Vintage full gay movies
“I don’t know it’s just so campy and over the top that it’s like, how could this not have been made for drag queens?”
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“You don't normally see a movie with two heavily made-up women sword-fighting with shovels and calling out catty retorts as they just decimate each other,” Hoffer noted.
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Then, of course there’s the brash humor of two broads in full feud mode. In a patriarchal society that deems all things feminine to be verboten for men, of course Death Becomes Her became a beacon for gender-nonconforming children who fantasized about Old Hollywood glamour, dreamed of snapping back at the macho men who bullied them, or snuck off to try on their mother’s high heels. They’re the zombie equivalent of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford-two other divas adored by the queer community for their resilience, beauty, and daring.Īnd like Bette and Joan, they also display a hyper-femininity-va-va-voom curves, arched brows, and sexy sneers. Like the glamour girls of classic Hollywood, Madeline and Helen are fierce and flawless, uncompromising and awe-striking. Queer or not-who’ve felt confined by the “likable” heroines of film and television. Almost all the Disney villain witches are gay icons”-like Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent, with her cold cackle and cool cape, or The Little Mermaid’s octopussy Ursula, whose design was reportedly inspired by the defiant drag queen Divine. “And we see it in Disney movies and in movies like Death Becomes Her, and in characters like Poison Ivy and Catwoman. “I think this is a trait that runs throughout the queer community, the obsession with the hyper-feminine female villains,” Hoffer explained. Hoffer ties Helen and Madeline to a lineage of beloved bad women who dared to be both divinely stylish and unrepentantly ambitious. That sentiment is echoed by one of the film’s biggest fans: Drag Race Season 5 winner Jerick Hoffer, whose drag persona, Jinkx Monsoon, embodied Streep’s acid blonde for a Death Becomes Her-themed photo shoot, and featured the film at the center of Hoffer’s biographical documentary Drag Becomes Him. “I think it’s only multiplied exponentially since that movie was made.”Ĭampbell is also the chief creative officer of World of Wonder, a “largely gay” production company-it produces Drag Race-that places Death Becomes Her on “the short list of movies that inspire us every day.” Though they’re technically cast as villains in the film, Drag Race executive producer Tom Campbell sees them as sympathetic figures: the movie was “ahead of its time in a lot of ways, because they have these conversations about looks, and what we’re willing to do to our bodies for beauty,” he told Vanity Fair. It’s no wonder that they break the rules of nature by taking a seductive serum to become flawless goddesses of glamor and youth. These are women-an aspiring writer and a fading actress-who are ignored by the world unless they are beautiful. “In our wildest dreams,” said Koepp, “the budget was about $5 million.” But once Universal sold Zemeckis on Death Becomes Her, their would-be B-movie began to blossom into something bigger, bolder, and more bizarre.įans do embrace Helen and Madeline for these very qualities. The pair imagined their project as a modest indie movie, perfect for big names of yesteryear like Ann Margaret, Tuesday Weld, and Dean Stockwell. “It felt like no risk whatsoever, because we both had nothing but credit-card debt to our names. “It was meant to be Night of the Living Dead, if George Cukor had directed it,” Koepp told Vanity Fair via e-mail. But this deliciously deranged dark comedy eventually found redemption in the embrace of the queer community, who have insured its legacy. Despite a big budget, juicy spectacle, and A-list leads, Death Becomes Her ended up fizzling on its 1992 release. His involvement attracted Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis, and Goldie Hawn. Yet its gleefully gruesome script attracted Robert Zemeckis, who, after making Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Back to the Future trilogy, was eager to take on something more mature and daring.
Centered on a pair of celebrities-vain Helen and vainer Madeline-trapped in a rivalry fueled by jealousy and black magic, this outlandish parable written by Martin Donovan and David Koepp plays like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous meets Tales from the Crypt.
That Death Becomes Her was made at all feels like a miracle.