Review: Chasing Pavement

Published May 23, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

H-m-m-m…Just when I was considering emerging out from between my rusty guillotine and my bloodied Kander and Ebb dolls and attempting the dating scene again, I watch director-writer Matt Doyle’s potent Chasing Pavement.

Detailing a few days in the life of Elijah (Remy Mars), an African American bareback porn star and escort, as he contemplates the possibilities of several new relationships, Chasing Pavement keenly examines both the loneliness and the resiliency of the human condition.

After being left in the lurch by a vengeful roommate, Elijah decides to rent his spare bedroom to Takeshi, a kindly employee at his favorite takeout palace. Trying to secure a firmer foothold in this country, the shy Takeshi soon finds himself inundated in Elijah’s existence, ultimately bringing a sweeter variation on Robert Altman’s Three Women to the piece.

Meanwhile, Elijah finds himself drawn to Bryson (Antonio Biaggi), one of his macho clients. But a friendly dinner party soon brings everything into sharp focus. As secrets are revealed, Elijah may, abruptly, find himself alone, once more.

While definitely a conversationally philosophical affair, Doyle often lets tender moments of silence inhabit this world, as well. He, also, brings a surprising sensitivity to Elijah’s seemingly sordid profession, and, finely, invents a very full world for gay characters of color, a rarity in cinema.

Nicely, competent performances are eked out from everyone involved, with particular kudos going to Tokio Sasaki. Sasaki’s quiet Takeshi brims with hushed layers, making this character a truly endearing one. Here, he and Doyle (and the others) prove that it is our own fears and insecurities (and lost dreams) that are often the scariest things to face up to in this winding roller coaster called life.

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

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Shark Bait Retro Village: SST: Death Flight (1977)

Published May 22, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

Mad, mad, mad Maharis!

Never piss off a gay man! Or more importantly, never piss off a character being played by a gay man!

In his eclectic life, George Maharis has been a television actor, a singer, a Playgirl model and a celebrity whose homosexuality was publicly rumored at in a bygone era. In 1977’s SST: Death Flight, one of the many television films made in the wake of the popularity of the Airport series and such disaster flicks as The Towering Inferno, he also plays Les Phillips, a disgruntled engineer who sabotages a new-fangled high-powered aircraft. To make matters worse, a doctor played by the distinguished Brock Peters, who gamely played gay in the 1962 British drama The L Shaped Room, has brought a sample of a toxic flu onboard. Due to Les’s machinations, the virus is leaked and the deadly traumas facing the varied cast are doubled.

Milner and Strasberg

Besides Maharis, such boob tube stalwarts as Martin Milner, Bert Convy, (the notoriously closeted) Robert Reed and Lorne Greene appear here. Early appearances are also logged in by Billy Crystal as a kindly flight attendant and John De Lancie as a one part of a young couple. Of course, Broadway baby Susan Strasberg, whose genre credits include The Manitou, Bloody Birthday and Sweet Sixteen, brings taut nobility to the proceedings while a sexy stewardess, played with feminine focus by Tina Louise, reacts sensitively to the possibility of a renewed romance.

Convy and Rowe

The best soap opera plotline here, though, involves Hee Haw’s baby voiced Misty Rowe, who also appeared in such schlock as Meatballs II, Goodbye, Norma Jean and Double Exposure, and Convy, who must decide whether to keep the child she is carrying. The womanizing Tim Vernon (Convy) doesn’t want to settle down while the softly determined Angela (Rowe) hopes to change his mind.

Will facing near extinction make Tim-Convy appreciate the glories of new life? Will Les-George pay for his sins? Will disaster stalwart Burgess Meredith steal the show from all the other performers with his wrinkly antics?

The answers: yes, yes and yes!!!

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

The Backside of Horror: Hide and Go Shriek

Published May 19, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

Let’s face it, half the fun of horror and exploitation is seeing some hot bodies frolicking around in the buff. And while I worship the female form, I believe exploitation definitely veers into the exploitive when only gorgeous women are on display while their male counterparts remain chastely buttoned up. Therefore, The Backside of Horror salutes the filmmakers and actors whom even up the score a bit by showing us instances of hot and juicy male flesh in their bloody celluloid fantasies.

Underwear. You want them on when a fire breaks out in your apartment (and you have to get away quick) and, according to 1987 slasher Hide and Go Shriek, they are also the perfect accessory for a death scene.

Here, both boy faced lothario Shawn (Scott Fults) and macho John (Sean Kanan) meet their maker in their skivvies. John even, in full on protector mode, chases the killer throughout the furniture department store in which film takes place, in nothing but his under-roos. I guess this proves that dusty pair of boxers may be good for some divide and conquer tricks, as well.

Featuring a queer killer, Hide and Go Shriek, also, gives the boys and girls something to squeal about with a quick glimpse at Kanan’s healthy posterior while Brittain Frye, as wild and sexually adventurous Randy, takes a withdrawal out of the bubbly flesh bank, as well.

Slashers: Catering to the masses, y’all!

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

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Cherie Currie’s Reverie

Published May 17, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

Introspection has been the theme for a couple of female music powerhouses of late, producing two of 2015’s best recordings, thus far. Indie country artist (and Academy Award nominee) Allison Moorer explores her recent divorce and her son’s autism on the beautifully emotional, ultimately hopefully Down to Believing.

Cherie Currie, meanwhile, deals with her wild-child past in The Runaways and her current state of well fought for grace on the uniformly excellent Reverie. Combining glittery rockers with well combed pop ballads, Reverie finds Currie sounding better than ever, vocally, while also allowing her to serve as a well traveled life guide for listeners, as well.

The opening track swells with psychedelic dreamscapes while positively asserting that “There is nothing I can’t be inside my reverie!” Further hope is expressed in such vibrant numbers as I’m Happy and Another Dream. But the orchestral beauty of Believe makes it the one of the most resonant numbers here, ensuring it will serve as an inspiring track to anyone whose doubts trickle down their bed sleeves in those early morning hours.

Currie’s collaborators are significant, as well. This recording marks famed producer Kim Fowley’s last (and truly heartfelt) work while fellow Runaway Lita Ford adds raucous energy to joyful reboots of American Nights and Is It Day or Night? Currie’s son Jake Hays, also, proves to be an excellent foil to his mother, contributing deeply powerful vocals to their duet, Shades of Me, ultimately, making it another one of this collection’s stand-out tracks. This song, also, emphasizes what seems to be Currie’s prime theme here. Everything changes, including traits of your own personality and, while occasionally traumatizing, it is, also, a necessary and, ultimately, beautiful thing.

A duet with an undead Ozzy!

Nicely, Currie, who co-starred in such genre offerings as Parasite, Wavelength and Twilight Zone: The Movie, appeases her terror loving fans with a couple of fun lyrical references, as well. In the breezily compelling Inner You, she describes herself as the “she wolf creature from the black lagoon” and the truly propulsive Queen of the Asphalt Jungle mentions “zombies” who are “riding the vampire road”.

All in all, it’s a deeply satisfying recording, one that makes her fans, worldwide, hope that it is far from her last.

You can purchase Reverie via ITunes at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/reverie/id976269503.

You can, also, keep tabs on Currie at http://www.cheriecurrie.com and https://www.facebook.com/CherieCurrieOfficial.

The divine Currie and BGHF!

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

She Walks in Shadows

Published May 16, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

In 1985, Annie Lennox and Aretha Franklin already knew sisters were doing it for themselves. Now, two new volumes of Lovecraftian inspired fiction will definitely make this truth a very squishy reality.

Innsmouth Free Press, run by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Dark Regions Press, in collaboration with editor Lynne Jamneck, both have announced anthologies of fiction, influenced by HP Lovecraft, composed entirely by female writers.

Innsmouth’s She Walks in Shadows (pictured above) is scheduled for a 2015 fall release while Dark Regions’ Dreams from the Witch House is promising a year end release.

Be sure to keep up with these exciting projects at:
https://www.facebook.com/InnsmouthFreePress and
https://www.facebook.com/DarkRegionsPress

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Review: Hole in the Wall

Published May 15, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

During a panel at 2015’s C2E2 this past April, comic creators Tim Seeley, Mike Norton and Joshua Williamson, the forces behind such books as Revival and Nailbiter, asserted that horror stories that take place in the wide open spaces of rural communities are twice as scary as those that take place in urban settings.

Bearing this out, Rabid Child Films’ indie horror anthology Hole in the Wall perfectly captures the tree whistling creepiness of small town madness and mayhem over 7 different pieces, skillfully edited by producer Derrick Carey and all directed by Wisconsin based writers and directors.

While the focus here is on graphic horror, often revolving around serial killers types, such pieces as Carolyn Baker’s Siren and Greg Johnson’s Last Dance, also, add a little arty flair and John Waters’ style perversity to the mix.

Johnson, known for his passionate contributions to Cory Udler’s Incest Death Squad series, also, appears across multiple segments here, handling his many acting duties with humor and wild eyed finesse. He is, ably, supported by the enthusiastic Draven Wagner whose curious Eli provides the linchpin to the telling of many of the tales. Of course, terror purists will thrill to the inclusion of Night of the Living Dead’s Judith O’Dea in Udler’s Ed Gein D.D.S. O’Dea is riveting in her brief bit as Gein’s mother, applying all her velvety theatrical power to her short spot, here. Indie horror queen Heather Dorff, also, offers up some flair in the same segment, bringing passionate focus to the expected girl-in-jeopardy quotient.

The entire film, which visually revels in its attempts to disgust, particularly in Rob Michels’ churning Scumbag segment, is given a huge opening boost via the presence of Georgia based filmmaker Andrew Shearer, as well. Playing a William Castle style showman, Shearer welcomes you to the gruesome festivities with an ingratiating yet slightly demented smoothness. He provides a great start to a truly twisted DIY ride.

Be sure to keep at eye level with all of Hole In The Wall’s screenings at https://www.facebook.com/GORYHOLE and/or purchase it for download at http://rabidchildfilms.storenvy.com/.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Sharkbait Retro Village: Face of Evil (1996)

Published May 14, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

Even horror’s most notorious femmes seem to have motivations that revolve around men. Friday the 13th’s Mrs. Voorhees killed for the love of her son while Hellraiser’s Julia succumbed to the depths for her lover Frank.

This phenomenon is precisely what makes the character of Darcy Palmer in 1996 television terror Face of Evil so engaging. Every betrayal she enacts and every murder that she viciously engages in is done in the sole pursuit of her own artistic agenda.

After stealing his money and skipping town on her shady, but totally devoted fiancée, Palmer accidentally kills and then takes over the identity of Brianne, a soon-to-be college freshman and musician. Planning to immediately disappear, Darcy is waylaid by the sweet, well off Jeanelle Polk, Brianne’s dorm mate. Determined to rob Jeanelle and escape at her first chance, Darcy/Brianne soon becomes enraptured with the university’s art program and decides to stay.

Of course, to do so, she must brutally injure her own hand (thus avoiding the real Brianne’s music classes) and permanently blind the counselor who, initially, interviewed Brianne and would recognize her ruse. Darcy/Brianne then sets about seducing Jeanelle’s lonely father Russell in hopes that his wealth will further her success as a painter. Indeed, just as she is granted her own show, Jeanelle’s suspicions warp into overdrive and Quinn, her very angry ex, shows up. Naturally, further murder and sexual manipulation are soon placed, fully, on Darcy/Brianne’s plate, once again!

Directed with skill by Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary, The In Crowd, Urban Legends: Bloody Mary) who surely must have understood the main character’s frustrations and ambitions, if not her mania, Face of Evil is perhaps best recommended for the zeal with which the two female leads attack their roles. Best known for being a television darling, Growing Pains’ Tracey Gold attacks the role of Darcy with a slow burning ferocity. The calculation in her eyes is truly chilling, at times, and watching her go for broke as a performer is truly entertaining. Shawnee Smith, who would go on to play Saw’s demented Amanda, also shines as she expertly conveys Jeanelle’s exuberant awkwardness and her eventual retaliation.

Screenwriter Gregory Goodell (Grave Secrets: The Legacy of Hilltop Drive, Human Experiments), meanwhile, deliciously revels in Palmer’s lurid activities. His set-up is great, but things, ultimately, do rush too quickly (and simply) to their conclusion here, making the absurdity of the plotline all the more apparent. Still, the zeal with which Lambert and her performers attack these circumstances makes Face of Evil a true un-guilty pleasure!

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Music to Make Horror Movies By: Dan Sartain

Published May 10, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

While his single Walk Among the Cobras Pt. 1 can be heard playing on The Walking Dead: 400 Days video game, the amazingly cool Dan Sartain offers up some queer ambiguity with his cover of The Knife’s Pass This On.

Trading in his rockabilly and blues licks for a chill dance floor vibe, Sartain’s narratory longing for a friend’s brother here is super duper hot!

Be sure to keep up with all of his mysterious musical stylings at http://www.dansartain.com and http://www.facebook.com/dansartainoffical.

Sartain – Too cool to be fighting mad!

Special thanks to Joey Kissling AKA DJ BoxxxCutter for turning me on to this rad s**t!!!

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

The Real Monsters

Published May 9, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

Mayweather

It’s a natural that we outsiders and geeks have promoted the likes of Frankenstein’s Monster, the Wolf Man, Freddy, Jason and Michael to hero status. They all reflect, in one way or another, the minor misanthrope beating, quietly, within us all.

But the public’s hero worship of real life monsters is something that truly baffles me.

Last week, 1,000,000’s cheered on Floyd Mayweather, a brutal practitoner of domestic violence, to victory during something referred to as The Fight of the Century. The cries of outrage for the public canonization of such a loathsome individual were there, but were far outweighed by those filled with rapturous support.

George

The week before that, Chicago’s Cardinal George, one of the world’s most notorious Catholic officials in regards to covering up the sex crimes of the priests, was honored with a funeral that was broadcast on all the major Midwest television stations. Once again, there were gasps of protest, but they also were drowned out by the waves of adulation for this terrible individual. If one keeps in mind that George actually allowed officials to hire coaches to train priests how to get around the identification of their genitals by their accusers, then one quickly realizes that the networks were, basically, having a glorious parade for a criminal.

But a walk through your local entertainment section at Target or Best Buy reveals that this blind eye behavior exists everywhere. Why are Lady Gaga and Jennifer Hudson, two seemingly evolved entertainments, doing duets with R Kelly, whose damaging sexual exploits are legendary, on their latest recordings? Why does Madonna feature a clip of Mike Tyson, accused of domestic violence and rape, on her current song Iconic? There had to have been someone more substantial yet still appropriate to her theme to use, no?

But when the majority of the public are still being stunned by fame, money and ancient protocol, what is the answer?

The only thing I can think of is to not be silent. That no matter how voiceless the voices of the concerned may seem, maybe as time goes by, more and more voices will join ours and, eventually, people will stop buying the tickets and MP3’s and finally we will all turn away when the flag is waved for one of society’s actual demons.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Review: Bite Radius

Published May 8, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

I’ve forgotten the name of an undead trick or two after an adventurous night on the town. Unlucky Peyton, the title character in Spencer Parson’s incisively graphic short film Bite Radius, one up’s me, though. His evening debauchery results in a dead body in the bathtub.

Thankfully (or not), Peyton’s friend Nicole has a twisted idea of how to deal with Kelsey, the unfortunate lass who breathed her last behind the shower curtains of her career girl apartment. This involves a machete, a hand saw, fire and lots and lots of blood flying around. Naturally, this all ends a bit badly for everyone involved.

Here director Parsons, best known for 2013’s truly enjoyable (and highly recommended) Saturday Morning Mystery (AKA Saturday Morning Massacre) completely catches how this Age of Kardashian effects certain twenty-something’s with either Peyton’s numbed self indulgence or Nicole’s media thrill seeking. It is fine work that shows he is capable of many colors as a director not just the fun throwback vibe of SMM.

He is complemented, fully, by his go for broke cast. One of Chicago’s most inventive and enthusiastic stage performers, Trevor Dawkins brings a charming otherness that draws audiences to Peyton despite his misdeeds. Sophie Traub, meanwhile, supplies an infectious energy that tempers Nicole’s ingratiating madness with a childlike mystique.

Nicely, in a genre that exploits the female form above all else, almost the entire cast here, with Dawkins and Traub leading the charge, revels in the naked abandon of their aggressively careless characters, bringing this piece a gritty reality and honest equilibrium all at once.

Bite Radius is showing this weekend at the Maryland Film Fest

http://www.md-filmfest.com/festival/film-schedule/300

and will, also, be showing at CUFF on May 16th in Chicago

https://m.facebook.com/events/976318255714642.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan