Review: Profile of a Killer

Published November 9, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

How I still shudder when I remember the days I spent as a captive of the Perpetual Lords of Homogenized Mediocrity! I never want to see another episode of Friends again!!!

Saul, the serial killer profiler at the heart of director-writer Caspian Tredwell-Owen’s darkly entertaining Profile of a Killer (2012), knows exactly how I feel. Called in to help an old friend crack a puzzling rash of local murders, Saul soon finds himself kidnapped and at the mercy of the very killer that he is trying to identify.

That David, the vicious murderer, is a troubled teen brings out both Saul’s horrified decency and his fathering instincts. While Rachel, a determined agent with secrets of her own, races to find Saul, the cracks in David’s armor begin to show. Abandoning his methodical methods, David begins lashing out with youthful rage – and Saul may eventually pay the ultimate price.

As the piece’s imaginative creator, Treadwell-Owen definitely embraces the bloodthirstiness of the tale. A sequence involving a young prostitute, in particular, is ruthlessly chilling. But, he, wisely, makes Profile of a Killer a character driven piece – even eking out some audience sympathy for the obviously confused, occasionally child-like David. In particular, he gives the kind Saul and the conflicted Rachel powerful backstories that engage the viewer and make the duo’s deadly conflicts all the more intriguing.

Indeed, those who relish in the limb spewing antics of CSI and Criminal Minds will find much to enjoy, here, especially in the well crafted, naturally believable performances of Gabriele Angieri (Saul), Joey Pollari (David) and Emily Franderburgh (Rachel).

Be sure to keep up-to-date with the film at https://www.facebook.com/ProfileOfAKiller.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Jamie Greco and “M is for Mammary”

Published November 8, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

As I toss in bed at night, counting my collection of dead prisoners’ body parts, I wonder how the queer community has gotten so homogenized. Gay marriage, adoption…what would Klaus Nomi say???!!!

Thankfully, director/performer Jamie Greco (Poultrygeist, Tales from the Crapper, PDA Massacre, Shadow: Dead Riot) has come up with a subversive, nasty wonder with the M is for Mammary entry for the ABC’s of Death 2 26th Director contest.

You can view (and vote for) this bloody, milky wonder, below, until November 14th, 2013!:

http://26th.abcsofdeathpart2.com/entry/m-is-for-mammary/

Meanwhile, Big Gay Horror Fan is always torturing single mothers at http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan, as well!

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

Forgotten Queens of Scream: Catacomb’s Laura Schaefer

Published November 7, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

Working with a hesitant ivory quality, model Laura Schaefer imbued a couple of late 1980s Full Moon ventures and a 1989 episode of Freddy’s Nightmares with soft understatement. Her range wasn’t huge but (like early era Maria Ford), she enlivened the screen with a sensitive creaminess – and it would have been interesting to see what she could have done had she continued her career past her final bit roles in 1991.

As Elizabeth in 1988’s Catacombs (recently released on DVD by Scream Factory – but known for years, on VHS, as Curse IV: The Ultimate Sacrifice), Schaefer seems far too beautiful and soft natured to fully inhabit the role of a research loving, elementary school teacher. But her lightness strikes a nice balance against the cantankerous layers of the accomplished character actors, all playing distinguished monks. She, also, quite ably personifies the demonic qualities invested in her character once Elizabeth is possessed by the demon, the old (not so) holy men have been hiding in the monastery’s basement jail for centuries. Of course, things eventually end well for Elizabeth and the young priest, the story’s platonic romantic interest, ably portrayed by Class of 84’s Timothy Van Patten.

The same can’t be said for Etta, the blacksmith’s daughter Schaefer portrays, in Ghost Town (also 1988). Haunted for years by a ravaged, demonically powerful gun man, Schaefer’s hesitant lass soon attaches herself to a contemporary officer of the law, played by swarthy Frank Luz, when he finds himself hijacked in her misty, spirit ridden town. Graduating from almost mute silence, Schaefer/Etta eventually persuades Luz to help her “feel again” – providing viewers with a bit of female flesh and Luz’s character with the first dialogue cue that all is not as it appears to be. Etta’s loyalty to her white knight does cause her downfall, though, and Schaefer’s quiet quality makes her character’s outcome all the more potent. (Especially as Jimmie F. Skaggs is so supernaturally vile as the evil outlaw.)

The 1989 Art of Death episode of Freddy’s Nightmares gave Schaefer her most eclectic role of the trio. As Joan, a popular college student, she undergoes a terrifying transformation after being kidnapped by the cartoon creation of an ardent admirer. Shaky, and eventually hallucinating an attack from a handsome fellow student (menacingly played by Deadly Friend’s Andrew Roperto), Schaefer believably pulls off the character’s shocked hysteria. This is the last major role of her career and, thankfully, it ends on a tremblingly high note.

So, until the next time – may the spirits of horror’s forgotten femmes be with you always — and SWEET love and pink GRUE — Big Gay Horror Fan!

Getting Communal with “M is for…”!

Published November 6, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

My favorite memories of nursery school were when my fellow classmates and I gathered around the mud pit and sacrificed the latest substitute teacher. Such communal joy!

Its kind of like the current “M is for…” contest for the upcoming ABC’s of Death 2. A bunch of inspired filmmakers are joining together to make some ghoulish mini-masterpieces. Granted, only one can ultimately win (voting ends on November 14th, 2013) – but the community spirit going on with this project is positively infectious!

Here are a couple shorts to check out – with voting options at each link:

The goddess knows, I can live by Scream Queen, alone! Sean Tretta’s creative, well acted M is for Matchmaker is one of my favorites in this contest and features such genre icons as Tiffany Shepis and Sleepaway Camp‘s Felissa Rose. Horror Heaven!!

http://26th.abcsofdeathpart2.com/entry/m-is-for-matchmaker/

Meanwhile, Tony Wash from Scotchworthy Productions is one of the best independent horror filmmaking savants. You can check out his gooey, flesh baring entry M is for Muck, here:

http://26th.abcsofdeathpart2.com/entry/m-is-for-muck/

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Review: TerrorTales. 2013 (VHS)

Published November 6, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

Possessed, soul zapping guitar strings…Dog kicking mummies!

Yes, Screaming Like Banshees’ VHS based anthology wonder is delightfully gritty, oft times inventive NO BUDGET Wisconsin terror FUN!!! The mini-mini shorts, here, come off like humorous experiments between friends (Let’s see what this make-up looks like on film! Cool!!) -BUT the Flesh Eating Fog segment is hilariously gory and extremely creative while The Christmas Mummy sequence is plain brilliance with a smart beginning, hysterically nasty middle and a haunting, mist shrouded ending.

Carolyn Baker and crew are doing some truly awesome “Lets Put on a Show” stuff, here, and Mickey ‘n Judy are bloody jealous, yo!!!

Check it at http://www.screaminglikebanshees.com!

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Music to Make Horror Movies By: Sissy Spacek, “Hanging Up My Heart”

Published November 3, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

Oh, Divine Sissy, how we have done you wrong! Your iconic horror role, Carrie = recast, remade (but never equaled) and your solid 1983 recording Hanging Up My Heart can be found for $2.99 on vinyl at the local record shop! For shame!

Yes, after the Oscar winning success of Coal Miner’s Daughter, Madame Spacek, whose other terror efforts include The Ring 2 (2005), An American Haunting (2005) and such gothic stained efforts as Badlands (1973) and 3 Women (1977), released a country tinged recording in 1983. What surprised many about the effort, though, was its level of competence and the impressive talent involved behind-the-scenes (including such musical stalwarts as Rodney Crowell, Roseanne Cash, Vince Gill and KT Oslin).

The project even resulted in several modest hits and the effervescent title track featured, below:

And, if you ask me, that’s almost as cool as watching twenty-something actors (playing teenagers) exploding, bloodily, at the prom, any day of the week!

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Review: All Girl Frankenstein

Published November 3, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

Hilda, one of the lesbian prostitute nuns who raised me, was going to name her first son, Igor. I think it was because of the bolt in the side of his neck. But one night, Igor simply up and disappeared among the pages of Hilda’s Child Rearing for Dummies book. Better luck next time, Hilda!

Thankfully, Bob Fisher, the founder and main force behind the brilliant (Chicago based) The Chicago Mammals is much better than Hilda where bringing things, creatively, to life is concerned. The Mammals current production, All Girl Frankenstein, written and directed by Fisher, is a sexually ghoulish, forever entertaining delight.

Featuring one of the best professional casts currently performing, All Girl Frankenstein takes the basic plot of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and mixes it with the sordidly scandalous milieu of her personal life. Thus the Frankenstein matriarch (vibrant Julie Cowden) presented here, with a constant paddle at the ready for punishment purposes, seems to be the feminine personification of Shelley’s sternly loving father, the man who raised her after her mother’s untimely death. Bloody infanticide and sexual energy, also, swirl throughout this production – seemingly keeping time with Shelley’s own free love philosophy and the anguish she felt over the loss of multiple children.

Whether it is the unrequited love that childhood friend Henry Clerval (the scene stealing Erin Elizabeth Orr) has for Victor (the passionate Erin Myers) or the blow job that Clerval offers the Creature (a physically astounding Amy E. Harmon) upon their first meeting, Fisher and crew play, magnificently, between the lines of homosexuality and unique gender play, here, as well.

Always fascinating, this is a production for horror fans, lovers of literature and collectors of unique experiences of every sort.

All Girl Frankenstein runs through November 30th, 2013 at the Zoo Studios, 4001 N. Ravenswood in Chicago. Tickets are $25. Further information can be found at http://www.chicagomammals.com and https://www.facebook.com/chicagomammals.
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Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Author Spotlight: Adrian Lilly

Published November 1, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

Many things have landed at my door, lately. On Monday, the arthritic vampire from the down the hallway paused by my apartment to compose himself – and then couldn’t move an inch for three days! Yesterday, I went to grab a Pomegranate Rip-It, my life blood, at the convenience store in the lobby and tripped over the remains of Hilda, one of the lesbian prostitute nuns who raised me. (Oh, those tangled, blood stained maternal coils!) Thankfully, exquisite author Adrian Lilly is luckier than I. His latest novel is titled The Wolf at His Door and it sounds like a scintillating wonder. Proving that point, Lilly, recently, joined me in a lively chat about his woolly literary pursuits and his love of horror.

BGHF: Hey, Adrian! Let’s do a more interesting take on Maria Van Trapp – and start at the very beginning! What first got you interested in horror?

Adrian: My first horror story was a brutal, little story about a family getting murdered; I wrote that in the first grade. Later, in a computer programming class in middle school, my friends and I programmed a choose-your-own adventure horror/murder game, where the character’s sister went mad and was killing everyone. In short, I’ve always loved horror. Starting when I was really little, my mom and I would stay up and watch all the classic horror on the late, late show — Beyond the Door, Exorcist, The Shining, less-than-memorable Hammer films, and many others.

BGHF: Cool! So, was it always your intention to be a writer or did you just fall into it?

Adrian: I’ve always been a reader and a writer. I love both. I briefly detoured in college when I planned to be a marine biologist. Then, about half-way through college, I switched to creative writing. I’ve never looked back.

BGHF: That could be dangerous in a slasher flick! Are werewolves your favorite creatures?

Adrian: I’m a sucker for werewolf horror but not just the I-just-changed-into-a-lame-wolf werewolves. I really love the half-human monsters—The Howling, American Werewolf in London and the like. Okay, so I actually also love zombies, vampires, and just crazy beasts, too. I pretty much like all monsters.

BGHF: I love them all, too. Well, expect for the ones I wind up dating, of course!! Can you tell us about The Wolf at His Door? And – What is your take on gay themed horror in movies and literature? I, myself, almost prefer films and books that contain strong queer characters as opposed to works that are completely gay oriented. (They often seem to apply to the lowest common denominator and focus on sex. I don’t think throwing some blood on a former porn star and calling it a horror film really qualifies.)

Adrian: The Wolf at His Door is your everyday world—people like your friends and neighbors—thrust into a maelstrom of lycanthropic horror. The Runes family is at the center of the novel, with secrets of their own, that threaten to destroy them. As the body count rises, Alec Rune begins to suspect his new boyfriend, Jared, may know more about the werewolves than he’s admitting; only adding to the tension.

In The Wolf at His Door, I more fully explore the spectrum of sexuality, with gay, straight, and bisexual love/sex scenes. I try to create a world that more closely approximates the one we live in. As an author, I don’t ignore that the gay characters have straight family members and friends. So, for me, it’s important to create a world that isn’t only inhabited by a narrow definition of gay.

BGHF: Brilliant! Are you working on anything else, currently, that you would like us to know about?

Adrian: I’m the type who works on a few things at once. The second book in The Runes Trilogy, The Wolf in His Arms, will be out in early 2014. I’m also working on a series called The BlackBird Mysteries. Daniel Black and Pete Bird, the main characters, have no choice but to work together to solve supernatural mysteries, despite not liking each other very much (or at least despite the crazy sexual tension). There’s a good deal of camp in these, so they’re a little lighter than most of my work. The first in the series is called Last Will and (De)testament. If anyone wants to know more, they can follow me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/adrianwlilly – friend me on Goodreads (there are a number of reader reviews there) or find me on Google+. I’m completely open to questions, so that would be cool.

BGHF: Awesome! Thanks, Adrian!

You can purchase The Wolf at His Door for a mere $3.99 at Amazon, as well!:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_11?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=wolf+at+his+door&sprefix=wolf+at+his%2Cnull%2C322

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Bianca Allaine Barnett: M is for Marriage

Published October 31, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

Did I ever tell you about the time that my parents got their marriage annulled after 20 years and three kids? No? Well, forget I mentioned it because….

Gorgeous scream connoisseur Bianca Allaine Barnett has a much more creative way to deal with the death of a relationship in Michael Kyne’s short M is for Marriage.

M is for Marriage is in the ABC’s of Death 2 competition and since Bianca is one of the most committed and provocative doyenne’s of horror out there (with appearances in Albino Farm, Monster Mountain and The Fear Chamber), perhaps you should check it out!

Like a lipstick stained cigarette, this girl is smoking!!!

http://26th.abcsofdeathpart2.com/entry/m-is-for-marriage/

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

It’s Your Jam, Pumpkinhead! Graveface Records’ Halloween Mixtape!

Published October 30, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

Considering that even a creaky creature of the night needs to get down on occasion, the amazingly spooky Graveface Records have provided us eager ghouls with the perfect (free) Halloween mixtape.

Check it at: https://soundcloud.com/graveface/graveface-halloween

Be sure to keep your bones jangling, year round, by keeping up with all the haunting Graveface happenings at https://www.facebook.com/GRAVEFACE, as well.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan