On Devil’s Sunday… There Was Blood, Lots of It

Horror and sex, they go together like burlesque and Montreal. If you don’t believe me, just watch any horror flick and tell me you’re not turned on at one point or another by one of the sexy college students fleeing or fighting the mysterious killer. It’s a classic formula, really.

Rarely, if ever, are the killers themselves seen as sexy. In fact, not since Natural Born Killers had I witnessed such an attempt. That is, until this past Sunday at the Blood Ballet Cabaret.

Without revealing too much (in case they want to repeat the Devil’s Night show next year or in another city – they do travel now), the show kicked off with troupe leader Miss Bloody Maryanne stepping out of the shower to get the classic phone call from an evil voice warning her. In this case, she had to get back to Montreal quick or else her entire troupe would be gonners.

After a show intro by emcee Sherwin, reminding us at the same time that we’re at the BBC and that he has issues (or at least his stage character has issues), we’re back in the story. I love how this troupe mixes storyline and theme with the classic burlesque comedy intro to dances.

Lady Firefly is the first to grace the stage with a sexy western BDSM number, only to meet her fate, in ass-less chaps nonetheless. The killer takes a picture when the deed is done, an act that will follow each kill, kind of like a signature. Not sure if we’ll see these pics on Facebook as Sherwin suggested, but a nice touch nonetheless.

There are plenty of these touches throughout the show. We get a glimpse into the killer’s dysfunctional childhood, just like in the aforementioned NBK, but this time there’s no Dad and Mom, played by Fuhrious Nina, is crazy but damn hot. This is coupled with another horror genre later in the show too.

We also get the one that got away, played by Petite Pandora. Word of advice to killers: if your goal in tying up a contortionist is to subdue her, you’ll probably be disappointed. If your goal is to create a really cool escape scene with a subsequent even more impressive aerial contortion burlesque gore number, well, then, proceed.

We also get to see our killer get married to none other than Sucre a la Creme, who had already wowed the crowd by singing really well while stripping then putting on a Silence of the Lambs-style bodysuit, something that really has to be seen to be believed.

But this killer’s not monogamous and even fathered a child   with Seska Lee, leading to a scene that the term gorey really does not do justice. It’s messy and quite bloody.

The whole show’s quite bloody actually. This time the BBC truly lived up to the first B in its name. It felt like they were having so much fun with the blood that they had been waiting for over a year to just just cut the gore loose and do this show.

It wasn’t all blood and guts, though. There was fire, zombie fire, courtesy of Phoenix. There was also the BBC debut of Genevieve Jaguar. It was the kind of debut that makes you want to roar (pun very much intended) just as this is the kind of show that makes you want more (rhyme intended as well).

Not sure if more is coming anytime soon, at least not in Montreal. Miss Bloody Maryanne has already relocated to NYC and the troupe has a mini US tour planned.

Makes me glad I braved my Halloween weekend hangover as so many others did to catch this fun, sexy and very bloody show.