Second Look: The Wasp Woman

Published August 15, 2026 by biggayhorrorfan

It is interesting how the target audiences for various genre films can change over the years due to shifts in cultural climate.

Since my early 20s, my favorite Roger Corman produced golden oldie has always been The Wasp Woman (1959). Not only are two strong women, Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot) and Mary Dennison (Barboura Marris).at the heart of its soapy drama, but its issues of youth and beauty have always been central ones to the gay community.

Just as Starlin, a revolutionary in the cosmetics industry, struggles as her advancing age seemingly loses her vivacious importance in the beauty industry, many a personal friend has expressed how invisible they feel in queer spaces as they begin to grey.

Indeed, it’s rare that a male model in his fifties or sixties is featured on the cover of Out magazine or even on the front pages of local bar rags. As one nears senior status, gathering at nightclubs, a prime resource for LGBTQIA interaction, also feels less and less desirable, leading to a further sense of ostracization.

Thus, we can truly relate as Starlin enters into a covert deal with Dr. Eric Zinthrop (Michael Mark). Zinthrop’s experiments with the jelly produced by the queen wasp initially give Starlin a renewed glow, but her continual use of the product transforms her into a murderous insect-like mutant! As TLC sang, “Don’t go chasing waterfalls,” kiddos!

Interestingly, though, The Wasp Woman‘s central issues have reached a more universal appeal in recent times. The Looksmaxing community, often centralized by straight, openly homophobic men, is obsessed, a la Starlin, with physical perfection. Even heterosexual men less emphatic in their ways are now just as concerned with their looks as their queer counterparts. Products from Manscaping and other grooming sites have a large heterosexual consumer-ship…proving, once again, how ahead of the curve gay men are…and how flexible cinema can be.

That an exploitation exercise filmed over 60 years ago is still relatable in ever morphing ways is truly a valuable indication of the power of this centuries-old art form.

As always, I am proud to be bound up in its ever-changing spell.

Gay Times:

Actor William Roerick, who wrote plays and television scripts throughout the years with his romantic partner (and fellow actor) Thomas Coley, plays dubious business executive Arthur Cooper here. Roerick, famously, also portrayed the very popular Henry Chamberlain on the long running soap opera Guiding Light for fifteen years. Committedly, he essayed the elegantly rascally Chamberlain until the month of his death at the age of 82 in 1995.

Sex Work is Work – Talking with the Inventive Creators of Blowie

Published July 20, 2026 by biggayhorrorfan

In celebration of the Midwest premiere of their gay, sex positive slasher Blowie, co-creators Ed Aldridge and Sam Lidbetter recently, through the incredibly natural wonders of email and long-distance communication, sat down with Brian Kirst of Big Gay Horror Fan to discuss this important addition to the contemporary horror scene. The two reveal some of the behind the scenes thought processes involved with the film and analyze whether queer representation has finally entered an age of equality where terror on celluloid is concerned.

Big Gay Horror Fan: What was the initial inspiration for Blowie?

Ed Aldridge and Sam Lidbetter: We’ve always been huge horror fans, especially classic films like Hellraiser, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. We’d spent years working with adult performers and knew firsthand how talented, professional, and committed they are. We always felt they could bring something unique to a horror film, and we knew they’d be excited to take on a fun project like this. The character of Blowie came from wanting to create an iconic slasher villain with a distinctive look, like Freddy or Jason. Since the film centers around sex workers, the mask and the character naturally evolved from that setting.

BGHF: Do you have a most memorable moment from the set when filming the project?

EA & SL: The entire shoot was an incredible experience. It was a lot of fun, but it was also incredibly demanding. We had a crew of just seven people filming over nine days, so everyone wore multiple hats and worked tirelessly to make the film happen. What made it so memorable was the sense of collaboration. Every single cast and crew member gave everything they had, and Blowie simply wouldn’t exist without that collective effort. One specific memory that comes to mind is that both of us (Sam and Ed the directors) had minor roles in the film. Ed was Blowie in the vacbed crawling out of the river and Sam was the head double for Kali for the bottle smash, mostly because we felt like we had to give something for the art!

BGHF: That seems like definite proof that the film is going to be super fun for audiences to watch! Were there any underlying social messages or personal experiences that you were also trying to express here, though?

EA & SL: We started our careers in mainstream television and film before moving into adult filmmaking, and when we decided to make our first feature, we never wanted to distance ourselves from that part of our journey. Instead, we wanted to embrace it and tell stories inspired by a world we know well. At its core, Blowie is about sex workers and sex positivity. The message is simple: sex work is work, and the people who do it are just like anyone else, they’re professionals doing a job. While the film is a horror-comedy, it also offers a glimpse behind the scenes of the adult industry and shows that, despite the stereotypes, much of it is surprisingly ordinary and mundane. That felt important for us to portray alongside all the blood, laughs, and mayhem.

BGHF: I love that! What has been your favorite reaction from an audience member to the project thus far?

EA & SL: Premiering the film in the UK last year was an amazing experience. Watching it with a live audience for the first time and hearing people laugh, cheer, and react together was incredibly rewarding. It really felt like a midnight movie experience. One of our favorite things has been seeing both horror fans and LGBTQ+ audiences embrace the film. We always knew Blowie sat between genres, so seeing people connect with it from different perspectives has been the best reaction we could have hoped for.

BGHF: Leviticus has just been released to very solid critical and audience reaction. Do you think we are in a good place for gay themes to enter mainstream horror on a more consistent basis or do you think we still have a lot of work ahead of us?

EA & SL: I think we’re definitely in a better place than we were even five or ten years ago. The success of films like Leviticus shows that audiences are increasingly open to stories with LGBTQ+ themes.

That said, I don’t think we’re at the point where queer themes in mainstream horror are fully normalized yet. There are still relatively few studio horror films that place gay characters and relationships at the center without making their identity the entire point of the narrative. Horror has always been a genre that explores people on the margins, fear of the “other,” and social anxieties, so it’s actually a natural space for queer storytelling.

BGHF: I wholeheartedly agree! Thanks for taking the time to speak with me! I can’t wait for the Midwest premiere on Saturday!

Blowie will be the headliner at a special celebration of LGBTQIA+ horror at the Debut Studio Theater, 1205 McHenry Road in Buffalo Grove, IL on Saturday, July 25th, 2026. Doors open at 6 PM and the tickets are $15. A presentation of Dead Walk Fest, advance tickets are available at http://www.deadwalkfest.com.

Unsung Heroines of Horror: Hayley Mills

Published June 28, 2026 by biggayhorrorfan

Fifty-six years before her much anticipated genre reappearance in M Night Shyamalan’s Trap (2024), perennial Disney sweetheart Hayley Mills entered the world of horror and exploitation by taking on the leading role in Twisted Nerve (1968). Directed and co-written by her husband Roy Boulting, the film was definitely not up Mills’ creative alley, as recounted in her memoir Forever Young, and it ultimately faced controversy over its implied correlation between intellectual disability and psychotic behavior.

Mills, naturally, is the sweet faced heroine. Appearing with frequent co-star Hywell Bennett, she unwittingly becomes the target of the obsessive behavior of Martin, his character. Pretending to be cognitively impaired, Martin becomes a boarder in the home run by Mills’ slattern mother Joan, played with acidic grace by the great Billie Whitelaw..

Whitelaw, who provided the original The Omen with some of it’s many highlights as Damian’s obsessed nanny, is also a force of powerful attraction here. Her performance won her the BAFTA for supporting actress and the scene in which she tries to seduce Martin by wriggling her fingers into one of the front pockets of his jeans is pure cinematic salaciousness.

Mills supplied the same sort of fresh faced honesty to her next project with Bennett, 1972’s Endless Night. Based on an Agatha Christie novel, she is an heiress named Ellie Thomsen here, allowing her to play someone that was a far cry from the working class innocent in the duo’s previous project. The actress’ charming yet dignified lightness is a perfect match for this character and the hiring of Swedish sexpot Britt Eklund to play her best friend is a brilliant casting choice of contrasts.

Despite warnings of doom from small town eccentrics, Ellie builds her new husband Michael’s (Bennett) dream home in a countryside valley with a notorious history. At first, Michael’s caustic relationship with Eklund’s overbearing Greta, Ellie’s longtime friend and professional companion, is the only major impetus to the neophyte couple’s happiness. But as murder and death raise their heads, someone eventually meets their inglorious end. Naturally, in true Christie style, many twists and turns are delivered until the real culprits are finally revealed.

Unexpected tragedies also surrounded Mills in her second season appearance for the British horror anthology Thriller. Only A Scream Away (1974) finds her paired with a very handsome David Warbeck. Years before his Euro fame in such Fulci projects as Black Cat and The Beyond, Warbeck’s beginnings as a male model are apparent here and the two make a truly compatible pair. That danger lurks for Mills via a character played by the arbitrarily golden Gary Collins only adds to the story’s competent yet fairly standard psycho-from-the-past feel.

Still beautifully active as of this writing, these projects ultimately prove that while the 80 year old Mills may not always favor the genre, it certainly always favors her.

True Survivor:

In her memoir, Mills reveals that, when she was a young teenager at Catholic boarding school, a priest named Father Mike tried to lure her into an inappropriate relationship. Using her wits, she was able to extract herself from the situation. Her sense memory of the incident surely must have played into the authentic way that she portrayed the above roles, proving that, for the luckiest, a painful past can lead to an authentic artistic release. #triumphantsurvivor #bancatholicism #burnthechurch

Va-Va-Villainess: Ann Miller

Published April 25, 2026 by biggayhorrorfan

Always outshining her contemporaries, Ann Miller’s latter day gothic film career entry was not a slasher or a horror comedy. She actually played two characters, both named Coco, in David Lynch’s much lauded, eternally creepy Hollywood tale Mulholland Drive. This dual take allowed Miller to play with both sassy kindness and a more cryptic coolness, especially in her final scenes.

That perfected chill often played well during her major player days at MGM. Often cast as the other woman, Miller frequently tried to make life rough for her female co-stars. Whether it was Judy Garland, Jane Powell or Anne Francis, Ann continually used her feminine wiles to try to steal their men.

Of course, while all the roles were definitely of a certain type, Nadine Hall in Easter Parade was probably her penultimate creation. After dumping Fred Astaire’s smitten Don Hewes to achieve greener career pastures on her own, Hall about faces, mischievously trying to win him back after he finds success (and potential love) with Garland’s sweet Hannah.

Always playing this underhandedness with a bright smile, Miller also performs her iconic Shaking the Blues Away number here.

Impressively, she nailed this arduous routine while still recovering from a broken back, her physical agony making the victory of her performance here all the more significant. Importantly, this feat still echoes today, proving that, with grit and determination, absolutely anything can be obtained.

Van Johnson: Lady Killer

Published February 14, 2026 by biggayhorrorfan

He was Hollywood’s fresh faced hero, but Van Johnson caused more than certain pigtailed viewers’ hearts to flutter. The characters he played could also be very dangerous to the opposite sex.

Even the man-breaking Elizabeth Taylor suffered, cinematically, under his boyish spell.

Sparingly adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Babylon Revisited, 1954’s The Last Time I Saw Paris found Johnson’s Charles Wills initially dating Donna Reed’s elegant yet doting Marion. But with one look at Taylor’s spoiled Helen, Marion’s younger sister, Johnson/Charles is smitten and Marion is quickly a mere footnote in his life. The tempestuous relationship between Charles and Helen soon produces a child…and mountains of heartache.

That destructive energy reaches its zenith, one rainy night, when the combative, overly emotional Helen is caught in a downpour after a battle with her disapproving spouse. Her deathbed gasps change Charles’ life forever.

Johnson lost another celluloid paramour due to excessively stormy weather in the three hankie Miracle in the Rain, released two years after Paris.

Here it is Jane Wyman’s shy, inexperienced Ruth who falls under the spell of G.I. Arthur, whom Johnson plays with a worldly sense of charm.

Wyman’s character here is the exact opposite of Taylor’s, but Arthur proves to be quite the lady killer with her, as well…if only by accident.

After a tender courtship, Ruth is misinformed that Arthur has died overseas. Distraught and depressed, she exposes herself to the elements. Thus, pneumonia ridden and nearly delirious, she perishes in his arms as he reaches her just in time for her final collapse.

The moral of these stories?!? Avoid those silvery charmers, ladies and gents!

Johnson’s Horror Express:

As with many Golden Age greats before him, Johnson appeared in a couple Euro Horror efforts in the latter days of his career: 1982’s The Scorpion with Two Tails and 1989’s beast in the wild entry, Killer Crocodile.

Review: Sewer Gators

Published February 4, 2026 by biggayhorrorfan

All of the world’s probiotics and Ryze coffee drinks may not be enough to save you from a shit stained nightmare – especially when there are deadly gators popping up in the bathroom at your private home.

Unfortunately, in the very fun Sewar Gators (2022), the residents of a small Louisiana town learn this sad fact the hard way. Thus, after a drunken ne’er do well is practically swallowed whole after a trip to the john, frazzled Sheriff Mitchell (Kenny Bellau) must try to convince his town’s unyielding mayor about the danger at hand. Of course, even the arrival of a determined alligator expert (Marion Pages) does little to change the oblivious official’s mind and soon a variety of townsfolk have viciously expired.

Nicely, writer-director Paul Dale works with a true understanding of how powerful the ridiculous can be when done correctly. Utilizing Dollar Tree props and such absurd scenarios as the banishment of a large reptile via a voodoo doll, he creates an over-the-top winner here.

Despite the low budget and an occasional lack of experience, the cast here is always appropriately natural or assuredly broad depending upon the situation at hand, as well. Bellau, in particular, wins the audience over with a subdued ease.

Overall, fans of Jaws and The Asylum’s multiple nature-gone-wild projects will definitely find much to enjoy here.

Review: Switch Killer

Published December 21, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

The editors of Queer Horror: A Film Guide had a herculean task and a couple reviews were accidentally double dipped. Two of us involved with the project covered 2005’s controversial Switch Killer. Here’s my (previously unpublished) take:

Switch Killer (2005)

Writer: Mack Hail, Jim Mills

Director: Mack Hail

Cast: Cara Jo Basso, Bishop Mann, Monique Chachere, Alix Agar, Susan Blonsky

Escaping her abusive fiancée by becoming a stripper in Las Vegas seems the perfect solution for Jamie (Basso) at first. Not only is the money good, but she has moved in with her ailing grandmother (Blonsky), who offers familial support. She has also begun a seemingly healthy relationship with Brooke (Chachere), a fellow performer. But unbeknownst to her, Brooke has been sleeping with other women from the get-go. Even worse, Bobby (Mann) her nasty ex, has taken his efforts to make some improvements in his life to a whole new level. After undergoing a sex change in order to win back Jamie’s heart, s/he tracks her down and begins slaughtering anyone that s/he perceives as a threat to their future happiness.

In a film conceived purely to titillate, director-writer Hail pulls out the stops with plenty of nudity, girl on girl action and bloodshed. From the film’s original title (Transamerican Killer) to scenes in which women are slaughtered while giving lap dances and one gentleman is murdered in bed while in the process of de-virginizing the recently transitioned Bobby, this piece of cavity causing celluloid is completely politically incorrect. Exploitation fans who enjoy the genre for its go for broke, juvenile hijinks will find much to admire here. Feminists of all varieties and members of the transgender community meanwhile are sure to be universally disturbed.

Granted, Switch Killer probably wouldn’t be given a distribution deal now, some 15 years after its genesis. It’s just too thoughtless. One truly hopes we now live in age when filmmakers can embrace outrageousness in celluloid without insulting marginalized communities – particularly ones who are more likely to be the victims of violence as opposed to being the perpetrators of it. – BK

Looking for something to do with all that extra holiday cash, by the way? I’ve heard that Queer Horror: A Film Guide looks great on every bookcase – no matter the size of the shelf!

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Review: Resurrection

Published December 14, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

While the character of John Harper in Resurrection (1980) sternly resides in a small country town, he has little in common with portrayer Roberts Blossom’s best-known role, Ezra Cobb. In 1972’s Deranged, Cobb, is a backwoods denizen of a different sort – , a fan favorite psycho, based on serial killer Ed Gein. There, Gein’s exploits are proffered up in bloody, documentary-style detail, efficiently essayed by a wild-eyed yet blisteringly natural Blossom.

In contrast, Harper, while cold, is extremely pious and soft spoken, a direct opposite of Cobb. Indeed, Blossom most excels here in the moment when Harper’s long gestating rigidness dissolves into tear stained joy, proving the true versatility of this distinguished poet and performer.

Interestingly, this film, revolving around a woman named Edna (Ellen Burstyn), who discovers she has healing abilities after a near death experience, features multiple performers, such as Blossom, who are known for their genre credits.

Most significantly, Burstyn was nominated for an Academy Award for her committed performance in the now classic The Exorcist. As she, powerfully, finds the nuances of Edna’s transformation from a crippled accident victim to peaceful wonder-maker, she was also, rightfully, nominated for her work here.

Meanwhile, among the story’s relatives and friends, Madeline Sherwood and Lois Smith both give effective characterizations. Sherwood, a distinguished Broadway performer, had significant roles in such projects as The Changeling, often referred to as the most effective ghost story of all time, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Haunted By Her Past (previously covered here). Smith, also acclaimed for her stage work, appeared in the killer child flick Twisted and essayed one of her most recognizable roles, Adele Stackhouse in True Blood, decades after her appearance here.

As Edna’s powers are never truly explained, there is a mysterious, almost science fiction essence working, plotline-wise here, as well. Interestingly, scenes in which Edna is examined in a series of college labs, definitely have a kinship to the sequences in which Regan (Linda Blair) is experimented on in Exorcist II: The Heretic, a film Burstyn seemingly made a decided effort not to be involved in.

Thus, if one is in the mood for something quiet and mystical or even just looking for a break from overwrought bloodshed, this might definitely be a movie well worth seeking out.

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The Backside of Horror: I Know What You Did Last Summer

Published November 30, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

The bathroom mash-up between Ava (Chase Sui Wonders) and Tyler (Gabbriette Bechtel) at the beginning of the flash forward portion of the recent I Know What You Did Last Summer sent me for a loop. I, like so many of us, am overwhelmingly trained to indulge in the straight narrative in film. Thus, I took it for granted that Ava was bound for a reunion with Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), her former sweetheart who had been introduced in the film’s starting moments.

It took me a moment to reorient my thinking and come to the conclusion that Ava was either fluid or bisexual, while simultaneously realizing that this particular series is one of the most diverse and inclusive slasher empires to ever exist.

That the current sequel was helmed and co-written by a powerful woman, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, probably has something to do with this incredibly welcoming spectrum.

Indeed, the 2021 IKWYDLS series, also created by another woman, Sara Goodman, began this creative product’s veer towards LGBTQIA friendliness. Besides Sebastian Amurusa’s gay best friend Johnny, the cast of characters there also included the very bisexual Alison/Lennon (Madison Iseman) and Margot (Brianne Tju).

While Iseman and Tju shared a true chemistry and several hot, intimate encounters, Iseman’s character also shared a passionate moment with Ezekiel Goodman’s Dylan. Dylan, who ultimately proved himself to be as emotionally chaotic and potentially dangerous as the rest of the participants in this take, very nakedly shared real feelings for Alison/Lennon.

In keeping with this vulnerability, Goodman’s buttocks ridden exposure here truly seemed to match the bared emotions of the person he was portraying. Socially, his brave mechanics also provided a little masculine exposure in a genre that often capitalizes on female flesh, adding a nice sense of celluloid equilibrium, as well.

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

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Shark Bait Retro Village: Children of the Night (1985)

Published November 15, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

A bit more serious in nature than many of the women-in-peril tele-flicks that populated the primetime airwaves, Children of the Night, first aired in the fall of 1985 on CBS.

A fictionalized look at the life of Lois Lee, a doctoral student who founded the titular organization to help teen sex workers get off the streets, the dangers facing the young cast here are definitely nerve chilling. They hue closely to a sense of very grimy reality.

While rarely physically graphic, the screenplay here does talk of, and acutely show, the aftereffects of, the emotional, physical and sexual abuse the teens face. These are the circumstances that Lois, played by the reliable Kathleen Quinlan, is determined to save them from. Eventually forming a tight bond with the street-smart Valerie (Lar-Park Lincoln), Lee is soon housing her and other runaways. Facing off against a handsome pimp (Mario Van Peebles), she eventually gets through to Valerie, who as the credits start to roll, is shown joining her in her work.

As gritty as this exercise gets, there are still elements of TV Movie of the Week expectedness here. In the last arc, Quinlan’s journey to a darkened crack house is full of horror film jump scares. The script also doesn’t allow Peebles, who gives his Roy Spanish a quietly intense hue of evil, much leeway. Thus, Spanish is reminiscent of many of the smooth-talking villains that were seen on shows of that era like TJ Hooker and Matt Houston.

But horror fans, in particular, will be thrilled that The New Blood‘s Lincoln, who sadly passed away from breast cancer in 2025, gives a nervy, full-bodied performance here. It is probably one of the best roles that she received in her Hollywood career and she, proudly, executes all the varied tones and stumbling triumphs of the young girl that she plays. Nicely, Marta Kober, another Friday the 13th film series veteran, provides a true sense of lived-in sass in the smaller role of Linda, as well.

Indeed, the cast as a whole, including Nicholas Campbell (The Hitchhiker) as Lee’s devoted yet wavering boyfriend, has a sparkling sense of genre pedigree. Quinlan has appeared in everything from the apocalyptic disaster-horror Warning Sign to the 2006 reimagining of The Hills Have Eyes. Peebles, meanwhile, has lit up the cinemas in such cult oddities as Jaws: The Revenge and the cult werewolf flick Full Eclipse.

Importantly, for those who chronicle the rise of LGBTQIA representation in media, the trio of screenwriters (William Wood, Vickie Patik, Robert Guenette) give a full sense of expressiveness to Marty, the gay hustler that Lois takes in. Painted as both razor sharp and exceedingly vulnerable, actor David Crowley takes this wise and human material and brings it to full, blood flowing life. In that era, when our community was still being painted, on shows such as The Streets of San Francisco and Matlock, as schizophrenic cross dressers, this well-rounded portrait is a rare and important thing.

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