Death Drop Gorgeous (2020) User Reviews

Yeah, thanks, but no thanks...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 14 September 2021]

Wow, this was something else.

And it certainly wasn't what I had expected after having read the movie's synopsis. I must admit that I was expecting a murder mystery of sorts. But nay, that is not what writers and directors Michael J. Ahern, Christopher Dalpe and Brandon Perras delivered.

Instead I found myself in for a movie of showcasing aging drag queens and what not in the gay community. Sure, I got nothing against drag queens or the gay community, but this movie was just as far from what the movie's synopsis promised.

The acting performances in the movie were dubious at best. But it certainly looked like those involved were having fun making this movie.

I am quite sure that there is an audience out there for a movie such as "Death Drop Gorgeous". I, however, just wasn't part of that particular audience. I managed to endure a staggering 50 minutes of this 2020 movie before I just called it quits. And I have zero intentions of returning.

My rating of "Death Drop Gorgeous" lands on a three out of ten stars.

Not a good movie

[dy38493 · 4/10 · 13 September 2021]

Not a good movie to watch for especially the movie has nothing to show the cast are all new characters in the movie.

Everything is terrible

[ihavealoadedgun · 13 September 2021]

Terrible acting, script, direction. Looks extremely cheap and home made. Not at all funny. Even if you love drag and camp films I would still avoid.

A Nasty Little Movie

[donniehagy-27574 · 1/10 · 14 September 2021]

When I caught this title, I thought I might be in for a lot of fun: over-the-top drag queens, lots of comedy, bad acting, and just plain fun. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

This movie was mean spirited, ugly, vile, and showed no imagination whatsoever....and there's not one single "death drop" in the movie. What you have are mainly caricatures, very graphic violence, and a script that was all over the place. It seems a killer (a/k/a the "vampire") is offing gay people left and right, draining them of all their blood. Now, I have a question for all those concerned gay hecklers every time a gay character is shown in a bad light: why aren't you complaining about this movie?

From what I saw, I would have to say this movie is UR. It contains a very graphic sex scene, constant language, and graphic violence. This is NOT for children or anyone under 18 and certainly NOT recommended.

Don't speak......

[akira-hideyo · 1/10 · 13 September 2021]

..... Just drive a stake through my heart already for watching this black hole of insanity. I now know that charity has its limits. Counseling hot line is now open.

Too Long, But Entertaining

[meghancoker · 6/10 · 12 October 2021]

Someone is killing drag queens at a dumpy gay club, but who could it be?

Death Drop Gorgeous is a strange mix of Girls Will Be Girls and an Italian giallo film with garish lighting, lots of gore, and zany one liners. It seems the filmmakers didn't have much of a budget to work with and that becomes apparent when some shoddy camerawork and less than ideal performances by non-actors appear, but there's enough to recommend including some interesting commentary on aging in the LGBTQ community. It's a film that would have worked better with a slightly quicker pace. It does have the tendency to ramble a bit too much, but it means well.

An impressive and enjoyable slasher

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 8/10 · 13 September 2021]

Moving back to a new city, a guy takes his old job back at a nightclub where he runs into a series of backstage drama associated with the drag-queens who perform in the shows, but while dealing with those issues a masked killer's rampage against the group forces him to solve his identity to stop the spree.

This was an incredibly fun and enjoyable genre effort. Among the more enjoyable features here is the fun and engaging setup created around the world of the gay nightclub scene. As the majority of the focus here revolves around the characters frequenting the hedonistic nightclub with the lavish design and layout obviously designed for those in the community to live out a fun time out complete with gloryholes, karaoke plays, drug use, and drag-queen performances that favor the flamboyant setups that are common here. That this is all done in conjunction with the different day-to-day lives between him and the various aspects of their lives including the backstage drama and interpersonal antics that revolve around the nightclub on the outskirts of the deaths that are occurring to the regulars or the workers. Given a nice dose of comedy from time to time, there's a lot to like here., much like the brutal slashing scenes. Offering a fun visual dynamic that matches the flamboyance of the rest of the activity around the nightclub, there's a lot to like with the brutality inherent in these scenes with the black-leather-and-glove clad killer appearing to victims and unknowingly letting him stab or slash them With some inventive death scenes thrown in including being forced to snort spiked coke that causes them to start gushing blood, a meat grinder used on a male unit stuck in a glory hole, having a face shoved repeatedly into a broken mirror, and getting cut open with a meat carver that spills entrails all over the place, these are quite enjoyable and have some intriguing setups that provide plenty of fun in the finale. The back-and-forth confrontations here provide some nice action with the way the situation goes has a lot to like and holds this one up over its minor flaws. There are some issues that hold this one back. One of the biggest issues is the films' rather overlong running time that doesn't need to be as long as it is. Featuring several unnecessary setups and subplots that are nothing more than time-wasting with the heavy focus on the backstage drama between the performers at the club really coming off with very little purpose or interest throughout here despite all the setup work it does to introduce the world of the characters. With these scenes come several of the other useless moments here including the corrupt detectives incompetently solving the crime, the motive of the club owner trying to keep it all underwraps for no reason, or way too many false endings, this one comes up with several points that could've been on top of this, there's also the slight issue of the easy ability to guess who the killer is but it's not that big of a deal and doesn't detract from the rest of the film.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, and drug use.

Fun!

[BandSAboutMovies · 7/10 · 19 September 2021]

Written and directed by Christopher Dalpe, Brandon Perras (who also played Tony Two Fingers, as well as doing the cinematography and editing) and Michael J. Ahern (who was Detective O'Hara), Death Drop Gorgeous presents a slasher world that we haven't seen, well, nearly ever in the form: a campy, gay-positive glitter, makeup neon and booze-soaked - not to mention incredibly hilarious - murder saga.

Dwayne (Wayne Gonsalves) has just had a bad breakup, which brings him back home to Rhode Island and a place on the couch in the apartment of his friend Brian (Christopher Dalpe). As he pieces his life back together, he keeps moving somewhat backward, even getting his old bartending gig back, working at The Aut Haus alongside Tragedi (Complete Destruction), Janet Fitness (Matthew Pidge) and, perhaps most importantly, Gloria Hole (Michael McAdam), an aging drag queen who doesn't draw in the young customers.

Unbeknownst to our hero, several club patrons and employees have already been killed and drained of their blood by a social hookup app using serial killer named The Vampire, with owner Tony Two Fingers paying off the cops to stay open. But when Brian goes missing - last seen getting into a cab driven by Linnea Quigley alongside Gloria - Dwayne starts keeping his eyes open.

I've never seen a movie where a man is killed with a meat grinder at a glory hole, directly followed by a scene with someone eating sausages, so this is quite obviously groundbreaking stuff. It's even more amazing when you consider that most of the cast were non-actors and the movie was filmed almost exclusively in Providence on weekends over the course of a year and a half.

The film wouldn't work if it was all comedy, so the slasher/giallo parts all work just as well if not better. That's a testament to the work on screen.

I've always believed that determining that if a movie is a giallo or a slasher means answering a few questions: Do we care more about who the killer is than the killings themselves? Is there good music? And is there plenty of fashion? The answer to all of those questions is yes and I find it happily wonderful that the best two giallo-esque movies of the past decade - and the ones not slavishly bound to the conventions of the genre so much that they become pastiche - would be this film and Knife + Heart, two LGBTQ-positive films in a genre best known for gorgeous and fashionable women being killed in, well, gorgeous and fashionable ways.

That's not to say that this movie is all Bava lighting and dubbed dialogue. It's a movie onto itself, filled with high energy, hilarious dialogue and a creative team whose lack of experience surprised me, because unlike the majority of direct to streaming films that come to us, this feels like the kind of movie that I'd rush to the theater - well, you know, in any other timeline - to see.

Gorgeous drops dead.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 6/10 · 4 August 2021]

After the magnificent double bill of The Dose (2020) and As Nupcias de Dracula (2018-both also reviewed) I decided to continue the viewings from the Soho Horror Film Festival, by seeing the death drop of beauty.

View on the film:

Made over a year and a half on weekends, lead actors/co-writers/co-directors Michael J. Ahern, Christopher Dalpe & Brandon Perras dress a (intended) Camp Kitsch atmosphere with the flamboyant ultra-stylisation of the Giallo genre,with the makers bringing a sparkling slice of glamour in the murder set-pieces of wonderful extended first-person tracking,which draws blood across colourful wallpaper and shiny leather where the disco lights bounce off against the blood.

When the mysterious killer is not causing a scene, the makers sadly close their eye for style during the long non set-pieces,with the nightclub rolling under a cloud of flat digital low-res grain,which trims the opportunity for a lavish glaze that the setting offers.

Moving to the groove created by a drag artist and a washed-up bartender searching for a psycho in the middle of roaring night life, the writers try and cross the blood drenching Slasher/Giallo murders with a bitter Comedy playfulness at the murky dealings of those behind the clubs, which sadly runs dry due to all the characters being given repetitive, mean-spirited dialogue,as they discover that the latest victim (who was gorgeous) was dropped dead.

The next queer cult classic

[bethalovecraft · 10/10 · 10 November 2020]

I loved this movie! Super funny and keeps you guessing. The camp, the gore, the hilarity. You will not be disappointed!

Absolutely Entertaining!

[kyleallencole9 · 6/10 · 29 August 2022]

Finally got to see this one on Shudder and I didn't know what to expect given the premise.

The film seemed tacky at first, but quickly blew up the screen.

The death scenes were over the top gruesome and squeamish! Will mention that the glory hole death scene was insane and haven't seen anything like that one!

The cast were alot of fun to watch as well! Most of them reminded me alot of drag queens I've known for years. The killer's identity came as a shock to me and the twist towards the end as well.

I like that the killer was using a hook up app to Lure random victims and then some other victims you could tell it was more of a personal kill for them.

Overall this indie budget slasher flick turned out to be a wild ride!

A fun party movie not to be taken too seriously.

Different

[ladymidath · 8/10 · 3 March 2022]

I love LGBTQIA movies and TV series, especially the comedy ones. I wasn't quite sure what to expect with Death Drop Gorgeous. I thought it was a more serious murder mystery/slasher, but it ended up being something different.

I enjoyed the story but the production looked rather cheap which kind of spoiled it for me. It looked like it was filmed on a tight budget. The costumes were great, the acting was good and the music was great.

Even though it was easy to spot the killer, it was a fun time getting there.

While I am not a huge fan of gore, it's been so over used lately. A complaint I have mentioned before but the kills in this one were so over the top, it almost reminded me the death count in Metalocalypse.

This is a fun ride that's not meant to be taken too seriously. Grab some popcorn, settle back and enjoy.

What a wild ride!

[wrgonsalves · 10/10 · 11 September 2021]

If you enjoy midnight movies, this is the one for you!