Queers? Gore? Elvira? SOLD. All About Evil @ the Damn These Heels LGBT Film Fest!

Just saw the Salt Lake City premiere of a dark comedy called All About Evil as part of this weekend’s Damn These Heels LGBQT film festival - and oooooh was I amused. The official synopsis-

All About Evil is a wicked black comedy set in the world of a horror movie about a mousy librarian (Lyonne) who inherits her father’s beloved but failing old movie house. In order to save the family business she discovers her inner serial killer – and a legion of rabid gore fans – when she starts turning out a series of grisly shorts. What her fans don’t realize yet is that the murders in the movies are all too real!

Upon walking in to the theatre my chums and I were greeted by two “evil twins” in drag donning sexy red bellhop costumes. They were completely in-character with scowls across their faces, silent and solemn, as they handed out little Dixie cups (this made sense after watching the film).

Then, the director, Joshua Grannell, arrived on stage as Peaches Christ - his epic drag queen alter ego:

… with an uber queer Salt Lake City entourage in monster costumes, including one of my most favorite trans activists ever, Princess Kennedy. They performed the following opening bit, which is essentially the storyline of the movie:

(This is from the Castro premiere. Same song and similar performance so you get the gore gore gist of it; but when and if the SLC version appears, I’m replacing this!)

And then the lights dimmed and the movie began. It was a straight up celebration of B-horror movies and their devoted legions of followers (like me!) and it also celebrates independent single screen theaters, like the one we watched it in - The Tower Theatre in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In the end I knew, for sure, that All About Evil is way up there on my list of favorite gonna-be-a-cult-classic rompy horror comedies ever. It’s a campy stampede of blood, boobs and gore that’s entirely a horrored out homage to John Waters.

I loved it - particularly creepy old Mr. Twigs, played by Jack Donner (widely known as Romulan Subcommander Tal in the original Star Trek). Also super fond of the fact that Cassandra Peterson (better known as Elvira!) made a prominent appearance as the concerned mother of a son who is obsessed with horror movies. She is my favorite vegan babe ever.

The horror-obsessed son was a sub-plot to the whole shindig that I related to, as I was one of those adolescents who got tagged as a potential danger to my school because I, ohmygawd, loved horror movies/makeup and drew “violent” pictures. Even though I felt that they were just entirely fictional (and artistic!) creative extensions of my imagination, my art teacher felt otherwise. In All About Evil, blatant commentary points to the distinction between such unconstrained creativity and real-world violence. Which, as a forever b-film horror fan, made me really happy.

With so much blood, drag queens, and laughs to spare, this is definitely one I’m owning and re-exposing.