Gay vampires have appeared in films as far back as the 1970s, but there have been a few standalone gay vampire films over the years including Love Bites, Scab, Vampire Boys, as well as plenty of short-films and numerous adult films. On television, the gay vampire has played a minor role until HereTV created The Lair.
The latest movie from gay director David DeCoteaus finally returns to the vampire genre, however the feature length film comes up too short, repetitive and without fangs, or much plot. How could the director of cult classic film The Brotherhood not deliver hot guys and hot vampires?
Bite Marks is a gay-themed horror-comedy about truck driver Brewster (Benjamin Lutz) carrying a load of coffins to a funeral home who picks up two hitch hikers, gay-couple Cary (Windham Beacham) and Vogel (David Alanson). When Brewster’s GPS gets them lost and they end up broken down in a junkyard after sunset, we discover that the coffins aren’t empty. As night falls blood thirsty vampires emerge from the coffins and the trio must protect themselves and try to survive until dawn.
In 2000 David DeCoteau released the first in the Brotherhood series, the only vampire-themed movie out of the homoerotic series. The story follows Chris (played by Nathan Watkins), a college freshman who’s invited to join an exclusive fraternity, one where the brothers are all vampires. Devon (Bradley Stryker), the head of the fraternity has set his sights on Chris for he is a perfect specimen. The initiation begins the change in Chris, but the new Chris doesn’t go unnoticed.
Recently I re-watched the film Frostbite, which I had forgotten was a well-made clever film. While it lacks a gay character, it’s a unique take on the vampire genre. Far too many low-budget poorly scripted vampire films get pumped out, often direct-to-video, that’s it’s refreshing to find an inventive and enjoyable movie. And recently I rediscovered Frostbite in the iTunes store, but sadly only in the UK store. You wouldn’t know from the film’s brief description, but it’s a vampire film and one worth seeing.
Gay vampires appearing on television has come a long way since The Lair premiered in 2007. Back then I was incredibly excited to see gay vampires on the small screen. The big screen had only produced one film which has only been made available on DVD in France, Scab. Sure gay vampires are a minority within a minority, but all the more reason to be seen. As two more seasons of The Lair rolled out, True Blood premiered along side the recent surge in vampire popularity thanks to Twilight. True Blood has shown that gay vampires can exist among the straight vampire population. And due to the rise in vampires on screens of late, vampires are everywhere but gay vampires are still a sidelined minority or entirely invisible. Read more
Teen Wolf premiered on Sunday with a second episode airing Monday night in it’s regular time slot. It’s partly a re-make of the Michael J. Fox movie, except that it’s not a comedy. Our ‘hero’ Scott is bitten by a wolf and cursed to become a werewolf. His abilities are enhanced after the bite and he soon becomes a star player on his school’s lacrosse team, ruffling the ego of Colton Haynes (who played a werewolf in The Gates). When Scott first transforms he’s not half bad with his fangs, though we see the wolf that bit him fully transformed and he’s less appealing. But ultimately he’s a werewolf. The upside is the rumor there will be a gay character in Teen Wolf, but I have my fingers crossed we’ll also see vampires, after all nearly every vampire show or movie has been ruined by adding werewolves. Nothing says they have to be enemies either, but obviously the vampire will be hotter and better. And here’s the bonus, the pilot/premiere episode is available for free on itunes in HD (and standard-def), plus the second episode is there to download too.
Lost Boys: The Thirst (aka Lost Boys 3) the direct to DVD/iTunes download vampire movie has extended and concluded the Lost Boys franchise once more. Including both original Frog brothers and flashbacks from the original film, The Thirst is too short at 1 hour and 21 minutes, and it’s just not as good as the original… but that’s was going to be obvious. Actually it’s not even as good as the second installment. For some reason the filmmakers deviated from the vampire fangs and contacts used in Lost Boys: The Tribe, which were already different from the original film, but given the long gap between the first and second film that was understandable. Vampires in The Thirst appear to have developed gum disease along with far more sharpened teeth then is necessary. See it for yourself: from iTunes or grab from Amazon.com
I recently discovered a new short film titled “Love Bite” by Australian director Craig Boreham. I am searching the web in hopes of finding a video to share, however a lucky few can purchase from Amazon.co.uk the dvd compilation containing this jem, Boys On Film 2: In Too Deep [DVD]
Check out this trailer for Brighter in Darkness. I hope everyone has been watching, if not, do! Support independent filmmakers willing to put gay vampires on screen, and also because Brighter in Darkness is pretty good and better acting than some of the performances in The Lair. Check out the episodes online.
One hundred years have passed since Bram Stoker’s death and to mark the anniversary many articles were written summarizing Stoker’s life, impact on vampires and what the last century has given vampires. One article reflected on the best vampire films created since Stoker popularized vampires. There are plenty of top 10, 50 or 100 lists around the web, including the 70 best on IMDB.
We could compile a list here, maybe weed out some of the lamer vampire movies, or we focus on the best gay vampire films, unfortunately that’s not going to be a long list.
American viewers can a double vampire treat this Sunday. Along side the second episode of True Blood, ABC is premiering a new show, The Gates. It’s being billed as Desperate Housewives meets[...]
I would like to state now, The Gates will not last. I am torn. I want to see more vampires on tv but I just do not see this mash up various good show succeeding. First, as a mash up of Lost, Desperate Housewives, True Blood and Twin Peaks, ABC is attempting to make a hit. Second, there’s the police chief’s plot line that seems poorly woven into this intriguing community. Thirdly, while this is not a vampire only series, like the Lair this show will probably go off the rails focusing on other creatures and get cancelled before we see enough of the vampires. But there are good points, however few.
Two interesting events from this week’s episode of The Gates, however before that just a quick rant about the unique characters. The dialogue has been quite careful at avoiding using the words vampire and werewolf. Wolf/wolves has been used but it seems when the werewolves want to “phase” or transform, they “go running”. And the vampires are even more oppressed. These people live in a safe community designed to protect their secrets, yet they still cannot seem to be themselves.
Now for some plot discussion so, spoiler alert.
The Lair was a gay vampire television series produced by HereTV that ran for three seasons and a total of 24 episodes. Named after the private members club owned and run by vampires, the show followed reporter Thom as he discovers the true nature of the club and becomes involved with the nightlife.
I saw Twilight Eclipse this week and since I have not finished reading either Eclipse or Breaking Dawn I’m not sure of a few points in the storyline or about some character’s futures. Let me be clear up front… I loved Riley. Sure it helped that Australian hottie Xavier Samuel played Riley and he was such a beautiful vampire (course he should have had fangs but that’s a whole other problem with Twilight). Actually Riley made Edward and the other Cullen’s look bad.
The sequel to the 2011 Vampire Boys picks up a year later with Caleb and Jasin living together with Tara. There’s a good storyline hidden there but on the whole[...]
We may now finally have an answer to the question about who will be the gay character in Vampire Diaires. As predicted, Caroline’s dad (played by Jack Coleman from Heroes) has appeared unexpectedly at the beginning of season 3. We already know he’s gay, and his character has remained on the sidelines until now. Caroline’s mom briefly disappeared from the storyline, she at least had come to accept her daughter. We were left in suspense through the second episode and only in the last few seconds did the viewer get confirmation that Caroline’s captor was her father. But it seemed from the first moment he appeared on screen, the makeup department had done enough to make him look the part. Can’t imagine the former Heroes star being overly gay, and unless his partner joins the cast, we’re not likely going to see much action to back it up.
Released on DVD in the Boys on Film 7: Bad Romance short-film collection, Watch Over Me is a short Israeli film about a gay solider, Eitan, who has just completed his final training in a secret army unit. He’s given a night off and taken out by his mates from the unit, to be initiated by his comrades. The two others in his unit are egging him on to deal with a gay man who came into the bar while they were drinking. Hoping to protect the guy, Eitan seeks him out, but when they get to the beach and become passionate the new Eitan emerges. All the descriptions of the film are vague and only allude to the soliders being special.
We get a lot of questions about where to find a lot of the movies and tv shows, for rent or purchase so to make it easier here is a list of links to find the best of gay vampires.
