With another Pride Month here, I’m always reminded at how much the LGBTQ+ community has contributed to the horror world. Be it literature, television, comic books, and or movies, the LGBTQ+ spirit is woven in to the DNA of horror as a whole from Mary Shelly, to Don Mancini, to Elvira, et al.
These are five truly great horror standards directed and/or written by an LGBTQ+ creator.
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The nineties were an interesting time for action movies. You had your A tier action flicks hitting the box office, and then you had your C and D tier on home video filling shelves. Among them there was “No Contest.” If you were a premium cable subscriber in the nineties, you probably know what “No Contest” is. This movie fulfilled two big purposes in that it gave the studio their very own “Die Hard” wannabe, and it pushed their star Shannon Tweed to the forefront in her long effort to become a mainstream movie star.
Shannon Tweed was a gorgeous and sexy woman and former Playboy model in the eighties who got in to feature films in the nineties and worked hard to become a big screen actress.
Sarah Young is a brave new voice in the film world bringing to the forefront socially volatile commentary as well as genuine scares. With “Not Him,” the genuinely talented filmmaker directs a horror film that works as a taut allegory for domestic abuse. “Not Him” is now making the rounds in various festivals and Ms. Young took time out to speak with us.
“This is a working man’s art form. It’s not the opera. It’s not theater. It’s not going to a big concert. The idea was that anyone could go and see a movie… we have priced them out to where now it’s a deal.” – Quentin Tarantino
When I was a kid we lived in a small one bed room apartment shared by four people. My dad worked all day and only on the weekends could he really find time to spend with me and my brother. On the weekends he’s gather us together and we’d find time to do something together. The only caveat is we’d had to be able to afford it. Even in the late eighties that was a tough endeavor. So we’d go to the park, or the public pool, or free day at the Bronx Zoo. But quite often he’d snatch up me and my brother and we’d go to the movies together. It was the least expensive option that offered an immersive experience.
The Windblown Hare (1949)
Directed by Bob McKimson
Written by Warren Foster
Animation by John Carey
Music by Carl Stalling
I am one that was never much of a fan of cartoons like “Rocky and Bullwinkle” or “George of the Jungle.” I always found those series to feel cheap and kind of dull so I was never a fan of their fractured fairy tales. Besides, Warner bros. always set the bar high when it came to taking fairy tales and distorting them for their own twisted purposes. “The Windblown Hare” is a hilarious take on the Three Pigs and Red Riding Hood, the first confrontation with the three pigs for Bugs and his second confrontation of Red Riding Hood’s universe. While not as funny as “Red Riding Rabbit,” this visitation to the latter’s world is small but hysterical as the writers take this whole dynamic and twist it up for some prime comedic material.
With the whole world of art on the very brink of an Armageddon caused by the glorified plagiarism software that is A.I. I thought I’d lighten the mood a bit and write a review of a thirty-five year old Italian exploitation movie that didn’t need a complicated algorithm to plagiarize a James Cameron movie. It did it manually. Tubi calls it Shocking Dark, which is also the name of the film’s 2018 North American Blu-ray release, but its official and original title in Italy was Terminator II. It was called that because, in typical confusing Italian movie fashion, it was ripping off Aliens. I guess the producers were trying to pull the old switcheroo on us by pretending to have made a crappy pseudo-sequel to one James Cameron film so we wouldn’t notice that they were actually stealing from a completely different James Cameron film. Didn’t work. Anyway, let’s review this particularly nutty turd directed by the legendary Bruno Mattei.
Now Streaming Exclusively on Tubi.
If you’ve seen the trailer or read about “Slay,” then yes, it is exactly the movie that you think it is. If you took “Priscilla Queen of the Dessert” and mixed it with “From Dusk Til Dawn” then you have what is essentially “Slay.” No more, no less. The thing about “Slay” though is that it is a siege horror comedy with vampires and drag queens it at least takes time to make up some of its own rules for vampire. This is a creative move despite the fact it’s also a trick use to cover up the movie’s obviously low budget. And I can’t complain, because the movie makes lemonade out of lemons.