Movies
This Weekend’s Queer Horror Pride Festival FRIGHTGOWN Announces Full Lineup of Events and Films
Ahead of this year’s Salem Horror Fest, which will be a live and in-person event, Bloody Disgusting’s Horror Queers Podcast has joined forces with the festival for the first-ever Frightgown celebration, running *THIS WEEKEND*, Friday, June 25 – Sunday, June 27!
The final schedule of events for the inaugural Queer Horror Pride celebration has been announced today, with the “3-day virtual Pride festival celebrating queer voices in a series of features, shorts, panels, virtual hangouts, exclusive content for fans and allies alike in support of the Transgender Law Center this Friday, June 25 – Sunday, June 27.”
Here’s everything you need to know, from the press release today…
“Headlining the event will be a pair of feature films with the virtual premiere of Bad Girls directed by Christopher Bickel and an encore of Death Drop Gorgeous directed by Michael J Ahern, Christopher Dalpe, and Brandon Perras-Sanchez. The program will also feature more than two hours of horror shorts that represent characters and creators from all aspects of the rainbow spectrum from directors Kaye Adelaide, Mylo Butler, Michelle Garza Cervera, Yann Gonzalez, Sydne Horton, Richard Louprasong, Neal Mulani, Mark Pariselli, Brodi-jo Scalise, Mariel Sharp, Sean Temple, Michael Varrati, and Sarah Wisner.
“A series of panels and Q&A’s will feature tributes to Queer Horror classics Nightbreed and Bit wi
“Participants are invited to explore a Killer Prom virtual environment designed by Exile PR hosted by Gather Town for live interactions and broadcasts. Users will be able to communicate with each other in real time and discover hidden easter eggs of exclusive content such as GRIM Journal with articles by Alice Collins, Valeska Griffiths, Paul Le, Mary-Beth McAndrews, Terry Mesnard, and Adam Messinger and profiles of queer horror academic Dr. Darren Elliott-Smith, and queer horror podcasts Slash Her and Ghouls Next Door.
“The Killer Prom platform also features an exclusive podcast episode on Tragedy Girls from This Ends at Prom featuring BJ and Harmony M. Colangelo, as well as podcast compilation samplers devoted to Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2 and Bride of Chucky from Attack the Queer Wolf, Dead for Filth, Gaylords of Darkness, Dirty Little Horror, The Homos on Haunted Hill, Horror Homos, Horror Queers, ScreamQueenz, Slash HerFear, Stop! Horror Time, and The Talking Queers.
“Everyone is invited to join late night watch parties for Bit, Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker and Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2 (available on SHUDDER and tubi) with the Twitter hashtag #frightgown hosted by Nay Beaver, Devin Baldwin, Wren Cain, ImmortalGraves, Michael Varrati, Matty Zaradich, and more.
“Closing the festivities will be Hot Ghoul Summer, a one hour showcase of gender queer performances hosted by Salem drag queen Cain featuring Andrew Barret Cox, Violencia Exclamation Point, Chris Griandher, Complete Destruction, Freddye Dollma Starr, Dick Kayin, Miz Diamond Wigfall, and Peewee Vermin.
“This event is made possible with the support of donors, ticket buyers and sponsors Die With Your Boots On, Don Papa Rum, Faculty of Horror, Scary Stuff Podcast, Bloody Disgusting and Daily Dead.
“Tickets to attend are $25 general admission, $110 VIP. All proceeds go to the Transgender Law Center. VIP members will be able to access the program and additional content on demand, and will receive a limited edition Pride Day the 13th hockey mask designed by Uncle Boogieman. Sponsorships are still available and donations at any level are welcome! For tickets, schedule and program details, please visit frightgown.com.“
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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