Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein is a 1973 horror film directed by Paul Morrissey and produced by Andy Warhol, Andrew Braunsberg, Louis Peraino, and Carlo Ponti. Starring Udo Kier, Joe Dallesandro, Monique van Vooren and Arno Juerging, and filmed in the famous Cinecittà by a crew of Italian master filmmakers, Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein is suffused with the crumbling glamour of old Italian films, paying homage to (while simultaneously parodying) the earnest and stark visual and psychological beauty of the horror films on which it is based. Morrissey’s sense of ironic detachment gives the film a gruesomely comic modernity and beauty all its own.

In the United States, the film was marketed as Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein, and was presented in the Space-Vision 3-D process in premiere engagements. It was rated X by the MPAA, due to its explicit sexuality and violence. A 3-D version also played in Australia in 1986, along with Blood for Dracula, an obvious pairing. In the seventies a 3-D version played in Stockholm, Sweden. In subsequent US DVD releases, the film was retitled Flesh for Frankenstein, while the original title was used in other regions.

The film was later cut to 93 minutes for an R-rating, thereby increasing its ability to be screened in more theaters. The U.S. DVD releases have utilized the full uncut version, which is now unrated. The film had its television premiere in the United Kingdom on November 17, 2009 and was broadcast in 3D as part of Channel 4′s 3D Week.

Trivia:

• Originally filmed in 3D, although most presentations found today are in 2D.
• While some Italian prints give second unit director Antonio Margheriti credit as co-director, Udo Kier has stated that Margheriti had nothing to do with directing the movie.
• Both this film and Dracula cerca sangue di vergine… e morì di sete!!! (1974) shared many of the same sets and the same principal cast (Joe Dallesandro, Udo Kier, and Arno Juerging).

George Romero

George Andrew Romero (born February 4, 1940) is an American film director, screenwriter, editor and occasional actor, best known for his gruesome and satirical horror films about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse. He is nicknamed Grandfather of the Zombie.

Trademark:

Often features radio or television news broadcasts playing in the background.

Trivia:

Education: Carnegie-Mellon Institute (art, theatre, design).

Prior to Night of the Living Dead (1968), he was better known as an industrial film-maker, who created TV commercials, promotional featurettes and industrial training films. One of his assignments was to shoot short films that were used in the TV show “MisteRogers’ Neighborhood”.

Was originally slated to write and direct Resident Evil (2002).

Was slated to direct a theatrical version of Stephen King’s novel “The Stand,” adapted for the screen by Rospo Pallenberg. The film never materialised. Instead, the novel was adapted into a TV mini-series, “The Stand” (1994).

Frequently casts African-Americans as the heroes of his films, although the parts aren’t usually written specifically for any particular race, going against the stereotype of the Black character dying early in horror films.

In 1968, he reinvented the horror genre with his Night of the Living Dead (1968), a cult classic that made its way onto the prestigious National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

The 2002 Sight & Sound Greatest Films Poll (2002) listed his Top Ten films as The Brothers Karamazov (1958), Casablanca (1942), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), High Noon (1952), King Solomon’s Mines (1950), North by Northwest (1959), The Quiet Man (1952), Repulsion (1965), Touch of Evil (1958), and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951).

Originally set to direct Pet Sematary (1989), but when filming was delayed, he dropped out and Tom Savini was given the opportunity to direct the film but passed. Finally, Mary Lambert stepped in.

Began making movies at the age of 14 with an 8mm camera.

Is good friends with stuntman/special-effects artist/actor/director Tom Savini. The two have worked together on many films.

Dawn of the Dead (2004), the remake of his movie Dawn of the Dead (1978), was released before the fourth part of his Zombie-series, Land of the Dead (2005), was even filmed.

He has two children, a son and a daughter (who will be attending Tisch, NYU in the Fall 2006 to study film-making).

He resides in Toronto, Canada.

Was originally set to direct two Stephen King stories that would later turn into TV features: Salem’s Lot (1979) (TV) & “The Stand” (1994).

Father of Tina Romero and G. Cameron Romero.

When discussing his influences, he has that the Universal horror classic made a strong impression on him and his favorite horror film as a child was The Thing from Another World (1951). However, the film he said made him want to be a director was The Red Shoes (1948). While discussing the directors who made a strong impression on him, he said that Orson Welles and Howard Hawks were his favorites, surpassing Alfred Hitchcock.

Was originally attached to write and direct Resident Evil (2002), but left the project in 1999 due to creative differences over the script.

Of Cuban and Lithuanian descent.

A big fan of The Archers’ (aka the British team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger) movie The Tales of Hoffmann (1951), based on Jacques Offenbach’s operetta. He is interviewed at length about his love for the film and especially its artistic direction, use of color, and use of fantasy/horror themes in a special feature included on the Criterion Collection’s 2005 DVD release of the film. Before video tape and DVD versions of the film were available, Romero would frequently rent a 16-millimeter film copy–as would Martin Scorsese, he subsequently learned, from the very same New York City rental company. Alas, Romero reported that the two fans have not yet become aware of each other.

When a Stranger Calls is a 1979 horror/thriller film starring Carol Kane and Charles Durning, directed by Fred Walton. The film derives its story from the classic folk legend of “The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs”. The original music score is composed by Dana Kaproff.

The film was voted no. 28 in Bravo’s “100 Scariest Movie Moments”, while the theme of a murderer telephoning his prey from inside their own homes has also been used by many other horror films, including Scream. While this particular story was entirely fictitous, there was a real-life incident, dramatized on TLC, whereby a man broke into somebody’s home and repeatedly telephoning their babysitter, before tying a sock to the mouth of her young charge, a little boy. Unlike the film, police reacted immediately and the intruder was caught.

It is followed by the 1993 made-for-television sequel When a Stranger Calls Back and was remade in 2006.

 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8ZTGxj9i0o]

Trivia:

• Number 28 on Bravo Channel’s 100 Scariest Movie Moments.
• Tony Beckley’s last film.
• The traced call lasts approximately 1 minute and 52 seconds.
• The film is based on the infamous babysitter-and-the-man-upstairs urban legend, which has been an element in several horror films but is most closely associated with this film.

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• This film would land Fred Walton the directors chair for the similarly-themed TV thriller ‘I Saw What You Did’ (1988). Both films are about young women menaced by a killer on the phone.
• Star Tony Beckley was terminally ill throughout the production and passed away just after the principle photography was shot. Director Fred Walton dedicated the film’s 1993 sequel ‘When A Stranger Calls Back’ to the memory of Beckley.
• Fred Walton originally shot this film as a short entitled ‘The Sitter’, which was essentially the opening 20 minutes of ‘When A Stranger Calls’. However after the huge success of Halloween (1978) Walton saw the potential of expanding the short into a full-length feature. The script was then expanded into a feature length film about the pursuit of villain Curt Duncan.
• The film’s German title is ‘Das Grauen kommt um Zehn’, meaning ‘The Horror Comes Around Ten’. The French title ‘Terreur sur la ligne’ translates to ‘Terror on the Line’.
• The phone number of the house where the character Jill Johnson (played by Carol Kane) is babysitting, (555-2368) is the same house phone number used in Jamie Lee Curtis’s house in the movie Forever Young (1992) starring Mel Gibson.

Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film set in the fictional suburban midwestern town of Haddonfield, Illinois, USA on Halloween. The original draft of the screenplay was titled The Babysitter Murders. John Carpenter directed the film, which stars Donald Pleasence as Dr. Sam Loomis, Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, and Nick Castle, Tony Moran and Tommy Lee Wallace sharing the role of Michael Myers (listed in the credits as “The Shape”). The film centers on Myers’ escape from a psychiatric hospital, his murdering of teenagers, and Dr. Loomis’ attempts to track and stop him. Halloween is widely regarded as a classic among horror films, and as one of the most influential horror films of its era. In 2006 it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ-gGq-v4-4]

Halloween was produced on a budget of $320,000 and grossed $47 million at the box office in the United States, equivalent to over $150 million as of 2008, becoming one of the most profitable independent films. Many critics credit the film as the first in a long line of slasher films inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960). The movie originated many clichés found in low-budget horror films of the 1980s and 1990s. However, the film contains little graphic violence and gore.

Critics have suggested that Halloween and its slasher film successors may encourage sadism and misogyny. Others have suggested the film is a social critique of the immorality of young people in 1970s America, pointing out that many of Myers’ victims are sexually promiscuous substance abusers, while the lone heroine is depicted as chaste and innocent (although she is seen smoking a joint). While Carpenter dismisses such analyses, the perceived parallel between the characters’ moral strengths and their likelihood of surviving to the film’s conclusion has nevertheless become a standard slasher movie trope.

Trivia:

• There are numerous references in John Carpenter’s movies, particularly in this film, that are taken from the area surrounding the town he grew up in – Bowling Green, KY. The performance of the film’s musical score is credited to “The Bowling Green Philharmonic.” There is no Philharmonic in Bowling Green. The “orchestra” is actually Carpenter and assorted musical friends. In one scene the subtitle depicts the location as “Smiths Grove, IL.” Smiths Grove is actually a small town of about 600 people located 15 miles north of Bowling Green on I-65. There are also numerous references in Halloween to street names that are major roads in the greater Bowling Green area.
• As the movie was actually shot in early spring in southern California (as opposed to Illinois in late October), the crew had to buy paper leaves from a decorator and paint them in the desired autumn colors, then scatter them in the filming locations. To save money, after a scene was filmed, the leaves were collected and reused. However, as Jamie Lee Curtis and John Carpenter note on the DVD audio commentary, the trees are quite full and green and even some palm trees can be seen, despite that in Illinois in October, the leaves would probably be mostly gone and there would be no palm trees.
• Jamie Lee Curtis’ first feature film.
• Due to its shoestring budget, the prop department had to use the cheapest mask that they could find in the costume store: a Captain Kirk (William Shatner) mask. They later spray-painted the face white, teased out the hair, and reshaped the eye holes.
• The kids watch the opening of The Thing from Another World (1951) on TV. Carpenter would later re-make this film himself in 1982 as The Thing (1982).
• Halloween was shot in 21 days in April of 1978. Made on a budget of $320,000, it became the highest-grossing independent movie ever made at that time.
• According to screenwriter/producer Debra Hill, the character of Laurie Strode was named after John Carpenter’s first girlfriend.
• Tommy Doyle’s name was from Rear Window (1954) and Sam Loomis’ name is from Psycho (1960).
• Inside Laurie’s bedroom there is a poster of a painting by James Ensor (1860-1949). Ensor was a Belgian expressionist painter who used to portray human figures wearing grotesque masks.
• The film takes place primarily in Haddonfield, Illinois. Haddonfield, NJ is the home town of screenwriter Debra Hill.
• The performance of Halloween’s musical score is credited to “The Bowling Green Philharmonic”. There is no Philharmonic in Bowling Green. The “orchestra” is actually John Carpenter and assorted musical friends.
• All of the actors wore their own clothes, since there was no money for a costume department. Jamie Lee Curtis went to J.C. Penney for Laurie Strode’s wardrobe. She spent less than a hundred dollars for the entire set. She shot the film while on hiatus from the sitcom Operation Petticoat (1977) (TV).
• The character of Michael Myers was named after the European distributor of Carpenter’s previous film, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) as a kind of weird “thank you” for the film’s overseas success.
• Tommy’s Halloween costume is an Alphan uniform from “Space: 1999″ (1975).

• The opening shot appears to be a single, tracking, point of view shot, but there are actually three cuts. The first when the mask goes on, and the second and third after the murder has taken place and the shape is exiting the room. This was done to make the point of view appear to move faster.
• The name of the sheriff is “Leigh Brackett”. Leigh Brackett was also the name of the screenwriter of Howard Hawks’ classic Rio Bravo (1959), which was the inspiration for John Carpenter’s previous film, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976).
• Kyle Richards, who plays Lindsey Wallace, is the sister of Kim Richards, who appeared in John Carpenter’s previous film, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976).
• Half of the $320,000 budget was spent on the Panavison cameras so the film would have a 2:35:1 scope. Donald Pleasence was paid $20,000 for 5 days work.
• Carpenter approached Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee to play the Sam Loomis role (that was eventually played by Donald Pleasence) but both turned him down. Lee later said it was it was the biggest mistake he ever made in his career.
• Morgan Strode’s black Fleetwood (seen in the driveway when he is talking to Laurie early in the movie) belonged to director John Carpenter, while the Phelps Garage truck was owned by the company that catered for the film.
• Anne Lockhart was John Carpenter’s first choice for the role of Laurie Strode.
• None of the big studios at the time was interested in distributing the movie, so executive producer Irwin Yablans decided to distribute the film via his own company (Compass International). MCA/Universal produced and distributed the next two sequels in the early ’80s.
• Aside from dialogue, the script cites Michael Myers by name only twice. In the opening scene, he is called a POV until he is revealed at age 6. From the rest of the script on out he is referred to as a “shape” until Laurie rips his mask off in the final scene (which he never reapplies in the script). “The Shape”, as credited in the film, refers to when his face is masked or obscured.
• P.J. Soles was dating Dennis Quaid at the time of filming, so John Carpenter and Debra Hill wanted to cast him in the role of Bob. Unfortunately, Quaid was busy working on another project and John Michael Graham was cast in the role instead.
• John Carpenter provides the voice of Annie’s boyfriend, Paul, whom we hear on the phone talking to Annie.
• The original script, titled “The Babysitter Murders”, had the events take place over the space of several days. It was a budgetary decision to change the script to have everything happen on the same day (doing this reduced the number of costume changes and locations required) and it was decided that Halloween, the scariest night of the year, was the perfect night for this to happen.
• When they were shooting the scenes for the start of the film (all the ones seen from Michael’s point of view) they couldn’t get the 6-year old child actor until the last day, so the movie’s producer, Debra Hill, volunteered to be Michael for any scenes where his hands come into view. This is why the nails on young Michael’s hands look so well manicured and varnished.
• The cinematography for the Halloween sequence in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) was the inspiration for the look of Carpenter’s color scheme.
• Donald Pleasence did all of his scenes in only 5 days of shooting.
• When Dr. Loomis is talking to the doctors in the empty classroom, Dr. Loomis is sitting in seat #37.
• Sheriff Brackett was named after film-noir writer Leigh Brackett.
• According to Don Post Jr., President of Don Post Studios, the famous California mask making company, the filmmakers originally approached his firm about custom making an original mask for use in the film. The filmmakers explained that they could not afford the numerous costs involved in creating a mask from scratch, but would offer Post points in the movie as payment for his services. Post declined their offer, as he received many such proposals from numerous unknown filmmakers all the time, but suggested that they repaint/refurbish the “Captain Kirk” masks eventually used in the film, which eventually was done, and which netted Mr. Post a profit of less than $100. Post later estimated, after the film became a hit, that if he had accepted the original offer for points in the film in exchange for his creation of an original mask, his profit would have run well over $100,000.
• Yul Brynner’s robot character from Westworld (1973) was the inspiration for the character of Michael Myers.
• The song that is playing on the radio when Laurie and Annie are in the car is “Don’t Fear The Reaper” by Blue Öyster Cult.
• This was voted the fifth scariest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
• The “Myers” house was a locale found in South Pasadena that was largely the decrepit, abandoned place seen in the majority of the film. However, as the house had to look ordinary (and furnished) for the early scenes with the young Michael Myers, almost the whole cast and crew worked together to clean the place, move in furniture, put up wallpaper, and set up running water and electricity, and then take it all out when they were through.
• Much credit for the concept must go to its producer Irwin Yablans, who had the concept originally for a horror film called “The Babysitter Murders”. Upon further research, Yablans discovered to his surprise that no previous film had been titled “Halloween” and thought it would be a great concept to set these “babysitter murders” on the holiday. With these ideas, Yablans convinced an excited John Carpenter to write and direct a film around them.
• The wealthy film producer Moustapha Akkad had admittedly little interest in this film and helped make it primarily due to the enthusiasm of John Carpenter and Irwin Yablans. However, when the film turned out to be a huge box-office smash, Akkad saw an opportunity and has since facilitated every ‘Halloween’ sequel.
• The adult Michael Myers was portrayed by Nick Castle in almost every scene, except for some pick-up shots and the unmasking scene, where he was replaced by Tony Moran. Castle was a school-buddy of John Carpenter and was thought of by Carpenter because he was tall and had what Carpenter considered an interesting walk. Castle admitted he was disappointed to not be the face shown, but understood that Carpenter wanted a more “angelic” face to juxtapose with Myers’ ghastly deeds. Castle has gone on to become a successful director.
• John Carpenter was quite intimidated by Donald Pleasence, of whom he was a big fan and who was easily the oldest and most experienced person on set. Although Pleasance asked Carpenter difficult questions about his character, Pleasance turned out to be a good-humored, big-hearted individual and the two became great friends.
• Of the female leads (all the girls are supposed to be in high school), only Jamie Lee Curtis was actually a teenager at the time of shooting.
• The long tracking shot at the beginning was inspired by the tracking shot in Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil (1958). The shot would have been impossible to achieve on the film’s budget if it wasn’t for the recent invention of the steadicam tracking system.
• P.J. Soles says the word “totally” eleven times.
• Before Don Post became involved, Michael was going to wear a clown mask.
• Laurie remarks that she would rather go out with unseen character “Ben Tramer”. The name came from Bennett Tramer, an old college friend of director John Carpenter. The real Bennett Tramer has also had a career in the motion picture industry as a writer and producer.
• A young Jamie Lee Curtis was so disappointed with her performance that she became convinced she would be fired after only the first day of filming. When her phone rang that night and it was John Carpenter on the phone, Curtis was certain it was the end of her movie career. Instead, Carpenter called to congratulate her and tell her he was very happy with the way things had gone.
• The Halloween theme is written in the rare 5/4 time signature. John Carpenter learned this rhythm from his father.
• The scene where The Shape seems to appear out of the darkness behind Laurie was accomplished by using a simple dimmer switch on the light that slowly illuminated the mask.
• One of the characters is named “Marion Chambers”. Marion was the first name of the female protagonist of Psycho (1960), and Chambers was the last name of the sheriff in that movie.
• That Michael Myers could drive a car despite having gotten committed to an asylum at the age of six inspired many guffaws. The first movie novelization came up with a simple but effective explanation: when Doctor Loomis drove Michael to sanity hearings over the years, Michael simply watched very closely and carefully as Doctor Loomis operated the car. Remember, even if Michael sat in the back seat and there was a screen of bulletproof glass partition, Michael could still look over the Doctor’s shoulder without Loomis realizing the significance.
• According to an additional scene in the extended television version, Michael Myers’ middle name is Audrey.
• Carpenter wrote the part of Lynda for P.J. Soles after seeing her performance in Brian De Palma’s Carrie (1976).
• Although Nick Castle plays the part of Michael Myers throughout the film, when his mask is removed by Laurie at the climax, another actor Tony Moran was used.
• The opening POV sequence took 2 days to film.
• Carpenter composed the score in 4 days.
• For its first airing on television, extra scenes had to be added to make it fit the desired time slot. Carpenter filmed these during the production of Halloween II (1981) against his better judgment.
• Donald Pleasence confessed to John Carpenter that the main reason why he took the part of Loomis was because his daughter Angela loved Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 (1976).
• Carpenter considered the hiring of Jamie Lee Curtis as the ultimate tribute to Alfred Hitchcock who had given her mother, Janet Leigh, legendary status in Psycho (1960).
• Carpenter’s intent with the character of Michael Myers was that the audience should never be able to relate to him.
• Carpenter and co-writer Debra Hill have stated many times over the years that they did not consciously set out to depict virginity as a way of defeating a rampaging killer. The reason why the horny teens all die is simply that they’re so preoccupied with getting laid that they don’t notice that there’s a killer at large. Laurie Strode, on the other hand, spends a lot of time on her own and is therefore more alert.
• As the film was shot out of sequence, Carpenter created a fear meter so that Jamie Lee Curtis would know what level of terror she should be exhibiting.
• Debra Hill wrote most of the dialog for the female characters, while Carpenter concentrated on Dr Loomis’s speeches.
• As the film was made in spring, the crew had huge difficulty in procuring pumpkins.
• Production designer Tommy Lee Wallace picked the iconic mask in a dime store. It was a mask of Captain Kirk and cost $1.98. Wallace spray painted the eyes to change the appearance (and also to avoid the risk of litigation).
• From a budget of $325,000 the film went on to gross $47 million at the US box office. In 2008 takings that would be the equivalent of $150 million, making “Halloween” one of the most successful independent films of all time.
• Prior to the movie, a book was written by Curtis Richards, and reveals more of the story behind Michael’s rage. However, the book is very rare.
• Nancy Kyes (Annie Brackett) starred in at least three other Carpenter films, one being another of the Halloween franchise; Halloween III: Season of the Witch. The others are The Fog and Assault on Precinct 13.

Movie Poster available here!

 

 

Terror Train is a 1980 Canadian horror film, directed by Roger Spottiswoode and stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Ben Johnson. It was filmed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from November 21 to December 23, 1979.

Tagline: The boys and girls of Sigma Phi. Some will live. Some will die.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VDLUHfUbNU]

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Halloween

made Jamie Lee Curtis a young star; starring in three horror films in one year made her a “Scream Queen”, (which was improvised in the movie Scream). Terror Train is probably the least remembered of these films. Released in the United States on October 3, 1980 by 20th Century Fox, the film probably suffered from overexposure of its main star. The Fog and Prom Night had already been released to theaters, and enjoyed some success at the height of the early 1980s horror craze. Terror Train was first released on VHS home video in 1988 by CBS/Fox Video. A DVD was finally released in 2004 and is available with different cover art than the original VHS version. Original VHS copies were fetching up to $30 USD on eBay before the DVD was available.

 

This was the first motion picture directed by Spottiswoode. He later went on to direct the films Tomorrow Never Dies, Turner & Hooch, and Air America. He is an Emmy Award winning director, who has also won several other directing honors.

The train was rented from US museum Steamtown Foundation, pulled by one of the manu CPR light Pacific, at the time located in Bellows Falls, Vermont. Many of the cars were damaged during filming by cutting holes to allow filming within the various compartments, and the movie portrayal does not accurately reflect proper operating practices.

Trivia:

• The observation type passenger car used in the film called the ‘Denehotso’ is being restored and is now located at the Arizona Railway Musuem in Chandler AZ.
• The idea for Terror Train (1980) came from a dream that Daniel Grodnikhad. One weekend night after seeing the films Halloween (1978) and Silver Streak (1976), Dan woke up and said to his wife, “What do you think about putting Halloween on a train? His wife answered, “That’s terrible. He jotted down “Terrible Train” on a piece of paper on his nightstand. In the morning he changed the title to TERROR TRAIN, wrote up 22 pages, and made a deal on it with Sandy Howard’s company at 3 in the afternoon.
• Jamie Lee Curtis shot this film back to back with the similarly themed slasher film Prom Night (1980) in late 1979. Both films were shot in Canada; Prom Night (1980) in Toronto and Terror Train (1980) in Montreal.
• Shot in four weeks.
• Filmed aboard actual train cars that were converted to allow space for large camera equipment for the production.
• The debut film of director Roger Spottiswoode.
• Along with Halloween (1978) and Prom Night (1980), this film would give actress Jamie Lee Curtis the title of ‘Scream Queen’ because of her frequent appearances in horror films early in her career.
• The film’s German title is ‘Monster im Nacht-Express’, which translates to ‘Monster on the Night Express Train’.

Pet Sematary Two (1992) is a horror film directed by Mary Lambert. The screenplay was written by Richard Outten. It is the sequel to the 1989 film Pet Sematary, which was based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King.

Tagline: Raise some hell.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAWEQ5xt8Do]

After the death of his wife, veterinarian Chase Matthews (Anthony Edwards, TV’s ER) and his 13-year-old son Jeff (Edward Furlong, Terminator 2: Judgement Day) move to Ludlow to rebuild their lives. Antagonized by the neighborhood kids, Jeff befriends another outsider, Drew Gilbert, who lives in fear of his cruel stepfather Gus (Clancy Brown, Highlander). After Gus cold-bloodedly shoots Drew’s beloved dog, the boys bury the body in the local Indian burial grounds – a place rumored to have powers of resurrection. When evil is awakened, the boys realize that sometimes you should just led dead dogs lie.

Trivia:

Make Up Department
  Bill Johnson … local makeup effects
  Steve Johnson … special makeup effects creator
  Bart Mixon … special makeup effects artist
  Dan Platt … special makeup effects artist (uncredited)

Special Effects Department
  David P. Barton … special effects makeup and animatronic supervisor: XFX Inc.
  Brent Binion … puppeteer: XFX Inc.
  Billy Bryan … special effects technician: XFX Inc.
  Jackie Caydam … special effects technician: XFX Inc.
  Peter Chesney … special effects supervisor
  Scott Coulter … special effects technician: XFX Inc.
  Robert Kato DeStefan … special effects technician: XFX Inc.
  Diane Duncan … makeup effects production coordinator: XFX Inc.
  David Dupuis … special effects technician: XFX Inc.
  Preston Foerder … puppeteer: XFX Inc.
  Joel Harlow … special effects technician: XFX Inc.
  Richard Huggins … special effects: truck crash sequence
  Rick Lalonde … special effects technician: XFX Inc.
  Peter Linz … puppeteer: XFX Inc.
  Dean W. Miller … special effects coordinator
  Bart Mixon … special effects makeup and animatronic supervisor: XFX Inc.
  Tanya Ridenour … special effects technician
  Brian Sipe … special effects makeup and animatronics assistant: XFX Inc.
  Kirk Skodis … special effects technician: XFX Inc.
  Heidi Snyder … special effects technician: XFX Inc.
  Trey Stokes … lead puppeteer: XFX, Inc.
  Tom ‘Tomcat’ Williamson … animatronics assistant: XFX Inc.

Hell Night (1981)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hell Night is a 1981 American independent horror film (with elements of Creature Features). Tom DeSimone directed the film, which was written by Randy Feldman and stars Linda Blair. The film depicts a night of fraternity hazing (“hell night”) set in an old manor, during which a deformed maniac (that turns out to be a duo of siblings) terrorizes and murders many of the college students.

Linda Blair

Future film director Chuck Russell, who would helm the remake of The Blob in 1988 and 2002′s The Scorpion King, served here as an executive producer.

Tagline: Pray for day!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK89XlOUWms]

Four college pledges are forced to spend the night in a deserted old mansion where they get killed off one by one by the monstrous surviving members of a family massacre years earlier for trespassing on their living grounds.

Make Up Department
  Kenneth Horn … special makeup effects artist
  Pam Peitzman … makeup artist
  Tom Schwartz … special makeup effects artist

Special Effects Department
  John Eggett … special effects supervisor (uncredited)

Hell Night (1981)

Jenny Neumann in Hell Night

Zombi 2 (also known as Zombie, Island of the Living Dead, Zombie Island, Zombie Flesh Eaters and Woodoo) is a 1979 zombie horror film directed by Lucio Fulci. It is the best-known of Fulci’s films.  It made Fulci a horror icon. Despite the fact that the title alludes to the film being a sequel to Zombi (the Italian title of George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead), the films are unrelated. When the film was released in 1979, it was scorned for its extremely bloody content notably by the at the time Conservative British Parliament.

Tagline: When the earth spits out the dead, they will rise to suck the blood of the living!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3thbT3wq7JE]

 Strangers looking for a woman’s father arrive at a tropical island where a doctor desperately searches for the cause and cure of a recent epidemic of the undead.

Memorable scenes :

The film became infamous for two scenes in particular, aided by special effects. One features a zombie (Ramon Bravo) fighting an actual tiger shark underwater. The actor scheduled to fight the shark was unable to perform the day the sequence was to be shot, so the shark’s trainer was used instead.

The other infamous scene is where a character has her eye gouged out on a splintered piece of wood very slowly and painfully. This scene in particular was edited from many previous releases, but is intact on all three current DVD versions.

The film is also remembered among fans for its creepy, synthesized opening theme, composed by Fabio Frizzi.

Reception in Europe:

Zombi 2′s incredible success in Europe re-ignited Fulci’s sagging career and reinvented the director as a horror maven. Fulci would go on to direct several more horror films, and Zombi 2 introduced several of his trademarks: zombies, hyper-realistic gore and blood, and the infamous “eyeball gag” (a character is impaled or otherwise stabbed through the eyeball). Contrary to what some web sites have said about Zombi 2 being written before Dawn of the Dead this is not true. In fact at least some of the dialogue is a variation of a line written for Dawn of the Dead.

Despite the massive popularity of the film, Zombi 2 was banned in several countries, including Great Britain, due to the massive gore content. It was released by Vipco but with a lot of violence edited out. It was finally released uncut in 2005. Lead actor Ian McCulloch, who is British, never actually had the opportunity to watch the full film until he recorded a commentary for the Roan Group’s laserdisc release of Zombi 2 in 1998, and was shocked at the gore level.

Zombi 2′s massive European box office take also paved the way for three more sequels, which, like their predecessor, have no relation to any of the other films in the series — they all have self-contained plots. While the Zombi series proved to be incredibly lucrative, Zombi 2 is by far the most recognizable of the European zombie films.

The film was written before Dawn of the Dead was released in Italy, as an action/adventure thriller with no link to George A. Romero’s films. The opening and closing scenes (which take place in New York) were added to the script later when the producers wanted to cash-in on the success of Dawn.

The infamous shark vs. zombie scene was filmed in a large salt water tank and the shark was fed horse meat and sedatives before filming.

Reception in United States:

Zombi 2 was released merely as Zombie in America and was considered a stand-alone film with no connection to Romero’s zombie canon. The theatrical trailers for Zombie provided the memorable tagline of “We Are Going to Eat You!” and showcased some of the make-up effects, but did nothing to indicate the plot of the picture (although the audience was indeed warned about the graphic content of the film: a humorous crawl at the end of the preview promises “barf bags” to whoever requested them upon viewing the film).

Make Up Department
  Giannetto De Rossi … makeup artist
  Mirella Sforza … hair stylist
  Maurizio Trani … makeup artist
  Rosario Prestopino … makeup artist (uncredited)

Special Effects Department
  Giovanni Corridori … special effects
  Gino De Rossi … special effects
  Roberto Pace … special effects

William Marshall as Blacula

Blacula is a 1972 blaxploitation horror film produced for American International Pictures. It was directed by William Crain and stars William Marshall in the title role. Blacula was the first film to win the “Best Horror Film” award at the 1972 Saturn Awards. Also starring Vonetta McGee, Denise Nicholas, Thalmus Rasulala, Gordon Pinsent, and Charles Macaulay.

A sequel, Scream Blacula Scream, was released in 1973, in which Marshall resumed his role.

Tagline: Blacula! – Dracula’s Soul Brother!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN2a5zGmBPI]

Plot: Interior decorators buy the coffin of an African prince bitten by Dracula centuries before and bring it back to Los Angeles.

Blacula was a financial success when it was originally released. It was immediately followed by a sequel, Scream Blacula Scream (1973), in which the vampire is made corporeal again by a Voodoo practitioner. The success of the film also inspired the making of several other blaxploitation/horror crossovers in the mid-seventies, including Abby, Blackenstein, Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde, Ganja and Hess, The House on Skull Mountain, J. D.’s Revenge and Sugar Hill, although none of these films were as successful commercially as Blacula. Rumors circulated that Brides of Blacula and Son of Blacula were to have been made as well. Some more recent horror films with predominantly black casts were Def by Temptation (1990), Vampire in Brooklyn (a 1995 film which shares many themes and source material with Blacula), the anthology Tales from the Hood (1995), and Bones (2001).

Blacula found a new audience in the early ’80s, when Elvira featured it on her syndicated TV series, Movie Macabre. It has since become a cult classic, and is now available on DVD and as a rental on iTunes, from MGM Home Entertainment, the current copyright owners of the AIP catalog.

Make Up Department
  Lola Kent … hair stylist
  Fred B. Phillips … makeup artist

Special Effects Department
  Roger George … special effects

References in Pop Culture:

• The Simpsons have referenced the character and film Blacula multiple times:
  • In Simpson Tide, Homer is watching TV, and hears an announcer’s voice say “Next, on Exploitation Theatre…Blacula, followed by Blackenstein, and The Blunchblack of Blotre Blame!”
  • In the “I’ve Grown a Costume on Your Face” segment of Treehouse of Horror XVI, Dr. Hibbert dresses as Dracula for Halloween, but Mayor Quimby confuses him for Blacula. When Hibbert appears offended by this, Quimby whispers to his bodyguard “Get him the standard racist remark apology letter. It’s in the middle drawer.”
  • In All’s Fair in Oven War, the Simpsons begin the episode by watching a clip from Blacula Meets Black Dracula, in which both Blacula and Black Dracula are dancing on a disco floor. A white authoritative figure appears, who then turns off the music and states his intent to turn it into a hockey rink. Blacula responds by calling it a “honkey rink” and sucking his blood. Homer then announces that the actor who played Black Dracula is now a congressman from Virginia.
• In the music video for “Adam’s Song” by blink-182, Tom Delonge wears a Blacula T-shirt.
• The music video for the Gnarls Barkley song “Who Cares” revolves around the misfortunes of a jaded black vampire character named Blacula.
• There is a pornographic spoof of Blacula titled, Lust of Blackula.
• In the novel Anno Dracula, Prince Mamuwalde is mentioned in passing as a notable non-Caucasian vampire.
• Cartoon Network’s Robot Chicken made a reference to Blacula in one of their sketches, along with Blackenstein and the Black Mummy.
• The Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 have a song entitled “Back in Blacula” on their album Songs from the Recently Deceased.
• In the illustrations of Andrew Craven,  Blacula is re-represented in Penny Dreadful and the Blacula Encounter where he is the subject of one of Penny’s decadent adventures.
• In The Venture Bros. series, Jefferson Twilight is an African-American character (and friend of Dr. Orpheus) who exclusively hunts vampires of any ‘black’ ethnicity (African, African-American, African-British, et cetera) which he refers to as Blaculas.
• On MADtv there is a parody of Blacula (Aries Spears) who is usually accompanied by the parody of Dr Funkenstein (Keegan-Michael Key).
• An episode of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air showed Will Smith going into a dank basement. When Will sees the door creak and the basement storage room is full of 1970s items, he comments, “the door is straight outta Blacula”.
• In “Billy and Mandy”, Dracula was portrayed as an African American similar to Blacula.

Movie Poster 27x40

John Saxon

John Saxon

(born August 5, 1936) is an American actor.

In his early career, Saxon worked with many notable directors including Vincente Minnelli, Blake Edwards, John Huston, Frank Borzage, and Otto Preminger but, despite this, never developed into a major star. He portrayed Marco Polo in episode 26 of The Time Tunnel(“Attack of the Barbarians”), originally airing March 10, 1967. In films he appeared primarily in supporting roles, and won a Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor nomination for his portrayal of a Mexican bandit in the 1966 film The Appaloosa. He again played a Mexican, this time a revolutionary named Luis Chama, in 1972, supporting Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall in “Joe Kidd”. He was top-billed in his most famous film Enter the Dragon (1973), although that film’s main actor was Bruce Lee. In 1975, he starred in several episodes of the ABC produced mega-hit series The Six Million Dollar Man playing a number of characters, including the role of Major Frederick Sloan.

His roles also extended into The Bionic Woman. The actor’s likeness was later used for the Kenner action-figure doll called ‘Maskatron’ which was based on the series.

Saxon has also appeared in many Italian films, mainly in the spaghetti western and police thriller genres. He was also the second incarnation of Dylan Hunt from the Gene Roddenberry shows called Planet Earth and Strange New World. More recently, Saxon may be best known as a supporting player in horror films, most notably Bob Clark’s Black Christmas (1974) as the relatively smart leader of a bunch of dumb cops; in Dario Argento’s Tenebrae (1982) as the writer hero’s shifty agent; in Mitchell (1975) as the murderous union lawyer and prostitute provider Walter Deaney; in Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) as Sador, in Cannibal Apocalypse (1980) where he played a vietnam veteran tormented because his worthless pal bit him and years later, he is starting to get the urge to do the same, in Prisoners of the Lost Universe and in Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) as the heroine’s (Nancy Thompson’s) father.

He reprised his role in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) as he played himself in a dual role. He starred in Maximum Force (1992) as Captain Fuller. He was also a guest star on Bonanza in 1967 (“The Conquistadores”).

He has also starred in Bollywood film Shalimar (1978) co-starring opposite Dharmendra. In recent years, he has been seen in a number of independent films and has appeared in several television series, perhaps most notably CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and more recently the hit Showtime series Masters of Horror.

Trivia:

John attended New Utrecht High School and graduated in 1953 with Stanley Abramson.

Was a celebrity player (along with Betty White) on the final week of the cult-classic gameshow “Whew!” (1979) (when the show was known as “Celebrity Whew!”).

Was discovered by an agent who saw him in a posed shot on the cover of “True Romances” magazine.

Has a black belt in karate.