Death Drop Gorgeous
It’s a rough homecoming for Dwayne, the relationship which prompted him to relocate to the city with high hopes ended and now sleeping on his friend Brian’s couch and looking for work, begging his old boss Tony Two Fingers for his bar job back and being offered a single shift on Tuesday nights until things pick up, looked down upon by the clientele and the talent comprised of has-been drag hags and their ambitious up-and-coming replacements queens.
Yet being overlooked in a crowd is perhaps not so bad when the disappearances start, one of them the undeniably hot but equally arrogant guy Brian had a misfire date who then swiftly vacated the bar for another Poundr mediated hookup, “MascDude35” not seen since, unlike the tweaking twink whose body was found in the dumpster behind the bar, Tony paying Detectives O’Hara and Barry handsomely to relocate the corpse somewhere less incriminating before continuing their investigation in earnest.
Written and directed by Michael J Ahern, Christopher Dalpe and Brandon Perras, also appearing as Detective O’Hara, wannabe musical theatre star Brian and Tony Two Fingers, Death Drop Gorgeous is shot entirely on location in Providence, Rhode Island, starring Wayne Gonsalves as Dwayne, Michael McAdam as the increasingly bitter Gloria Hole, former First Lady of Providence now relegated to bingo caller, and Matthew Pidge, Complete Destruction and Paul Bohn as her would-be successors Janet Fitness, Audrey Heartburn and Tragedi.
Cheap, crass and more determined to shock any mainstream audience who might unwittingly be lured through its basement backdoor than cater to their vanilla expectations, Death Drop Gorgeous sits in the gutter and wallows in it, glorying in vulgarity and vanity as the concealer is slapped on to hide the cracks and the bodies, each of the murders carried out with a different weapon with the only link being the profile of the victims, the killer singling out young, attractive men in a town where exposed skin is valued more than showing kindness.
A comedy slasher painted with broad strokes and more than a splash of lip gloss and blood as it pounds the runway with broken mirror fragments and meat grinders, the film may be a vicious satire of the drag queen scene but it is one created from understanding which only comes from immersion, a portrait of a community which flies the rainbow flag of inclusion but is full of damaged people whose demands for gratification and perfection are an outward extension of their own internalised rage and disillusionment.
Brian supposedly Dwayne’s best friend yet insensitive to his situation, he is emotionally stunted, self-obsessed and blind to his own flaws and the danger he and his community are in in a plot which owes equal parts to the legend of Elizabeth Báthory and, with its focus on dubious performance showcases, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies, flagging in its pace at times but never as painful as dying on stage in front of an indifferent audience.
Death Drop Gorgeous is available on Shudder now
