Shark Bait Retro Village: Children of the Night (1985)

Published November 15, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

A bit more serious in nature than many of the women-in-peril tele-flicks that populated the primetime airwaves, Children of the Night, first aired in the fall of 1985 on CBS. 

A fictionalized look at the life of Lois Lee, a doctoral student who founded the titular organization to help teen sex workers get off the streets, the dangers facing the young cast here are definitely nerve chilling. They hue closely to a sense of very grimy reality.

While rarely physically graphic, the screenplay here does talk of, and acutely show, the aftereffects of, the emotional, physical and sexual abuse the teens face. These are the circumstances that Lois, played by the reliable Kathleen Quinlan, is determined to save them from. Eventually forming a tight bond with the street-smart Valerie (Lar-Park Lincoln), Lee is soon housing her and other runaways. Facing off against a handsome pimp (Mario Van Peebles), she eventually gets through to Valerie, who as the credits start to roll, is shown joining her in her work.

As gritty as this exercise gets, there are still elements of TV Movie of the Week expectedness here. In the last arc, Quinlan’s journey to a darkened crack house is full of horror film jump scares. The script also doesn’t allow Peebles, who gives his Roy Spanish a quietly intense hue of evil, much leeway. Thus, Spanish is reminiscent of many of the smooth-talking villains that were seen on shows of that era like TJ Hooker and Matt Houston. 

But horror fans, in particular, will be thrilled that The New Blood‘s Lincoln, who sadly passed away from breast cancer in 2025, gives a nervy, full-bodied performance here. It is probably one of the best roles that she received in her Hollywood career and she, proudly, executes all the varied tones and stumbling triumphs of the young girl that she plays. Nicely, Marta Kober, another Friday the 13th film series veteran, provides a true sense of lived-in sass in the smaller role of Linda, as well. 

Indeed, the cast as a whole, including Nicholas Campbell (The Hitchhiker) as Lee’s devoted yet wavering boyfriend, has a sparkling sense of genre pedigree. Quinlan has appeared in everything from the apocalyptic disaster-horror Warning Sign to the 2006 reimagining of The Hills Have Eyes. Peebles, meanwhile, has lit up the cinemas in such cult oddities as Jaws: The Revenge and the cult werewolf flick Full Eclipse. 

Importantly, for those who chronicle the rise of LGBTQIA representation in media, the trio of screenwriters (William Wood, Vickie Patik, Robert Guenette) give a full sense of expressiveness to Marty, the gay hustler that Lois takes in. Painted as both razor sharp and exceedingly vulnerable, actor David Crowley takes this wise and human material and brings it to full, blood flowing life. In that era, when our community was still being painted, on shows such as The Streets of San Francisco and Matlock, as schizophrenic cross dressers, this well-rounded portrait is a rare and important thing.

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

Flashback Interview: Debbie Gibson

Published November 8, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

Often as a journalist, particularly with online pieces, you discover that your writing has been archived or has vanished completely. Thus, I thought it might be fun to, occasionally, revisit some of my favorite work that was done for other publications. The below interview with the iconic Debbie Gibson was conducted for the Horror Society site in 2009. As the fall of 2025 saw the release of her truly inspiring memoir Eternally Electric, now seems the perfect time to revisit this sparkly blast from the past. First released in conjunction with this maverick singer-songwriter’s leading role in the initial Mega Shark film for the Asylum/Sy Fy Network, it is a joy to discover how present and exciting this quick interview still seems. 

There are probably few people as unique as Debbie Gibson. As a teen, she wrote, composed and produced a wide range of top charting, unforgettable pop hits. Then refusing to accept the teeny bopping princess pigeonhole of a one faced music industry, Gibson slowly began to conquer the theatrical stage with a series of compelling appearances in popular Broadway shows and touring companies. Now, combining all of the above activities with her social activism (with particular concern given toward the security of female youth) and movie appearances (including roles in the horror-comedy Soulkeeper and in the deliriously fun sci-fi scare epic Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus), Gibson is entering a new era of entertaining with a renewed enthusiasm and a grand sense of humor. Thankfully, Gibson recently took time out of her busy schedule to answer some electric questions for Horror Society. Rest assured that once you’re through reading, it is bloody well guaranteed that just like everyone else who encounters her, you’ll never be able to shake your love for the grand and ever eclectic Debbie Gibson!

Brian: Who were your first performance influences – Barbra Streisand commanding that there be no rain – David Bowie showing off his blue jeans – A trumpet playing, tap dancing aunt?

Debbie: Babs for sure! Hello gorgeous!

Brian: Back at you! LOL! -One of the things that I am really curious about deals with performance. As an actress do you approach a song the same way as you do a role – i.e. create a character – or do different things apply due to the circumstance-at-hand?

Debbie: Great question! Sometimes I’m naturally going through something in my life that applies and emotions just flow. Other times, I get into character. It’s easier when I’m performing a theater role I’ve done 8 times a week because it’s like sense memory – I hear the intro and I’m back in the character’s shoes so to speak!

Brian: Naturally! – Having conquered so many different show business avenues, is there a type of character that you prefer to play – the waif, the strong determined ingénue, the woman of the world who can ultimately save the world from fang-hungry disaster?

Debbie: My fave was Sally in Cabaret! I love her for her bravery and for the fact that she is totally unapologetic. She is who she is and has no edit button, no filter. The common thread between all characters I love to play is spirit and spunk. Everyone from Belle to Éponine to Rizzo to Velma had sassiness!

Brian: Very true. – What has surprised you as being relatively easy to achieve in your career and what was something that took you aback because it was much more difficult than anticipated?

Debbie: The “transition” into theater came naturally to me. It wasn’t “easy” but, it was effortless in the sense that it was a part of my history. What I didn’t anticipate as being difficult is the politics of the music biz. For instance, after “Summertime”, New Kids had no radio hits off their current album. And, there are 4 other smashes on it…..but, radio play can be next to impossible. This has always surprised me – that the music being great is not always why a song gets played. And, the flip side – there’s plenty of mediocre music on the radio!

Brian: Don’t we know it! – Now onto the horror! When performing in Soulkeeper did you find yourself longing to branch out and play one of the nasty beasties as opposed to just playing yourself? Or did your enjoyably humorous take on yourself qualify as fun enough for you?

Debbie: That was fun enough! I love doing tongue in cheek kitschy stuff where I get to mock my own image!

Brian: You do have a great sense of humor! Having done several films, is there one on-set experience that stands out in your mind as being unique and special?

Debbie: Working with Dom DeLuise in what was once called Wedding Band. He was genius.

Brian: Love him! He was so funny in Haunted Honeymoon! – How did you approach your role in Mega Shark? Did you spend a lot of time trying to get under the skin of your character or did you just decide to go for a very natural and honest approach without a lot of background work. (Both very legitimate options.)

Debbie: There was no time for background work! I got less than a week’s notice so; I just put tongue firmly in cheek and had fun!

Brian: Well, I think you did a great job! – What was the most unusual and/or enjoyable part of your time on the Mega Shark set?

Debbie: Working without ever seeing so much as a picture of the shark! Just reacting to nothing!

Brian: That’s definitely a tough one! – Now, do you find any fears you might have had of colossal bridge chomping beasts has been eased after your Mega Shark experience. Also, due to the tremendous interest in the film, do you think you would return for a sequel or for a similar project? 

Debbie: I’m now afraid more than ever to swim in the ocean! What if there’s a giant lobster? Seahorse? Speaking of…..I do hope there’s a sequel! Maybe I’ll go method this time and do some submarine training so I don’t look like I’m playing a video game when my hands are at the controls!

Brian: Debbie, thanks again! It’s been a thrill!

Gibson, of course, went on to appear in two other nature-wild extravaganzas – Mega Python Vs, Gatoroid (with Tiffany) and Mega Shark Vs. Mecha Shark. One of the early chapters of Eternally Electric also confirmed that she portrayed the birthday girl during one of Rick Moranis’ slapstick-charged scenes in the original Ghostbusters film. If she already wasn’t a legend…

http://www.debbiegibsonofficial.com

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Review: Babysitters Vs. Vamps

Published October 31, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

John Carpenter may have made babysitters fighting evil a classic horror trope with 1978’s Halloween, but young women have been banding together to confront monstrosities & other forms of injustice long before Michael Meyers was seared into our consciousness. Whether it was Irene Dunne & Jill Esmond trying to figure out who was targeting Thirteen Women in 1932 or Lee Remick & Stephanie Powers facing down a criminal mastermind in 1962’s Experiment in Terror, female empowerment in exploitation has been an entertaining must-have.

Nicely, in Babysitters Vs. Vamps, gay indie horror director-writer Brian Dorton focuses his tale around Lana (Scarlett Freeman) and Michelle (Cameron Dorton), two longtime best friends, who find themselves trying to outwit a body chopping cult in a small Southern town. Utilizing a quick running time and a sharp sense of humor, Dorton seemingly utilizes mostly local talent to create a fun and gory, feministic story here. Although nothing truly overt occurs, the gruesome gang at the center of the action is also decidedly bisexual, an important & diverse touch.

Documentary-style interviews, meanwhile, set the background. It seems something deadly has been brewing for years in this providence, with rumors swirling about a possible vampire cult. Unsurprisingly, it is one of the girls’ potential dates, an amorous young man, who leads Seth (Dorton) and his vicious crew to the house where the girls are ensconced for the weekend, watching over a newborn. Soon a nosy neighbor (Heather Harlow) and a potential hook-up are in Seth’s sights, with Lana and Michelle being prepped for his final course. 

Highlighted by some impressive splatter and gallons of spewing blood, Dorton brings a quiet menace to Seth, acting-wise, while Harlow, a blossoming indie horror queen, brings the surest sense of timing to the obnoxious antics of her overbearing Deena, making her performance a standout.

As with many micro-budget productions, audiences need to have a forgiving spirit with certain aspects, production-wise. It also may strike some as odd that the titular creatures share little of the expected bloodsucking attributes of their more famous kin, ultimately coming off as more Manson like than supernatural. 

Still, this is a solid example of the independent grit and artistic tenacity that it takes to make something fun and juicily violent out of very, very little.

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

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Second Look: The Eye

Published October 25, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

Almost inoffensively middle-of-the-road, The Eye, one of the countless remakes of popular Asian horror films that began to saturate the American celluloid landscape at the beginning of the 21st century, definitely has more to offer than its low critical rating & Razzie nomination might suggest. 

Centering around the nightmarish results of a corneal transplant given to a blind musician played by Jessica Alba, the film contains one truly great visual twist at it’s midpoint. Locked as we are in the assault of Trump’s prejudiced America, the story’s residual look at how women of color are treated, especially when they are saddled with a further sense of otherness, is surprisingly resonant, as well.

Alba, whose performance was widely mocked, is also much better here than might be anticipated. Visually lush in presence, she was seemingly made for the silver screen. But she also took this assignment seriously, studying for months with sight impaired adults. Thus, she gives her Sydney Wells a quiet legitimacy. 

She is anchored, cast-wise, by a young and bright Chloë Grace Moretz as a cancer-stricken youth. Parker Posey, meanwhile, as Sydney’s sister isn’t given much to do besides act protective, but she definitely adds glamour and pedigree to her all too brief scenes. Total Recall‘s Rachel Ticotin factors in, nicely, as well. Showing up, as other established talents like Betty Buckley and Faye Dunaway have done, in an explanatory cameo, she registers with professional pathos & helps lead the story to its bus burning climax.

DP Jeffrey Jur also adds some romanticism to the Pang Brothers’ original, fairly simple concept. With the determined nuance of a storyteller, he brings out all the rich fantasy inherent in Sydney’s career as a violinist in a major city. 

These small touches may make this quiet reimagining a perfect rainy-day sleeper for those who like their horror with a gauzy, understated quality. 

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

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Night Gallery Vamps: Diane Keaton

Published October 19, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

Sweetness and light sometimes mask untoward savagery. Thus, as a skilled purveyor of the harmless and quirky, the iconic Diane Keaton was the perfect choice to play a character with hidden layers.

While the prime example of this is probably her well thought out turn as the promiscuous schoolteacher in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, a wise producer took advantage of this celluloid anomaly earlier in her career, as well.

As the brisk and efficient Nurse Frances Nevins in A Room with a View, a first season episode of Night Gallery, Keaton initially is all soft eyes and the queen of modest answers for her prying, bedridden employer. But soon the crafty gent gets Nevins to admit to a history of jealousy and violent rages – especially when it concerns the hunky chauffeur who has promised to marry her. Knowing that his young and beautiful wife also has eyes for the man, the ailing codger sets up the unstable RN, allowing his darkest fantasies to come to life without even having to raise one finger. 

Keaton’s effortless friendliness plays well here, naturally, but she wisely adds a studied steeliness to her characterization as Nevins admits to her less than wholesome reactions when under emotional stress. She is also perfectly paired opposite Angel Tompkins’ less than faithful bride. Tompkins, known for her work in such exploitation and horror films as The Bees, Alligator and The Naked Cage, equals Keaton here with a duality of agreeability and sin. 

Assuredly, the horror environment was far from Keaton’s hallmark. But for fans of the genre, it is nice to know that she had one small credit in that field before her sad passing at the age of 79 in the fall of 2025.

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

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Nightmare 2 at Film Fetish Forum

Published October 16, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

This Saturday night, he’ll be inside us all!

For the third Halloween season in a row, I’ll be co-presenting movies with the amazing John McDevitt as part of the Film Fetish Forum at The Leather Archives and Museum in Chicago.

The selections this year, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 and From Beyond, couldn’t be gayer or kinkier and I’ll be sharing stories and curating a mini-A Nightmare 2 exhibit, featuring some of Mark Patton’s original artwork, as well.

Naturally, the theater at the Archive, filled with vintage gay erotica, is the perfect place to witness both films.

Further information is available below:

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 (1985) – Saturday, October 18 @ 7pm
Directed by Jack Sholder, USA, 87 mins
From Beyond (1986)
Directed by Stuart Gordon, Italy/USA, 86 mins
Co-Presented by Brian Kirst of Big Gay Horror Fan

TICKETING

Single Ticket: $10/General, or $8/LA&M Members & Students
Double Feature (Oct or Dec): $15/General, or $12/LA&M Members & Students
Season Pass: $100/General, or $80/LA&M Members & Students
Purchase your Single Tickets, Double Features, or Season Pass here
Must be 18 years of age or older.

Leather Archives & Museum, 6418 N Greenview Ave, Chicago, IL 60626

We hope to see every Midwest Krueger aficionado there!

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Horror, She Wrote: If the Frame Fits

Published October 14, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

As an episode filled with surprise twists, If The Frame Fits ended the second season of Murder, She Wrote on a bright spot. 

For twelve seasons, as true fans often lovingly joke about, Angela Lansbury’s Jessica Fletcher had an endless supply of friends and relatives. 

Here the action begins as she is coaching an old acquaintance, played by Norman Lloyd of Jaws of Satan (photo below), wherein Lucifer manifests himself into the body of a snake, with his mystery writing. Thankfully, the execrable task of analyzing his unpublishable scribblings is relieved when a crime is committed and Jessica is able to finally do what she does best – sleuth!

Norman Lloyd running from scaly hellspawn in Jaws of Satan

The list of suspects contains a bevy of television and film regulars. Chief among them is Deborah Adair’s Ellen Davis, an executive at a country club. Despite her professional appearance, Davis, Jessica eventually susses out, is having an affair with the victim’s husband. Her partner-in-cheating, Christopher Allport’s Donald Grainger also comes into range as he stood to inherit a huge life insurance policy upon his wife’s demise. John De Lancie’s quirky Binky. meanwhile, may have done it for the love of Ellen, whose feigned interest in him may have led him to a homicidal heart.

While the afore mentioned trio don’t have A Nightmare on Elm Street sequel or the like among their credits, they do have filmic fright alliances. Adair co-starred with television heartthrob Jack Scalia in The Rift (AKA Deadly Ascent– photo below), a water logged project about monstrous seaweed. Allport, meanwhile, memorably portrayed photog Freddy, who meets a grizzly end in the opening sequence of Gary Sherman’s Dead and Buried, a project that has developed a large cult following in the decades since its release. Lastly, De Lancie enacted the molesting Dr. Mott in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, one of the most popular thrillers of the early ’90s.

Perhaps most significantly, this entry in the ever popular detective show was helmed by Paul Lynch, a Canadian auteur whose credits include the original Prom Night (with Jamie Lee Curtis) and Humungous, a beast in the woods opus that ran perpetually on late night cable in the mid-80s. Which besides the lovely charms of the always affable Lansbury, might make this a real reason for fright fans to check this enjoyable early finale out.

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

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Halloween Retrospective: Innocent Blood

Published September 28, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

Like the divine Peggy Lee, who dominated the soundtrack of George Romero’s Monkey Shines, the iconic Frank Sinatra is given musical prominence in John Landis’ 1992 horror comedy Innocent Blood.

As the film revolves around a Mafioso powerhouse turned throat ripping vampire in the Little Italy neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Sinatra’s involvement was perhaps inevitable. Cannily, though, the producers include two numbers, That Old Black Magic & I’ve Got You Under My Skin, that echo, in fun and subtle ways, the supernatural mayhem that unfolds throughout this terror-stained romp. Thus, almost like the interludes used decades later in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, the tunes here add to the sense of fun and give viewers a nice feeling for the film’s time and place.

Unfortunately, upon it’s release, the project received middling reviews and even poorer box office results. While not perfect due to some odd pacing issues, there are still some amazing set pieces here, including ones stained by some mighty Steve Johnson effects.

Littered with cameos by the likes of Johnson and his then wife Linnea Quigley, who looks absolutely stunning in her brief sequence as a very surprised nurse, this project may ultimately be best known for hosting a cast of pre-The Sopranos regulars and for the joyous ways that character actor Robert Loggia and comedian Don Rickles rip into their characters, a duo of monstrous personalities turned literally monstrous by lead Anne Parillaud’s very Euro-like bite. 

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

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Va-Va-Villainess: Constance Dowling

Published September 24, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

Its the rare actress whose onscreen evilness makes even the eternally villainous Peter Lorre seem sympathetic. As Mavis Marlowe in 1946’s The Black Angel, Constance Dowling actually hits that mark again and again, creating a queen of mean for the celluloid ages.

A blackmailing torch song singer, Marlowe claims multiple victims in this black and white noir with stylish direction from Roy William Neill (Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, The Black Room). Nicely, Neill’s aesthetic here also includes encouraging Dowling to work with a flinty eyed haughtiness and a steely superiority. Whether verbally thrashing down a housekeeper or gleefully persecuting her ex-husband, Dowling’s Marlowe definitely gives the notorious women played by such genre fixtures as Barbara Stanwyck and Rhonda Fleming a run for their money.

Indeed, as mentioned above, even Lorre as Marko, a mysterious nightclub owner who is central to the plot here, comes off with a sympathetic aura due to this blatant femme fatale’s poisonous machinations.

Interestingly that same year, before she eventually left Hollywood for work in Italian films, Dowling essayed another sinister baddie in Boston Blackie and the Law. 

A return to the US found her embracing marriage and motherhood and leaving behind her performing career. Unfortunately, after years of seeming happiness, a heart attack at the age of 49 assured that she would make no onscreen comebacks. 

Still, the skillful viciousness with which she supplied Marlowe assures her a place in the history of dark cinema for all of time. 

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Sizzy Rocket

Published September 14, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

After proudly asserting her status as a queer artist in a Paper Magazine article in 2019, the hyperkinetic Sizzy Rocket released a duo of full-length pop-rock recordings – a great intro for her recent batch of aggressively fun singles and EPS. This bold artistic output has even proven to be a boon for episodic horror lovers.

Her song Spill my Guts decorated a confessional scene in the series version of I Know What You Did Last Summer. Her inclusion there seemed especially apt as several of the main characters in that slasher reboot were either gay or bisexual. Nicely that same year, another tune, Running with Scissors, embellished an episode of Locke and Key, the adaptation of the popular comic created by modern horror wunderkind Joe Hill.

Unapologetically sex positive and proud of her rebellious indie artist status, Rocket’s latest slab of sonic greatness, Kitten Teeth, was just released to streaming services this summer. The fact that she offers up a majestic cover of Nine Inch Nail’s Closer on it gives gothic and industrial enthusiasts, two music genres long associated with fright fans, something else to be very happy about, as well. 

Be sure to keep up with Rocket & her unwavering creative anarchy at http://www.instagram.com/sizzyrocket and http://www.sizzyrocket.com.

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

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