The Art and Writing of Kate Davis

Published November 12, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

Climbed a couple of cavernous mountains without protection? Fought off a pack of mildly satanic poodles with your bare hands? Pffft! You haven’t truly lived dangerously until you’ve checked out the amazing artistry of the genuinely amazing Kate Davis!

A prime journalistic contributor for Forces of Geek and an amazingly inventive terror artisan, Davis has recently launched a Facebook page, so that everyone (with any horror loving sense) can keep track of her latest accomplishments.

https://www.facebook.com/katedangerously

Her latest article for FOG is, also, pretty amazing. There, in two parts, she chronicles 30 genre epics that opened in 1984. Even the most studly walking filmography is bound to find some info in this fun and sassy expose that he/she previously hadn’t know about!

http://www.forcesofgeek.com/2014/10/1984-30-cult-and-horror-flicks-in-30.html

Bravo, Madame Davis!!!

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Horror Movie Poster Exhibit

Published November 11, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

Small but mighty has worked well for Brenda Lee and other powerhouse vocalists. It works pretty well for the Horror Movie Poster Exhibit at I AM Logan Square Gallery, 2644 1/2 N. Milwaukee, in Chicago, as well. The posters on display are all original theatrical items, including one sheets and lobby cards, donated by the historic Logan Theatre (based right next store to the gallery).

While many terror fiends may have more original artwork in their house than is on display here, the exhibit’s purpose cannot be denied. Created to acknowledge the power of the images contained in these advertisements, the organizers’ do, ultimately, elevate these pieces to a place of high art and strike a blow to the perception that these films and their (often potent images) are just pure schlock.

Nicely, the exhibit, also, contains some rare images and features work on films that even the most well versed fan may never have heard of. (1974’s Golden Needles, anyone?)

Unfortunately, this particular show is closing on 11/14/2014, but you can keep up with future offerings at https://www.facebook.com/IAMLoganSquare.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Dead Kansas

Published November 10, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

Looks like things will never be the same again, Toto! Dead Kansas’ writer-director-producer Aaron Carter (and his multi-talented crew) just won Best Zombie Film at the 2014 Fantastic Horror Film Fest in San Diego!

Featuring a strong heroine (a passionate Erin Miracle), Dead Kansas details what happens when a determined young woman traverses across the barren land of a once thriving state in order to save her father. Chased by a band of renegades determined to use her to jumpstart society and the hungry undead (known here as Rottens), Carter’s vision shows how far a little bit of attitude and a sure sense of familial love can take someone.

Naturally, some performances here are stronger than others, but genre veteran Irwin Keyes (as a kindly character known as the Giant) continues to prove that his versatility is pretty much endless.

Most significantly, Carter has made his feature available, for free, online.

You can keep up with further news on this shambling, rock n roll style epic at

https://www.facebook.com/deadkansas, as well.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Music to Make Horror Movies By: David Johansen

Published November 9, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

Forever proving a connective energy between rock n roll and horror, the outrageous antics of such bands as KISS, Twisted Sister, The Runaways and New York Dolls have always found favor with fans of terror.

Yum! The Dolls!

David Johansen, the eclectic lead singer of the glamorous, hyperactive New York Dolls, took the strand even further by essaying roles in such fright flicks as Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990) and Campfire Stories (2001). His 1984 solo album Sweet Revenge (which directly preceded his popular stint as Buster Poindexter), also, featured such ominous creations as the title track, Too Many Midnights (is there such a thing?) and Big Trouble.

Johansen even gave a highly energetic performance of the album’s King of Babylon on the (then) mega-blockbuster television series Miami Vice:

Granted his rap, there, may have some shrieking in terror – but more forgiving souls will believe that, always a consummate professional, he delivers it with gutsy panache.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Doug McKeown’s ZADD!

Published November 8, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

ZADD

Sticky rivers of beer and pop; ghoulish make-up; excited horror fans getting to work with the genius mind behind one of the 80s most beloved creature flicks. You don’t come across those ingredients everyday – so when it comes along, you jump on that spongy beast with enthusiasm!

BGHF, Wendi and Chad

Indeed, after twenty some years away from the horror film making field, Douglas McKeown, director of the chewy, beloved Deadly Spawn, set upon Chicago this October, with a cinematic vengeance. In a matter of days, he and a bevy of local talent (including amazing DP and film editor Jayme Joyce) created a fun, short terror film (ZADD) with a pertinent social message attached to boot!

Jayme: capturing magic

Eager participants (including artist Mitch O’Connell and his infant son, Double Page Spread’s Wendi Freeman, Chateau Grrr’s Chad Hawks and myself) gathered at the historic Portage Theater, one Thursday, for an afternoon of intense mayhem. We were all playing ghouls who had been run over by an extremely dangerous drunk driver. Once some minimal grey face make-up was applied (often by McKeown himself), we lumbered into the theater. Soon we were all hovering behind the seats in the theaters, trying to ignore the calcified remains of beverages that had dried on the floors and were now sticking to our hands. After appropriately scaring our murderer, an action that McKeown directed with knowing insistence and humor, we washed our deadliness off in the theater’s tiny sink and soon adjourned to a local parking lot. There, we enacted our death scenarios. Let’s just say, anyone who ever had a fantasy involving James Brolin and 70s cult masterpiece The Car slept soundly that night.

After a day and a half of consistent editing and some voiceover magic, ZADD premiered at The Massacre 2014 on Saturday, October 18th, before a rare screening of Deadly Spawn. With a solid premise, a surprise cameo appearance from Ari Lehman from Friday the 13th and a ghoulish sense of 50s monster movie dread, this little flick proves that McKeown hasn’t lost any movie making magic.

McKeown & ZADD Cast

Be sure to keep up with McKeown at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Deadly-Spawns-director-Douglas-McKeown and, while you’re at it, urge him to procure an online release for ZADD as soon as possible.

McKeown & BGHF

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Paul Leeming’s Pieces of 8

Published November 7, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

Controversy is never a bad thing. Right?

Accomplished director Paul Leeming is finding this out with his visually stunning, syrupy ode to female regret, Pieces of 8. A quick yet potent look at the specific damages that personal freedom can promote, this ripping horror piece has been gaining protests from those who believe it buys into a pro-life agenda.

But here, Leeming, a pro-choice atheist in real life, seems to be simply acknowledging the fact that, while a vital option, there is nothing easy about the decision to terminate a life. This is something that this richly acted, agonizingly gorgeous piece brings home hard.

You can keep up with Leeming and his production company Visceral Psyche at

https://www.facebook.com/visceralpsyche.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Kaye Ballard’s Fine Sense of Pandemonium!

Published November 6, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

Move over, Nana! Best known for her comic cabaret acts, appearances on Broadway (The Golden Apple, Pirates of Penzance) and television comedies (The Mothers-In-Law, The Doris Day Show), the stellar Kaye Ballard, also, added some silly flair to the 1982 horror parody Pandemonium.

Featuring ridiculous references to everything from Carrie (enacted by Carol Kane and Eileen Brennan) to the traditional slasher epics like Friday the 13th and Halloween, Pandemonium was built around that era’s sudden horror craze. Preceded by 1981’s Student Bodies (featuring a bevy of unknowns), this production upped the ante by adding such name performers as Ballard, (her The Mothers-In-Law co-star) Eve Arden, Donald O’Conner, Pat Ast, Tommy Smothers, Tab Hunter , Sydney Lassick, Laverne & Shirley’s David L. Landers, Mary Hartman’s Debralee Scott and Superman’s Marc McClure. (It, also, had the good fortune to have the talents of soon-to-be-big names like Paul Reubens, Judge Reinhold, Edie McClurg and Phil Hartman involved, as well.)

As expected, this tale of a killer stalking a cheerleading camp is full of (small moments of) smart satire and (plenty of) bone stupid stunts. Ballard, playing the mother of one of the potential victims (a very blonde Reinhold), gamely manages to survive both, here.

Her warning to Reinhold not to touch himself, while away for the summer, prompts the arrival of O’Connor as the family’s very blind patriarch. (Get it?!?) This fairly juvenile, yet strangely fun incident is followed by a much more obvious bit of humor (which the film contains a lot of). The family’s black sheep…turns out to be a black sheep.

Pretty obviously just a job done for a paycheck, Ballard’s energy and professionalism is still in full force here and her focus reminds one of every over-passionate Italian mama. Besides, it is truly a joy for fans of theater offerings and horror to see her here.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Oddity Files Gets Cultural!

Published November 5, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

Have you ever wanted to Shaggy it up with the Scooby gang, but only with a cultural bent? Then the latest episode of the paranormal investigation series The Oddity Files should be right up your alley!

Here, the team, including favored indie scream queen Kitsie Duncan (Found, Proxy), investigates the very beautiful and highly artistic Guyer Opera House in Lewisville, Indiana.

Available exclusively on Get Scared TV, you can dive into the episode at:

http://getscared.tv/site/programming/episodic-programming/the-oddity-files/

And let’s hope that any high notes hit are from those Leontyne Price types and not from you, as you’re shrieking in terror!

Be sure to keep up with The Oddity Files at http://www.facebook.com/oddityfiles, as well.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Wolf Revealed!

Published November 4, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

Out horror writer Adrian Lilly has been a busy little camper! He is just about to release the third book in his The Runes Trilogy, The Wolf at War.

In anticipation of this furry event, Lilly has revealed the cover art (above) for this battle-licious volume. Designed by the brilliant Andrea Davies, this nocturnal, city enhanced wonder is sure to get every late night subway rider’s pulses pounding.

Be sure to keep up with Lilly and The Wolf at War at https://www.facebook.com/adrianwlilly.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Music to Make Horror Movies By: Anne Bobby

Published November 2, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

Scream Factory’s recent release of the Director’s Cut of Nightbreed reinstates a musical number, featuring Anne Bobby’s devoted Lori, that has been practically invisible for over twenty years.

But Back to My Routes, Bobby’s latest cabaret show at the 54 Below Supper Club in New York City, showed that this well traveled performer hasn’t been hiding her eclectic musical gifts over the years. Indeed, as a cast member of the ahead-of-its-time Cop Rock and such acclaimed stage productions as The York Theatre Company’s revival of Merrily We Roll Along, Bobby has been indulging in the gift of song for decades.

But this current show, featuring selections by Bruce Springsteen, The Kinks, The Ronettes and other unusually great artists, is perhaps Bobby’s finest achievement to date. Crisp, sharp and passionate, this is a cabaret theater at its best, as this video featuring her dramatic take on Peter Gabriel’s Here Comes The Flood certainly proves.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan