Welcome to the first of my many musings on the stuff from the studio that dripped blood; that incredible Gothic horror/pulp machine that peaked in the late 50’s, ebbed in the 60’s and death spasmed in the 70’s. Ready? It’s Hammer time…

After the massive box office success of the truly awesome Christopher Lee free HORROR OF DRACULA sequel BRIDES OF DRACULA in 1961, Hammer was looking to spit out a follow up film, quick and dirty. The studio mechanisms went into over grind, with producer Anthony Hinds (writing, per usual, under his pen name John Elder)firing off another scenario for what was to be loosely titled Dracula 3. But Peter Cushing wasn’t available, Lee still wasn’t keen on reprising the role that made him a name, director Terrence Fisher was ill and, well, the fates just weren’t on the Count’s side. So director Don Sharp(an Australian filmmaker who had never even seen a horror movie, let alone make one)was brought on board, and after various nips, tucks and narrative alterations (not to mention a revising of the myth), the picture became the 1963 chiller THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE, one of the mightiest and most eccentric of the Golden Age Hammer horrors.

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I had the chance to interview legendary scream queen/cult actress Adrienne Barbeau at last years 2007 Festival of Fear in Toronto and found her to be lovely, charming, funny and full of great stories about her life in Hollywood…and in horror.
LOTS of great Creepshow and John Carpenter stories too…

Here is video from that session…

PART ONE:

PART TWO:

PART THREE:

PART FOUR:

Marilyn Manson - live in NYC

Greetings Gorehounds,
I’d like to share with you all my thoughts on the recent performance of the shock rocker known as Marilyn Manson. After witnessing his disappointing last visit to New Jersey when co-headlining with SLAYER, I was curious to see what he was going to do differently now that he had the entire stage to himself. Manson booked 2 dates at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom for January 29th & the 30th promoting his Rape The World Tour, complete with limited addition serial killer tour posters. I opted to attend the 2nd show, hoping to see the better of the 2 performances. I was not disappointed.

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Immortality. We all want it, the chance to defy that black specter of death that equalizes all of us. But to live forever, drifting through time like a ghost, unattached to anything, anyplace…anyone. Hiding in shadows until the earth stops spinning on its axis. The crushing loneliness of it…would it really be worth it?

That’s the central driving thematic force behind director Werner Herzog’s dark, dreamy full color remake of the immortal 1922 German expressionist classic NOSFERATU. A film that, although deeply indebted (sometimes almost scene for scene) to the untouchable original, still manages to evolve beyond its experimental horror roots, taking it’s frame from Murnau, injecting liberal amounts of melancholy and lyricism and becoming a grand scale testament to the genius of one of our greatest living European directors.

After a string of incredibly successful 70’s art house favorites, filmmaker Werner Herzog, who alongside trailblazing auteurs Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wim Wenders was a major figure in the German new wave movement, was given carte blanch from American studio 20th Century Fox to make any picture of his choosing. Correctly acknowledging it as the single most important German film of all time, the director opted to set his sights on remaking Murnau’s shuddery unauthorized Dracula adaptation NOSFERATU, shooting both German and English language versions and applying his own unique cinematic aesthetic to the oft filmed tale of the bloodsucking undead. Unfortunately, at the same time Universal Pictures were also prepping the John Badham / Frank Langella take on the Hamilton Deane stage version of DRACULA and MGM were launching the post disco era George Hamilton spoof LOVE AT FIRST BITE, both easily accessible and hugely popular. Herzog’s operatic, meditative anti-horror film was completely at odds with both the times and stateside sensibilities and his film, NOSFERATU: PHANTOM DER NACHT (or NOSFERTAU: THE VAMPYRE as it was known in the US), although critically praised by some, got lost in the sanguinary shuffle, deemed by most audiences a pretentious, pointless and scare free attempt to revisit a picture that was already perfect as is.

Of course, that simply is not the case. Herzog’s epic tale of disease, death, love, loss and isolation is in truth probably the most evocative and hypnotic vampire film ever committed to celluloid, full stop. Don’t believe me? Read on…

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FANGORIA & METAL MANIACS present

Greetings Gorehounds,
Excuse my tardiness with the latest entry to the FANGORIA Musick Blog, but this past week has been such a roller coaster ride for me that this blog is only now stepping out of the shadows and into the light of your computer screen. As some of you may already know, FANGORIA and METAL MANIACS is sponsoring the Jan-Feb 2008 tour of THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, with 3 INCHES OF BLOOD, HATE ETERNAL, and DECREPIT BIRTH. Much to my delight, METAL BLADE arranged for a few of the fellas in THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER to stop by the FANGO Offices last week to have a look around and say Hi before their show at B. B. Kings.

L to R: Shannon, Brian, myself, and Trevor

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Here is part of my Q&A with legendary Italian filmmaker Dario Argento. Dario talks about violence, censorship, Mother of Tears, Inferno and the unbridled joy of killing Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni. Edited from a one hour Q&A at the 2007 Festival of Fear, Toronto.

Here’s a quick reel looking at some of the prosthetic effects work of Toronto FX house GASLIGHT STUDIOS. Includes ‘Nick’ the zombie from the upcoming George Romero film DIARY OF THE DEAD as well as the Tree of Death from 300 and a cool mock up C.H.U.D head…

Keep your eyes peeled for a full article on the up and coming GASLIGHT team in the pages of FANGORIA…

Join me this week as I take a look at one of my all time favorite 60’s Eurotrash sleazies, Massimo Pupillo’s jaw dropping, sado-masochistic 1965 kink fest BLOODY PIT OF HORROR…

LE’RUE DELASHAY
Dark Classical Composer
Artist review by Zoth Ommog

Le’ rue Delashay

Greetings Ghouls,
Today I’d like to share with you all the magical music of the wonderfully wicked composer Le’ rue Delashay. A truely gifted musician, Delashay writes some of the most haunting classical music I’ve ever heard. His 4th and most recent solo album “The Revelations of Wave & Form” is by far his most impressive release to date. Abandoning the electronic synthesizer sounds of his previous relases, “Revelations” embraces the traditional ochestral voices, creating a more realistic symphonic sound and contriving many memorable themes akin to the works of Jerry Goldsmith (THE OMEN) or John Williams (STAR WARS).

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As of this writing (January 8th, 2007 to be exact), the official North American theatrical release of George A. Romero’s highly anticipated zombie thriller DIARY OF THE DEAD is still a month away. I’ve seen the film. I love the film. It’s smart. It’s dark. It’s witty. It’s scary. It’s raw and it’s alive like few recent horror films are. Those of you who curled your lip at Romero’s big budget 2005 epic, the so-so LAND OF THE DEAD can rest assured: the man is back in form. This is his strongest work since DAWN and his most immediate since NIGHT.

So in honor of this countdown to satirical zombie horror bliss (and in honor of Fangoria’s current cover story on DIARY in issue #270, penned by yours truly), I’m going to mix up the BLOOD SPATTERED BLOG format this week, taking time from mining my beloved cinematic obscurities of the past in order to pave the way for the oozing future.

So, join me then, dear readers, as I sit down with Toronto’s own Amy Lalonde, the lovely former schoolmarm and TV horror host (Canadian genre fans will remember her from digital cable channel SCREAM TV) turned actress who plays the gun toting, often hilariously outspoken, blood drenched Texan beauty Tracy Thurman in George A. Romero’s DIARY OF THE DEAD…

Hey Amy.
Hey Chris.

Nice to see you.
Nice to see you too.

Right.
Yep.

Okay so tell me, how did a mild mannered farmer’s daughter and school teacher end up as an actress cast as a Southern fried zombie killer in a George Romero joint?
I’m still trying to figure that one out…. When I’m not pinching myself, I realize that the transformation took place over 4 years of pounding the pavement – happily of course - approaching every audition like it was my number one priority, and then crossing my fingers. My former job as a high school teacher was great and I loved teaching drama and film studies…. but, I couldn’t help wonder what would happen if I “gave it a shot” and hung up my hall pass for a headshot.

So, one of the first professional on camera gigs you got was doing the Elvira-esque wraparounds on SCREAM, correct?
Yes. I was a writer, associate producer and host. It allowed me to explore and profess my love for classic horror, suspense and thrillers. It was a great job. But, I still preferred to “step in to the skin of characters"…. so, acting is more my thing. But, hosting… where you have to present yourself as “Amy Lalonde"… unable to hide behind the veil of another character was an entirely different experience. I know I prefer being someone else….

Well, who the hell are you, then? I mean, where does Amy end and Tracy begin?
I think Amy and Tracy are an indescribable mélange of each other. I think actors are just right for certain roles. There needs to be a natural ability to “step in to their skin"…. you breath them in … and they’re just there. Okay- now I sound like a crazy person…

Um…
…but it’s how I approach it. I can feel when I’m forcing something and the character is not right. I usually never book those auditions. Tracy was … just there. Hot off the press.. when the audition page printed. I picked it up, read it for the first time and I felt and heard her… Southern accent and all. She’s soft, yet feisty, smart, but has her head in the clouds, is lady like, but can fire a pistol and gallop a horse…. just like me.

Was George a hard ass on set? Did he give you the cut eye and holler a lot?
Not at all. He’s a gentle giant. A very tall, gentle giant. We all looked up to him…. figuratively and literally. He ran a solid set. He knew exactly what he wanted…. but was always open to our suggestions and concerns… an actor’s dream, really.

Did you do your zombie homework beforehand? Were you already schooled in the kind of cannibal corpse cinema George trades in?
I had always been a fan of Romero’s work and I had seen pretty much ALL of his films… I had even taught an entire unit on NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD to my film students, so I wasn’t going in totally cold to this thing. However, the character of Tracy Thurman was seeing zombies munching down on human flesh for the first time, because DIARY OF THE DEAD is ground zero of the zombie invasion. I didn’t want to overload myself with too many zombie images because I wanted to keep things fresh.

What’s your favorite Romero Dead flick?
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD with DAWN OF THE DEAD as a close second…. and yes…. I am referring to George’s Dawn.

DIARY OF THE DEAD had its world premiere at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival last September…
Yes it did.

The turn out was outrageous! Were you prepared for such a scene? All these rabid fans in full ghoul make up and costume?
Not in the least! DIARY OF THE DEAD was my first Film Festival
experience, so I really wasn’t sure what to expect. I think the fans and those zombies attacking people on the red carpet set the bar very high. Future red carpet walks, if I’m so lucky, will probably seem dull in comparison.

DIARY is getting some great reviews and positive fan response. Why do you think this flick is so special?
Because it comes from the heart and mind of a true legend. And really, I feel incredibly honored to have been a part of it.

Are you prepared to be burned into horror heroine history, Amy?
Ready and waiting…

Thank you for your time today, Amy.
No, thank YOU.

No, no, no…thank YOU.
Fine, you’re welcome.

Stay tuned, dear readers. There will be more of my ongoing DIARY OF THE DEAD adventures in future editions of the BLOOD SPATTERED BLOG. Until then, Alexander out…of money because Amy stiffed the bill at the restaurant. Just kidding.