Directors: Michael J. Ahern, Christopher Dalpe & Brandon Perras
Release date: 2020
Contains spoilers
Release date: 2020
Contains spoilers
If you go out to find information about Death Drop Gorgeous you will see it described as a slasher (it is) and a giallo (in as much as the face-unseen killer wears black gloves, I suppose, plus some interesting lighting at the end of the film) but it's not really described as a vampire movie. Well, the trailer mentions a vampire killer, to be fair, as bodies are drained of blood, but it almost feels like I’m spoiling and betraying a trust reviewing it as a vampire film.
But the thing is, it is a vampire film in the Bathory mode and, long before Michael Myers stalked the neighbourhood, before proto-slasher films such as Peeping Tom (1960), there were films such as I Vampiri in which murders occur in order to use blood to make the ‘vampire’ younger. This is the central plot point of this film.
The film is set around the Providence gay community and the primary location is a drag club. My understanding is that much of the cast were drawn from non-actors but, despite trying to layer the camp on a little too deliberately in places, this works really well. It opens with a young man trying to get in the bar and being kicked out. He has received a message (via dating app Pounder) and meets up with the date in a parked-up car. The unseen date offers him lines of (what looks like) coke, which he sniffs but his nose starts bleeding. He manages to get out of the car but can’t get far. He is stabbed repeatedly with a screwdriver.
Dwayne (Wayne Gonsalves) has returned to Providence after his B&B enterprise and relationship failed. He goes to the club to ask owner Tony (Brandon Perras) for his old job back. Tony tries to get him selling drugs, when he refuses Tony offers him shifts on a Tuesday night. Dwayne is staying with friend Brian (Christopher Dalpe) who drags him out for the night to see new drag sensation Janet Fitness (Matthew Pidge), whilst Brian meets with a Pounder date (Tradd Sanderson). The date doesn’t go so well – the date tells Brian that he only dates men who act like men (Dalpe does lay the camp on thick through his performance) and, looking at Dwayne, adds that he doesn’t date blacks either – this throwaway line felt like a barbed comment aimed by the filmmakers at certain attitudes they may have come across.
Dwayne does, slightly, get aggro with him, deliberately bumping into him (I’ll come back to this) but the date then goes off and (via Pounder) arranges a hook-up for a casual blowjob. The directions lead him to a house and down the bulkhead into a cellar. The plastic sheeting should have been a warning sign but he spots a glory hole and uses it. After some fellatio, things stop and we see, on the other side of the wall, a meat grinder being brought to bear on his bits – yup, it’s a fairly gratuitous and excruciating penectomy before he is killed also.
Goth drag queen Tragedi (Complete Destruction) who cleans at the club finds, with a glorious air of ennui, the first victim in a dumpster. Tony calls cop Detective O’Hara (Michael J. Ahern), whose new partner Detective Barry (Sean Murphy) is a little shocked when O’Hara takes a bribe to move the body so it isn’t connected to the club. Meanwhile Gloria Hole (Michael McAdam), who used to be the top drag act, has been relegated to Tuesday night slots and calling bingo and is resentful of the new acts as well as wanting to get her dues. Of course, the killer is still out there and, in targeting gay men, seems to be connected to the club.
This was great fun, though it was perhaps a tad too long and certain scenes were perhaps unnecessary – the scene of Dwayne on his night off getting into a fight after the guy he was with was revealed to be openly fickle seemed to serve little purpose other than to than prove Dwayne had some physical fight in him – something his moment with the racist in the club had shown anyway. That said, the Dwayne character almost missed simply because he was such a ray of hope amongst a sea of catty characters, and so showing the harder edge to him was perhaps needed. The deliberate layering of camp, mostly round the Brian character, might have missed but he was so endearing that the character worked. Most fantastic was Michael McAdam whose character channelled Bette Davis’ Baby Jane.
Watch out for the spoilers ahead… As for the vampirism, well we do get bathing in blood and the results are seen to be making the killer younger, at least through other character reactions. It is also implied that they gain enhanced strength, able to pick someone up by the neck. Long nails, especially soaked in gore, look for the world like an undead’s talons. We even get a version of staking, with a nativity scene star, plus a suggestion of immortality. Mostly, however, we get a variety of killings, in keeping with the slasher mentality, all committed for the blood (or 'rejuvenating twink blood' as it is described). For the most part the effects are pretty darn well done for a low budget production. 6.5 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
 |
| bloody nails |
But the thing is, it is a vampire film in the Bathory mode and, long before Michael Myers stalked the neighbourhood, before proto-slasher films such as Peeping Tom (1960), there were films such as I Vampiri in which murders occur in order to use blood to make the ‘vampire’ younger. This is the central plot point of this film.
 |
| murder weapon in hand |
The film is set around the Providence gay community and the primary location is a drag club. My understanding is that much of the cast were drawn from non-actors but, despite trying to layer the camp on a little too deliberately in places, this works really well. It opens with a young man trying to get in the bar and being kicked out. He has received a message (via dating app Pounder) and meets up with the date in a parked-up car. The unseen date offers him lines of (what looks like) coke, which he sniffs but his nose starts bleeding. He manages to get out of the car but can’t get far. He is stabbed repeatedly with a screwdriver.
 |
| Brian and Dwayne |
Dwayne (Wayne Gonsalves) has returned to Providence after his B&B enterprise and relationship failed. He goes to the club to ask owner Tony (Brandon Perras) for his old job back. Tony tries to get him selling drugs, when he refuses Tony offers him shifts on a Tuesday night. Dwayne is staying with friend Brian (Christopher Dalpe) who drags him out for the night to see new drag sensation Janet Fitness (Matthew Pidge), whilst Brian meets with a Pounder date (Tradd Sanderson). The date doesn’t go so well – the date tells Brian that he only dates men who act like men (Dalpe does lay the camp on thick through his performance) and, looking at Dwayne, adds that he doesn’t date blacks either – this throwaway line felt like a barbed comment aimed by the filmmakers at certain attitudes they may have come across.
 |
| Wayne Gonsalves as Dwayne |
Dwayne does, slightly, get aggro with him, deliberately bumping into him (I’ll come back to this) but the date then goes off and (via Pounder) arranges a hook-up for a casual blowjob. The directions lead him to a house and down the bulkhead into a cellar. The plastic sheeting should have been a warning sign but he spots a glory hole and uses it. After some fellatio, things stop and we see, on the other side of the wall, a meat grinder being brought to bear on his bits – yup, it’s a fairly gratuitous and excruciating penectomy before he is killed also.
 |
| Michael McAdam as Gloria Hole |
Goth drag queen Tragedi (Complete Destruction) who cleans at the club finds, with a glorious air of ennui, the first victim in a dumpster. Tony calls cop Detective O’Hara (Michael J. Ahern), whose new partner Detective Barry (Sean Murphy) is a little shocked when O’Hara takes a bribe to move the body so it isn’t connected to the club. Meanwhile Gloria Hole (Michael McAdam), who used to be the top drag act, has been relegated to Tuesday night slots and calling bingo and is resentful of the new acts as well as wanting to get her dues. Of course, the killer is still out there and, in targeting gay men, seems to be connected to the club.
 |
| news report |
This was great fun, though it was perhaps a tad too long and certain scenes were perhaps unnecessary – the scene of Dwayne on his night off getting into a fight after the guy he was with was revealed to be openly fickle seemed to serve little purpose other than to than prove Dwayne had some physical fight in him – something his moment with the racist in the club had shown anyway. That said, the Dwayne character almost missed simply because he was such a ray of hope amongst a sea of catty characters, and so showing the harder edge to him was perhaps needed. The deliberate layering of camp, mostly round the Brian character, might have missed but he was so endearing that the character worked. Most fantastic was Michael McAdam whose character channelled Bette Davis’ Baby Jane.
 |
| blood bath |
Watch out for the spoilers ahead… As for the vampirism, well we do get bathing in blood and the results are seen to be making the killer younger, at least through other character reactions. It is also implied that they gain enhanced strength, able to pick someone up by the neck. Long nails, especially soaked in gore, look for the world like an undead’s talons. We even get a version of staking, with a nativity scene star, plus a suggestion of immortality. Mostly, however, we get a variety of killings, in keeping with the slasher mentality, all committed for the blood (or 'rejuvenating twink blood' as it is described). For the most part the effects are pretty darn well done for a low budget production. 6.5 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
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