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

Heiress Horror: Sudden Fear (1952)

Published May 5, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

Heiress Horror explores that subgenre of terror wherein sweet moneyed lasses find their lives threatened by evil spouses and duplicitous family friends. For shame!

That bully Alexander Grumpface always stole my lunch money in the fifth grade. Did that mean that he secretly wanted to marry me?

Well, if the example of Joan Crawford in 1952’s classic noir-thriller Sudden Fear is any indication then maybe he did. Here, Crawford plays Myra Hudson, the benefactress of a large San Franciscan fortune, who, also, just happens to be a wildly successful playwright. Having fired the cleft chinned David Blaine, played with smooth charm by Jack Palance, from her latest production for not being matinee idol handsome, the regal Hudson soon finds herself charmed by this rebuffed gent, on a long train ride to her hilly mansion home. Soon, they are married and, naturally, both the other woman (a pouting, perfect Gloria Grahame) and his ulterior motives soon appear. Things turn decidedly deadly when Blaine and his cutie discover that Hudson is handing her inherited fortune over to charity and, mistakenly, conclude that he will be left in the lurch.

Naturally, since Madame Crawford is ever powerful, Hudson soon discovers, in a neat plot twist, everything that her supposedly loving spouse is up to. Once she gets over the shock of the duo’s murderous intent, this creative mogul soon rallies with a plan to turn the tables on them. But will her need for deadly retaliation ultimately melt beneath her expansive humanity? Of course, it will! But as always, Joan-Hudson has the last shot – as in close-up – as she regally faces life without her two timing gent, a silk scarf drifting gently from her hands and tears streaming down her face.

Accented by Elmer Bernstein’s moody score and Charles Lang, Jr.’s appropriately dusky black and white cinematography, Sudden Fear is, ultimately, the leading actors’ show. Both, Crawford and Palance, deservedly, received Academy Award nominations for their work. Most notably, as in her other 50s pictures such as Female on the Beach, Crawford telegraphs every emotion with a perfected movie goddess technique that is as grounded in artifice as it is in natural emotion. She is a wonder to behold.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Music to Make Horror Movies By: Lesley Gore

Published May 3, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

While the divine Lesley Gore (1946 – 2015) lived the majority of her life as an out gay woman, her 1964 single Sometimes I Wish I Were A Boy really put a delightfully gay swing on things.

Here, Gore, the perky female narrator, relates how she wishes she was a boy so she can ask out other guys and/or cut in while they are dancing with their sweethearts – making this sweet slab o’ wax one of the most inadvertently and gloriously homosexual things ever!

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Bad CGI Fridays: Cerberus (2005)

Published May 1, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

What if the hair of the dog that bit you actually has three heads? Well, then you might end up with a crazily CGI ridden opus like 2005’s Cerberus.

When Attila the Hun’s prized sword is stolen by a group of mercenaries, including a hard hearted soldier of fortune portrayed by television favorite Greg Evigan, the famed marauder’s deadly Cerberus, a three headed dog with a snake for a tail, is unleashed upon a tiny, confused Romanian village. (Perhaps, part of their confusion derives from the fact that the Cerberus is, primarily, considered an offspring of Greek mythology, but I digress…)

Thankfully, gorgeous museum director Dr. Samantha Gaines and the roguish Jake Addams are on hand to stop the computer generated madness from ending everyone’s life.

Directed with energy by John Terlesky, whose own acting credits include such action ventures as Deathstalker 2 and Damned River, this toothy timewaster is perhaps most notable (to queer kids who love their horror gals) for the involvement of eclectic genre goddess Emmanuelle Vaugier (Saw 2, Ripper, House of the Dead 2, Return to the Cabin by the Lake, The Fear: Resurrection).

Lovely, isn’t she?!?

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

The Backside of Horror: Dreamaniac (1986)

Published April 29, 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.

I must admit. The soiree that was thrown to get me into Sister Rosario’s Leather Tutorial when I was 18 was totally and regrettably forgettable.

Thankfully, Pat’s party to help get her sister Jodi into a sorority, in 1986’s totally bad yet achingly fun Dreamaniac, comes complete with bitchy backstabbing, death by electrocution, an alluring succubus and lots and lots of male nudity.

Yes, unlike his current 1313 offerings, which feature plenty of gym boys whose underwear remains firmly on, director David DeCoteau actually fills the frames here with plenty of bouncing male ass cheeks! This includes a deliciously long opening intro featuring male lead Thomas Bern, playing the most unlikely heavy metal rocker ever committed to the screen, walking naked, in light strewn languidness, down a never ending dream corridor. When Jodi’s antagonistic rival Frances beds Brad (Brad Laughlin), the object of the other’s affections, more fleshy global goodness is soon on display, as well. Of course, tough guy Ace (Michael Warren) does give a very homoerotic take on DeCoteau’s favorite celluloid subject – the trussed-up jock in tighty whities. So, there is something for everyone, here!

Filled with rancid performances, with future adult film star Ashlyn Gere, here billed as Kim McKamy, giving the only fairly decent portrayal as the determined Pat, and super silly dialogue (with “There’s no phone? What if I have to call my broker? Mondo bad planning, Jodi!” and “I’m a Lionel Ritchie girl” among the winners), Dreamaniac eventually succumbs to the delightful. Well, that is, if like me, you enjoy the cheese on your bread a bit on the burnt and moldy side.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Hopelessly Devoted To: Ashley Laurence

Published April 28, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

Ashley’s Investment in Death

Best known to terror mavericks as the feisty and determined Kirsty of the Hellraiser film series, the graceful Ashley Laurence’s eclectic resume includes turns in comedy (Suddenly Susan), soap operas (Capital), crime-action (Felony, Stranger By Night) and, of course, other horror offerings (Lurking Fear, Warlock III: The End of Innocence, Mikey, Chill).

But a couple of 1989 television appearances by this well travelled beauty, who also logs in time as an artist of some acclaim, ultimately show her true versatility.

As the privileged Erica in the Investment in Death episode of the longstanding detective series Hunter, then in its 6th season, Laurence radiates with motherly concern and determined support as she learns of the assassination of a college friend. But, as Erica discovers that her wealthy boyfriend (Stephen Eckholdt) might be holding the keys to that murder, Laurence, also, shows levels of finely distressed confusion.

Granted, if one wants to view the role in a social context, in many ways, Erica is a typical accommodating girlfriend type. Laurence, though, invests everything she has in her and even adds subtle touches that clue us into the character’s financial status and background without the benefit of dialogue. Subtext, thy name is Laurence!

Laurence’s Jodie in The Match Game, a first season episode of Monsters, though, is a perfect illustration of why many fans are drawn to horror due to its show of strong female characters. The infectious ringleader of a quartet of friends, Jodie, is definitely the most powerful character on display here.

Orchestrating the group’s annual ghost story marathon, Laurence shows Jodie’s significant terror when their imagined tale starts to come true. But, she is also the one who, wisely, discovers how to reverse the deadly circumstances, making her character a truly strong and well rounded one.

Featuring a cast that, also, includes a pre-90210 Tori Spelling and genre favorite Sasha Jensen (Halloween 4, Ghoulies II, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), this episode is truly one of the most effective in the Monsters universe, featuring honest ghost house spooks along with Laurence’s truly effective emoting.

Ashley n Tori: Scared!

Be sure to keep up with Laurence at http://www.ashleylaurence.com and http://www.twitter.com/1ashleylaurence.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Music to Make Horror Movies By: Carly Simon

Published April 26, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

I once wore white socks with my business suit and my boss, the Dragon Lady, never let me forget it!

Thankfully, 30 years ago, the interstellar Carly Simon, along with director Jeremy “Dead Ringers” Irons, blended styles much more successfully with their video for Tired of Being Blonde.

Released as the first single off of Simon’s 1985 commercially aggressive pop offering Spoiled Girl, this visual bombshell contains moments of film noir rhapsody, science fiction glamour and exquisite Ingmar Bergman style angst – all wrapped in the sugary sheen of bubblegum goodness.

Carly Simon as Barbarella? Carly Simon as Bibi Andersson in a cocktail dress?!? Best video ever, no?!!!?

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Hobo With A Trash Can Charity Event!

Published April 24, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

Compassion thy name is Grindhouse!

Clare “Fluff” Llewellyn, one of the visionary forces behind the anthology Hobo With A Trash Can, wherein a homeless man discovers stories of horror among the refuse, is planning a blowout charity event and food drive for the film’s premiere.

The film, featuring scary segments from Llewellyn and 7 others including Christopher Kahler, Steven Grainger, Lloyd James Emmons, Kyle Leonard, Mark Charles Adams, Vincent Marshall and (Big Gay Horror Fan favorite) Tonjia Atomic, will make its debut in Chicago on June 14th, 2015 at the Patio Theater. More information is available at: https://www.facebook.com/events/974440952568158/.

Llewellyn, who is still looking for raffle items and other forms of event assistance, can be contacted at http://www.twitter.com/trashanthology. Meanwhile, the film’s official site is http://hobowithatrashcan.wix.com/hobowithatrashcan.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Backcountry Excitement!

Published April 23, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

Bear with me for a minute, but as a formerly disgruntled backwoods dweller, almost any forest bound horror gets me howling with excitement!

Thus, I was thrilled to hear about IFC Midnight’s Backcountry, the new terror flick detailing what happens when an urban couple goes toe-to-toe with a grizzly. Reviews, from the brief theatrical run in March 2015, highlighted director Adam MacDonald’s nice grip on the tension of the situation and the amazing cinematography, which the official trailer highlights, nicely.

— and, yes, happy horror fans, that was Eric Balfour (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dinoshark, Rise of the Gargoyles) and Nicholas Campbell (The Hitchhiker, The Dead Zone) supporting the young leads!

For those who can’t wait for the film’s physical release in September of 2015, it is now streaming on Amazon, ITunes and other devices. More information is available at https://www.facebook.com/BACKCOUNTRYfilm, as well.

So, until the next time, don’t leave your cell phone in the car while strolling through the nature — and…

SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan