I only had Saturday off, so I'd miss out on a few guests, but Malcolm Mcdowell canceled anyway, and I really got pumped when I saw Joe Dante's post about Trailers From Hell (great website by the way) on facebook, so what the hell. I took out some money at the old B&A- enough where I wouldn't go back (not like last time's 4-5 trips) and spent most of what I had by the end of the day. These places are dangerous.
The idea of being in the same space as the last convention was kind of disappointing, but it was such a different setup that it felt like a completely different building. Plus the vibe was totally different- I swear I could be happy making horror movies for the rest of my life, just so I can be around these awesome people. Everyone is so cool and happy- plus the horror eye candy everywhere. If only I had the balls to network instead of stammering out my thanks.
It felt a bit more crowded and narrower, but I made a loop around the place to take it all in.
Lon Chaney with his makeup kit.
Getting made up to be "Darkness" from the movie LEGEND.
Disturbing apron. "Sure Bill I'll take another burger-SHIT!!!"
"YOU DIDN'T LOVE BLACK SWAN??!!!"
My first stop was with Julie Adams from Creature From The Black Lagoon. I haven't seen the movie since I was a kid, but its always stuck with me. Plus my brother and I used to go to church with the late Richard Denning, who also stars in the movie, so that was my opening for conversation with the actress. Now that I think of it, I think that was my very first autograph, Richard Denning signed my church program :) I must of been eight or nine.
Julie was extremely sweet and wanted to make sure she wrote the right thing on my picture, she was checking in with me, it was cute. Then we took a great photo with the creature itself and she recommended a visit to the museum section where I could enjoy more of the horror sculptures. Her assistant (her son) was extremely nice too, and the rest of the day people were just as friendly.
With Julie Adams and the Creature.
Next I visited Jesse Gee who was just as awkward as I was. He was in the corner with a cool setup with all his robots and ray guns made out of found metal objects. I forced myself to talk to him because I'm still warming up to people and was relieved to see he was a little uncomfortable too, or maybe just soft spoken. I prodded him a bit about his work, and he opened up about the different places he raided for junk, and how he would occasionally have to shape things himself when he has something very specific in mind. I spotted one of those spray guns you attach on a hose to water your lawn, but didn't recognize too many of the doo-dads that made up his creations. I told him it must be cool when parts fit so perfectly like they were married from the start, and he gave me a polite nod...now I sound like a weirdo, haha. I have a romanticized image of him working in a garage like a mad scientist, but I bet Jesse's work is fairly subdued. His business card is very cool and boasts, "MUNK MARVELOUS' MARVELOUS MACHINERY ROBOTS! RAYGUNS! AND MORE!" Robot Sculptures, Fine Custom Lamps, Replica Space Weapondry, and Science Fiction Artwork.
I also stopped to admire Don Lanning's incredible OZ sculptures, I gotta check out his website later.
Don Lanning and Tin Man
It was nice to see everyone's interest in The Chiodo Brothers. I remember the lousy turnout they had about ten years ago at Virgin Records. I had them to myself and I asked them if I could record them saying Happy Birthday to my brother and they humored me with, "Happy Birthday Barry...you should see the crowd! (laughs)"
They were selling Killer Klown popcorn which sold out pretty fast along with some fantastic prints and original clown sketches. There were Killer Klown t-shirts, one fan had them sign an awesome vinyl from The Dickies album with all the clown art work on the cover- very cool. They also had a great three-headed stop-motion dinosaur puppet that was fun to manipulate, along with an Elvira puppet. I debated forever and settled on a Killer Klown Popcorn print which they all signed. The Killer Klowns From Outer Space dvd is fantastic by the way, I especially love their Super 8 films from their childhood.
Later on Ed Gale humored me with anecdotes from The Howard The Duck set. He seemed surprised that I was interested in that particular movie, haha, but then he went straight into anecdotes reflecting his frustrations on set. He was dying for a cigar and dying in his suit, plus he could never see anything, so he memorized the blocking beforehand. Friggen nuts. It was his first gig and he wanted to give movies up altogether after that. I think it was supposed to be 5 weeks and then ended up 5 months or something. Anyway, he told me changed his mind with "Spaceballs" because he wouldn't be stuck in a suit and that part just required some glitter on his face, (Dink-Dink!) but at least he could BREATHE.
It was a nice surprise when Tom Holland showed up to say hi to Ed- Tom directed Child's Play and Ed doubled for Chucky running around.
Ed Gale (Child's Play) and director Tom Holland (Fright Night)
I talked to Belinda Belaski for a moment, since I just watched, "The Howling" the night before. Man that movie is great! I couldn't help but notice that she got a raw deal in every Joe Dante movie; she gets eaten in "Piranha", killed in "The Howling" and even in "Gremlins" Mrs. Deagle takes her house away, haha. She had her table set up next to Dee Wallace and playfully accused her of stealing her fans away.
Dee was preoccupied with a man making a serious pitch- "Blood for Boobies" or something crazy like that. The pitch took about 2 minutes and I couldn't tell if Dee was disgusted or not, she has a very patient poker face and remained consistently sweet through the whole ordeal. The guy got it all out of his system and left-he was actually very professional about it. I leaned in afterwards, "That was QUITE the pitch" and Dee laughed and apologised. I pointed out a great picture she had on the set of Cujo featuring her, Director Lewis Teague, and the guy in the dog suit all standing and performing a showgirl high-kick.
I ended up getting her spiritual healing book because it seemed like the thing she was really passionate about and it was her last copy. She gave me her e-mail so I could tell her if I liked the book, and she took this great picture with me. It's not the kind of book that I would usually read, but I'm interested because it goes into her acting career, and many of her characters are teetering on emotional collapse, and that had to be difficult to shake off. Color me interested.
Scream Queen Dee Wallace (The Howling, Cujo, ET)
Mr. Godzilla, Haruo Nakajima, was busy with a Q&A and I killed some time in the "Museum" As you can see form the pictures- very very cool.
Rotting Jack from "American Werewolf In London" Beware the moon David.
The Howling
Dummy from "Magic" with Anthony Hopkins. Eerie movie with one of the most disturbing teaser trailers- it got a lot of flack because it scared the crap out of kids. Check it out on youtube!
Leprechaun.
Maybe we should try a soup with a more flattering color.
Darkness from, "Legend"
Amazing detail on The Wolfman.
Freddy is ready for next year's Wrestlemania.
Ugly baby demon from Nightmare on Elm Street 5.
Nothing is more terrifying than a retiring Johnny Carson.
Mr. Dreyfus- big fan big fan! Oh, you're busy...and piranhas ate your face! Gotcha. Loved you in Kippendorf's Tribe. Cool dude.
"I was 12 going on 13 the first time I saw a dead body. It happened in the summer of 1959-a long time ago, but only if you measure in terms of years."
Spazmatic Gremlin from the sequel.
GIZ-MO...KAKA!
Here lies...ah-ah-ah nobody say the B-word!
Abbot and Costello Meet The Frankenstein Monster
I got the biggest kick out of the talking Jack from, "American Werewolf In London" spouting off his best lines, "Have you ever talked to a corpse? It's boring." That movie will always be a major influence on me, and Joe Dante's The Howling and Gremlins are not far behind. Wicked horror comedy at its finest.
I waited in line for 30 minutes for Haruo because the line was nuts earlier. Enjoyed people watching in their various stages of makeup. "Darkness" from LEGEND was marching around, along with some ghoulish cuties. I started to think about director Larry Cohen and how he didn't have a booth anywhere, so I started going through the Monsterpalooza map to double-check. Maybe he was only showing up to the panel. He didn't show up at the New Beverly for the American Grindhouse screening, so who knows if he'd show up today.
Mr. Nakajima showed up and I bought a Godzilla movie for him to sign. With no spoken words between us (I don't think he can speak English anyway) I have to say I got this amazing vibe from him. So much warmth in his handshake and he gave me a huge smile- I love how he pumped his fist in the air when we took a picture together, I wish I had matched it. Hes played Godzilla in 12 movies and toughed it out through burns, bruises, electrocution and near suffocation! That day he was raising money for Japan relief and everyone was in awe of him.
Haruo Nakajima!
I spotted Larry Cohen and followed him through the hotel to the American Grindhouse panel- he had a "date" and I got the courage to ask him for an autograph when he was just waiting around. Phew, that was easy.
The panel was great because of Joe Dante (Innerspace, Gremlins 1&2, The Howling) Bill Lustig (Maniac Cop, Vigilante) Larry Cohen, (Q The Winged Serpent, Black Caesar, God Told Me To, It's Alive) and Jack Hill (Coffy, Spider Baby, Foxy Brown, Switchblade Sisters)- legends. I loved their stories about 42nd Street and the frustrating demise of the movie going experience. I'll paraphrase some of my favorite ramblings.
"They used to have an usher walking up and down the rows with a baseball bat. Steel toed boots. My favorite was every once in awhile they'd spray air freshener over the audience- little Lysol can."
"It didn't help."
"There were cats running around in the theatre"
"To get the rats."
"RIGHT for the rats, and you'd hear a crinkle from them running into a popcorn bag and everybody would sit like this with their legs up."
Bill also mentioned how one guy would strategically released movies on "Mother's Day" after the first of every month because that's when mothers would get their welfare checks, hence, mother's day.
I think Joe Dante was saying that they'd turn up the heat in the theatre to sell more sodas, but you never wanted to drink anything through a triple-feature because you didn't want to have to piss- you couldn't make it through three movies, and then have to go into the bathroom downstairs where it was beyond seedy."
"The few that went down there would never come back"
"Or they'd return with smiles," Cohen cracked.
"It was a good thing it was dark, you really didn't want to see what was going on."
Bill was great to watch because he was having some major flashbacks and he got all excited about reminiscing, swapping stories with Dante on the ultra-cheap meals they'd get in the area "Steak slathered in this yellow liquid, it was supposed to be butter" and how one guy thought he had a great title for his movie, "The Molesters", until someone in the audience yelled out, "The Mole-sters!" so his friend immediately changed it.
Jack Hill is a fan of audience participation and said his favorite thing yelled at the screen is, "Kill 'Em!"
Bill went on about how audiences now are so withdrawn and uninvolved with the movie, like they're sitting in their living room texting. They shared a glint of hope discussing the midnight movie audiences, and Bill gave "The Room" sort of an unintentional plug,
"Have you seen this fucking movie? It's terrible, but it sells out!"
"They shouldn't start showing movies until midnight." Larry said, which got some applause.
Maybe it was just some old-timers complaining about prices and how everything back then was better, but I have to agree. The movie going experience is fading fast, and it's a fucking shame. Thank goodness for places like The New Beverly.
Director Larry Cohen (Hell Up In Harlem, The Stuff)
I used to hate this review that Quentin Tarantino gave the Arclight Hollywood theatre. For one I worked there, and I didn't think it was fair that he bitched about the fanciness and lack of a trashy atmosphere- it certainly didn't stop him from coming. Now I kind of get it. The experience is becoming expensive and sterile. As a filmmaker you'd want to hear the audience go nuts, but as a movie-goer I personally want people to shut the hell up. On the other hand, it means something else when audiences are actually invested in the movie. That excitement is contagious. There's something special about those crummy, worn out, sticky floor, weird 7-Eleven/piss smelling, squeaky seat theatres, where there's a 50-50 chance projectionists will screw up your viewing experience. As a kid, it's one of the coolest places in the world, and it's a crazy energy when those lights come down. Holy shit, I'm finally about to see this movie!
On the way out I saw director Mick Garris (The Stand) had stopped by to support the Trailers From Hell dvd. Nice guy.
I also saw Don Glut, the subject of the documentary, "I Was A Teenage Movie Maker" I have his dvd at home, it has something like 40 of his super 8 and 16mm shorts- he also does commentaries on every damn one of them! He was a huge monster/superhero nerd and made a ton of werewolf/Spiderman shorts with his childhood friends. Featuring lots of creaky but charming effects, and his movies got better and better as he got older obviously. He also tries some stop motion and gets away with some dangerous stuntwork. I probably should've talked to the guy, but he looked preoccupied.
Joe Turkel who played "Lloyd The Bartender" in The Shining. He was showing off a great photo on set where a mysterious ghost showed up- nobody could identify the face in the photo- creeped Kubrick out.
My favorite display, "Midnight Stroll"
This guy wrote a romantic comedy with Katherine Heigl!
Another Real Sex interview.
"Sure come on in! Coffee's hot, make yourself at home, there's some leftover Chinese in the fridge- we got Tivo if you wanna record something- sometimes I record Malcolm In The Middle- OH and we got an XBox! We got Wi- haha, get it? We-we? You ever watch Tosh? Me neither, but I heard it's funny."
"How do you keep it together monster? I hate dressing up for weddings, this stupid tie is choking me! I should be sitting on a rock looking at a moon and pinching a couple of wolfie nuggets- this aint' no place for a beast let me tell ya!"
"Aww great, who's this douchebag?"
"Hey everybody, just wanna say, we JUST...SOLD... OUR TENTH TWILIGHT YOGA WORKOUT VIDEO. I didn't think we could do it, but...well, it's a franchise! I liked it! The books were better, I agree."
Okay, got that out of my system...sorry about that.
Anyway, I'm sure I barely scraped the surface, but I had another blast. Really hope I get to experience a horror film festival this year, because I'm all pumped up to see some movies.
with herpes,
Marty
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