A few weeks ago, I did an article on the gay zombie craze in some corners of LGBT indie film culture for GayNZ.com. For this post, I thought I’d follow up with a brief but not exhaustive analysis of gay zombie cinematic fare itself…

Given that introduction, I thought I’d explore the two other entries in the field that have come to my attention. “Otto, Or Up With Dead People” is about a melancholy German homeless gay zombie, and is the project of Canadian indie gay director Bruce LaBruce, and screened at the Sundance 2008 film festival.

However, Vidkid Timo was responsible for the first fusion of sex and splatter, and possibly the only gay erotic zombie film, At Twilight Come the Flesh Eaters (1998), in which indie filmmaker Timo plays Barbara, having oral sex in a graveyard with a stranger, who warns ‘her’ about the ‘man eaters’ that roam around the landscape. Well, yes, but Barbara is dragged up, so they don’t touch her- unlike the stranger, who cries out that he is providing an attentive zombie with sexual and dietary satisfaction. Inevitably, Barbara takes refuge in a cabin, crowded with sweaty anxious men, and guess what happens. Yes, that- and there’s not much of a plot to hamper things gory or gay. Timo later settled down and got hitched to a nice fellow in Canada, and they have been enslaved by a rampaging horde of seven cats.

(If you think the above is horrifying, there’s something much scarier from Vidkid on Youtube, in which he directs drag diva Varla Jean Merman, to the tune of “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off.” Gulp).

In 1994, there was an earlier French effort, La Cage Au Zombies. In this, a group of hunky male American football players end up undead and deshabille due to an unfortunate plane crash, and obliging wander around in jockstraps and trainers, and little else. And there are a troupe of intrepid drag queens, who have fared much better, and who clearly aren’t about to let a little thing like being undead impair their perfect coiffure, makeup and outfits.

The undead are aroused!!! Can anything ever be the same? And if anyone from OutTakes is reading this, can we see some of these sterling efforts at the next national LGBT film festivals?

Recommended:

Jamie Russell: Book of the Dead: The Complete Encyclopedia of Zombie Cinema: Godalming: FAB Press: 2007.