NEWS

Killer Daisy Joins an Esteemed Group of Trans Killers

Question: is it ok, in this scary Trumpian world, for a film to feature a trans person as a psychotic killer? In the new release Brute 1976, there is Daisy, an oddly cross-dressing member of a savage family. With her chandelier earrings, mischievous smile (suggesting a deranged Truman Capote), exposed prosthetic breasts and penchant for killing any unlucky soul who ventures on their family plot, she makes for quite an evil character. Yet she is far from the first trans killer. Examples are: Divine (RIP Connie and Raymond Marble, Pink Flamingos);  Norman Bates (Psycho), Buffalo Bill (Silence of the Lambs),  Bobbi (Dressed To Kill) and Angela (Sleepaway Camp) to name a few. I, personally, have no problem with Daisy. The film was directed by a gay man (Marcel Walz) and features both lesbian and gay male characters. Hey, even a nominally straight character disastrously sticks his exceptionally long hard-on through a glory hole. Let’s just say it turned me off (well for a month) from any tearoom action. For a very different kind of queer horror film, check out BRUTE 1976.

BRUTE 1976 now out on Blu-ray and streaming.

From Cinephobia, the company that brought you THE COFFEE TABLE, comes BRUTE 1976, an American horror film now streaming. “For those who enjoy unapologetic homages to 1970s horror, I won’t mince my words: Add Brute 1976 to your summer fall watch list immediately.”- Dread Central “A love letter to grindhouse cinema—brutal, sleazy and tripping with retro grit.” Horror Brains. BRUTE 1976 is now available to rent or buy: https://linktr.ee/brute1976

Trump Challenges new Cinephobia and B Stream Alliance

Cinephobia Enters Unholy Alliance with B Stream! What’s next? Maybe us becoming the Official Film Distributor for MAGA! On second thought, that’s too evil even for us. https://thebstream.com/pages/cinephobia

WEAPONS Showcases Homophobia Like it’s 1962

The horror film WEAPONS is a popular hit. Which is a shame since it is also has the most homophobic take on a stereotypical gay couple since 1968’s STAIRCASE, which starred the mincing hairdresser couple Richard Burton and Rex Harrison [check it out for free on YouTube – if you dare].

For most of film history, gay men and women have been depicted as effeminate, predatory, self-hating or offensively used for comic relief. An early, often violent, death was their punishment for being different. But this is 2025. Times have long changed, and proof is in the hundreds of positive portrayals of gay men in television and in Hollywood films. So why did director Zach Cregger depict, in his otherwise quite good horror movie, WEAPONS, a cartoonish and possibly hateful portrayal of a gay couple? SPOILER ALERT: Stop reading if you haven’t seen the film yet.

When introduced, Marcus Miller (Benedict Wong) is seen as a kind and supportive middle-school principal who works to fend off the anger of parents after 17 children in a single classroom disappear one night without a trace. His sexual orientation is not a factor as he protects the classroom’s teacher Justine (Julia Garner) from the mob of parents. Fast forward to the middle of the movie and we now see Marcus shopping at a supermarket and he’s not alone but with his presumptive lover/husband Terry (Clayton Farris.) Nothing wrong with that until we see the limp-wristed Terry, in the queeniest possible way (he could be the sissy brother to Emory from Boys in the Band) prancing down the aisles gleefully picking products and asking Marcus to choose one. The final items are two kinds of cereals, what kind? Fruity Pebbles of course. I guess Froot Loops and Banana Nut Cheerios did not pay for product placement.

Later, we see the couple at home. Terry, the queenier one, is wearing a Minnie Mouse t shirt while the tougher Marcus wears a Micky Mouse t shirt. Now we know who is the top and who gets plowed. Terry is preparing a plate of food for lunch in front of the TV. What’s the main items on the plate? Seven hot dogs. I guess they could have had whole cucumbers on the plate, so one small win for the gays. The couple is used as tension-releasing comic relief – look at these homos, aren’t they funny! Now let’s get back to the horror. And the horror does resume as a witch casts a spell on Marcus, who immediately knocks his partner to the ground and with his own head, bashes Terry’s head into a gelatinous pulp. And still under the spell, he furiously runs out of the house in search of teacher Justine, but an encounter with a fast-moving car leaves his head splattered all over the asphalt. Two queens dead in the most violent fashion.

Now this is a horror films so what’s the problem if other characters are similarly killed? Well, that’s not the case. This is not a gory film with a high death headcount. It is noteworthy that, apart from a policeman who is shot and a drug user who is killed, no other significant characters meet a violent end—except for Gladys, the sinister witch, and the two fags. And in those deaths, only Terry, Marcus and the witch have gory demises and with all three having their brains sprayed across the ground.

Director Cregger not only uses gay men as comic relief, but through the similar head-bashing deaths, associates homosexuality with evil. Young people are going in droves to this film, and they leave the cinemas laughing at the fags and enjoying their grisly murders. Wow. When usually liberal Hollywood viciously turns on the LGBTQ community what is next in this Trump era?

Making the Yuletide Gay: a Gay Male Baby Boomer’s Wet Dream!

“The Latent Image”: Lust. Uncertainty. Violence. – L.A. Blade