Esprix

Truly a work of genius, this short film is a dead-on spoof of those boring 1950's health films you watched in high school. As the opening card states, however, this was no typical film - it was banned for its content, but now, "restored" years later, it gives you a glimpse into the forward-thinking and ahead-of-his-time Doctor Sigmund Winston's research into the subject of male masturbation. With the help of his sidekick, Billy, and a cast of self-loving teens, you, too, can learn more about fun, new ways to play jackin' the beanstalk, beating the bishop, and pounding the pud! Truly, a hilarious addition to the short film festival circuit, and winner of numerous awards for its creator, J.T. Tepnapa.

Take a mindless, murderous psycho, throw in copious amounts of beautiful men, put them all in the West Hollywood Halloween festival, and you've got "Hellbent" - truly a superb gay slasher flick! It was great watching a formula slasher flick where the homoerotic subtext was elevated to supertext, and seeing scantily-clad hunky men running for their life instead of buxom babes in bras.

The story starts out - as all slasher flicks do! - with a couple having sex in a car the night before Halloween, who then get killed by a mysterious, beefy psycho (because we all know that sex kills in slasher flicks). Enter our hero, Eddie, with a heart of gold and a weakness for rough trade, and his friends Joey, Chaz and Tobey, who are planning their night out at the West Hollywood Halloween festival.

Parking at the very spot where the two guys were killed the night before, they encounter the psycho on their way to the festival, and unwittingly make themselves his obsessive targets. We follow them (while the killer follows them as well) as Joey searches for his jock crush, Tobey explains to everyone he doesn't usually dress in drag, Chaz parties very hard, and Eddie tries to connect with Jake, the bad boy he wants to get to know better. Of course one by one the killer gets them, in various creative and bloody ways, but you have to stay right to the end to find out who survives - and who gets the boy! Don't go in expecting a backstory on the killer, or why he's out stalking gay men, or too much depth overall - it is, after all, just a quintessential, formulaic slasher flick, just with a queer twist. It's also fun (without being campy), the acting is good, the boys are hot, and it's a suspenseful and thrilling film that takes itself seriously as a real slasher film. See it when it comes to your town!

"Drag Queen Heist" is another great short film from Sky Angel Studios, the same folks that brought you the classically funny "Masturbation: Putting The Fun Back Into Self-Loving," another hilarious film. Here we have Bobby and Jared, in love but hopelessly broke, and longing for a new life on the beaches of Puerto Vallarta. But Jared has the answer they've been looking for - knock over a bank! And what better disguises than doing it in drag? Bobby is reluctant at first, but realizes it's a sure-fire way to make their dreams come true. Plans go slightly awry, however, when Bobby, having more fashion sense, knows you can't rob a bank without the right nail color, but a stop on the way to the heist winds up putting the two in an entirely different situation entirely! Fun, campy, with solid production values, this one is sure to be another classic in the film festival circuit. A definite must-see for anyone with a good sense of gay humor!