DEATH GAY HORROR

November 14, 2005 12:39 PM

HELLBENT - The first gay slasher movie. Taking place at the famed West Hollywood Halloween Carnival, there is a serial killer on the loose. A group of four gay friends will have to fight for their lives to make it through a night where flamboyant costumes, beautiful people, drugs, music, dancing and sex are everywhere. Trailer (quicktime, NOT SAFE FOR WORK). The soundtrack looks pretty good.
posted by Captaintripps (65 comments total)

Why did you choose to go with the
rock sound over the traditional gay dance pulse we usually hear?

JN: Exactly because of that. The film is about drawing the audience away from the gay stereotypes. It creates a darker soundscape for the action to take place. The soundtrack features artists who are gay.

About time. Rock and roll's been up to it's ears in teh gay from the jump. Come on home to the party, gay brethren and sistren!
posted by jonmc at 12:44 PM on November 14, 2005

Goes double for the slasher flick. Come join us in our reindeer games.
posted by jonmc at 12:46 PM on November 14, 2005

Just because an industry is targeting a demographic doesn't indicate a growing surge in rights. "We'll do business with niggers" is a paraphrased quote I particularly remember from Black Like Me.
posted by Citizen Premier at 12:48 PM on November 14, 2005

Just because an industry is targeting a demographic doesn't indicate a growing surge in rights.

It does indicate recognition of a sort. And if this film does well both within and without the gay audience, that would signal a rise in acceptance. Which are levers that can be used for gaining rights. Call me a cockeyed optimist.
posted by jonmc at 12:50 PM on November 14, 2005

What about Cruising? /sarcasm
posted by Falconetti at 12:51 PM on November 14, 2005

Hell, what about Dog Day Afternoon?

/not sarcasm

(you could call Sonny Wurtzik the first mainstream gay cinematic bad motherfucker)
posted by jonmc at 12:53 PM on November 14, 2005

Sleepaway Camp?
posted by jca at 12:53 PM on November 14, 2005

How very Andrew Cunanan.
posted by shoepal at 12:53 PM on November 14, 2005

Getting mostly "meh" reviews at Rotten Tomatoes.

Call me a cockeyed optimist.

You're a cockeyed optimist. There's almost no way this film is going to find a straight audience. Anyway, the "Hollywood depictions will save us!" riff grew old long ago in my corner of the queer community; it's a crock. I watched the exec editor of the Advocate embarrass himself on Sunday Morning Shootout a few weeks ago, creaming his pants over the possibility that Brokeback Mountain would change the world. I laughed, until I heard him burble that one of the most wonderful things about this movie is that it was written, directed by and starring straight people! Isn't it wonderful? We've really turned the corner in Hollywood now!!

If I'd had a shoe in my hand I'd have thrown it through the screen. Can you imagine a black magazine editor going on a talk show and burbling how white people writing and directing movies about black people was a huge sign of progress?
posted by mediareport at 1:01 PM on November 14, 2005

Well, for the most part gay characters in mainstream films have been either caricautures, comedy relief or sober "role model" representatives. It's a step forward to show gays as fully formed, complicated (and that often means deeply flawed, like their straight counterparts) human beings. Sonny Wurtzik was a good example of this.
posted by jonmc at 1:03 PM on November 14, 2005

So which partner goes into the woods alone to investigate? Support the defense of slasher flicks constitutional amendment now!

/one man, one woman, one hockey mask
posted by cmfletcher at 1:04 PM on November 14, 2005

There's almost no way this film is going to find a straight audience. Anyway, the "Hollywood depictions will save us!" riff grew old long ago in my corner of the queer community; it's a crock.

Not by itself, no. But a cumulative affect does happen. I know that finding about the queer influence and presence in the films, music and literature I loved ultimately led this straight guy to greeting gayness with a shrug.
posted by jonmc at 1:05 PM on November 14, 2005

I'm looking forward to the day when the lead in a slasher/thriller/any-non-comedy-drama can just happen to be gay, without the whole movie pretty much revolving around that point...
posted by mkultra at 1:06 PM on November 14, 2005

[ahem] Dog Day Afternoon?

Basically a great caper film, with the gay subplot being largely incidental and mainly there because it was a true story. But the film was not about homosexuality per se, but about urban insanity, desperation and the dark side of love, among other things.
posted by jonmc at 1:08 PM on November 14, 2005

Eh, looks pretty gay.


Seriously, though, I thought Brokeback Mountain (that gay cowboy movie) was one of the first mainstream movies with gay main characters.

What's next, gay musicals?
posted by graventy at 1:09 PM on November 14, 2005

Damn, i thought at first someone had finally done an FPP on me.
Now I go back to waiting...
posted by hellbient at 1:11 PM on November 14, 2005

It's good to see a movie with gay leads that isn't about AIDS or discrimination. Just people (or, in this case, slasher fodder). That said, based on the trailer, let's hope that the next slasher aimed at the gay audience doesn't look quite so BAD.
posted by brundlefly at 1:12 PM on November 14, 2005

Finally!!! A pyscho slasher who knows how to dress and has a great eye for interior decor!

(All love)
posted by Mr Bluesky at 1:15 PM on November 14, 2005

mkultra: Agreed, but that's what this sort of looks like. It's being advertized as "the first gay slasher movie," but I seriously doubt it was written with that as an angle... Hell, the trailer doesn't address it at all. It plays just like a regular shitty slasher trailer, but with gay leads....
posted by brundlefly at 1:15 PM on November 14, 2005

Sleepaway Camp? Yeccchhhhh. Saw it on a double bill with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre when I was about 14 and Sleepaway Camp was the far-more-disturbing one (even if I did guess the surprise ending and jokingly blurt it out to my friends at the time). Aieeeee!!!!
posted by AJaffe at 1:17 PM on November 14, 2005

jonmc- Yeah, I guess I could take that. Though once Chris Sarandon shows up, it becomes a larger plot point.
posted by mkultra at 1:20 PM on November 14, 2005

AJaffe: I laughed all the way through Sleepaway Camp, then just stared slack-jawed at the ending.... Freaky as hell.
posted by brundlefly at 1:21 PM on November 14, 2005

(you could call Sonny Wurtzik the first mainstream gay cinematic bad motherfucker)

Wasn't he more of a fuck-up than a bad motherfucker? Great film, though, agreed; one of my faves from the mid-70s.
posted by mediareport at 1:22 PM on November 14, 2005

I've seen ads for this before, and it looked shitty. I don't know how much d-level slasher films represent a step forward for gays.

And for another gay (though ostensibly straight) horror flick, take a look at Leeches. It's about a men's swim team that takes steroids, mutating leeches in their practice lagoon. Though there are nominal heterosexual relationships, none of them are consumated, and the guys all have to shower together in scene after scene. Talking to a gay pal, apparently there's an entire subgenre of films like this— because they're homoerotic, they get pg-13 ratings and are cheap to make, so there are a lot of them.

My girlfriend really enjoyed it too, saying "It's nice to be the one pandered to for once."
posted by klangklangston at 1:27 PM on November 14, 2005

mediareport- I agree. Sonny is so totally NOT a bad motherfucker.
posted by mkultra at 1:28 PM on November 14, 2005

an entire subgenre of films like this

Don't forget Jeepers Creepers 2. You'll wonder why only the guys get shirtless when there's all these perfectly good cheerleaders around.

That and the obvious visual pun of the Creeper licking the back door of the bus.

The directory is gay (albeit also previously convicted of sexually abusing a male minor).
posted by ao4047 at 1:35 PM on November 14, 2005

Wasn't he more of a fuck-up than a bad motherfucker?

We'll he's waving a gun around and manipulating the cops and the crowd, so he's no pussy, but yeah, he is half a fuck-up. But you could say that about any 70's antihero. It was the nature of the era. But Sonny could have just as easily been a crazed postal worker and the film would've been just as good, is what I mean by the gayness being incidental. Althrough Chris Sarandon does a great job humanizing one of the oldest caricatures in the playbook.

And man, do I miss John Cazale.

I can't think of many other films like DDA, where gays are allowed to simply be people. Literature is leading the way, perhaps. James Ellroy's American Tabloid features a closeted gay character who is as epically corrupt and apocalyptically tragic as the straight charachters surrounding him, although oddly, it's the most monstrous character in the book who reacts best to his gayness.
posted by jonmc at 1:38 PM on November 14, 2005

Not a horror movie, but according to its director The Transporter 2 is a gay action film. Not nearly as gay as Top Gun though. Tony Scott was having some fun with that one.
posted by brundlefly at 1:41 PM on November 14, 2005

Call me a cockeyed optimist.
Snicker.
posted by freebird at 1:44 PM on November 14, 2005

It wasn't a slasher flick, but there HAS already been a gay horror movie. (And I bet it had better music than this new one will.)
posted by BoringPostcards at 1:57 PM on November 14, 2005

from the trailer...
"Their heads were cut off so cleanly.. the tubes, they weren't even crushed, they were wide open"

'cause hey, wide open tubes.
posted by CynicalKnight at 1:58 PM on November 14, 2005

Trailer itself isn't bad, but given the cheapo look of the movie, I'd guess the movie ain't worth seeing.

Interesting how making trailers is an art upon itself, and a 2 minute trailer can be far more entertaining than the 2 hour movie it's trying to sell.
posted by zardoz at 2:18 PM on November 14, 2005

If I want a gat horror film, I'll just rent Nightmare on Elm Street II, which could have been art directed by Tom of Finland and primarily seems to deal with a boy's fears of his own homosexuality. Or I could rent Fright Night, in which a boy, his gay best friend (who eventually went on to act in porn films), and his lesbian girlfriend do battle with the two gay vampires next door.
posted by maxsparber at 2:27 PM on November 14, 2005

Metafilter: licking the back door of the bus
posted by CynicalKnight at 2:28 PM on November 14, 2005

I have fond memories of seeing Land of the Dead opening day. We were right behind an thuggy gay couple.

Like everyone else, they were pumped for zombies and gore and all the rest. Hooray! Hooray for horror! Hooray for zombies!

Then the trailer for Hellbent came on. I shall forever treasure the "The fuck? No." expression they simultaneously flashed to one another.

Those guys are probably about as close to the target audience for that movie as you can be, but even they said no.
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:29 PM on November 14, 2005

Not a horror movie, but according to its director The Transporter 2 is a gay action film. Not nearly as gay as Top Gun though. Tony Scott was having some fun with that one.

Even the first Transporter was pretty super gay. The grease fight and all.
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:35 PM on November 14, 2005

What maxsparber said.
posted by WolfDaddy at 2:50 PM on November 14, 2005

I can see it working if it's very camp, but I just don't see a large gay slasher audience, or much of a cross-over market. But who knows?
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 2:51 PM on November 14, 2005

Ha. Just read that Chris Sarandon (Pacino's "wife" in DDA) plays the evil neighbor gay vampire in Fright Night.

Leeches, Nightmare on Elm Street II, Fright Night...I never knew. Any others?
posted by mediareport at 2:58 PM on November 14, 2005

The first victims of Blackula are gay antique collectors.
posted by maxsparber at 3:07 PM on November 14, 2005

Oh, and I can't quite put my finger on it, but there is something very gay about Lost Boys, even if some of the lost boys are girls. Must be the developing romantic relationship between Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Patrick. Or Cory Haim sitting in a bathtub singing in a high falsetto "I ain't got a man, I ain't got a home, I'm a lonely girl!"
posted by maxsparber at 3:11 PM on November 14, 2005

Doc, Babe's brother in Marathon Man (played by Roy Scheider), is gay and a badass. He's in a relationship with Peter Janeway (played by William Devane). His sexuality is only hinted at in the movie; it's more apparent in the book.

And then there's Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, the gay hit men in Diamonds Are Forever. They're unfortunate examples of the crazy gay stereotype, but they're pretty badass until they get killed by James Bond.
posted by kirkaracha at 3:15 PM on November 14, 2005

Thinking on the subject, there's a pretty clear indication that Stephen Dorff was basically Udo Kier's rent boy in Blade. Perhaps I should demur on vampire films, though; ever since Anne Rice, they've been explicitly homoerotic.
posted by maxsparber at 3:22 PM on November 14, 2005

Hmm...

"The film is about drawing the audience away from the gay stereotypes."

vs.

"...flamboyant costumes, beautiful people, drugs, music, dancing and sex are everywhere."

Um...
posted by darkstar at 3:23 PM on November 14, 2005

Oh, and while we're at it...Jack Cassidy's role as Miles Mellough, the evil gay foil to Eastwood in "The Eiger Sanction".
posted by darkstar at 3:29 PM on November 14, 2005

I can see it working if it's very camp, but I just don't see a large gay slasher audience, or much of a cross-over market. But who knows?

Don't be so sure. I've known several gay men who love love love slasher films. They were more on the gothy side, though. Not the flaming, cowboy hat types we see in this trailer.

Then again, tons of gothy straight guys watch horror movies where partying, blond sorority girls get dispatched in various interesting ways.

Maybe this is the equivalent? Maybe gay horror fans will cheer the killer on as he chops up the vacant boys.
posted by brundlefly at 3:29 PM on November 14, 2005

Eddie Dane in (played by J.E. Freeman) Miller's Crossing is a total badass, and his relationship with Mink (played by Steve Buscemi) is important to the plot.

Not nearly as gay as Top Gun though.

Quentin Tarantino's analysis of the homoerotic subtext of Top Gun:

You've got Maverick, all right? He's on the edge, man. He's right on the fucking line, all right? And you've got Iceman, and all his crew. They're gay, they represent the gay man, all right? And they're saying, go, go the gay way, go the gay way. He could go both ways.

posted by kirkaracha at 4:53 PM on November 14, 2005

Here is a list of queer horror films that predate Hellbent. By a lot.

Jason, you bitch--A new history of the popular Friday the 13th horror franchise reveals why the movies have struck a chord—and also what’s queer about them

and of course, Clive Barker
posted by amberglow at 5:01 PM on November 14, 2005

Eddie Dane in (played by J.E. Freeman) Miller's Crossing is a total badass, and his relationship with Mink (played by Steve Buscemi) is important to the plot.

I forgot all about that. Freeman is one scary motherfucker in that flick (one of my faves). I also love the scene where Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito) slaps his kid around.

"Take a page out of this man's book! A little more you listen, a little less you talk! [sobbing child, hugs] Kids, sometimes ya gotta be firm.."
posted by jonmc at 5:09 PM on November 14, 2005

jonmc, it's been some time since I saw the film, but didn't he rob the bank to pay for his lover's sex change surgery in Dog Day Afternoon? That's not the first thing I tend to think of when I think of gay. Queer, no contention. But how many gay men would identify with that character?
posted by cytherea at 5:13 PM on November 14, 2005

yeah, but the implication was that they were lovers already. Remember Cazale's discomfort when the anchorman described them as "two homosexuals." And this was 1975, there was just gay people at that point. Queer hadn't really been invented yet, at least as far as mainstream America went.
posted by jonmc at 5:26 PM on November 14, 2005

I guess you're not talking about this movie, which was directed by Richard Casey, who, coincidentally, directed my favorite movie of all time. (I have it on DVD in case anybody cares)
posted by afroblanca at 6:18 PM on November 14, 2005

I thought Leeches was a gay horror film, and it came out in 2003. The director, David DeCoteau, has apparently made others as well, but I haven't seen them. Leeches is a fun, cheesy horror film (if you're into that sort of thing).
posted by Kloryne at 6:21 PM on November 14, 2005

I'm still waiting for the gay "Sweet Sweetback's Badaaaaasssssssss Song" where a Matthew Shepard-alike survives to take revenge on his tormentors. Closest thing I've seen so far is Bruce LaBruce's stuff.
posted by fungible at 6:33 PM on November 14, 2005

What about Greeg Araki's films? I remember them being just chock full of gay spree murderers.
posted by maxsparber at 7:05 PM on November 14, 2005

Gregg Araki, rather.
posted by maxsparber at 7:05 PM on November 14, 2005

Araki has lots of gay-tinged mayhem, for sure, but I wouldn't call it horror. Any more than Natural Born Killers, anyway...
posted by brundlefly at 7:46 PM on November 14, 2005

To do good camp horror, you have to be able to do good camp first. I'm pretty sure I could sense the gayness in a lot of slasher horror even before I "knew" I was gay. And OMG, Lost Boys was SO gay! As for leading the audience away from gay stereotypes - I'm for that to an extent, but not if it means presenting bland eunuchs done up in Nautica ensembles.
posted by slatternus at 7:49 PM on November 14, 2005

Gay is the new black. I will refrain from making an overlord comment at this point, but I really do welcome the new gay chic. Gay men are totally hot.

And I'm a lesbian, so that's saying something!
posted by Hildegarde at 7:56 PM on November 14, 2005

Steel cage gay match: Nightmare on Elm Street 2 v. Hellbent
posted by jennyb at 8:52 PM on November 14, 2005

Fun links, amberglow and jennyb, thanks. One quibble: Eric Matthews' list seems to overlook that Killer Condom ("what happens when straight people try to make a bad gay horror movie") is actually based on a comic by queer comic artist Ralf König, who also co-wrote the screenplay.
posted by mediareport at 9:33 PM on November 14, 2005

Kloryne: Leeches is ostensibly straight. There's some plot point about jealousy over the girl that's really overblown considering that she only doles out a couple of chaste kisses.
posted by klangklangston at 6:54 AM on November 15, 2005

amberglow: the tagline is gay slasher film, not horror. Total nitpick, but in a rather silly genre of discussion, dammit, I'm going to nitpick!
posted by Captaintripps at 7:26 AM on November 15, 2005

While researching one of the movies mentioned, I came across queerhorror.com, which "is a site devoted to exploring the horror genre and its inclusion of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the transgendered." It's got tons of info and more movies listed than you'd ever expect.
posted by nTeleKy at 8:29 AM on November 15, 2005

...not if it means presenting bland eunuchs done up in Nautica ensembles.

Hey!!!
posted by darkstar at 5:23 PM on November 18, 2005