Ship of Ghouls

Published May 13, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

Time is strange, right? I know decades have flown by, yet it seems like it was just yesterday that I was watching the shows of my youth. This was a golden age for appearances by faded filmdom greats. Performers like June Allyson, Van Johnson and Joan Fontaine were my regular living room guests then. Now, these folks are long gone, never to do the overpriced photo op treatment at some local nostalgia festival. 

Yet they seem so near – a mere streaming service or DVD away.

I was especially reminded of this duality while watching Ship of Ghouls, the 1978 Halloween The Love Boat episode, centering around a famed illusionist referred to as The Great Alonso (the legendary Vincent Price). This segment of the show also featured the misty charms of three celluloid goddesses, Joan Blondell, as Alonzo’s devoted companion, and Iris Adrian and Bibi Osterwald, as his overly ardent fans.

Of course, Blondell’s loyalty is put to the test as Alonso begins to ignore her in deference to his newfound coterie of fawning females. Naturally, by the final credits, time and the show’s wise and ever present Captain Stubing (Gavin MacLoed) bring the estranged lovebirds back together again.

Otherwise, there is much to enjoy decoratively and costume-wise — dig Ted Lange’s Frankenstein’s Monster and that All-Star Pumpkin band – with this seasonal offering.

Interestingly, while Price is the horror giant here, his femme counterparts also have some macabre credits flitting, bat-like, among their filmographies. Blondell, by far the best known of the three, had major roles in Death at Love House and The Dead Don’t Die, well-regarded ’70s television films. Adrian, known for playing comedically inclined moll types in the ’40s, logged appearances in such classic capers as Horror Island, Bluebeard and (crime mystery) Lady of Burlesque. Osterwald, meanwhile, did latter day duty via guest appearances on such shows as Werewolf and Tales from the Crypt.

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

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Flashback Interview: Catherine Mary Stewart

Published May 6, 2024 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Often as a journalist, particularly with online pieces, you discover that your writing has been archived or has vanished completely.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 Catherine Mary Stewart was conducted at a Horror Hound event in the spring of 2010. Originally running on Horror Society’s site, this blast from the past seems as freshly contemporary to me as Stewart, herself.

As an actress, Catherine Mary Stewart has faced down juiced out zombies (Night of the Comet), sexy serial killers (Psychic) and intruders from space, both friendly (The Last Starfighter) and not so friendly (Nightflyers). But her professional beginnings as an actress on soap opera Days of Our Lives were just as scary – and there were no worlds gone wild or dead men named Bernie hanging around either!

“An hour show a day is difficult. My very first day on the set was humiliating. It’s my very first scene as Nurse Kayla Brady and I had to name every single character. I got everybody’s name wrong! Everyone was like, No – I’m Maggie and this is Hope!”

As for the most exciting thing that happened during her short tenure (1982-83) on the beloved soap?

(Laughing) “I lost my virginity to my brother! Josh Taylor was playing Chris Kositchek at the time and I lost my virginity to him. Now he’s back on the soap, playing Roman Brady, Kayla’s brother. So, I lost my virginity to my brother!”

Of course, after her stint on Days, Stewart became known to many horror and science fiction fans for her exemplar, tough as nails work in films such as Dudes and in the very popular, above mentioned films.

“Night of the Comet established me as a strong woman. And, let’s face it, this business is surface and one dimensional, so I got cast as more of a tomboy after that.”

But Stewart did find herself thrown into the occasional glamorous role on such mini-series events as Sins (with Joan Collins), the legendary Hollywood Wives and on the lighthearted, early ’90s attempt at a long running series, Hearts are Wild.

“You know, while I didn’t mind the idea of a steady gig, the character on Hearts Are Wild started out a lot darker. But…it turned into a commercial Love Boat type of thing.”

Darker emotions also played into one of Stewart’s first roles after her familial based hiatus. In 2007, she appeared in a supporting capacity in the horror film based on celebrated novelist Jack Ketchum’s book, The Girl Next Door.  (As many know, the central character, Ruth Chandler, tortures and abuses her young female ward.)

“The Girl Next Door gave me a lot of pause. They wanted me to read for the lead. I just couldn’t. I had to ask myself, Are you scared because it’s challenging? Finally, I decided yes, it’s challenging…but it’s just too tough. This was the movie to get back into it all and I just wanted to get the wheels turning. I did not want to play that part.”

Of course, since those tentative returning moments, Stewart, much to the delight of her ravenous fan base, has not only been working non-stop in film, but has been hitting the convention circuit and has set herself up a home base, not only on the web – http://www.catherinemarystewart.net -, but on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/catherinemarystewart -, as well. She’s also found an emotional connection with many of the viewers of her past celluloid achievements.

“So many young women have claimed I instilled a sense of power in them. I love that! I can’t tell you how much I love that!”

In closing, when asked to use one word to describe Penelope Spheeris, the, yes…powerful and acclaimed director who guided her through the rough terrain of Dudes, Stewart responds:

“Oh, man! She was just so cool! So. Cool! I so wanted to be even half as cool as her!”

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

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Review: Looky-loo

Published May 3, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

I know not to make contact with the delirious, searching eyes of the unfortunates on my early morning train rides. Disaster assuredly lies there. It’s probably why I can’t stand watching true crime broadcasts. Something bad really can happen to me at any moment in time and I, for one, don’t want to dwell on my imminent demise unless I truly have to. 

In an artful way, Jason Zink’s Looky-loo takes us into the heart of this fear. A feature length travelogue of a serial killer’s journey throughout the neighborhoods of a city, done entirely through their point of view, this experimental exercise reminds viewers of how vulnerable they really are. What is especially interesting here is how Zink allows the everyday objects this stalker comes into contact with – a welcome mat, bathroom products, kitchen utensils – to really come to life here. The heightened colorization and savage utilization of these ordinary items really illustrates a true invasion of personal space, resulting in visual takes that remain in the consciousness long after the film ends.

Zink should also be commended for always taking risks with his art. While 2014’s Night Terrors celebrated more traditional horror. his 2019 feature Straight Edge Kegger was a gritty, punk infused exploitation flick. Looky-loo, which might be more at home in a museum of contemporary art than a movie theater, continues that determined evolution with varied, almost Warhol-ian results. 

Learn more about Zink and his work at https://www.facebook.com/weirdontoppictures.

Unsung Heroines of Horror: Sonia Braga

Published April 23, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

I went to a Catholic high school in Olean, a small town in Western New York. Like so many other other villages in that region, it became an unknowing sanctuary for many of the church’s predatory priests. Recent years have seen major media revelations about the school’s former principal and its long-term Spanish teacher – frequent abusers, in and out of that environment. Terribly, accusations against that institution’s nuns have also seen the light of day. It seems many knew about their colleagues’ unholy actions and did nothing to stop them.

Thus. the evil head nuns in Immaculate and The First Omen, recently released within weeks of each other, have really resonated with me on an emotional level. Both Immaculate‘s Mother Superior (Dora Romero) and Sister Silva (Sonia Braga) in The First Omen, aggressively and willingly, take part in the patriarchal madness of their religious forefathers. (Both projects’ feminist tones, revolving around a women’s bodily autonomy, are especially welcome in this era when abortion rights are being, perilously, stripped away, state by state.)

Braga’s Silva, in particular, vibrates with an eye blazing sternness. Ultimately leading Margaret (Nell Tiger Free), the film’s heroine, into a devilishly unexpected (and unwanted) parenting situation, she strips away all sense of the protective and maternal with aplomb. Best known for her work as the romantically adventurous Dona Flor in Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands and the exotically life affirming Spider Woman in Kiss of the Spiderwoman, she defiantly avoids pleasant celluloid artifice, creating a strict and unwavering presence here.

Seemingly this is because Braga gets the idiom. Mood is central to creating good genre performances and her past work in the medium helps her blend in perfectly with the atmosphere established by the piece’s truly skilled writer-director, Arkasha Stevenson.

Importantly, Silva is another unusual notch on this legendary performer’s unique belt of credits. Forgoing traditional terror set-ups in her previous assignments, she was a vengeful research scientist in This’ll Kill Ya’, a fourth season episode of HBO’s Tales from the Crypt & vampiric high priestess in From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter. Let’s hope the ecstatic audience reviews and critical acclaim of TFO will guarantee her further, layered work in the field of horror and suspense.

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

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Shark Bait Retro Village: Death Cruise (1974)

Published April 16, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

Free, as we all know, doesn’t necessarily mean good. Thankfully, the characters in 1974’s Death Cruise are well clothed and coiffed – this is an Aaron Spelling production, after all – when a seemingly carefree gift begins to interfere with their mortality. 

Obviously inspired by Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, this exercise in glossy horror finds 3 embattled couples fighting for their lives on an ocean liner. The recipients of a complimentary vacation, the sextet is all seemingly linked via a random series of previous trips and work circumstances. During fragrant dinners and alcohol-fueled poolside chats, no one can quite figure out the direction connection, though – a sure hindrance when they begin to be thrown overboard, pushed down rickety stairs and shot at. 

Entertainingly. Jack B. Sowards’ script encourages soap operatic airs to swirl around these characters. Much to middle-aged David’s (Tom Bosley) regret, the dissatisfied Elizabeth (Celeste Holm) can’t let go of her grown children. The sarcastic Sylvia (Polly Bergen), meanwhile, is hard pressed to forgive her spouse Jerry’s (Richard Long) frequent, very public philandering. Young bride Mary Frances (Kate Jackson), lastly, would just like a child from the carefree, self-indulgent James (Edward Albert). Unsurprisingly, as Sowards’ diabolical plot twists unfurl, these issues take a backseat to staying alive.

Nicely, brisk direction by Ralph Senensky compliments the mysterious set-up here and he, wisely, gets out of the way of his highly professional cast, letting them do what they do best. To that end, Holm commits to a magnificently drunken takedown of Bosley’s David, a man who spent years attending to business dealings and ignoring his spouse. Bergen also shines as her character, very fashion forwardly, tries to outrace death.

Moving along quicker than the clipped enunciation that Jackson often gives to her troubled anti-heroine’s dialogue, Death Cruise is currently streaming, without cost, on YouTube. A boon, of sorts, for those who are unafraid of the price they might have to ultimately pay for such an economical viewing fee.

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By – Keely Smith

Published April 8, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

Has there ever been a voice as elegantly smooth as the one that poured out of the divine Keely Smith? I think not.

In fact, Smith’s was the one instrument that broke up my continued playback of Nine Inch Nails, The Crow soundtrack, Nirvana and Liz Phair one summer. The months encapsulated by those early ’90s heat waves were dominated by those indie rock forces and the Capitol Records Spotlight On compilation of Smith’s greatest work. Indeed, I found her take on Fools Rush In to be simply grand. Even more so, her commanding performance of Sweet and Lovely was almost indescribably beautiful to me. 

Nicely, in recent years, even the horror and creature community has discovered this irreplaceable songstress. Her tunes have been used in the reimagining of Stephen King’s The Stand and Marvel’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage. 

All I can say is…better late than never…and let’s hear some more!

Fun Facts:

Smith co-starred with Robert Mitchum in Thunder Road, one of the first films to embrace an outlaw, rock ‘n roll spirit. Also after years of playing the professional straight man to Las Vegas dynamo Louis Prima, Smith defiantly took control of her career, determinedly performing her music in the style and vein that she appreciated and preferred for the remaining decades of her career.

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

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Ruthless – Two Genre Credits of Ruth Gordon

Published March 29, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

The people I really want to meet at conventions are often long gone. Here and there, someone like Shirley Jones or Russ Tamblyn will pop up at a show, but the magic of old Hollywood is often only present in a secondhand way. This does have its certain charms, though. Last weekend, for example, I was able to ask two celebrity attendees at Days of the Dead in Chicago about their experiences working with legendary actress-writer Ruth Gordon. 

“I don’t think she liked kids.” – OR, Don’t Go to Sleep

Oliver Robins, there to highlight his work as Robbie in the Poltergeist films, appeared with Gordon in Don’t Go to Sleep (1982), often described as one of the creepiest television films of all time. In keeping with her role, a wizened mother-in-law mourning the loss of her favored grandchild, Robins recalls that the celebrated performer kept to herself, arriving on set to only do the one or two takes needed to get her scenes with him completed. Age, Robins reasons, surely paid a part in this professional curtness, as well.

Despite that un-familial remoteness, Gordon, beloved for her Academy Award winning work in Rosemary’s Baby, turns in a complex performance in the project. Her scenes with Valerie Harper and Dennis Weaver, her adult co-stars, ring with the layered sadness and regret of Bernice, her character in this ghostly piece. In particular, she and Weaver go forehead-to-forehead in an emotional confrontation at the film’s mid-point. Each blame the other for the death of their beloved Jennifer, the specter haunting the proceedings, both emotionally…and, seemingly, physically. Ned Wynn’s script is often brutal, killing off core characters imaginatively and ever the trooper, Gordon even finds herself looking down the beady eyes of a mischievously placed iguana named Ed.

As an aside, Robins did have a wonderful memory of the connection that Steven Spielberg and Weaver had due to their work on Duel, another seminal television horror project. Spielberg sent a note to Weaver on the DGTS set urging him to “Be nice to Oliver!”

“She thought I was her assistant.” – CS, Voyage of the Rock Aliens

Craig Sheffer, booked to celebrate his work with Clive Barker in Nightbreed, appeared with the pint-sized super star in the bizarre, early ’80s musical Voyage of the Rock Aliens. The first day that they met, she asked him to go get the shoes that she needed for the upcoming scene…and then continued to have him run errands for her throughout the shoot. Sheffer found the whole experience amusing, though. Hell, if you’re going to be a go-fer, it might as well be for a charismatic character actress of certain renown. 

Gordon, who invested her full energy into Voyage‘s diminutive conspiracy-believing sheriff, also appeared in such genre projects as Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby, Isn’t It Shocking? and Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice? throughout the years. Outside of her work in Rosemary’s Baby and Harold and Maude, the cult film that endeared her to a generation of film buffs, her most prominent artistic achievements occurred with her playwright husband Garson Kanin. Their scripts for Pat & Mike and Adam’s Rib gave Katherine Hepburn, whose many against the grain characterizations provided the prototype for a host of scattered, nervous lasses in horror, two of her most noteworthy mid-career roles.

Viva la Gordon…and thanks for the memories, guys!

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

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Brinke Stevens: Slumber Party Memories

Published March 25, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

Known for her strong willed and authentic performances in such cult horror hits as Slave Girls From Beyond Infinity, Nightmare Sisters and Sorority Babes in the Slimeball-Bowl-O-Rama, Brinke Stevens actually spent the early part of her career appearing in such well-regarded ’80s mainstream features as Body Double, Three Amigos, The Naked Gun and This is Spinal Tap. Luckily for film freaks everywhere, she shared her memories with me about this rare time in celluloid history at this past fall’s popular Chicago based film festival, The Massacre.

Also acknowledging that her most popular film (in her 200+ oeuvre) is Slumber Party Massacre, her first significant voyage into celluloid madness, she spends ample time recounting her memories of that slasher classic here, as well.  

Still working continuously, you can keep up to date with this rightly celebrated queen of fright at http://www.brinke.com/.

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

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Be My Bai-By: Circle of Pain (2010)

Published March 8, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

(A new column dedicated to the projects of the truly singular Bai Ling)

In 2010’s Circle of Pain Bai Ling seems to follow the path laid out by her frequent social media posts and other recent roles in low budget B films. She attacks her character of Victoria Ruolan with a frenzied exuberance that ultimately spins her off into a totally different stratosphere than her frequently staid, one-dimensional co-stars. That Ruolan, a crooked manager of a fight league, is the piece’s villainess only seems to egg her on to more elaborate heights of defiance and sexuality. Seemingly basing her portrayal on controversial sports criminals like the WWE’s Vince McMahon, Ling is obviously enjoying commanding her stable of jock scene partners into all sorts of action here – including the very carnal kind.

Naturally, the plot itself follows the traditional filmic sports beats laid out by Sylvester Stallone in 1976’s Rocky. A retired, slightly disgraced boxer named Dalton Hunt (Tony Schiena) decides to challenge the current champion in an impossibly quick amount of time. When he resists Ruolan’s offers of assistance, relying instead on his own motley crew of trainers, violence and other serious pitfalls to winning quickly come his way. Of course, all that enforced resistance is for naught and, in a paint-by-numbers move, Ling gets to react to the disgrace of losing all that her guise has worked so hard to create in the final moments of this stereotypical yet fun presentation.

In fact, the only thing that might excite liberal B-Movie lovers more than Ling’s antics is watching real life Right Winger Dean Cain, playing one of Hunt’s defenders, get a parking lot beatdown that finds him relegated to bedridden pontifications for the middle part of the story.

Oh, well… We all know that Ling is the true super-person here, anyhow…right?!?!

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

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The Bat – An Appreciation

Published March 1, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

1959’s The Bat is often lumped in with Vincent’s Price’s other mid-period, lower budget horror extravaganzas. But, unlike many of those efforts, Price actually takes on more of a supporting role here. His Dr. Malcolm Wells plays into the proceedings in an ancillary way and he ultimately emerges as more of a red herring, disappearing from the proceedings for major periods of time. Nicely, this means that the fourth adaptation of Mary Robert Rinehart’s The Circular Staircase, a popular mystery, finds the singular Agnes Moorehead in the foreground – resulting in a old school film with surprisingly feministic overtones.

Seemingly based on Rinehart herself, Moorehead plays world famous Gothic writer Cornelia van Gorder. As the show opens, van Gorder has just rented a summer home, known as The Oaks, in a small town. Long rumored to be the site of multiple horrors, The Oaks soon becomes a true crime spot. Money from a recent bank heist may be hidden in the house, with the notorious and blood thirsty Bat soon targeting the manse in his hunt for the fortune. Naturally, this puts the distinguished author and her devoted maid (and de facto personal assistant) Lizzie, portrayed by the divinely funny Lenita Lane, in his jagged crosshairs, as well. But as spooky nighttime invasions increase in frequency and bodies begin to pile up. Cornelia and Lizzie refuse to be frightened out of their temporary lodging.

Joining forces with two determined local women, Dale (Elaine Edwards) and Judy (Darla Hood), the quartet eventually smoke out the assailant. Willing and, perhaps, even eager to put themselves in danger, it is definitely the viewer’s joy to watch this firm foursome take control of the situation. In the decades to follow, other celluloid divas would add psychotic color to the proceedings with a variety of classics. But those projects would emphasize femme hysteria and unbalance. The Bat, thankfully and needfully, concentrates on Susan B. Anthony-style rabble rousing instead.

Long the dominion of public domain screenings, The Bat can be readily found for viewing, in various states of quality, online.

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

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