FALCONHEAD

Dirty Looks unleashes the Hellraiser of gay porn, Michael Zen’s Falconhead!

The all-male hardcore horror film takes on the Narcissus myth, entrapping three beauties through that most fatal of fascinations – oneself! A spangled mirror is the portal passed on from victim to victim, as the mythic falconhead doms that threshold with a ruler’s glove. Rumored to have been shot by Ronald Victor Garcia, cinematographer for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, with a cast who were mostly members of the Cycle Sluts, a genderfuck biker gang that was LA's response to the Cockettes. The first gay adult film to play Cannes, Falconhead features a remarkable soundtrack, that blends compositions by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Black Sabbath, Alice Coltrane and Carlos Santana, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Jade Warrior, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and more.

C. Michael McCullough (Michael Zen), Tattoo, 16mm on VHS, 15min., 1975
Michael Zen, Falconhead, 16mm on VHS, 70min., 1976

From the original press release:
Zen’s narcissists surrender willingly to the seductive emptiness of the mirror, in total submission to the chilling authority of a reflection. Unable to embrace the image they love, they must satisfy themselves in a bizarre world where phantoms worship their bodies for them… Frustrated in a world obsessed with youth and physical beauty, [the] grotesque conspire to entrap the beauty they envy in a nightmare, where the emotionally bankrupt feed upon each other until they are spent, exhausted, rapt.

The feature will be preceded by the short, Tattoo (1975), which was included on the original VHS release of Falconhead, with audio recently remastered by Douglas Murray. Many thanks to Liz Purchell for her research into this singular title.