Movie Review: 'Death Drop Gorgeous'

Death Drop Gorgeous is a bizarre and often gross homage to the trash cinema of the legendary John Waters. The movie tells the story of a group of drag performers who become the target of a serial murderer in their community. A series of ever more grisly murders unfold and a pair of thoroughly nonplussed cops investigate the crime while also trying to keep the series of murders quiet so as not to upset the business interest of a local club owner who is missing three fingers.

Death Drop Gorgeous stars Wayne Gonsalves as Dwayne, a former employee of a local drag bar who has just returned home after trying to make a life elsewhere. With no luck in striking out on his own, Dwayne returns to stay with his friend, Brian (Christopher Dalpe) and returns to the club owned by Tony Two Fingers (Brandon Perras), a wannabe gangster whose club is struggling to stay afloat. Though he barely recognizes Dwayne as a former employee of his, he nevertheless gives him a job working on Tuesdays, the worst and least profitable night of the week.

Working on Tuesdays, Dwayne is surprised to find the club’s former headliner, Gloria Hole (Michael McAdam), working on this night and drawing almost no crowd. Gloria used to be a huge draw but as her act never evolved and Gloria got older, she lost her headlining gig to a newer, younger performer known as Janet Fitness (Matthew Pidge). Everyone on staff appears to hate Janet but she is a major draw on the weekends so she is tolerated.

Drop Death Gorgeous begins with a grisly murder. A man is thrown out of the Drag club and after being rejected, he finds himself being beckoned to a nearby vehicle. He’s offered cocaine, which he gladly accepts, and then he is brutally slain, and dumped in a dumpster behind the drag club. Upon the discovery of the body, Tony Three Fingers calls on a pair of corrupt local detectives, Detective O’Hara, played by the film’s Director Michael J Ahern, and Detective Barry played by Sean Murphy, to make the body disappear.

A strong example of the dark comic idea behind Death Drop Gorgeous comes when the corrupt cops agree to move the body for Tony. Instead of recovering the body, the detectives move the body to another dumpster, this one behind a Chinese Restaurant. We later hear, via local news exposition broadcast, that the Chinese Restaurant went out of business after the body was found.

Death Drop Gorgeous establishes an irreverent tone from the first scene on and that irreverent tone never lets up. The low budget aesthetic is also a key feature of Death Drop Gorgeous as the movie looks as if it were made for about $10.00 bucks, a couple of IOU’s and the benevolence of several kind friends of the director. That’s not a criticism, it’s a minor compliment, I appreciate the undeniable hard work and hustle that undoubtedly led to the making of Death Drop Gorgeous.

That said, do I recommend the movie? Yes, and no. It’s not a movie for a broad audience. You have to be a special kind of audience to enjoy Death Drop Gorgeous. In that way, it’s a rather good homage to John Waters, the inspiration for Death Drop Gorgeous. Waters’ low budget aesthetic inspired many filmmakers and you can see the myriad ways in which Michael J Ahern and company were inspired by Waters’ example.

Also, much like John Waters, Death Drop Gorgeous is appealing only to a very specific kind of audience. If you are someone who enjoys broad, outrageous gore, amateur actors, low budget sets and aesthetics, and fringe culture, you might find yourself attracted to Death Drop Gorgeous. You, as a fan of the kind of gross out weirdness of early John Waters, might find a great deal to enjoy about this brazenly strange and low budget bit of horror, gore and sub-culture.

Here's a good test as to whether you might find Death Drop Gorgeous up your alley. When I said that one of the main characters is named Gloria Hole, did you laugh? Smile? Appreciate the gag? Then you might just be the right kind of audience for Death Drop Gorgeous. The film also features a gag about a man who acts like a dog for the pleasure of one of the other characters. Again, if that is something you find appealing, this is your movie.

Death Drop Gorgeous is available on many streaming rental platforms as of August 28th, 2021.