Finances crumble, friendships topple and the nuns of the apocalypse escape from their velvet tombs – but in Big Gay Horror Fan’s world there is always one solace filled constant – music!
Of course, it’s even better when our favorite tunes contain small quirks of horror. Eclectic piano pop maestro Kyle Greer’s Skeleton Key EP is one such work.
Sprinkled with small tastes of gothic and the macabre, this work is layered with cascading musical variations on such propulsive tunes as Loverboy for Louisa and Dogkiller. Meanwhile, Little Arsonist would fit perfectly in a comedy about dysfunctional serial killers or coming out of the speakers of a party van in the latest retro-slasher.
Reaching dramatically, into the highest levels of his vocal register, Greer’s penultimate moment here is the fun, sweetly beautiful Mother. A ballad song in the voice of Norman Bates, this is musical theatre and arch comedy at its finest. Let’s hope Greer has a whole Psycho musical up his white and black colored sleeves.
To find more about Kyle and to purchase Skeleton Key be sure to visit www.kylegreerrocks.com!
Like many horror fans, Big Gay Horror Fan loves it when it gets graphic.
But our graphic opuses need smart graphics to sell them to the public and that is where Chris MacGibbon and his CMac Custom Designs come in. CMac has recently designed some amazing covers and posters for such projects as the Sugar Hill and The Video Dead, as shown here. Not surprising because this awesome up and coming company specializes in horror based designs.
Whenever Big Gay Horror Fan is faced with unrepentant gasps of fire, dangerous space aliens, hostage taking malcontents or biological creatures gone mad, he thinks one thing – if only Dean Cain was here!
Yes, after his star making turn as Superman and his mild reporter alter-ego in Lois and Clark (1993-1997), Cain has appeared in countless low budget genre flicks, generally as the well regarded hero. So, as our political, financial and social climates continue on their crazy states of flux, there seems no better time to celebrate the man, the hope, the product of a breathless nation – the mark of Cain!
In 2004’s coldly CGI ridden Post Impact, Cain plays military hard gun Tom Parker. Stationed in Berlin with his wife and young daughter, Parker/Cain is forced to leave them behind by a violently by-the-book superior when an out of control comet threatens the earth’s safety.
Years later, the planet is apocalyptically stressed while Parker/Cain crosses frozen tundra after frozen tundra, along with his faithful mutt, trying to get back to his family. A surprising attack, originating from what was formerly Germany, on a governmental plane gets our hero back into the game – under his hated former employer, of course.
Soon enough, Cain/Parker is showering (with butt discretely hidden) with a sexy fellow officer, getting shot out of the sky, discovering an underground European village of survivalists and uncovering conspirators and plot twists aplenty. Along the way he develops feelings for the comely daughter/scientist of the man who could bring the world back to its former glory and for a young girl found surviving by ingenuity and wits in what was once Berlin. Who says a cheap Sci-Fi, apocalyptic horror epic can’t have family values?
You can check out a bit of Post Impact and its interesting mix of CGI, miniatures and real locales in the trailer, here:
Then be sure to check back often for more Mark of Cain, as well.
According to various published reports – Big Gay Horror Fan was cute as a child. Of course, this has never been truly confirmed.
There is proof positive that genre goddess Kimberly Beck (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Nightmare at Noon, Massacre at Central High, In the Deep Woods) was adorable as a kid, though. All you have to do is check out her winning performance as Janette North in popular 1968 comedy Yours, Mine and Ours.
Remade in 2005 with Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo, this frothy family adventure starred icons Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball as a naval couple, whose marriage combines their respective offspring making for a huge family unit of 18 siblings – (7 boys and 11 girls). Of course, there is much tumultuous mayhem and discord among the children until Ball’s unexpected pregnancy forges them all together in one solid bond.
Granted, with a bevy of youngsters –including (then 18 year old) Tim Matheson (Impulse, Buried Alive, Sometimes They Come Back, Wolf Lake), Suzanne Cupito (AKA Morgan Brittany of Dallas fame – and Death Car on the Freeway, Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat), Eric Shea (The Poseidon Adventure) and Tracy Nelson (Fangs, Killer Bees!, The Perfect Tenant) all fighting for attention– there isn’t much screen time to go around.
But, Beck manages a few fun moments. Whether she is helping Ball prepare for her first date with Fonda, complaining about lack of phone privacy, engaging in a pillow fight with her newly found stepbrothers or helping make sandwiches for her numerous siblings – she is always charming and engaging here.
To check out a fun video of Ball and Beck in ‘affair making’ mode, check out the below video:
Work shifts, those extra calories, shocking moments of self doubt – these are all things that Big Gay Horror Fan would be happy to have end. But beloved terror comic Hack/Slash – never!
Unfortunately, even the best things have their completion dates and awesome creative force Tim Seeley is putting a halt to the blood spilling adventures of Cassie and Co with issue 25.
An independent comic force, Hack/Slash has gotten deserved love from horror fiends and smartly discerning geeks alike. Sexy, smart and filled with voluminous heart, Hack/Slash’s long running story of a vibrant avenger who had a talent for disposing of undead slashers and murderous monsters was full of underdogs and misfits. Whether through the defiant actions of emotionally vulnerable Cassie, the concerned comedy of hulking Vlad or the hilarious self pitying reflections of loyal Pooch, this was a world that all quirky souls could find a place in.
Of course, Seeley who will be concentrating on other projects such as noir-terror tale Revival, has asserted that Hack/Slash could return in the future. A thought that gives all of us mini-skirt sporting avengers a trembling sigh of relief!
Big Gay Horror Fan has been touched by a angel! Well, maybe one with a bit of demon thrown in for good measure! Yep, I have been made up by miraculous make-up artist Sabrina Wagner and I am still feeling the glow!
Below, as a work-in-progress, I chat with the amazing Wagner, who has worked on the first season of The Walking Dead and such independent horror epics as Motor Home Massacre.
You can find out more about her work at world famous haunt Netherworld at www.fearworld.com.
Burning up? Well, I don’t know about you, but Big Gay Horror Fan is still feeling the heat from interviewing eclectic, wonderfully talented independent horror film superstar Elissa Dowling.
Dowling has embraced the blood splattered screen in such epics as Theatre Bizarre, Dread and Bloody, Bloody Bible Camp. Below, she talks about one of her exciting new projects, A Night of Nightmares in which she performs two songs. Then, in the second interview (cut in two due to sound constraints – blah! boo!), she talks about the need for strong woman in horror and how she has been lucky enough to fulfill that need!
Big Gay Horror Fan and his beloved sister-muse Apocalyptic Kitten usually get along. But when they disagree, it’s like legendary rival siblings Olivia De Havilland and Joan Fontaine gone atomic!
Yes, despite her sweet reputation earned from famous roles in Gone with the Wind (1939) and The Heiress (1949), De Havilland is supposedly something of a wild cat. This nature flares forth, to various degrees, in some of her latter day film projects.
Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). In this semi-classic of Gothic Hag Horror, De Havilland is confused Bette Davis’ concerned cousin. Yet, her clipped control when her true intentions are revealed is chilling – resulting in one of De Havilland’s most significant, eternally nightmarish performances. Film buffs, of course, are aware that De Havilland took over this role from an ‘ailing’ Joan Crawford. Director Robert Aldrich was hoping to achieve the success of his previous collaboration with Davis and Crawford, 1962’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? This was something that he was able to do without Dame Joan’s participation, though. This film ultimately went on to be hyped as the first horror production to receive 7 Academy Award nominations.
Lady in a Cage (1964). As a well-to-do writer trapped in a home elevator during a power outage, De Havilland gloriously revels in a bit of over acting here. Whether steamily composing poetry in her head or reverting back to her ‘cave man’ instincts, De Havilland’s grand dame is always rich with emotion. Of course, as Lady in a Cage is part social commentary, part youth revolt film and part suspenseful woman’s picture, De Havilland’s over indulgences don’t read as too out-of-the-ordinary here. The film’s director, Walter Grauman, also includes some amazing images. The shot of a young black girl carelessly running her roller skates up and the down the leg of a passed out drunk is both odd and forever poetic. A blonde, often shirtless James Caan appears here, in an early role, as well. As one of the rebellious thieves who threaten her character’s life, he ultimately feels the blinding wraith of De Havilland gone wild!
The Swarm (1978). As a Southern belle school superintendent, Lady Olivia is part of a quirky love triangle here. Demurely romanced by cowboy superstar Ben Johnson (Terror Train) and television dad Fred MacMurray (whose moral murkiness in Double Indemnity had long been overshadowed by his stint on My Three Sons), De Havilland is full of cute coyness.
Her melodramatic wail after witnessing the school yard aftermath of an attack of deadly bees is so hysterically round, though, that it is this Irwin Allen opus’ penultimate image. You have to hand it to Allen, though. This wildly ridiculed epic spares no age group – including our sticky sweet romantic trio – from its wrathful sting!
One can experience De Havilland’s cry heard ‘round the world at the link, below:
Be sure to check back often for further explorations of the mighty mistresses of terror.
There is something that Big Gay Horror Fan truly loves about this existence: you can find a little horror connection in everything.
Take New Wave musician Midge Ure, for example. Best known as the lead singer of Ultravox with whom he scored such hits as “Dancing with Tears in My Eyes,” and “Love’s Grand Adventure,” Ure has recently completed a highly professional, truly nostalgic mini US tour (as seen above).
And while his most popular songs have endeared him primarily to the tear streaked mascara set, lovers of low budget sci-fi and horror are also (perhaps unknowingly) familiar with Ure due to his groovily propulsive closing credits track for 1990 genre hybrid Class of 1999.
Here an eagerly talented fan (billed as ‘halfdude’ – love it!) has edited cover art and stills from flick, which features such genre regulars as Stacy Keach, Malcolm McDowell, Traci Lin and Pam Grier, into a nicely evocative, extremely pulpy video:
Reaching dramatically, into the highest levels of his vocal register, Greer’s penultimate moment here is the fun, sweetly beautiful Mother. A ballad song in the voice of Norman Bates, this is musical theatre and arch comedy at its finest. Let’s hope Greer has a whole Psycho musical up his white and black colored sleeves. 
Big Gay Horror Fan 