When Big Gay Horror Fan wakes up screaming in the night because he believes that his body has sprouted copious amounts of fur (a la Chaney Jr.) or is covered in stinking rolls of yellowed bandages (courtesy of reruns of Karloff’s The Mummy), it only brings home the favored fact that we horror fans truly relate to our mutant, eternally haunted and often misunderstood monsters.

Maniac Films latest production, Sloppy the Psychotic, acknowledges this emotional bond while, also, bringing on the twisted humor and unrepentant bloodshed that made their first film, Deadly Detour, such an enjoyable horror ride.

When man-child Mike (understatedly played by co-writer and director Mike O’Mahony) is fired from his job (and life long passion) as a professional clown due to a moment of passionate defense, his world soon unravels. Sex partners, wisdom spewing bums, cocky bosses and eventually a yard full of birthday partiers fall prey to his murderous impulses in shockingly fun displays.

All along this entertainingly chopping ride, though, O’Mahony allows our lonely inner geeks to surface upon, and ultimately truly relate to, Sloppy while allowing our most demented fantasies some filmic reality, as well. Who hasn’t wanted to eviserate (or, at the very least, take a piss on the chair of) a miserably tyrannical employer – or take a gun, gangland style, to a continually screeching child in a restaurant? Here, those darkest wishes come to hilarious life.

In fact, in Sloppy’s most vulgar massacre, everything that is special about Maniac Films comes to bloody light. (SPOILER ALERT). With total disregard for correctness of any kind, O’Mahony and crew slaughter the  participants of a family birthday party with poisonous glee. Children are done away with as heinously as the adults, resulting in a spectacle that rivals the violent antics of the Road Runner cartoons. The sight of a squealing child thrown onto and then entombed in a fired up grill still gives my giggle machine a start every now and then – proving that O’Mahony and Maniac Films are serious contenders in the world of transgressive horror.

To follow the adventures of Sloppy as he travels the convention and film festival circuit, check out:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sloppy-the-Psychotic/146088812136075

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

Big Gay Horror Fan used to dance around his teenage bedroom to such alternative stalwarts as Patti Smith, the Psychedelic Furs and Warren Zevon, imagining life on the verge and supposedly shunning gay stereotypes forever. For Judy Garland, despite her awesome 1939 rendezvous amongst evil flying monkeys and a psychotic green witch, was for bitter drag queens and vengeful alcoholics and Joan Crawford and Bette Davis – even in their hag horror prime – well, the dogs could chew, mightily, on all their ragged celluloid bits, thank you very much! But, as I am entering my own frayed (yet still hopeful) dowager stage, I am finally beginning to understand and fully embrace what were, perhaps narrowly, referred to as the women’s pictures of old.

Now, there is something totally thrilling and gothicly horrific to me about the desperate, murderous measures a still regal Bette Davis descends to in 1946’s opera-esque Deception. (This rich gem, also, features a gloriously elegant turn from The Invisible Man‘s Claude Rains that is worth the price of your soiled panties, as well!)

More specifically, I can also relate to the mind burned dreamer played by Linda Darnell in the much less known This Is My Love from 1954. Living with a vengeful cripple and a glamorous sister, Darnell’s Vida Dove spends her days composing over the top romantic novels while subscribing to a lackluster romance with a devoted blue collar local yokel. Too shy to fully succumb to the advances of handsome stranger, Vida realizes he is her fantasy ideal just as he catches his eye on her luscious sibling and Dove’s world is torn asunder.

Darnell , who was menaced by esteemed heavy Laird Cregar in 1945’s Hanover Square and survived several surprisingly vicious yet imaginative murders at the hands of Rex Harrison in 1948’s Unfaithfully Yours, was still a star when This is My Love went into production but her glory was on the wane. Co-star Rick Jason, a strongly handsome and extremely masculine charmer, was grateful to get the okay from Darnell to appear opposite her and found her charming and beautiful throughout the shoot. Unfortunately, in a recent interview, Jason revealed that the script was often reworked, if not completely thrown out, and that it, ultimately, did not set the box office on fire effectively ending Darnell’s top tier reign. (Although, she did go on to give Karen Black some skilled airport training by playing a pilot’s wife who is forced to take over the controls of a plane in fun 1957 disaster epic Zero Hour.)

The idiosyncratic nature of This is My Love’s script is most felt by the strong change of heart Jason’s character has towards Darnell’s. In the first half he seems too enamored of her to treat her with the callous, manipulative disregard that he sends her way in the second half. Yet, these harsh actions draw us into Vida’s world and make Darnell a recognizable character to the wounded heart of gay men everywhere. Ridiculed consistently by those closest to her, we follow Darnell’s dark path to poison and still love her despite the crimes she eventually commits. In fact, the tangled emotionality that heroines such as Darnell’s produce ultimately provides an alchemy that, while not versed in traditional notions of horror, find much in common with the writing of the Brontës (considered the original horror queens in some literary circles)and Daphne Do Maurier and the more subtly scary films of Hitchcock.

That the film features genre regular Faith Domergue (The House of Seven Corpses, Legacy of Blood, Cult of the Cobra, It Came From Beneath the Sea) as Darnell’s lusty sister is the dark cherry on top of a very crimson cake.

1970’s Tam-Lin (AKA The Devil’s Widow and other various titles) is another rare film featuring a murderous damsel at the helm. A still gorgeous, grandly draped Ava Gardner plays Michaela Cazaret, a mysterious and wealthy woman who surrounds herself with a cult of young mods wherever she settles. When her young lover, played by Ian McShane, falls in love with a sweet local girl, it is soon established that all of Michaela’s swains have met a very deadly end when their eyes (and other rigid body parts) have gone wondering.

Here a Shelley-Byron esthetic mixes with swinging 60’s culture, modest folk balladry and taut horror (particularly in a gruelingly beautiful final act that features McShane being hunted through a swampy grove by Gardner’s drugged and vengeful followers).
Directed with a knowing wink and leveled skill by iconic Roddy McDowall (who seems to place an exaggerated version of himself in the film via Cyril Cusack’s loyal helper), Tam-Lin also features British horror queens Stephanie Beacham (Dracula A.D. 1972, Now the Screaming Starts, Horror Planet, The Nightcomers) and Joanna Lumley (The Satanic Rites of Dracula, The Corpse Bride).

You can catch a peek of the magic of Tam-Lin at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8NGI0lFxOo

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

Growing up, Big Gay Horror Fan never got over the fact that my younger sister insisted on naming the black cat she got, one Christmas morning, “Midnight” as opposed to something totally cool and much less obvious as – say, “Vincent Price” or “Karloff-as-the-Monster!”! Now, all these years later, the pussies are coming back to haunt me, in the most delightful way, with Lonnie Martin’s smart and sassy horror short Cougars.

Chronicling the teenage disgust that bright student Sasha feels over her sexy mother’s constant bedding down with younger men, Cougars plays with adolescent angst and the humorous potential of its title with a finely tuned sense of awkward sexuality and comedy that soon turns into smoky found liberation. Highlighted by the expressive brown eyes of Rebecca Hausman as Sasha, director Martin’s beautifully shot 15 minute scenario reminds one of such classics as Cat People and recent indie phenomenon Teeth while remaining its own beast, entirely.

Currently entering the festival circuit, this Ningen Manga production, also, features fine performances from Kendra North as Sasha’s rebelliously sexy, extremely youthful mother and Charlie Dreizen as Stuart, the confused teenage boy who finds himself in face-to-claw with the pair’s predatory nature.

To get a peek into the world of Cougars, check out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jML8FiFcxw

As always, Sweet love and pink Grue, Big Gay Horror Fan

And, until next time, make sure to avoid immediate contact with any purring Nastassja Kinski look-a-likes!

On Valentine’s Day, the only sweet thing that Big Gay Horror Fan was craving was nutella crepes, so off I went to the local all night diner. Unfortunately, the most memorable part of the whole evening was not the sticky calories I consumed, but the fact that my young waiter kept calling me ‘sir’ with a tone that lingered somewhere between deep respect and quietude. Well, I’ve long learned that feeling 22 and looking 22 are completely different matters – but this kid’s reverence was still a bit much!

Interestingly, Tad, the young lead of Lee Allen Howard’s visceral short horror story Stray views his momentary, 30ish savior in much the same light as my twink server viewed me — although, a bit more bitterly. Which is understandable as the battered Tad believes he is going to have to trick with his companion for bus fare. Of course, what Tad ultimately finds is definitely a bit more animalistic and crueler than some bruised knees and a sore jaw.

Howard’s descriptions of the sour, predatory apartment that Tad is taken to have true moments of brilliance and the erotic bloodshed he depicts is quite original, as well. In fact, Stray leaves one wondering what Howard could do with a longer work of fiction and more opportunity to develop his characters, which is a true highlight of the story’s overall impact and its forceful yet poetic ending.

Stray is available, cheaply (and occasionally offered up for free), in a Kindle edition on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Stray-ebook/dp/B0059BWDEQ/

You can, also, discover more about the inventive Howard at:

www.leeallenhoward.com

Meanwhile, another respected gay author, Owen Keehnen (the Starz series, Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow) is offering his acclaimed debut horror novel Doorway Unto Darkness at half off its cover price of $15. Exploring the emotional torment (and the black humor involved therein) when a man begins to suspect that he’s a notorious serial killer, Doorway is a twisted, quickly enjoyable read.

In fact, I was lucky enough to interview Keehnen about the book and our mutual Karen Black obsession this past fall:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1mOW4_Oil4

To purchase a sale copy of Doorway Unto Darkness, you can contact Keehnen on Facebook or at owenkeehnen@yahoo.com.

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

There aren’t many people that Big Gay Horror Fan will risk losing his (almost) beauty sleep over, but the cool folks at 1901 Gallery Theatre in Chicago are so sweetly awesome that I am facing the terrifying prospect of losing quality z’s for their blood chilling Sleepover Cinema “The Wicked Winter Edition, taking place this Saturday, beginning at 8pm and going on until the wee, wee wicked hours.

In fact, I have been honored to be asked to co-host and will be presenting two retro terror flicks with some queer style content.

There can’t be anything stranger than truck driving mush mouthed Joe Dallesandro frolicking across bleak European landscapes in Paul Morrissey’s outrageous Blood for Dracula. There isn’t anything quite as beautiful, either, and Dallesandro definitely gives all the women and inclined gents plenty to look at in this bizarre and slippery feature.

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Frank Hennenlotter’s Brain Damage not only stars handsome (soon to be soap stud) Rick Hearst (Herbst) but also features a scene in a transient hotel with specific gay overtones. As Hearst spirals quickly downward, due to the brain sucking mechanisms of a creature named Elmer, he encounters a naked muscle man showering in the communal area of the desolate hotel he is hiding out in. The bicep ridden stud tells a nervous Hearst that he has nothing fear from him, obviously referencing that the area is a cruising ground for men – and, eventually, for  lovers of terror, as well.

So, here’s hoping that we can share these moments and more together this weekend – and if not then – soon!

And, as always, Sweet love and pink Grue – Big Gay Horror Fan

Big Gay Horror Fan has long thought his life truly began once he threw down his pom-poms and left all those brainless football players behind. That hard won victory is, also, shared by singer-actress-acclaimed choreographer Toni Basil. After the astounding success of the 1983 song and MTV video “Mickey”, in which Basil cavorted about like the world’s most buoyantly skilled cheerleader, our multi-hyphened sonic adventurer brought her flamboyant presence to two fairly obscure terror flicks, 1988’s Slaughterhouse Rock and 1990’s Rockula. Basil, who had previously played roles in such classics as Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces, was not offered challenging roles in either of these pieces, but her vivaciousness stands front and center in both.

1988’s Slaughterhouse Rock is a low budget horror effort with a charmingly ridiculous premise ultimately marred by its visual blandness (even Playboy model Hope Marie Carlton who brightened up such projects as A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Dream Warriors, Slumber Party Massacre 3 and Ghoulies 3: Ghoulies Go to College comes off as innocuously drab here) .

A handful of friends take off for the abandoned Alcatraz prison (where the flick was actually filmed) because of one of the group’s supernaturally enhanced nightmares. Easily accessing the hard boiled compound (the one guard is later found dead), the friends are soon separated from their beleaguered leader who finds himself face to face with Basil’s undead pop star, Sammy Mitchell. Mitchell, of course, is the person responsible for his ghost flecked nighttime anxiety and ultimately leaves him with a special musical present in the film’s cute denouement. (Although, Basil, herself, doesn’t sing until the film’s closing credits.)

Slaughterhouse Rock does feature music from Devo, one awesome head smashing murder and some handsome jock types (who all went on to some success in such prime time events as The Young Riders), but it is truly Basil’s show, as she fills all her scenes with quirky energy and flippant sass.

Basil brings those same qualities to Rockula, a film that definitely has more cult pleasure to offer than Slaughterhouse. Here Basil plays the eternally young, glamorously flamboyant mother of meek musician vampire Ralph, Summer School’s Dean Cameron. Doomed to watch his true love die every one hundred years, Ralph finally decides to step up to ‘bat’ and save her this go round. To win his songstress love away from her demented mentor, Ralph decides to become an instant pop music sensation, with the help of cult icon Susan Tyrell and legendary musician Bo Diddley, known as – you guessed it – Rockula.

Cameron eventually faces down a zealously demented Thomas Dolby (who apparently survived when the aliens ate his Buick) in a scene revolving around a cryogenic casket. Director Luca Bercovici (Ghoulies, Parasite, Convict 762) gives the film the gloss of the music video and seems to revel in the film’s rampant ridiculousness while Basil gets a vampy production number “The Night” which she performs in front of an uncomfortable Cameron and his baffled lady love, played by the luscious Tawny Fere – whom, like so many of our beloved genre babes, had a number of cult credits (Angel III: The Final Chapter, Under the Boardwalk, Convict 762) before quietly fading away.

Basil, though, is still at it – choreographing, advising and gloriously networking at www.tonibasil.net.

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