So Alex Dove made a few gay horror flix in 2003 before “coming out” as director Alex Pucci with his awesome 80s throwback slasher Camp Slaughter. I’m shocked Zombies and Das Hause haven’t gotten heavy rotation on Logo TV.
ZOMBIES (2003)
Zombies isn’t about the modern flesh eaters that rise up from the grave. This is the old school “voodoo” concept in which the zombie is a normal person who is simply a slave to his master. Zombies have never looked so good. And really, these gay zombies are still hungry for flesh….
This is sexy, cheesy, campy, soap opera horror on par with the TV show Dante’s Cove. The big difference is that Zombies ups the blood and violence. And wait until you hear the melodramatic horror music; it’s actually like something out of an old Hitchcock film at times. Awesome.
There’s this Abercrombie-looking cutie named Christian who left his former life behind when he fell under the zombie spell of Samuel, his dark and sexy master. Samuel has a nice sized pack(age) of zombies under his influence, and it feels somewhat like a pimp and hustlers scenario.
There’s plenty of tension between these jealous zombie bitches! Scratching, biting, and backstabbing abound—literally! Oh the drama! And there’s a cutie for everyone: a big goomba jock, a humorous strung out weirdo, a piece of scrubby rough trade, a reserved looking Wall Street type, a bleach blond pretty boy, and plenty of chests, butts, and even some wiener on display.
Erotic scenes, low-budget gore, and over-the-top performances by the actors manage to entertain even as the endless quarrels, numerous flashbacks, trippy hallucinations, and dream sequences succeed in being thoroughly confusing. There’s also a female tossed in near the end to completely confound!
But if you can stick with it, the twist might just surprise you. And really, the whole point of the film is to get to the scene in which Christian is strapped down to a bed in only a loincloth while numerous men pop up through the mattress to worship his body….
DAS HAUSE (2003)
Das Hause puts aside the soap opera drama for reality show drama! This is a clever concept that came five years before the British miniseries Dead Set, in which Big Brother contestants find themselves trapped in the house with zombies. In Das Hause, a bunch of pretty boys finds themselves trapped in a house with vampires!
When the movie begins with a German voiceover and no subtitles, I thought I was screwed. But the movie is in English after that. We get to meet all the guys who will be staying in the house through audition tapes. We also see the immediate plan put into action to sabotage the show and infiltrate it with vampires!
When this pack of cuties gets together in the house, they hear stories of the numerous deaths that occurred in the house, including the murder of a young gay man and his lover. There are plenty of shirtless guys, creepy imagery, and a “haunted house” vibe complete with thunder and lightning. We also see flashbacks of how the vampires were first initiated into neck sucking.
After some realty show challenges are tackled and alliances and loyalties are tested, there’s a séance, and then the vampires go on a murderous rampage in feasting scenes that are intensely erotic! It turns into a battle between shirtless humans and shirtless vampires; there are hot tub kills, shower deaths, a lynching, and even vampires turning on each other!
Das Hause is a very similar in style and structure to Zombies, but the focus on vampires instead of zombie slaves gives it more of a sexy horror edge, while the reality show house setting keeps the plot more streamlined and focused. I personally prefer the charm of Das Hause to the chaos of Zombies.
MORE FILMS BY ALEX DOVE / ALEX PUCCI
I’ve covered a load of other movies Alex Pucci made after his Alex Dove days, from sexy erotic slashers to the more gruesome exploitation stuff. Check out the blogs by clicking the titles:
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