WARNING: this post is not for the sexually squeamish.
It’s a pair of short, gay horror-themed porn films from the 1970s that have finally been released on a single Blu-ray (there’s a third film on the disc, but it’s just sex with no plot or horror theme). I’m not going to get into the social implications of how these films may be portraying gay men as evil and promiscuous (hell, heterosexuals have always been portrayed that way in horror films), because I’d rather just celebrate that these are a slice of perverted gay horror cinema. Delicious. And of course they’re being added to the full homo horror movies page, as well as the scary seXXX page.
SEX DEMON (1975)
So stoked that this X-rated gay take on possession flicks of The Exorcist era finally got a physical release. Despite being on a Blu-ray, it looks like it was mastered from a worn and torn filmstrip, with missing frames and everything. However, that presentation makes it feel like you’re watching something taboo—I might as well have been watching this while hunkered down in a seat with my shoes sticking to the floor in the X-rated movie theater we used to drive past on Jamaica Avenue in Queens when I was just a boy in the 1970s.
This movie is filthy! It feels so much more forbidden than the crisp, clean pornos produced these days. It seriously made me want to suck a dick. It’s modern day XXX rated, not X rated.
Running less than an hour long, it is shockingly bold and open in its presentation of a monogamous gay couple. For their anniversary, one partner goes to a thrift shop to get a gift and picks up a mysterious medallion on a chain that literally comes with a note that says it’s possessed. What kind of dumb ass gay is this guy?
He gives the medallion to his boyfriend, who starts to wear it and is soon acting different. He eats raw meat from the fridge in the middle of the night while grunting in demon voice.
He gets argumentative. He starts going out and hooking up with other guys, forcing rough sex on them and then killing them.
In the most heinous scene in the film, he jams a screwdriver up a dude’s ass.
And eventually a priest comes to pay a visit…and the dude forces sex on him, too! Teehee. There’s even a nod to The Exorcist stairs scene at the very end.
Despite there being no budget and no special effects, the horror elements are nasty, sleazy, and gritty.
The highlight is an absolutely fantastic dream sequence in the middle—a satanic orgy, complete with candles, a skull, and acid trip editing and music to make you feel like you’re really watching some Devil worshipping gay sodomy footage. Awesome. And if you love this long sequence as I did, chances are you’ll love my series of Comfort Cove gay horror novels.
As for the sex, wow. There are scenes of ball licking and dick sucking that are so intimately shot without that staged feel you often get from sleek, mainstream porn. There’s a 69, jerking off to orgasm with loads of cum, full anal penetration, and damn! Fisting. WTF?
Reminded me of the cover of my book Wet Screams.
The film is from 1975, so all the white guys look like members of the Bay City Rollers, but notable is the fact that there’s a Black dude during the orgy, and the priest that performs the exorcism is Black. I love me some 1970s DEI.
The exorcism does its best to bring more horror. The scene is lit with red lighting, the bed thumps, doors slam, the possessed dude cums blood into the priest’s mouth, and his assault of expletives gets into verbal scat territory. Ew.
The only thing that ruined the final sequence is a ridiculously long series of choppy flashbacks to everything that happens sexually and violently throughout this short film. It really spoils the impact and flow of the exorcism scene.
One more note. I was surprised that they used disco hit “Shame Shame Shame” by Shirley & Company during a rape and murder scene in a club bathroom. I’m going to guess they probably didn’t even secure the rights to do so.
DEADLY BLOWS (1971)
This film is in much better shape visually than Sex Demon, so the details are crisper and clearer. It runs only 51 minutes long, time which is predominately filled with sex scenes set to irritating organ music. It’s not as explicit as Sex Demon—blow jobs are lengthy and graphic, but anal sex scenes feel more like softcore porn.
The plot is simple. Some dude has sex with and then kills drifters that come by his house. The first guy gets hammered in the head, second guy choked in the shower.
Third and final guy manages to knock him out and leaves. I don’t understand what it means after that, but we follow camera POV as a woman screams, which leads us to the sight of a dead, bloody woman.
In the end the killer dies voluntarily of autoerotic asphyxiation, which leaves a lasting visual impression—the only chilling moment in the film.
I’m kind of surprised that the filmmaker didn’t see what was right there in the title as the key to making this more cohesive. Deadly Blows is a clever title considering every guy who gives a blow job dies, but the killer should have exclusively used the hammer as a weapon, giving the title Deadly Blows a double meaning, not to mention adding more of a grisly, gory edge to the kills, because the hammer scene is awesome and the choke scene is just…a choke scene.
Guys were already choking while deep throating throughout the movie.
And finally, speaking of double meanings, it becomes quite clear the killer is hung…
