pushed (neighborhood bully) Robbie off his Big Wheel for picking on our sister. That, either fortunately or unfortunately, is the extent of my personal revenge motifs.

In writer-director Chris Sun’s chilling Daddy’s Little Girl (released on May 13th, 2014 by Breaking Glass Pictures), an anguished father named Derek (a leveled, award winning Michael Thomson) takes comeuppance to the extreme when his 6 year old daughter (a perfectly angelic Billi Baker) is murdered. After stumbling upon the perpetrator of the crime, and also discovering that the savage criminal had multiple victims, Derek enacts a torturous revenge.

Despite the hard-to-take, real life nature of the subject, Sun ably divides this picture into distinct arcs (the set-up, the anguished downfall, the shocking realization, the plotting of and carrying out of the torturous revenge) and adds enough pulpy, 70s era grit to make the experience an frequently enjoyable and cinematically palatable one. The savagery of Derek’s retaliation is indeed hard-to-take, but Sun intersperses these bloody exchanges with scenes of a duo of dedicated detectives finally closing in on the culprit and some bizarrely enjoyable exchanges between Derek and his family members and friends.

Granted, Derek’s discovery of the killer happens a bit too conveniently and the evidence he finds is too out-in-the-open to be quite believable. But these are small flaws in Sun’s relentless vision. Its starkness, though, gains distinct justification by the true-to-life headlines that chillingly decorate the closing credits of the film.

Assisted by a charming, ingeniously crafted performance by Christian Radford as Derek’s roguish brother Tommy, Daddy’s Little Girl is a powerful mixture of grindhouse cinema and real life crime, well worth seeking out by the truly strong at heart.

You can keep up-to-date with Breaking Glass Pictures at http://www.breakingglasspictures.com and http://www.facebook.com/breakingglasspictures. The forces behind Daddy’s Little Girl post frequently at https://www.facebook.com/DLG666, as well.

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

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Andrew N. Shearer Invades Up All Night!

Published June 3, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

The Gorilla!

I once invented a happy dance and did it all up and down Halsted Street in Chicago. Once I got out of jail, I vowed never to do it again!

The Andrew!

But, the news that (vibrant, beloved) femme fatale Rhonda Shear is reintroducing (the classic) Up All Night on WTTA (Channel 38) in Tampa, FL this week (with plans up for upcoming syndication) and that she has chosen wildly inventive Athens, GA director-writer Andrew N. Shearer’s Bikini Gorilla as one of her initial films to present makes me want to do that happy dance all over again – handcuffs, be damned.

Of course, Shearer, known as one of the forces behind popular compilation Faces of Schlock , has plenty of amazingness to offer up at http://www.gonzoriffic.com/ and he is sure to be posting UAN airdates (and the like) at https://www.facebook.com/gonzorifficfilms, as well.

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

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Music to Make Horror Films By: Les Baxter, “The Beast Within”

Published June 2, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

Known for such florid Capitol Records titles as Ritual of the Savage, Tamboo! and Jewels of the Sea, brilliantly eclectic composter Les Baxter truly got a case of green exotica with his final film score for 1982’s quirkily violent exploration of growing pains, The Beast Within.

Baxter, who helped create strange moods for such genre flicks as Frogs, Black Sunday, Hell’s Belles and 1970’s The Dunwich Horror (with Sandra Dee), here used (anticipated) moments of orchestral majesty along with modern electronic flourishes to create a sharp and dissonant audio landscape. These textured sonic shifts perfectly matched the onscreen horror as a sensitive teen discovers the deadly reality of the monster that truly lives inside him.

The brilliance of Baxter’s evocative score was given a much deserved tribute in 2010 by the (beyond smart) INTRADA Records (www.intrada.com) who released the score in a special limited edition.

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

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