Big Gay Horror Fan’s lone summer camp experience involved stolen candy money, a rampaging pony and a cabin mate who wanted to push our beds together at night. (Why I didn’t take him up on that I’ll never know!) As the volatile Ricky in the cult classic Sleepaway Camp, Jonathan Tiersten’s experience was a lot – well, bloodier. Tiersten, though, has survived that deadly familial onslaught to forge a successfully vibrant career as an independent musician and has recently returned to the acting scene with a vengeance. Thoughtful, passionate and committed to his art, Tiersten recently took a few moments to answer some questions about music, life, film (including bone chilling projects like The Perfect House and The Drive-in Massacre), life – and well, life!

BGHF: So, Jonathan, who were your first artistic inspirations as a child – Bill Bixby morphing into Lou Ferrigno and getting his green on – A favorite ukulele strumming uncle who used to regal you with folk tales – David Bowie waxing alien philosophies on the Late Night Show – other (real ones)?

JT: There were two inspirations that immediately come to mind with regard to music. The first was my Aunt Irene Corman (The late mother of my cousin (actress) Maddie Corman). We would go to their summer house in a town called Shady in upstate New York. It is just outside of Woodstock. They would have these huge family gatherings and afterwards we would stay at the house. We would sit around the campfire and Irene would play songs on her guitar. Those were magical times. I saw the effect that music could have. Even if my parents weren’t getting along (which was often) the music made everyone happy and loving. That was true power, the power to make people get outside of their own petty differences.

The second inspiration was (believe it or not) a Sleepaway Camp counselor I had when I was 7 or 8 years old. Looking back on it, I am not sure he was a very nice guy or even cared about kids that much, but every night before we went to sleep he would play Cat Steven’s Moonshadow. It was so beautiful. I knew I had to learn how to do that. I don’t remember his name or if he became famous or anything, but that memory is burned into my consciousness. I could not imagine life without having what he possessed.

BGHF: Morning has broken, my man! Sleepaway Camp has had a deserved following for years. What is the most indelible memory that you have taken from the whole Sleepaway Camp experience?

JT: The most indelible memory I have from Sleepaway Camp? I honestly can say that is one that keeps changing. It is a constant living thing. Sleepaway Camp will outlive me. I must say that I always thought I was something special. I know that sounds pompous, but I always felt like something big was right around the corner. I still do. I have gone through some tough times. I have worked at jobs I hated. I have owned a bar. I look back and say, “How did I ever think things would get better?” I guess I am an eternal optimist. Maybe that is what I have learned from Sleepaway Camp. You never know what life has in store for you. You just have to be open to it.

BGHF: So, do you find that the spunkiness of Ricky informs your everyday life?

JT: Ricky definitely has informed my daily life. I am far more patient than he is, but sometimes I acquiesce too easily and that is where Ricky enables me to stand up for myself. Some people don’t react well to reason. Ricky is pure emotion. I like that.

BGHF: Sleepaway Camp has a large gay following, but I have often wondered how the transgendered community views Angela. She is a sympathetic character, but also a vicious killer. In light of the uproar over films like Ticked off Trannies with Knives I imagine that would be bothersome to some in an underrepresented faction in cinema, but also feel you have to take the film at face value, as well. Do you have any thoughts on that?

JT: I have several transgender fans. They love Angela. As for the reason, you would have to ask them. I think anytime things are brought out of the closet they are less likely to be demonized.

BGHF: Well, I’m always up for kicking things out of the closet! Onto more recent projects! Ricky was tough, but John Doesy seems maniacal. Since you seem to have a very humanistic, spiritual side, especially evidenced by your CD Heaven, is it tough for you to dig down and create the psychosis beneath a character like Doesy in The Perfect House?

JT: I was reading a short story in The New Yorker today. The character was talking about how he went ‘off the rails’ when his wife died. He hired prostitutes and the like. I find horror fans to be much more in touch with the animalistic nature that is at our core. We spend a lifetime learning how to repress every natural instinct that we have. Letting those out is therapeutic. There is a very fine line between affection and violence. You can’t have one without the other. Psychosis is just another label for someone who doesn’t live by our societal norms. John Doesy has his own code of ethics.

BGHF: Just not the ones you learn in kindergarten, I suppose. (On second thought…) – You have done everything from soap operas to after school specials to horror films. Do you have a particular favorite on set moment or memory from your various experiences?

JT: I am very intense when I am working. I don’t enjoy it much. That isn’t to say that I don’t like it. I just don’t look at it the same way as playing music where there is instant gratification. My favorite moments on set are when I know I am locked in to my character. Recently I shot a film called Redemption. We were doing a night shoot. We shot my entire scene (including close-ups) and the sound man said, “Oops.” He had messed up the audio and we had to do the whole thing over again. Then someone yelled, “Dinner break!” I was furious. I walked around the whole park we were shooting in to get myself settled and refocused, (at 3AM). I came back to do the scene and it was better than the first time. I overheard the 1st AD whisper, “That dude is a serious pro.” That was a pretty nice moment.

BGHF: Totally! (I think we just had a PJ Soles moment together!) Your life has been juicily eclectic, as well, with actor, musician, father and businessman on your resume. What has been your favorite accomplishment thus far and is there anything you want to tackle in the future?

JT: My favorite accomplishment personally has been getting better as a person and being known as someone people can count on, especially my family. My favorite professional accomplishment would have to be the library of music I have written and recorded. That is my legacy. What I want in the future is to continue all of my pursuits with the same energy that I do now. Whether it is writing a score or performing or acting or running a marathon (I have done three) it doesn’t matter. I just want to do projects that I care about. I don’t want to half ass anything ever.

BGHF: Speaking of your legacy then. If you had to pick one of your CD’s to recommend to someone, what would it be and why?

JT: I can’t really recommend one CD in particular. That is a personal decision for the listener. On different days I am in the mood for different music. I always think that what I am writing now is better than what I have written in the past, but then I go back and listen to it and enjoy some of its naiveté and honesty and realize I can never be the person I was. Each and every day we reinvent who we are. That is so cool if you embrace it.

BGHF: Got my arms wide open on that one, my friend! Lastly, any words of advice (IE: Never let your flamboyant aunt dress you in girl’s clothing) or projects that you’d like to push! And thanks this has been almost as fun as hanging with the brilliant Michele Tatosian (Sleepaway Camp‘s beyond awesome producer) any day of the week!

JT: I will give the same advice that I gave an actor when he asked me at a convention. Forget the backup plan. It is a waste of time. Acting, performing, writing etc. has to be a need. It can’t be a want. Understand that you will have to sacrifice a lot to pursue it and you may still fail in the eyes of your family and peers. You can never fail if you realize it is about the journey and not the destination. – I am working on so many things right now. The next thing coming out is Redemption at The Tribeca Film Festival next year. The Perfect House should be out on DVD and Netflix this winter. I just signed on to do The Drive In Massacre this winter. I am co-producing a film for Brittany House Pictures called Good Ol Boy. It features a score by Andy Summers (The Police) and several A-List actors. I am hoping to tour the east coast in April highlighted by a house concert at Drew Eckmann’s. You can read about him in The New Yorker. Lastly I am doing soundtrack work for my friend Sean Crouch’s (writer/producer for Numb3rs and Veronica Mars) TV projects. http://jonathantiersten.com/

BGHF: Thanks again, Jonathan!

You can, also, keep up with all the bloody activity at The Perfect House @ http://www.facebook.com/ThePerfectHouseMovie.

And until next time – Sweet love and pink Grue, Big Gay Horror Fan

Whenever Big Gay Horror Fan gets lonely for the western backwoods that he grew up in (which is, frankly, kind of never), all I have to do is throw on an inbred, dusty hatchet fest and voila – I am transferred back to those long lost days of spitball torture via the black tooth farm boys.

Part hick horror, part Hostel homage and part social commentary, Into the Lion’s Den’s primary strength just may be that it’s an actual gay horror film that doesn’t feature a cast of ex-porn stars playing smooth and love stressed vampires.

Well, this one does feature ex-reality star and Playgirl model Ronnie Kroell as the central focus of a trio of friends enjoying a sex fueled, emotionally exploratory road trip. But, Kroell displays a truly open presence here and, despite an awkward drunk sequence, he excels – especially in a vicious Camille Keaton “I Spit On Your Grave” revenge moment.

As Kroell’s sexually obsessive, ne’er do well best friend, actor Jesse Archer, also, supplies some skill. He, ultimately, reminds you of all the messed up, slightly charming bar boys with a destructive streak that you’ve crossed paths with in your life. It is Archer’s Johnny, who has been arranging internet tricks throughout their cross country journey, whom ultimately brings the three friends into captive danger. Rape, needle sharp penile injection and homophobic slander led the way when they cross paths with a twisted couple at a roadside tavern.

Of course, the film often belies its budget and has its share of clunky moments, but most of all it is sleazy fun with a vibrantly poetic edge (including a touching denouement) and like the great grind house flicks, such as Pets and Malibu High, has its share of kinky nudity. Here, though, of course, it is dick flopping action from the handsome cast that leads the charge as opposed to the breast popping antics of such drive in legends as the late great Candice Rialson.

Into the Lion’s Den is available from QC Cinema and Breaking Glass Pictures – www.breakingglasspictures.com.

Until next time – Sweet love and pink Grue (and avoid those bumpy, map-less country roads!), Big Gay Horror Fan

As Big Gay Horror Fan navigates the miles of insecurity that carpet his existence, a musical soundtrack has always proven to be essential. Thankfully, esteemed horror honey Jill Schoelen (The Stepfather, Popcorn, Cutting Class, Curse 2) has given the world the delicately lovely Kelly’s Smile, which highlights the delightful awkwardness of life and is a must-have for emotionally sensitive geeks (and non-geeks)everywhere!

Inspired by her friendship with the late costume designer Kelly Troup (Cutting Class), the daughter of esteemed musician Bobby Troup and smoky voiced singing icon Julie London (who, also, appeared in the terror fraught The Red Barn with Edward G. Robinson and the 1944 beast in the jungle flick Nabonga), Schoelen’s debut is full of skilled, vibrant musicianship and her trippingly light and joy filled vocals.

Featuring both the famed and more obscure tunes of the well regarded Mr. Troop; Schoelen brings a fuller sound to the gray velvet moan of “Cry Me A River”, London’s best known musical performance, and practically makes “Girl Talk” her own with a wave of dancing humor and straightforward city smarts in her voice. Like the best Tony nominated starlet, she brings a sense of character and comic intent to “Daddy” and obviously pours her heart into Troop’s fun n’ jazzy tribute to his daughter, “Kelly’s Smile”, recorded here for the first time.

Most importantly, any one feeling out of sorts with the world can find immediate identification in Schoelen’s understanding, salt and pepper vocals on such songs as “Just the Way I Am”, “You’re Looking at Me”, and “February Brings the Rain”, three of this intimate project’s very best cuts.

Kelly’s Smile is available for download on Amazon and ITunes and is that perfect last minute present for your favorite, sensitive fright loving fiend or as self gift to enjoy after the holidays are through with their wicked yet merry barraging.

Until the next time – Sweet love and pink Grue, Big Gay Horror Fan!!

How many times has Big Gay Horror Fan hoped to stumble upon a forbidden warehouse on New Year’s Eve and find some cutely smooth stud, waiting within, to seduce me? Well, honestly, never. But the thought did cross my mind after watching Derek Quint’s beguiling short, Second Star.

In Second Star, two transient youths, fighting their way to warmer climes, run into a mysterious benefactress of sorts on a subway tunnel. Accepting an invitation to spend the evening with her, they soon find themselves locked into a willowy game of seduction and intrigue.

Writer-director Quint creates a moody dreamscape, here, with seemingly no budget. Images of fairy tales, elusive realities and those creepy party scenes from Rosemary’s Baby and Midnight Cowboy enter one’s mind upon viewing. Most importantly, Quint makes you wonder what really goes on in the dream world of those forced onto the streets for survival, making Second Star a sociological statement as well as an artistic one.

Featuring a solid cast, with BGHF favorite Heather Dorff (What They Say, Afraid of Sunrise, Mother’s Blood) and the truly delicious Andrew Bochniak making indelible appearances as a pair of glittery masked wraiths, Second Star also features some story driven boy on boy action – a true holiday gift to the guys like me and the girls who love them, everywhere!

Check out Second Star at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asyn43kBvuM&noredirect=1

And for more information on Quint and Addovolt Productions be sure to visit http://addovolt.blogspot.com/2010/11/second-star-short-film.html, as well!

Until next time, Sweet love and pink Grue, Big Gay Horror Fan!

There is nothing Big Gay Horror Fan loves more than when the Golden Ladies of stage and screen sharpen up their claws and start digging around in the fertile soil of terror. Watching regal Patricia Morison (best known for Broadway’s Kiss Me Kate) weave a confused Lon Chaney Jr. into her twisted web in Calling Dr. Death (1943) – pure heaven. Dorothy Lamour (famed from the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby Road comedies) warning a frightened Kate Jackson away from a pink yet purloined palace in Death at Love House (1976)– oh, just sigh! Watching the beloved star of theatrical classics such as The Unsinkable Molly Brown and High Spirits shill monstrous treats or encourage a young woman to sacrifice herself to the frozen gods of anger – oh, my, oh – hand me that napkin now, please!

Like an eccentric, pulse raising Catwoman fused with a dramatic West End socialite, actress Tammy Grimes (who was actually born in Massachusetts) is one of the more unique artists to appear in the last century. Best known for her stage roles (resulting in two Tony awards), Grimes also appeared in a couple horror productions that are as unique as her curiously clipped British coated accent.

The Horror at 37,000 Feet. In this bizarre 1973 horror-disaster relic, Grimes plays Mrs. Pinder, a dog loving preservation advocate. Coming at Roy Thinnes (Satan’s School for Girls among others) with a furious petulance for removing a centuries old relic from his wife’s inherited estate, Grimes is both beautiful and creepy. Soon, we see why Grimes is so upset when the Druids trapped in the artifact soon weave a wicked wave of paranoia and frosty death throughout the plane.

This flighty feast is armed with an amazing cast including square jawed Western king Chuck Conners (Tourist Trap, Summer Camp Nightmare), a hysterical William Shatner (reliving his Twilight Zone days), distinguished Paul Winfield (Serpent and the Rainbow, White Dog), Russell Johnson (Gilligan’s Island, Attack of the Crab Monsters) and beautiful yet doomed soap actress Brenda Benet (who, tragically, killed herself after the death of her young son with the Incredible Hulk’s Bill Bixby).

Even with a truly bizarre scene where the terrified passengers adorn a crying child’s doll with make-up, human hair and fingernails to try to appease the body hungry spirits, Grimes stands out here with her strange mannerisms and heartfelt passion, ultimately making The Horror at 37,000 Feet a truly interesting television horror.

The Stuff. In Larry Cohen’s 1985 gooey anti-consumerism monster piece, Grimes plays herself in a hilariously odd commercial for the latest (deadly) dessert treat, The Stuff. Here, Grimes purrs with enough Eartha Kitt sensuality to make it seem like the product will not only appease your appetite but your every carnal desire, as well. Yum!

Grimes real life has been as noteworthy as her films, as well. Attacked by white radicals when her friendship with Sammy Davis Jr. was highly publicized in 1965, she also has been noted as the original choice to play Samantha on the popular Bewitched series. Her multiple marriage partners include respected actor Christopher Plummer (Starcrash, The Clown at Midnight) and Jeremy Slate (multiple Elvis Presley and biker flicks) and she was reportedly fired from a Neil Simon comedy in 1983 for an inability to remember her lines.

Lastly, if any one doubts that a ‘Broadway Baby’ knows the more gothic side of life, intimately, one need only to listen to her spookily string plucked version of “Tom Dooley” on The Unmistakable Tammy Grimes CD. Her vocal take on the doomed thoughts of the song’s title character are soft, smoky and knowledgably chilling.

So, until next time – Sweet love and pink Grue, Big Gay Horror Fan

The nuns always used to scare Big Gay Horror Fan as a kid. The nuns – and Amish women. And, yes, smart asses, there is a difference. But, now it looks like I should have really been running from a different source of religiosity. Author-director-actress Lia Scott Price has created a new kind of horror being with a deliciously demented take on guardian angels. Her website is chock full of links to free stories and videos filled with the emotional angst and devious doings of those long regarded as supreme protectors and is worth a scabrous halo’s worth of your time @ www.liascottprice.com.

Deliciously demented writer-producer Tammy Dupal, meanwhile, envisions a gut ripping fate for a chronic cell phone user in Twisted Central’s first video short X Marks the Spot. Accented by Deann Baker’s truly creep inducing score and surprisingly professional performances, particularly from Melissa Revels as the sweetly sassy Chloe and the absolutely pulse raising (yet strangely sexy) Ty Yeager, this short is a step above the norm in execution and leaves viewers imagining the same horrific fate for their favorite app obsessed companions. Check it @: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2HcIc4gCvo&feature=youtu.be.

Meanwhile, outrageously provocative filmmaker Kevin Strange has turned to the written word as his latest creative outlet. His original chapbook The Planet Backwards Plays One Last Gig is a juicily well written look at what happens when one down and out band misinterprets a spookily shared dream and helps bring about a monster licked apocalypse. Inspired by the writings of Lovecraft while retaining a hardcore uniqueness, this fast read is hedonistically bloody yet full of compassionate heart. Despite their overriding foibles, Strange’s characters have a loveable glow about them and you follow them, joyfully, from one glisteningly strewn body part to another.

Be sure to keep up with Strange and his deliciously chunk strewn world at http://www.facebook.com/pages/StrangeHouse/306023866090135?sk=wall.

Echoing Strange’s footsteps, a bevy of twisted n talented playwrights will be competing for 2011’s Bloody Axe at Wildclaw Theatre’s annual Deathscribe contest on Monday, December 3rd in Chicago at the Mayne Stage in Rogers Park. This year’s entries include • Falling Apart, written by Matthew George, directed by Audrey Francis (Pine Box Theatre, Black Box Acting Studio) • Dark Muse, written by Colin Johnson, directed by Kimberly Senior (Strawdog Theatre, Next Theatre, Steppenwolf)• Alabama Mermaid, written by Jessica Wright Buha, directed Carolyn Hoerdemann (Court Theatre, DePaul University)• Legacy, written by Christopher Hainsworth, directed by Carolyn Klein (Seanachai Theatre, Deathscribe 2010)• Entity, written by Thomas J. Misuraca, directed by Manny Tamayo (Factory Theatre).

If that isn’t mind blowing enough – Ora Jones (“Wendy” from Prison Break), The Theatre School’s flexibly brilliant Julia Neary, special effects maverick J. Anthony Kosar (whose Toby creature mask for Satanic Panic was profiled in Fangoria #287), myself (yes, the Big Gay Horror Fan) and so many other cool folks will be on hand as judges for the event.

More information on Deathscribe 2011 and WildClaw, who specialize in horror based theatre, can be drilled (in the head) @ www.wildclawtheatre.com!

And until next time – Sweet love and pink Grue, Big Gay Horror Fan!

There are beasts living in Big Gay Horror Fan’s building! And I am not talking about the mysterious couple, next door, who slither about the hall at all hours of the morning or even the moon eyed drunk who catatonically thrashes out of the elevator whenever I happen to try to use it! No, I am talking about the giant towers of rats that reside in the garage dump inside the alley entrance. This is the entrance that I have to use to because I am a biker and can’t take my favorite form of transportation through the building’s front door. Suck as that may, this situation is actually a perfect example of how the world really works. Help save on fossil fuels and your nightly reward is flea ridden fiends scattering about your feet! And no!  I am not talking about my last three dates, assholes. (Pf-f-f-t.  I haven’t had a date in years!)

Pathetic as that admission may be, I still feel I am far luckier than Nightmare on Elm Street honey Lisa Wilcox and genre icon Martin Kove. In their recent release Savage these two not only have to battle costume nightmares (Wilcox = a pregnancy pad while Kove, a long way off from sporting white, crotch beckoning shorts in 1982’s Blood Tide, has to contend with filthy jeans and rotting teeth) but a savage, tree bopping Bigfoot monster, as well!!

Seeing as I dig gigantic, gooping wads of cheese far more than any of my favorite gutter dwellers, I actually kind of got a bit sweet on my Savage. (Or – could it be because of those three years without any physical contact?!? H-m-m-m… well, maybe with a little Nair? Nah.) Back on point: With Savage, naturally you get your stock characters – the bedraggled local (Kove), the eager scientist, the repentant murderous criminal (here a sexy young woman who – spoiler – in one of the film’s thrillingly anticipated moments, ultimately, sacrifices herself to pay for her sins) and, lastly, the proud, upstanding officer and his devoted, pregnant wife (Wilcox). Most importantly – you, also, get an honest monster in a suit, as well! This ‘Mister All Knawing on Human Flesh and Stuff’ isn’t the most real looking beastie you’ve seen in your life, but it is better than CGI any day of the week, thank you!

There are also several truly thrilling sequences where our Yeti bounds through the forest with swinging passion, knocking past trees and wood life with such rage filled abandon, that I almost needed to grab my blonde defibrillator just to revive myself. These chase sequences are filmed with heat and passion by director, Jordan Blum, and are worth the price of your ape seat alone.

Now, to save you from edge of your seat wondering: Is Savage great art? Nah. But, it sure is a heck of a lot of fun!

Savage is currently growling, furiously, throughout your favorite rental palace, courtesy of MTI Video. Check them out at http://www.facebook.com/mtihomevideo  and —

Until next time – Sweet love and pink Grue, Big Gay Horror Fan

It’s autumn, again (albeit a miserably damp one), which almost always appeals to Big Gay Horror Fan’s more subtle, romantic side. So, the horrors I’ve been drawn to of late have definitely been of the more ‘Ella Fitzgerald in a smoky jazz club followed by a cardigan bundled walk in the park’ variety.

Still, for all who think 1942’s I Married Witch is just a silly piece of old fashioned froth with no roots in true terror – prepare to be surprised as I was. Granted, this smoky piece of cinema’s true charms lies in its Katherine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy war of the sexes’ comparisons.  But there is plenty of charming Halloween boogedy, boogedy to found here, as well. Released as a wave of silken fog from her hilltop prison, soon to be silvery blonde witch Jennifer immediately begins seeking romantic revenge on the descendant of the pilgrim who had sentenced her to death, hundreds of years before. Forming a stunning corporal body from the flames of a hotel fire, Jennifer makes up for lost time by exploding sexily through the skies on a broom, riding up stairway banisters in reverse and, with the help of her gleefully demented warlock father, devising a love potion to enslave her target to her forever.  The plot twist in which Jennifer, herself, swallows the elixir turns the tale into unfortunate reverse feminism mode, but clues the viewer into the original basis for such future projects as Bell, Book and Candle and the beloved television show, Bewitched.

As Jennifer, Veronica Lake is pure celluloid magnificence, and at 4’ 11’, looks like the true embodiment of a living doll. Her physicality, though, makes the 25 year age difference between Lake (born 1922) and co-star Frederic March (born 1897) all the more glaring, though. Apparently, feeling that March treated her like dirt, Lake found plenty of time to play jokes on him, on set. Although, when she wasn’t rubbing his crotch with her foot while the cameras were focusing on his face or rigging her body with weights for scenes where he carried her, the two rarely spoke. This vast canyon in experience, also, supplies I Married a Witch with a crystal clear stance on the sexist ageism of Hollywood, as well. Would the powers-that-be have ever considered pairing character actress Clara “Aunt Em” Blandick (born 1880) with swashbuckler Tyrone Power (born 1914) in a gothic romantic comedy? Hell, I might as well ask if BGHF will ever get to help Dylan McDermott prep for his nude scenes in American Horror Story. And we all know the answer to that one! (And if you don’t know, I’m not telling!)

But despite its constrictions (including casting red hot Susan Hayward, whose sexuality smolders despite her earnest efforts to tame it, as March’s repressed fiancé) I Married a Witch ultimately proves itself to be a delightfully misty classic. Interestingly, the lingering horror of the true fate of the Salem witches, which is touched upon in the film’s opening, gives it a palpably haunting atmosphere, as well.

As for the transcendent Lake, despite a number of classics (Sullivan’s Travels, This Gun For Hire), she found herself dumped in mediocre fare for most of her career and all but disappeared from Hollywood productions by early 1950’s. Struggling with alcoholism, she executive produced and starred in a Floridian based drive-in shocker, Flesh Feast, in 1970. (Though, online sources claim the film was actually shot in 1967.) While, her strong work as Dr. Elaine Frederick may be a fitting farewell performance for terror nuts everywhere, it is indeed a true horror that she lost her life to hepatitis complications, a few years later, at the very young age of 50.

Meanwhile, a modern production with golden age glint emphasizes some of the struggles that Lake must have experienced in her own career. Peilin Kuo’s short feature Prescott Place is a visual feast for lovers of strong 1940’s women’s films, Douglas Sirk melodramas and the richly gothic horrors that graced the screen in the 50’s (including Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte and the ilk). Chronicling the crazed illusions of a masked, former Hollywood queen, this highly acclaimed production features a passionate performance from Alexis Iacono and one of the creepiest talking dolls this side of Dead of Night.

Most clearly reminiscent of Sunset Boulevard, Iacono’s Jane Prescott has been long neglected career-wise and romantically abandoned, as well. When an age old lover finally returns to her arms, Prescott finally releases all hope for a normal life by locking him away with her only companion, a doll that strangely bares her likeness. Obscure, yet rich with recognizable emotion, Kuo and Iacono have created a highly original piece with Prescott Place.

More information on Prescott Place can be gathered at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prescott-Place/160089877344149 or at www.prescottplacemovie.com !

And until next time –

Sweet love and pink Grue, Big Gay Horror Fan!

Acclaimed as a writer and designer in her own right, Victoria Price, the daughter of horror legend Vincent Price, has been spreading the word of her father’s magnanimous artistic spirit throughout the many Vincentennial celebrations that have been,  lovingly, cropping up the past year, in honor of the late icon’s 100^th birthday. (Price will be appearing in Chicago for one such event on Sunday, October 30^th at 2pm at the Portage Theater – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=163103617107401.) The openly gay Price took a few minutes to talk about her father’s contribution to the world, beyond the cobwebbed tiers of horror, in this engaging chat with Big Gay Horror Fan.

Big Gay Horror Fan: I saw Lucie Arnaz on the Oprah show, years ago, promoting scrapbook software involving her parents’ legacy. She claimed it never entered her mind that she would become the archivist of her parent’s memories. Did you have a similar reaction as the daughter of Vincent Price?

Victoria Price: Both Lucy and Lucie were good friends of our family growing up. And, yes, like Lucie I became an ‘archivist’, as it were, completely by accident. When he was bedridden, toward the end of his life, all of my friends kept telling me that I should work on a book about art with my father.  I kept on telling them he won’t say yes, but I barely got the words book and art out and he said, “Yes!” I think it was his way to get close to me, again, because my stepmother had kept us apart for so many years.  I had a fulltime job where I got my afternoons free, specifically so I could write. So, I spent 9 months, 3 afternoons a week, lying on his bed with him and talking about art. Now, I think the last person that should write a book about a parent is his child. You just don’t have any fair sense of bias. But, no publishers were interested in a book about art and I wanted the world to know about my father’s contribution to that world. So, that is how Vincent Price: A Daughter’s Biography came about. As for the talks I have been giving at the Vincentennial events, there are any number of people who could celebrate the horror movies and probably 100’s who could do it better than I could. What I focus on is how passionate my father was about living. He was generous beyond belief and truly encouraged people to live their lives to the fullest.  That is an amazing message that I can impart to people and the true essence of who my father was.

BGHF: So, divorcing from the horror a bit, do you have a favorite film role of your father’s from across the many spectrums he performed in?

VP: Well, it’s not a film. It’s a play and it should work wonderfully for the readers of Big Gay Horror Fan! My father was playing Oscar Wilde in a one man show called Diversions and Delights in San Francisco in 1977. I was 15 years old and Anita Bryant was at the height of her anti-gay hate campaign. So, there she was on her bigoted soapbox and here was my father in San Francisco doing this play. My father was the bridge between the gay world and the straight going theater public and he loved it! And as an actor, he went to these heights that I didn’t know he was capable of and perhaps that he didn’t know he was capable of himself. The play took place toward the end of Wilde’s life, after he had been and jail and was penniless. The basis was that Wilde was giving a lecture in Paris under an assumed name, because he was still so controversial that he couldn’t be booked under his own name. The first act was funny and full of the recognized Wilde witticisms. The second act got much more poignant and was full of Wilde’s heartbreak over the loss of Bosie. My father was just magnificent in it and got incredible reviews.

BGHF: I wish I could have seen that. I was actually very surprised to learn of the rumors surrounding your dad’s sexuality, though.

VP: Well, my stepmother Coral Browne was bi-sexual and I think she and my dad delighted in being the anti-thesis of say John Wayne and his wife. They would have probably been tickled by such wonderings, perhaps even encouraged them. Have you read the article I wrote in the Advocate about this?

BGHF: Yes, it’s a great piece of writing and I’ll include the link, here.

http://www.vincentprice.org/bios/article.html

VP: So, I don’t think such speculation would have bothered my father at all. He was simply without judgment and very supportive of gay causes. He would have loved your Big Gay Horror Fan column!

BGHF: Wow! That was the sound of my knees buckling in delight and a ringing endorsement if I’ve ever gotten one! Thanks so much, Victoria. I look forward to meeting you in Chicago.