These homoerotic horror shorts count down to Halloween with “Hot Ways To Die”

Ring in the Spooky Season with Hot Ways To Die, a series of “fun size” erotic gay horror shorts that’s dropping a new video each day through Halloween.

In other words, it’s like an advent calendar—but make it horny and scary.

The project comes from rising filmmaker João Dall’Stella, who describes Hot Ways To Die as “a collection of steamy queer moving images.”

As its title suggests, each installment takes a facet of the sex lives of gay men—the sauna, a glory hole, an intimate massage—and turns it into campy, gory gothic horror.

For example, his series kicked off on October 22 with the short “Through A Hole,” which opens on a fanged set of pearly whites then zooms out to reveal we’re looking through a hole in a bathroom stall (calling to mind Troye Sivan’s “Rush” video) as the sounds of a classic monster movie score swell.

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A post shared by João Felipe Choma Dall’Stella (@joaodallstella)

It’s brief, to be sure, but the titillating blend of pleasure and fear gives Dall’Stella’s series its bite.

As he tells it, Hot Ways To Die is all about celebrating desire through the lens of queer horror history:

“For years, I was afraid of being queer and coming out of the closet,” Dall’Stella shares in a statement. “It took me a while to realize that living authentically means letting go of that fear.”

“It’s similar to watching a scary movie—when you face your fear, there’s a sense of relief and excitement about what’s next.”

And, speaking of what’s next, Day 2 short “Don’t Drop The Towel!” features a steam room hottie (Ty Chen) wearing nothing but a white towel. He turns around to reveal a bloody handprint on his butt, when suddenly someone—or something—rips it off him.

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A post shared by João Felipe Choma Dall’Stella (@joaodallstella)

Our only complaint? We don’t get to see what was underneath!

Chen is just one part of Hot Ways To Die‘s all-queer cast and crew, featuring cinematography by Leo Purman, production design by Samuel Keamy-Minor, and performers lex Honrato (“Through A Hole,” “In the Shower”), Davi Stefond (“During Climax”) and Michael Lyons (“Getting Eaten Alive,” “In the Steam Room”).

“It’s important to see LGBTQ+ representation on screen as heroes and villains, showing the light and darkness of the human experience,” says Dall’Stella.

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“As queer people, we fight a constant battle every day of our lives. I want everyone to know how powerful they are and that being ourselves authentically is the most important thing in our lives.” 

And, sometimes, being our authentic selves means… jacking off with a Jack-O-Lantern?? At least, that’s the crux of the latest bawdy video, which uses some evocative sound design as an unseen man rearranges some pumpkin guts.

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A post shared by João Felipe Choma Dall’Stella (@joaodallstella)

In the days ahead, we can anticipate a warm send off in (“In the Steam Room”), a silky nightmare in “During Climax”, a a butt-suting vampire (“Getting Eaten Alive”) and, on All Hallow’s Eve, a gory downpour in the gym locker room shower (“In The Shower.”)

The entire Hot Ways To Die series will premiere on Dall’Stella’s Instagram page, so be sure to follow along there for every NSFW trick and treat through the next week.

And, if you want to see more from the filmmaker, a handful of his previous short films are on YouTube, like his 2021 piece “Steam,” which certainly has a similar erotic horror vibe and aesthetic, but told through a longer 15-minute story:

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