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Thomas Ellison

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Secret Retro Slasher Projects Revealed – APRIL FOOLS!

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Last year John Klyza, Amanda by Night, and myself were approached by a television network in desperate need of ghost writers. The writer strike was on and the network that shall remain nameless needed some slasher experts to jazz up some scripts for an upcoming series. In exchange for our cooperation, the network promised each of us our own special Halloween project to be broadcast in October. So now, after complete secrecy on my part and numerous hints from Klyza and Amanda, I can finally reveal the three Retro Slasher Halloween Specials coming your way this fall.

ABN will be hosting Made-for-TV horror movie double features for TVLand. The films and dates are Moon of the Wolf and Deathmoon (Oct. 3), This House Possessed and Death at Love House (Oct. 10), Dark Night of the Scarecrow and Don’t Go to Sleep (Oct. 17), The Bermuda Depths and Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby (Oct. 24), and The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler (Oct. 31). Check back with Retro Slashers in the coming weeks for images from the set and pics of ABN dressed in her horror host costume.

John Klyza is making his directing debut with the remake of Hillbillys in a Haunted House for VH1, only this version is based on a Dee Snider script and called Heavy Metal Maniacs in a Haunted House. The basic plot is Dee Snider and Bret Michaels have a party to announce their new tour in a house haunted by the victims of rocker Sinner Steel, who went nuts and killed his band and several groupies twenty years ago. Since VH1 is producing expect to see cameos from many of their “stars”, including Danny Bonaduce, Joanie “Chyna” Laurer, Christopher Knight and wife Adrianne Curry, Ron Jeremy as Dee Snider’s sleazy manager, and Jeff Conway. Ed French is handling the gore effects. H.M.M.i.a.H.H will be broadcast on Friday Oct. 30 on VH1 at 9 p.m. The uncut dvd should be released in November.

My pet project is a script for The Ghost and Mr. Chicken remake on CBS Oct. 25. Jon Cryer stars as Luther Heggs, a reporter for The Rachel Courier Express who comes face to face with the supernatural when he spends the night in the Simmons place. Most of the cast are regulars on CBS programs but I did talk the producers into hiring a few familiar genre faces. Angus Scrimm is playing the ghost of Old Man Simmons, Linda Blair is the ghost of his murdered wife, and Tom Noonan is playing the sinister Nicholas Simmons. This story is different from the original in that Luther will really encounter the supernatural. None of that “tuning keyboard under the pipes” crap in my script. I will be supplying the voice yelling “That a boy, Luther!” during the crowd scenes.

While we won’t make appearances in each other’s projects, we did throw in an in-joke that will connect all three projects. There will be a “John” and “Thomas” on ABN’s shows (John suspects one will be a pet rat and the other will be a pet snake), an “Amanda” and “Thomas” in Heavy Metal Maniacs in a Haunted House, and an “Amanda” and “John” in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. John actually took the in-jokes much further by including references to many of his slasher blog buddies. Some are pretty obvious. His Final Girl is named Stacie, ponder that one for a minute. Others take a little thinking. One character is an anchorwoman and she will be in peril.

Expect more updates, interviews, and photos from the sets of all three projects as we get closer to October.

The Dark: a lost slasher hiding in a novelization

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Back in the late 1970’s Tobe Hooper was set to direct a film titled The Mutilator, a simple tale concerning either the adventures of a zombie slasher or an escaped mongoloid, depending on which Hollywood Urban Legend you read.  Hooper only lasted a day behind the camera and was replaced by Bud Cardos.  The script by Stanford Whitmore remained the same until producers saw the box office returns for Star Wars and decided a Sci-Fi film would make more money than a slasher.  So The Mutilator became The Dark and the zombie slasher/escaped mongoloid killer became an alien with the ability to shoot laser beams from his eyes.

Fortunately for slasher fans, the 1978 novelization of The Dark was written before the drastic changes to the film occurred.  The main cast of characters are the same as the film but the killer is  Harmon Quade,  an ex-sailor who developed a taste for human flesh and was lynched for his crimes in 1878.  One hundred years later, Quade comes back to town with his trusty scimitar.  He strikes every night, decapitating his victims before munching on their still warm bodies.

Journeyman writer Richard Deming, using his Max Franklin pseudonym for The Dark, excels in developing the approaching darkness into a malignant threat.  The actions and paranoia of minor characters faced with the looming nightfall creates a level of tension and atmosphere not found in the film.  The main characters in the novel, however, are rather cartoonish and come across as bad 70’s cliches.  You’ve got Roy Warner, the tough loner ready to go Death Wish all over the monster who killed his daughter.  You’ve got the tough feminist reporter ready to prove she doesn’t need no stinking man to make it in the world.  You’ve got the tough Dirty Harry style cop who likes to shoot suspects first and ask questions later.  You’ve got the tough old psychic who develops a link with the killer.  The only cliches missing are the tough biker and tough kung-fu master.

Another problem plaguing the novel is Deming doesn’t answer all of the questions the reader has by the end of the novel.  We never really learn who Quade was in life, how he came back from the dead, how he found a scimitar, or where he was hiding between  1878 and 1978.  A blind man appears at every killing but his true identity is never revealed.  It’s obvious he’s involved in the killings somehow but his origin is left up to the imagination of the reader.

The novelization of The Dark, only 187 pages,  offers slasher fans a glimpse at what might have been a decent slasher film if Hooper hadn’t self destructed and the producers hadn’t radically changed the story.  It isn’t difficult to imagine Harmon Quade as an early version of zombie Jason Vorhees especially when you read Quade’s physical description.  8 pages of photos are included in the novel.  Some of the photos are nothing more than publicity shots but a few show scenes that aren’t included in the book.

Bloody Moon (1981)

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During my reckless teenage years I developed an addiction to Jess Franco flicks. My favorite Franco flick, other than those made with Klaus Kinski, is Bloody Moon. Severin recently released Bloody Moon on dvd so now I’m finally able to see Jess Franco’s only slasher uncut. And boy does the blood flow now.

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Split Image: The Life of Anthony Perkins

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Charles Winecoff’s biography on the late, great slasher icon Anthony Perkins reveals the actor was much more complex, more troubled, and sometimes more crazed than any of the characters he portrayed. Now, out of respect to Perkins, I’m not going into all of the lurid details of his private life, but I will mention his drug use when it is relevant to his genre films.

When Anthony Perkins first arrived in Hollywood he dated Vampira and was groomed by the studios to be the next James Dean after Dean’s death. That didn’t work so studio bosses tried to make Perkins into an Elvis clone, a dual threat teen idol singer and actor. After Psycho made Perkins into a screen icon, the actor fled to Europe to escape Hollywood type casting. Despite working with legends like Orson Wells and Ingrid Bergman, Perkins could never duplicate his Psycho success and his film career began to flounder. The time in Europe stripped away Perkins’ boy-next-door charm which left his acting stiff and robotic.

Psycho II was Perkins big return to glory but he almost didn’t get the role because he demanded one million dollars to reprise Norman Bates. Universal was ready to give the part to Christopher Walken (!) so Perkins backed away from his high price tag. Another interesting bit of casting news revealed in Split Image is producers wanted Jamie Lee Curtis (double !) to play Marion Crane’s niece but Perkins and director Richard Franklin fought for Meg Tilly. During filming, however, Perkins would insult Tilly and tried to have her fired.

The sad truth about Perkins’ performances in Psycho II, Crimes of Passion, Psycho III, and Edge of Sanity is they were inspired by the drugs he ingested before takes. All of those nervous ticks and facials twitches were caused by either speed or amyl nitrate. Other times Perkins smoked pot and took LSD. While the drugs may have given his performance a dangerous edge, they also retarded his decision making abilities which severely damaged his directing skills. Psycho III and Lucky Stiff both suffered because Perkins was getting bombed out of his skull before he stepped on set to shoot a scene.

After he was diagnosed with AIDS in the early 1990’s, Perkins agreed to any part he could get his hands on in an attempt to leave his family financially stable after his death. For The Destroyer (a.k.a. The Shadow of Death) Perkins replaced Roddy McDowall on short notice, took an immediate dislike to costar Clayton Rohner, and ranted about Rohner’s poor acting performance to anyone that would listen. A Demon in My View and In the Deep Woods were the last films Perkins made before the illness left him bedridden and unable to breath. He had agreed to several other projects (a remake of the Mummy being the highest profile job) but died shortly after agreeing to appear in them.

Charles Winecoff’s Split Image: The Life of Anthony Perkins is an amazing read. This sometimes sad, sometimes funny, but often shocking account of Anthony Perkins life reveals more than you ever wanted to know about the first slasher star. Slasher fans will enjoy the stories concerning the making of Psycho and Perkins other slasher films. Interested fans shouldn’t have too much trouble tracking down a copy as a tenth anniversary expanded edition was published back in 2006. The new chapters deal with the death of Berry Perkins, Anthony’s widow, who was murdered by terrorist on 911.

Jason makes his UFC debut tonight 2/7/09

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The new Friday the 13th will get the special preview treatment tonight during UFC’sFight Night live on Spike.  The show starts at 9 p.m. eastern time.  When UFC promotes a film they usually have an interview with someone from the cast so I have my fingers crossed that Derek Mears will make an appearance.  My other hope is the Friday logo will be featured on the UFC mat and some poor soul bleeds all over it.  That would be great advertising.

His Name was Jason

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The new doc covering the gory glory 30 years of Friday the 13th films is out now and I urge all slasher fans to pick up a copy. The interviews with the men behind the mask is a highlight as well as seeing many cast members from different entries. Steve Miner is missing from the doc. but they did track down Danny Steinmann (Holy crap! Wait til you hear his thoughts about Jason on disc 2.)

The only complaint I have is Tom Savini should have had a little more interview time and a little less hosting duties. This is the guy that created the face of Jason and his special effects helped the first film become a major hit at the box office. And why the hell does Felissa Rose get so much face time? I swear she gets more screen time in His Name was Jason than she does in Return to Sleepaway Camp. Also, don’t listen to a damn thing Ken Kirzinger says about Kane Hodder coming to terms with losing the Jason gig. Hodder is still a bitter bastard about Freddy vs Jason.

Ironically, watching this doc. made me more excited about the new Friday the 13th set to hit next week. It was the interview with Derek Mears that really sold me watching on the new film in theaters. Mears is a real fan of the Jason character and it shows during his extended interview.

My Bloody Valentine: The Remake

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As remakes of slasher films go, My Bloody Valentine is the best one so far. To be fair to this film I’m trying to curb my comparisons between it and the original. I’m also keeping this mini review bare bones because I don’t want to spoil the surprises. The audience screamed, begged for certain characters to be spared, and yelled “Run you stupid bitch” at Sarah on more than one occasion. It was this audience participation that really gave me flashbacks of seeing slashers in theaters back in the 80’s. The numerous jump scares, gory deaths, and sick humor made MBV 09 a good time. Plus, it was great seeing Tom Atkins on the big screen again.

The downside is I don’t think I would have enjoyed the film as much if I hadn’t experienced the audience participation. There is something missing from the core of MBV that keeps it from being anything other than a popcorn film. Why Harry Warden goes on a killing spree isn’t fully explained. I mention this because one guy in the audience shouted “Why is this guy killing people?” during a hospital massacre.

I’m not a fan of slasher remakes but I did enjoy MBV 09 (can’t call it 3D because it wasn’t here). It has some problems but the scary bits make up for weak subplots. I know a lot of slasher fans will condemn MBV outright, but give it a chance before you throw it under the bus.

Harry Warden makes the cover of Rue Morgue

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Rue Morgue #86 sports a sweet cover featuring the slasher star of the month, Harry Warden. The issue features a new interview with director George Mihalka and producer John Dunning. The gore shots included with the interviews will make your mouth water for the new uncut dvd. The remake is also covered, but only for one page.

1st Quarter 2009: Three Great Months for Slasher Fans

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  1. Jan. 13, 2009  My Bloody Valentine Uncut.  This is the holy grail of uncut slasher films.  I still find it hard to believe that MBV is finally going to be seen in all its gory glory.  Words can’t describe my excitement for this dvd.
  2. Jan. 16, 2009 My Bloody Valentine 3D.  After The Punisher and The Spirit bombed at the box office, Lionsgate’s stock took a major hit.  The studio is in desperate need of a successful film and all their hopes are riding on MBV3D.  Quite an ironic twist considering studio head Jon Feltheimer wants Lionsgate to move away from horror films.  The trailers look promising so I’ll be in the theater on opening night.
  3. Feb. 3, 2009 His Name was Jason : 30 years of Friday the 13th.  I’m more excited about this doc. dvd about the F13th series than I am about the remake.   Tom Savini acts as host and many of the major players and directors are interviewed. 
  4. Feb. 13, 2009 Friday the 13th.  Jason’s back and he’s still pissed.  What more do you need to know?  Seriously, though, it’s great  that Jason and Harry Warden are returning to the big screen just a month apart. 
  5. March 31, 2009 Psychos in Love.  I don’t have any information about dvd extras but hopefully Carmine Capobianco and Debi Thibeaultwill be interviewed or included on a commentary track.  If you’ve ever been in love with a psychotic woman or just stalked one, then this is the romantic slasher for you. 

42nd Street Forever Vol. 4

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Slasher fans will be interested in the new trailer compilation from Synapse Films due to hit stores Jan. 27, 2009.  This will be the first volume to feature trailers for slashers.  Fans can expect to see: Mortuary (with Michael Berryman), Schizoid (Klaus Kinski), Silent Scream, New Year’s Evil, Humongous, The Town That Dreaded Sundown (one of my favorites), and Rituals.

I was going to buy 42nd Street Forever Vol. 4 anyway because I’m a fan of the series and have the first three volumes.  But knowing the slashers will get some attention with Vol. 4 makes this edition more exciting.  Check out www.synapse-films.com for more info.

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