Death Drop Gorgeous | Released 2020

“Best enjoyed with a drink in hand and a smear of lipstick across your face” -The AV Club

Death Drop Gorgeous is a grassroots, community-built film that showcases the queer talent of the creative capital of America, Providence, RI. The project was an ambitious endeavor created by three friends who wanted to make an LGBTQ film that they had never seen before. It was filmed on weekends and weeknights for over two years, and it is a passion project in every sense of the word. It's a love letter to their city. It's about protecting queer spaces and elders. And it's about the very real monsters within the community.

In 2015, Brandon Perras-Sanchez, Michael J Ahern, and Christopher Dalpe met one faithful, summer evening at Ogie’s Trailer Park in Providence, Rhode Island. At that bar the genesis of their pipe dream began. They had a naive, yet optimistic energy as they assembled the bones of a feature-length drag slasher. And that night in September, a loose mantra began: “let’s see how far we can take this.” And thus, Death Drop Gorgeous was born.

The script took a year to write, and with the guidance of filmmaker Philip Gelatt (Europa Report, Love Death and Robots), the writers underwent pre-production planning. Their story was ambitious and they rarely compromised it, despite limited means. No matter the possible production complications, they strived to not confine the gore-fest they created.

Thanks to the close-knit community of Providence, the three writers, along with the film’s protagonist, Wayne Gonsalves and editor Ryan Miller, were able to fundraise their budget through an IndieGoGo, a RISCA artist grant, a last hurrah GoFundMe, and several local events where the community drummed up dollars.

Since then, the entire two year production, which was filmed on nights and weekends when the creators weren’t working their full time jobs, has been an entire PVD endeavor. It involves local artists and actors and all its sets were either Rhode Island-based businesses or built by the creators themselves. The film literally exists because of the city’s LGBTQ community and allies.

Never having made a feature length before, this was uncharted territory for these hopeful filmmakers. And not all practical special effects they could execute themselves. The team reached out to Victoria Elizabeth Black (finalist of The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula) and Scott C. Miller for assistance with a handful of truly grotesque scenes. With the mentoring of Gelatt and author Victoria Dalpe, the team has finally wrapped production. They now have set their sights on terrorizing the world with their John Waters-esque, giallo-inspired cinematic mayhem.

Title Logo & Design

It’s true… we really began designing the entire look and marketing campaign before we were certain we could even make the movie. I designed this original title logo very early on in the process for social media, tank-top designs, and fundraisers promoting the movie that we wanted to make. Though Death Drop Gorgeous has had like 5 major facelifts this original title remains.

The Many, Many faces of Death Drop Gorgeous