Review: The Knock

Published March 26, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

There’s nothing quite like getting woken up from a deep sleep by an unexpectedly loud voice in your building’s hallway, right? Although, I imagine a soft scratch at your door followed by a bedraggled whisper of your name would be even worse. Embarking on a more intense version of that last scenario, writer-director Zach Lorkiewicz’s latest horror short The Knock almost seems to be presciently made for these late night, isolationist times.

As with many Count the Clock Productions, the visual and sonic elements of this piece are top notch. Here Lorciewicz’s glossily acute style finds its match in Terence Yoon’s coloring and cinematography, Nathan Baldonado’s moody lighting and Catharine Yang’s jump start the march score. Meanwhile, Lauren Elyse Buckley’s committed acting performance is sure to put all viewers in the head space of their own corner of the eye midnight frights.

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

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Bubblegum

Published June 21, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

It’s Pride Month and in celebration, Count the Clock Productions does The Favourite one better. Their recently released music video Bubblegum features a vengeful servant playing florescent tricks on an out of control monarch. Revenge has never quite been so brightly fun!

Director Zach Lorkiewicz’s consistent sense of style, a frosty mélange of Richard Avedon morphed into David LaChapelle’s visual torso, is present here…along with a beautiful half naked milk pourer. That tune is pretty sweet, too!

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

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Who Killed the Homecoming Queen?

Published April 4, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

One of my fondest memories of high school – yes, I do have one or two! – was when Kristin, my very blonde and pretty senior prom date, wore the same dress as the very nasty, slightly dog faced class president. I wasn’t very popular (and that moment may have made me even more of a pariah to some) but Kristin definitely won the “Who Wore It Better” poll that night.

The amazing Count the Clock Productions show another, more vicious way to teen victory with the Giallo shaded music video, Who Killed the Homecoming Queen? here. As always, their visual style radiates with LGBTQIA friendly potency and Euro-tinged delight.

Be sure to keep up with all of their cutting edge work at https://www.facebook.com/counttheclock/.

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

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Review: The Ball

Published December 22, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

Some prefer their witches with a Charmed imbued cuteness. Others enjoy theirs as a cackling spew against darkened cauldrons. Nicely, Count the Clock Productions has decided to present their succulent sorceresses with some Poe-like zest…as evidenced by their latest Gothic short, The Ball.

Filled with director Zach Lorkewicz’s expected visual flourishes, this rhyming exercise from the pen of Michael Coe, a truly unique approach for a horror entry, begins happily. An ebullient young lass named Pearlie (a personably subtle Avril Dominguez) prepares for the arrival of her beau for an elegant night on the town. But a ghost from her past soon threatens to mask the evening in revenge and tragedy. Pearlie, therefore, must summon up some persuasive powers to ensure that her night goes according to plan.

Enjoyably, Lorkewicz’s always unusual, highly developed artistic flair is accentuated here by a neat capper of an ending.

Meanwhile, be quick to avoid your own late night visitor by keeping track of Count the Clock Productions at https://www.facebook.com/counttheclock/.

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

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Help The Ball!

Published July 21, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

Courtney Love meets Vincent Price? Count me in!

Indeed, The Ball, the upcoming project from the truly colorful and always inventive Count the Clock Productions, promises an aesthetic meeting of these two very creative, yet seeming dissimilar minds (among others). Renowned for such shorts as Pep, I Love Lucy and The Cheerleader Trials, this also promises to be CTCP’s most ambitious project to date.

Thus, if you have a pretty penny or two jangling around in those ragged cut-offs, be sure to throw them some help at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-ball-horror#/. There, you can also explore the majestic originality of some of their previous work, as well.

Now, with my Good Samaritan cap firmly askew… I wish you SWEET love and pink GRUE, and a wonderful weekend!

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Review: The Cheerleader Trials

Published January 20, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

When the Golden Age meets the Modern Age things can get a bit bloody. Writer-director Zach Lorkiewicz knows this well and proves it with his fun and inventive new short The Cheerleader Trials.

Taking place backstage during a production of a school play, actress Greta (Garbo) is confronted by her fellow cast mates, who just happen to include Judy Garland, Anne Baxter and Marilyn Monroe. It seems someone has been murdered on stage and Greta’s costars are determined to be judge, jury and executioner…especially if it means knocking off any competition for the spotlight.

Nicely, Lorkiewicz is able to create an environment that seems both to encompass the bleak emptiness of those off limits areas of professional theaters and a vast and dreamy never-world, as well. Anyone who spends their rainy afternoons luxuriating in the clipped and precise rhythms of the black and white worlds of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis should find much to enjoy here, too.

But The Cheerleader Trials also feels ultra-contemporary due to its violent atmospherics. We live in an age when retaliation is just a keyboard stroke away and our leaders seem to encourage vigilante justice. Therefore, Marilyn and crew have never felt so (bleakly) new.

Lorkiewicz will debuting The Cheerleader Trials, online, for a week, beginning on January 22^nd, 2017 at

https://www.youtube.com/c/counttheclock

More information is also available on the event page listed, below:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1029321563834173/

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

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Review: I Love Lucy

Published July 7, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

If only…I had known about that paternal lycanthrope curse. Those full moons in my thirties might have been a lot easier.

Likewise, writer-director-editor Zach Lorkiewicz explores some mysterious traits and hidden personalities, but within high school culture, with his latest, colorful short I Love Lucy. Here, beautiful Lucy (an ethereal Danielle Lauder) is nervously looking forward to her prom date, and all that may follow, with the cherub cute Rex (a spot-on, charming Jacob Kogan). Encouraged by her friends and a couple of ominously over interested school officials, Lucy’s preparations for her special night may be bit more bloody and freakishly revealing than anyone could possibly anticipate, though.

Combining the sunny world of teen comedies with science fiction and horror overtones, Lorkiewicz creates a fuzzily unique universe here. Aided immeasurably by Tracy Rosenblum’s special effects work and the sonic backgrounds created by Alison Ho and Catherine Yang, I Love Lucy is truly an intriguing and artistically superior work. Its ending may be open to interpretation, but anyone who has experienced the cold hard truth that everyone around them is virtually unknowable with find much to chew over here.

You can watch the short, in full, at:

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

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