Total Pageviews

Search This Blog

Monday, May 31, 2010

TODAY'S PIC 5-31-2010

Today pic is from the classic 1972 sci-fi film The Thing With Two Heads starring Rosey Grier and Ray Milland. One of my all time favorites!!

5-31-2010 BIRTHDAY WISHES TO...........




Clint Eastwood who turns 80 today and Brooke Shields who turns 45.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

TALES OF THE DAMNED FINAL COMMENTS

There are many things I will never forget about making this film including me getting set on fire, and the other is when we were filming scenes for The Soul Eaters and one of the crew members forgot to pick up a bloody baby blanket from the set. We were filming next to a Catholic school and a student had found the blanket and reported it to the police. Well the next morning I got a phone call from a police officer I knew very well named Michelle Morris who told me what had happened. They were going to send the blanket to the State of montana crime lab, but Michelle told them what was going on as she knew we were making a movie. I did have to pay for it later however.
Joe Lucier traveled all the way from oregon to be in the film and he stayed with me for a few days until his parts were all filmed. He didn't like the way I changed the story he wrote and he really didn't like the final film.
I did finally get Tales Of The Damned into a theater in 2006 in Twin Falls Idaho, where I had moved to from Livingston Montana. Dave Woodhead owned a small theater called the Lamphouse theater and we had our debut.
I starred in one more film after this in 2007 called Seven Sins Of Daniel Tucker and haven't done anything with the film business since because I am very disappointed where low budget films are going these days, but I may be back, I am working on projects now.
I hope all of this has given the people who ask questions, some answers.

TALES OF THE DAMNED RELEASE

The movie took off better than I thought and it was a constant rental with my other two from Books Ect. I still wanted to get it into theaters, but that was a long hard battle that never happend until many years later. The sales were good across the country and Ebay was a brand new thing and I sold a lot on there as well. Sometimes I could't keep up with sales.
People who rented the film liked it and many told me so in the small community of Livingston and I loved the fact I made something people could have a good time with and then, believe it or not one person who rented the movie and really liked it was Meg Ryan who is a fan of low budget films like this and she told me that it doesn't matter how low budget it is, but the fact you got it done is all that counts. I will never forget that she told me that. It meant a lot to me. I made my money back in three years, yes three years but it was worth it.

TALES OF THE DAMNED POST PRODUCTION

I had seen Creepshow by George Romero in 1982 and watched in over 100 times and I got the idea to make Tales a homage to Creepshow. We edited the movie on Avid Xpress, the main editor was John Mathias and I was there every second as well. It took three weeks to edit the film and give it color and a comic book look.
I think we succeeded. Editing was long and hard but John is a pro and knows what he is doing although we were both winging it at this point. We decided to put all the bloopers on during the closing credits and this is another thing people really like with this film.
While editing was being done Skip Shiver was putting together the most ambitious packaging we had ever attempted for a movie. He developed a full color comic book cover circa 1969 and it looked like a winner to me. He came up with the idea in two weeks!!
I had planned a release date of October 2nd because that was the date back in 1968 that my all time favorite film, Night Of The Living Dead was released. While editing and packaging was going on I was also busy hawking my product to different stores to see if they would carry my product. With the help of Jeff Eads who owned a music store and furnished me with 70's music for my listening enjoyment and Tim Gable who owned a small book and video store called Books Ect. I was able to get some product into stores. This was many years before DVD technology was affordable and I had a lot of tapes to make up before release and I finally got the master broadcast copy into the duplicators on Sept. 29th!!
I had to pay a small fortune to get the copies made by the first and after that I lived off of Hershey kisses for a while...yummy. Now after release came some of the most interesting things I have ever had happen.......

TALES OF THE DAMNED (IMAGINATION FILMS)

This is the movie I am best known for and it has been good to me. Filmed over 6 grueling months in 1998 with the largest cast I had ever worked with, a total of 25 actors and 15 crew members. I also had huge transportation problems to over come, stunts to plan and people to bring in from out of state.
Two of the stories were written by others, Soul Eaters was written by Alan Tromp and our narrator and Host Joe Lucier had written Lifelong Friends. Six tales of terror were planned and I got the casting done as I had never done before, oh I did get my friends and co-workers, but I also went to a very lovely young woman named Laurie McFee of the Montana Model and Talent Agency because I needed a special woman for a short story entitled One Strange Lady and I managed to hire a very sexy woman named April Goettle for the part.
Filming started in March of 1998 and I had a budget of $8000 to work with. With all the details worked out filming went fine for the first few weeks, but trouble develpoed when several actors didn't arrive on the set and I had to recast roles quickly. The next problem developed when we were filming the story One Strange lady and our main special effect didn't work. I had hired April for $100 per day and we still didn't have the effect done after her time expired so i had to fork over more money and finish filming her scene two weeks later and this was costly, but we finally got it done.
Derek Koch and his effects group supplied the excellent make up. Derek is a good man and knows exactly what he is doing with make up effects.
The next problem occured when we were filming a story called Lifelong Friends in a local motel room and the rumour spread that we were making a porno film so i wrote a letter to the newspaper explaining that we were making a horror film. I was known in town as a filmmaker, so why people thought of porno is beyond me.
When we finished filming I noticed that the film was a little shorter in running time than i had planned so i decided to use the footgae from Soul Eaters and shoot new scenes..a la Ed Wood. One of these new scenes involved a killer scarecrow, but he kept tripping over everything and we decided against it. You can see this hiliarious footage during the closing credits. Also we has a scene where I played Asteroth, the demon from hell and I had to set myself on fire, so being a low budget film i simply wore a suit, had Derek Koch make me up like a monster, smear vasoline mixed with lighter fluid on my clothes and get set on fire by a blow torch!!
Livingston Montana is one of the windiest places on earth and the wind was blowing that day. people all day had told me not to do this, but I never give up when making a movie. We started filming the scene and the blaze started and it was a rush. The other effects were to be added in later. i burned my legs, never told the crew how much it hurt and moved on to the next scene. This scene never made it into the film, but you can see it after the closing credits. Yes, I am crazy.
The movie finally wrapped in late August of 1998 and then the real fun started........

THE SOUL EATERS (OBSCURE VIDEO PRODUCTIONS)

This was to be an "epic" zombie film that started production in the summer of 1997 and after many problems with the writer and other crew members the project was halted and then stopped entirely, but I couldn't let this footage go to waste.... Tales of The Damned was next......

MACABRE TALES (LOW BUDGET PRODUCTIONS)

This was a low budget anthology film much like the horror films I saw during the 70's such as House that Dripped Blood, Tales from The Crypt and Vault Of Horror. Again I had my friends and co-workes star in the film and I financed the entire project over a two week shooting period.
On a budget of 3000 dollars shooting began in the winter of 1996/97. Wayne Hard returned for more acting duties and lead photographer. I also had Marvin "Skip" Shiver star in the final segement as a man who will not stay dead. The episode that is talked about and liked the most is the one I just mentioned and the one about a strange package delivered in the mail. People really liked those and that made me pretty happy.
Writing duties went to your truely and I also did the makeup and just about everything else. You will notice that in all the stories a mention is made of serum X-17, which we carried over from the last film as a kind of "in joke" on the audience.
In the second story I had to hire two guys on the spot as my other actors quit and they had 20 minutes to learn their lines, which is why they are so terrible. I felt sorry for them.
Jeff Campion, who plays one of the people I take to Hell with me died a few years later at the age of 34 from heart problems.
Jeff was a great friend and I do miss him. Two weeks of constant filming and editing and the film was released on video in summer of 1997.
The sales of this film were far better than my expectations which allowed me to finance the film I am probably best known for in the low budget film world....Tales of the Damned..........bur before that, I had started filming The Soul Eaters......

EXPERIMENT OF DEATH (LOW BUDGET FILMS)

I have been in contact with a gentleman who has asked some questions about my films and some of them I will try and answer here. This movie is a 30 min. short about a young man who isturned into a flesh consuming monster because of a new drug he injects himself with. Tony Kinnick played the young scientist, Wayne Hard played the Government agent, Lori Kay Coon (Denzine) played the other Government agent. This was filmed in the summer of 1996 on the property of Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid. One interesting note is that the scene where the monster is fired at by a hunter is very real. The man playing the hunter was in charge of firearms and he forgot to unload the gun, so he fired several LIVE shots at the actor, who thankfully wasn't hit. Ah yes, the good old days.
The script was improvised in most spots and I hope it worked out well. I did get a very good response to this and it enabled me to make the second film called Macabre Tales, which I discuss in the next post.......

FOXY BY PAM GRIER

Thanks to Alan Tromp I have picked up Pam Grier's bio entitled Foxy. It promises to be a great read and if you are a fan of hers I highly recommend this book. I will review it after I get a chance to read it.

TODAY'S PIC 5-30-2010

Todays pic is the poster for Santa & The Ice Cream Bunny. This movie has to be seen to be believed.

DR. JEKYLL & THE WEREWOLF (SINISTER CINEMA)

Paul Naschy plays Waldamar Daninsky , the werewolf who is taken to Dr. jekyll to perhaps be cured, but the good doctors assistant has other plans. Mirtha Miller plays the assistant and always looks good, especially when being evil. Jack taylor is the doomed Dr. Jekyll and Shirley Corrigan in the very lovely woman who falls in love with Daninsky and must kill him.
This has always been one of my favorite Naschy films and it comes with a very high recommendation for lovers of Spanish horror.

LA NAVE DE LOS MONSTROUS (SHIP OF MONSTERS) LIONSGATE

One of my favorite south of the border films FINALLY makes it to DVD from Lionsgate. Ana Bertha Lepe and Lorena Velazquez stars as two incredible sexy alien women who land on earth with various monsters in an attempt to take over the earth, but run into "Piporro" played by Eulalio Gonzalez who foils their plans at every turn.
This is a comedy but the actors all play it straight and the monsters are very cool. They include a robot, a cyclops, a huge brained monster, a giant hairy bug and a very interesting talking and killing skeleton.
Ana Bertha Lepe is stunning as the good girl of the two aliens. She falls in love with Piporro and does look great, but as usual in Mexican cinema Lorena Velazquez steals every scene she is in because the woman is simply stunning in her bathing suit space outfit or her sequined bat suit. This is presented without subtitles, but who needs them anyway??
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!

CAPTIVE WOMEN (SINISTER CINEMA)

Ultra low budget affair about three tribes of people fighting for survival in post atomic war New York in the year 3000. Robert Clarke, William Schallert and Ron Randall star. Clarke belongs to a tribe called the Norms who worship Satan and live in the subways, Randall is a member of the Mutants that live above ground and then there is a tribe of Upriver Men who are intent on conquering all.
It has basically the same cast as Man from Planet X and I think you'll find this obscure gem a real treat. The film is pretty good considering it was filmed on a shoestring. The original title of the film was 1000 Years From Now.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

RIP.......







Comic Art Linkletter died on May 26th at the age of 97 from natural causes. People my age will remember him from such great shows as People Are Funny and the all time comedy classic Champaigne For Caesar. A clean cut comedy genius which you just don't find anymore. Another piece of my childhood is gone.



Gary Coleman, star of Different Strokes died at the age of 42 after suffering a brain hemmorage. He died on May 28th.



Dennis Hopper has died as well....I met dennis several times over the years and, yes, he was a crazy guy, but also pretty damn cool. He was born May 17th 1936 and died May 29th 2010. Dennis had a very grand career with such films as Night Tide, Easy Rider (where he became a counterculture Icon), The Trip and many other. Over 115 movies and the last film I was able to catch him in was George Romero's Land Of The Dead and he did a wonderful job and was very proud to have worked in a Romero film. A screen legend and a pretty damn cool guy.

TODAY'S PIC 5-29-2010

Great still from the Grade Z Ted Mikles movie entitled Astro Zombies. God, I love this movie!!

DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT (SINISTER CINEMA)

Well made a very complex italian Giallo about a woman who thinks she saw another woman killed by a man wearing a steel spiked glove. Susan Scott plays the attractive female who might have witnessed a murder. A great plot twist at the end. A Highly Recommended film from Sinister in widescreen.

Friday, May 28, 2010

AT 40 5-30-1981

This weekends AMERICAN TOP 40 brings us to a time when Eric Clapton sang "I Can't Stand It", Air Supply said "The One That You Love" is alright, Sheena Easton took the "Morning Train", Kim Carnes loved "Bette Davis Eyes" and much more.

AT 40 5-29-1972

This weekends edition of American Top 40 takes us back to 1972 when Dr. Hook sang about "Sylvia's Mother", Bread opened a "Diary", America said "I Need You" , Harry Chapin caught a "Taxi" and much more.

TODAY'S PICTURE 5-28-2010

Todays pic is from the 1956 sci-fi classic The She Creature starring Marla English and Chester Morris.

GREEN EYED BLONDE (SINISTER CINEMA)

On of the actresses who made an HUGE impression on me when I was younger was Susan Oliver, a very attractive blonde who had a very interesting career and also stars in this little JD film from 1957. The girls at an all girls school secretly keep a baby of one of the girls hidden in their room until it is discovered, and nothing but tragedy comes of it.
This has one of the most depressing endings of ANY film from this time period and if you are curious about what I am talking about I recommend you pick this gem up and see.

FRANKENFISH ( SONY)

One of the greatest titles of all time is about several genetic monster fish that are living in the Lousiana swamps. The incredibly sexy K. D Aubert stars in this well made and cheap film. The effects are not up to par, but that is part of this films charm.
Gotta love those monster fish and several of the killing are very inventive and scary. If you can get past the title, this is an entertaining effort.

GAMERA: THE GIANT MONSTER (SHOUT FACTORY)

I know, I know, I said I would not spend the money of this movie, but I had a strange compulsion at my Hasting's store the other day..lol.
Shout Factory has turned out a simply beautiful widescreen and pristine print of this Japanese classic about a giant turtle awakened by an atomic blast. The new subtitles are very good and if you like Japanese monster movies like I do this is a highly recommended release.

HALFWAY HOUSE (SKOURAS VENTURA)

Another bizarre low budget film from Kenneth J. Hall. Young women are disappearing from the Mary Magdalen Halfway House and a young woman and a police officer investigate. Mary Woronov stars as the head Sister of the house and it turns out she is sacrificing the girls to a bizarre monster in the basement that she has brought from another dimension with the use of the Necronomicon that she stole from Miskotonic University!!!!
A must see exploitation classic!!!!

FLIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (NEW LINE)

This was by far a big suprise to me. It was entertaining and well made. It seems a scientific experiment gets botched on a plane and a plague starts turning the passengers into flesh eating zombies.
This low budget wonder is a good find and one that you'll want to see if you like zombie movies or just horror films in general. Recommended.

BIRTHDAYS FOR 5-27-2010




Linnea Quigley turned 52 and acting legend Christopher Lee turned 88.


Wednesday, May 26, 2010

BIRTHDAYS FOR 5-26-2010







Pam Grier turns 61 today, James Arness (Gunsmoke) turns 87 and Stevie Nicks turns 62.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD




The George A. Romero film opens this weekend. It promises to be another in a long line of Romero gems, but cut a little differently. Check it out!!

TODAY'S PIC 5-25-2010

Todays pic is the poster from Jack Hill's classic WIP movie Big Bird Cage starring the always sexy Pam Grier and Anitra Ford. It's long OOP on DVD, but if you can find it, check it out.

AT 40 5-19-1979

This was broadcast on SXM this past weekend and featured Nigel Olsson singing about "A Little Bit Of Soap", Donna Summer wanted some "Hot Stuff", Styx was a "Renegade" , Suzi Quatro & Chris Norman were "Stumblin' In", and much more. What a year for music 1979 was.

Monday, May 24, 2010

SYBIL DANNING


A happy 61st birthday to the queen of the B movies....Sybil Danning!!

AT 40 5-22-1976

This was the show featured on internet radio this week and took us back to a time when John sebastian sang "Welcome Back", Barry Manilow was "Trying To Get The Feeling Again", The Bay City Rollers wrote a "Rock N' Roll Love Letter" and Diana Ross had a "Love Hangover" plus much more.

TODAY'S PIC 5-24-2010

Todays pic is from the 1966 sci-fi film Cyborg 2087 which follows the same story as The Terminator. Michael Rennie stars.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

MEGA SHARK VS. GIANT OCTOPUS (ECHO BRIDGE)

If you like cheap monster flicks, then this is for you. A prehistoric shark that actually jumps in the air and destroys a jet and takes a huge bite out of the Golden Gate Bridge, is thawed out from his arctic freeze and terrorizes the ocean and then a giant octopus from the same frozen region comes to battle him after taking out several ships and a Japanese oil rig. Deborah Gibson (former 80’s pop star) and Lorenzo Lamas star in this wonderful and very cheap outing. We actually need more movies like this being made. Very highly recommended!!

TODAY'S PIC 5-23-2010

Todays pic is the poster from the classic New World release of The Arena starring sexy Pam Grier and Margaret Markov.

STAUNTON HILL (ANCHOR BAY)

A very relentless and sometimes overly gory film, this is the film debut of Cameron Romero, the son of George. Five young people on their way to a protest meeting in Washington DC in 1969 are picked up by a seemingly nice young man and offered shelter for the night in an old farm house. The five soon learn a lesson in terror they never imagined.
This is a very effective horror film and it's very grim like all of todays modern movies, but you can certainly see the Romero touches. It's nice to see Montana native, the sexy Paula Rhodes in this film and she does meet a gruesome demise.
It is a film worth seeing. Recommended!!

Friday, May 21, 2010

MICHAEL BAY AND MEGAN FOX

Well , Megan Fox says she is leaving the Transformers because of very abusive behavior from "director" Michael Bay. There has been a lot written about this and I don't know all the facts, but I have several friends who have worked with Bay and they too say he is a little Hitler and a total jerk, so I will side with Megan.
I know she will do well without him ruining her career.

Jessica Alba

Today's pic is of lovely Jessica Alba. What more needs to be said??

AMERICAN TOP 40

If you love music from the 70's and 80's you should try listening to Casey Kasem's American Top 40 from these years as they were orignally heard on such great radio stations as SXM, who is playing the original broadcast from 5-19-1979 and KJR 95.7 from Seattle, the are playing the original broadcast from 5-22-1976 and KKLI in Colorado Springs, CO as they are playing the broadcast from 5-23-1987.

WARNER ARCHIVE RELEASES!!!

Warner Archives has released two excellent films on DVD. Remember, these are MOD but the quality from Warners is always excellent and I have never had any problems. A RETURN TO SALEM'S LOT starring Michael Moriarty and Andrew Duggan has been released as well as Peter Sellers classic Fiendish Plot Of Dr. Fu Manchu. You can check out their site for these and a whole lot more.
http://www.wbshop.com

Thursday, May 20, 2010

SLITHIS, HORROR HOSPITAL and BONNIE'S KIDS

The eco-horror film Slithis is coming from Code Red DVD on June 1st and if you love horror films this is a gem. The film got lost in the flood of 80's slasher films and surfaced again on VHS many years ago, but now it has come back and deserves a second look.
Dark Sky returns with Horror Hospital starring Michael Gough as a mad surgeon who experiments on young people in a Hospital in the British countryside. A great late night viewing experience. This is set to be released on June 15th.
Finally on June 29th Dark Sky releases the exploitation classic Bonnie's Kids starring the always sexy Tiffany Bolling and Robin Mattson as sisters who murder their abusive father and then escape to the big city where they get involved with the mob and a stolen $400,000 dollars. Scott Brady and Sharon Gless also star along with the great Alex Rocco.

Son Of Samson (Mill Creek)

Mark Forest stars as Maciste who helps Egyptians who have been enslaved by Persians. The evil Queen Smedes, played by scorching Chleo Alonso, falls for Maciste and even does an incredibly sexy belly dance to entice him. One of the best entries of this genre and one not to be missed by fans. Also, some of the gory deaths in the film are very suprising for the time.

Thor & The Amazon Women (Mill Creek)

This is a totally bizarre but fun film ablout a muscle man who is captured by a race of Amazon women who hate men. This is played straight, but it's still cool. Many people have said this is one of the worst "muscle popper" films ever made, but they obviously haven't seen anything made in the last 10 years.
I recommend this title for fans of the genre and movie buffs in general.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Adele Mara (1923-2010)


Lovely actress Adele Mara died on May 1st from natural causes. She is best know for starring opposite John Wayne in Sands Of Iwo Jima, but genre fans will remember her from TV shows such as Thriller in the episode "What Beckoning Ghost?" and the 1958 cult thriller "Curse Of The Faceless Man." She was 87.

Neutron Vs. The Death Robots (Sinister Cinema)

Bizarre and twisted film from south of the border in which a masked wrestler known as Neutron fights the evil Dr. Caronte who is attempting to create a super race of monsters. Wolf Ruvinskis and Armando Silvestre star with lovely Rosita Arenas and all three do a very capable job in this wild and bizarre film that has to be seen to be believed.

She Devil (Sinister Cinema)

Classic 50's horror that has somehow fallen thru the cracks. Albert Dekker and Paul kelly stars as two doctors who save a woman's life with the serum from the blood of a fruit fly and soon she becomes and indestructilbe killer. Mari Blanchard never looked better than in this film. The plot may seen absurd, but this is a very well made film and has some good moments in it.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Thriller on DVD!!

The price for the Thriller Television show I mentioned a few weeks ago isn't going to be cheap. I have seen prices ranging from $99.99 to $149.99. Save your money and get this set, it will be well worth it.

A very happy Birthday to sexy Megan Fox who celebrated her 26th on May 16th.

Welcome

This is brand new for me. I have set this up so as to slowly faze out my bi-weekly newsletter. This blog will keep tabs on new releases to DVD in the genres of sci-fi, horror, exploitation, blaxploitation and much, much more. It will be updated almost every day. If you like it then and add your comments.