Halloween season

All posts tagged Halloween season

Take Five with Marital Streep

Published October 21, 2026 by biggayhorrorfan

Over the past couple years, my brilliantly fun friend Wendi Freeman has began producing music as the delightfully monikered Marital Steep. In the months since her debut release, her electro clash rhythms have definitely brightened many a dance enthusiast’s ear buds. This is especially true with her latest offering, Hunting for a Beautiful Accident. On the eve of her performance at Bezazian Library’s Gay Fright Fest – because what self respecting queer doesn’t love a lively set from a self produced pop princess?!?! – Freeman took a moment to chat with me about the horror influences in her music and to let us know what she is currently listening to, as well.

Big Gay Horror Fan: What inspired you to create music as Marital Streep?

Marital Streep: Marital Streep sprung from a desire to be allowed to dance. I had been playing drums in punk bands for so many years and wanted to just admit to myself that I like classic 80s synth pop.

BGH: I love the cinematic nature of your sound. Is that something you’ve worked purposefully towards?

MS: I’ve always loved artists like Tangerine Dream, and how horror films specifically use synth scores, like John Carpenter. I aspire to that level of versatility to construct a mood. 

In the song, Diagetic I play with how I wish my music could be something a character pops on in the background. I want someone to tune in a radio or put in a cassette and you hear my song in the background. That’s one of my favorite tropes- when a character puts a song on and it’s tinny and distorted and then they pop it in as the main soundtrack and you suddenly hear it clearly.

BGHF: You recently released a new EP, Hunting for a Beautiful Accident. Is there a song on that new collection that you found was truly exhilarating to work on?

MS: This entire ep was exciting to work on because I really learned new skills about chopping and sampling. I’d find a glockenspiel loop and get excited to distort and warp it.

BGHF: That is so cool! What Marital Streep song do you think would fit perfectly in one of your favorite horror films?

MS: I want to be the musical act at a prom! I want someone getting killed or bullied while I’m singing something bright and bubbly like Used to Dance.

BGHF: You’d be like EG Daily meets Devo!! As a huge music fan yourself, what current dance acts have been getting your pulse to race to the BPM?

MS: This year in particular has been a great time for women producing their own music. I’m inspired by Ninajirachi and Pink Pantheress creating their own beats and my favorite album recently has been underscores’ U.

Be sure to find Marital Streep on all your favorite streaming devices. You can also follow her at http://www.maritalstreep.bandcamp.com and http://www.facebook.com/p/maritalstreep-61574760700991/.

Marital Streep will be performing at Gay Fright Fest at the Bezazian Library branch, 1226 W Ainslie, in Chicago on Saturday, October 24th at 1PM. It’s a free event with candy, prizes, screenings and (obviously!!) great tunes…so please join us!

https://chicagolocalevents.com/events/gay-fright-fest-2026-10-24-bezazian


Genre Perspectives: The Sandpiper

Published March 1, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

Its no surprise that acclaimed horror directors like John Landis have contributed enthusiast commentaries to profiles on such visually stunning old school creators like sparkling dance king Busby Berkeley. Horror films are often defined by their morbid style and atmospheric palette, and it is no wonder that its prime practitioners recognize the impressive work of those who came before them.

Director Vincent Minnelli is another of those lush golden greats that contemporary maestros often rhapsodize about. His pictures always radiate with deep color and intense style. There is also probably nothing more spookily evocative than the Halloween scene in his classic Meet Me In Saint Louis. There, he carefully conjured up dread and youthful excitement all at once. In fact, the cheering mob like quality of that sequence almost dominates & supersedes the frenzied crowd work supplied by David Gordon Green in some of his recent seasonal epics.

Nicely, Minnelli’s vivid hues and auteur style elegance are still present in his latter, less critically recognized works. Even in The Sandpiper, a chest heaving soap opera from 1965 featuring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, his visual flair dominates the proceedings. Taylor, whom he had worked with twice before in the original Father of the Bride comedies, is also crowned with the loving, saturated camera work that he provided such luminaries as Judy Garland, Katherine Hepburn and Lucille Bremer in their heyday.

Interestingly, Taylor’s against the grain artist character also finds parallels with many of the imperfectly singular horror heroines we have seen of late. As Laura Reynolds, a freewheeling bohemian who refuses to bow down to traditional expectations, Taylor seemingly finds all the strands of her own singular power and displays them, passionately, onscreen. Thus, astute viewers can find echoes of everyone from XXX‘s Maxine to Heart Eyes‘ Ally McCabe in Reynolds’ fiery resistance to conformity.

Now, one can only hope that younger (and even older, blindsided) horror fans will eventually discover all the wonderful genre coincidences that lurk within popular cinema from decades ago. 

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

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