A Horny Vampire

Directed by Arthur J. Bressan Jr. ***** Been trying to think of the right words to talk about Forbidden Letters for a couple days now. After seeing the new restoration on PinkLabel.tv, I was blown away. Each scene has complex thematic exploration and is visually stunning. Forbidden Letters is a film about distance, longing and being closeted even when you're out and proud. Richard has been in prison for a year, while his boyfriend Larry waits and remembers. Today is the day Richard is released. They've had little communication, the letters they've so desperately wanted to write never sent for fear of outing Richard and increasing his jail time. So they wait in their pain, the ache getting stronger and stronger. The film opens on a strange avant-garde montage of a lawyer explaining the situation, which is later revealed to be Larry's dream. He is woken by a call from his friend, Iris, the rare female character in a gay porn film. She's a fun presence, but her role be...

  Directed by David Allen * Godawful slice of 70s gay erotica. The first hour contains 6 sex scenes all of which are pretty bad, the second contains 1.5 which are better but the whole film feels strangely paced and dull. David Allen wrote, directed, produced and starred in this film and it feels like a vanity project, lacking in many of the things that make gay erotica from this period interesting. A bit of a mess, but sadly not a very fun one. The attempt to make a Hollywood expose in the vein of All About Eve with the scale of Gone With The Wind is a flawed exercise from the start. The corresponding episode of Ask Any Buddy is helpful as ever, detailing how much of this was connected to the works of Pat Rocco and his fan club, SPREE (Society Of Pat Rocco Enlightened Enthusiasts). I also love their description of David L. Allen as "the world's oldest twink" who never gets a hard-on.

Directed by Jack Deveau **** The gay porn equivalent of a midnight movie. The lead character, Arachne, feels like Divine's distant cousin who just stepped out of a Warhol movie. She's a masterwork of camp, first appearing in a gorilla suit, riffing on Marlene Deitrich, and later giving a surprisingly moving monologue. Her goals are clearly defined and motivated, unlike the cheating James Bond-esque man trying to defeat her but constantly getting distracted by sex. It's hard not to be disappointed by the ending which as well as being very unsatisfying falls prey to some lazy gender politics. The sex here is notably unerotic, overlaid with strange animal sounds and chaotically edited. Also, has an insane fisting jump scare which has to be seen to be believed. I've often wondered, as I've been watching the Ilsa films, what a gay version of them would look like. The final third kinda answers that; irresponsibly horny and ending in a giant orgy. One of the tortures is ki...