It Came From The Archives 27!

Twenty-five years ago, Fangoria's perennial fan convention Weekend of Horrors made its one and only trip to Toronto (and as far as I know all of Canada). This milestone would have no doubt passed unnoticed if a reader hadn't happened to email me asking if I had any pictures of the event. After responding that I did, it clicked that the anniversary was imminent and thus perfect timing for another Archives post.

By this time in my life I was a full-on fanatic. I had been working at Major Video for almost a year and it was feeding my obsession nicely. I was watching more movies in a day than most did in a week. I don't think I had my driver's license by then, so thank goodness my older brother was gracious enough to shuttle us in. The guest list was impressive, even with the last-minute cancellation by Bruce Campbell.

Right-click to enlarge.

I remember the dealer's room being fairly large, and it was similar to Monsterpalooza in that there were several make-up demonstrations going on throughout the day. I've talked before about basically opening up my wallet to the poster guy, but there was lots of other great merch there, as well. I remember I picked up a T2 shirt that I practically lived in that summer. In retrospect, I wished I'd rifled through the bins of scripts they had at one of the booths.

Anyway, the photos. Given my limited photography skills, I'm surprised these turned out at all. Truth be told, it was probably my brother snapping all these pics. It's kind of amazing how much of this event I can remember considering it was a quarter century ago.

I think I spoke about my interaction with Kane Hodder in my Friday the 13th archives post. He was super cool then, and been just as cool the two times I've seen him since.

Tom Savini gave a memorable Q&A. I've seen a few people online tell the story of Savini getting down on his knees and apologizing to all in attendance for The Ripper, and it happened at this show.

Savini looks out into a sea of mullets.

Linnea Quigley was a sweetheart. If I recall correctly about the photo below, she had a bunch of people come up on stage and re-enact her cemetery dance scene from Return of the Living Dead, for which we judged the winner.

Below were the esteemed judges for the WOH's costume parade. Seated from left, Savini, Fangoria editor Tony Timpone, Quigley, FX artist Steve Johnson & Hodder. 

And the winners were...

3RD PLACE - GREG & STANLEY

2ND PLACE - THE DUKE & DUCHESS OF REALLY DIRTY THINGS

1ST PLACE - AQUARIUS

Nowadays, the GTA has over a half-dozen fan conventions a year, but in the early nineties, this thing was a revelation. For me, it was really the first time the curtain between film and reality was lifted. It was surreal to say the least. I hope you enjoyed these little windows into the past. Until next time...

Trailer Tuesdays: The Ripper

After posting about the VHS slasher Spine, I was reminded of some other eighties shot-on-video titles, including this one.

This one's a stinker folks, but at least, unlike Spine, it actually has some decent gore in it. However, far from what the trailer would have you believe, Tom Savini appears in this thing for like five minutes.

And how does Savini feel about his participation in this movie? Well, at a Weekend of Horrors in 1991, I witnessed him get down on his knees and apologize to anyone who had watched it. That should give you an idea of what you're dealing with. Oh well, we all make mistakes. At least it was a fairly harmless one.

DKTM 239

Hey all. Well, that was a string of crazy weekends, but I can now get things back to normal around here. Check out what's been going on in the world of horror in the meantime.

Kickin' It A Gogo.

A slew of crowd-funded projects have appeared in the last few weeks and here are three that caught my eye.

A few months ago, I posted about a comic project out of the UK called Slashermania. Now, creator Russell Hillman is turning to the horror-loving populace for help. Here's the recently released five-page promo. Click to enlarge.

I dig this idea. It's what I love about slashers boiled down to its essence, with an added reality television element. This has worked previously in film, with titles like My Little Eye and $la$her$, so I'm interested to see Slashermania happen. To check out the Kickstarter page, click here.

In 2012, I caught a cool little indie during Toronto After Dark called After by director Ryan Smith. Now, Smith is working on his next project, Reverse and is looking for assistance. Here's the pitch.

Time travel is particularly hot right now, not only in the blockbuster arena with Edge of Tomorrow and the newest X-Men flick, but also the indie scene with titles like Predestination and Time Lapse really elevating the genre. So give generously, won't you? Check out the donation page, by clicking here.

Lastly, here's a really cool looking project from Louis Doerge called Night of the Babysitter.

I'm mean, look at that!!! Night of the Babysitter is described as “Horror, crime, sex and hip hop are united in this rousing portrayal of a father and daughters’ unpardonable revenge.” Check out the pitch below.

While the hip-hop element doesn't particularly appeal to me, the story is very intriguing. Click here to see their Indiegogo page.

More JC.

Some amazing news came over the wire recently. John Carpenter, partnered with Sacred Bones Records, will be putting out an album of previously unheard film scores. Releasing February 3rd, Lost Themes will contain nine tracks, including this one entitled Vortex.

If that doesn't excite you, I don't know what will. Check out the Sacred Bones site, to see Vortex played alongside tons of clips from Carpenter masterpieces.

It's Got A Death Curse!

Though I have sadly fallen out of gaming in the last year - not by choice I can assure you - I am extremely excited about this new project called Summer Camp.

Produced by Gun Media, in collaboration with gore guru Tom Savini, Summer Camp is “a third-person survival game set in a wooded campground in which players take on the role of one of 6-8 teen counselors – or the killer – and are asked to survive the night.”

It is releasing next year via PC, PS4 and Xbox One, so we can expect to be hearing more info soon. Click here to check out the website. 

Horror-Rama!

Halloween was extended this year, as the first two days of November heralded the inaugural edition of Horror-Rama, Toronto's Only All-Horror Convention.

I didn't know what to expect from this, but I have to tell you that I was pretty damn impressed. It's no secret that Toronto horror fans have been a little disillusioned by what the Fan Expo has become, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the fans came out to see what Horror-Rama had to offer. It wasn't a huge space, but it was well laid out, so it never felt super packed.

I'd liken Horror-Rama to the intimacy of Shock Stock (James & Jake were also there touting their 2015 lineup), but without their signature sleaze, so it made things here a little more accessible. Horror-Rama was put together by the two biggest supporters of grass roots horror in the city, Fangoria editor Chris Alexander & owner of longtime video landmark Suspect Video, Luis Ceriz, so success was perhaps a foregone conclusion.

Horror-Rama organizers Chris Alexander (left) & Luis Ceriz.

I was certainly caught off guard by the amount of great wares on the show floor. I thought I had become immune to such things over the last year, but the fact that the hundred and fifty bones was quickly gone from my pocket would prove otherwise.

Of course, there were the usual suspects, Mike from Hollywood Canteen...

And Zack from The Vault...

And Twisted T's...

But, there was this mask vendor called grimstitchfactory.com who just happened to have a table of rare VHS randomly kicking around. Like super fucking rare.

As soon as I had them in my hand, it was like other collectors came out of the walls and were hovering over me like vultures. I don't know this guy got this stuff, but Spine is something I never thought I would see in the wild.

Aside from the vendors though, Horror-Rama also had an impressive, and surprisingly fresh, roster of guests. This is no mean feat considering rival shows have been bringing horror icons into town for a decade now.

Actress & writer Barbie Wilde

Barbie Wilde was a really interesting lady, who has, since Hellbound, written a lot of fiction influenced by the dark and sensual canon of Clive Barker. When Schwartz & I talked to her at her table, we asked about a certain snap of an unfilmed scene.

“Well, there was going to be this scene where Kirsty & Tiffany run into these doctors at the Institute, and then they morph into Pinhead and the Female Cenobite. So they got us dressed in the scrubs and out in front of the cameras, and then they realized they didn't have the money and time to do the morphing effect properly, so it was never filmed.”

There was also appearances by Mary Beth Rubens and Lesleh Donaldson, who basically saw as much of the early eighties slasher boom as Jamie Lee. I, of course, could not resist asking the latter about her time working on Deadly Eyes. She said what pretty much everyone else involved with the production says, which was “It was cold. And seeing the dogs in those suits was really something.” She couldn't remember the name of the theatre they shot in either, so the search continues... 

Mary Beth Rubens (left) and Lesleh Donaldson

The best get for the festival in my opinion though, was Nivek Ogre, frontman for the legendary industrial band Skinny Puppy. You know, a few days out, and I'm still reeling from what a nice, personable and approachable guy he was. Not a shred of ego. His Q&A was awesome, and he talked about overcoming his fears, the ups and downs of the music industry, learning where “the line” is and the whole incident with their music being used to torture prisoners at Guantanamo.

Musician & actor Nivek Ogre.

I never, ever ask questions at Q&A's, but with Ogre sitting less than three feet from me, I had to put up my hand. I essentially just told him that, for me, horror films and Skinny Puppy were intertwined due to their use of sampling, so I asked about how that began and what was their process in choosing;

“That's a bit of a dark and funny answer, in that there is no craft or method to it. Before Skinny Puppy started and we were writing Back & Forth and just playing around with four tracks, my weekend's were spent with Bill Leeb from Frontline Assembly, and we would literally stay up from Friday to Sunday night watching horror films. So completely out of our heads, they just all bled together. And that's where I got into Italian horror, which is just so disjointed anyway, then when you add drugs to it, it just becomes a mess. So we were combining all those things in our heads and when it came time to put all these things down in music, there was just that recall. And there's happy moments, as well. One was Deep Down Trauma Hounds with the Warner Brothers thing. And that was just something that was literally, while we were recording in the studio, it was on TV. We'd do that a lot too, Stairs and Flowers is the same thing. There'd be something on TV and we'd just channel it in and just play it, and it would work out. I have no fucking idea what that one is, I could ask Cevin (Key) but I don't think he'd even know.”

A great guy that Schwartz & I could have listened to for hours.

Tom Savini was at the show, and did Q&A's on both days. I have seen him speak many times now, so it was cool he related some stuff I hadn't heard before. He is working on a few video games, the most intriguing Summer Camp, and is still trying to get Death Island off the ground. Savini also told a crazy story about what really happened during that period Planet Terror shut down production. It involved a dozen fifteen-foot high painted murals of Salma Hayek. Yeah, I know...

Horror legend Tom Savini

The last Q&A I attended was that of rising talent Jovanka Vuckovic. Now with a young daughter in tow, I don't see her around town much anymore, but that doesn't mean she hasn't been super busy. She is still putting together the pieces on adapting the Clive Barker story Jaqueline Ess, and is set to start shooting her segment for the all-female anthology 'XX' next month. She revealed at the event that her short will be an adaptation of the Jack Ketchum story, The Box. Jovanka seemed really optimistic about the landscape of women in horror, ever-growing closer to a time when people won't need to put the word “woman” in front of “filmmaker.”

Writer & filmmaker Jovanka Vuckovic

But wait, there was more! The Blood In The Snow Film Festival announced their full line-up. And much like TAD, this one looks like their strongest yet. In addition to the Shorts Showcase, which has my good friends Justin McConnell and Darryl Shaw showing their work, my frequent collaborator Mike Pereira is also premiering his latest, The Ressurections of Clarence Neveldine in front of the closing film.

Click to enlarge.

I'm also looking forward to midnight screening of Justin Decloux's Teddy Bomb and Kingdom Come starring Lively himself, Ryan Barrett.

Jen & Jason at the BITS booth.

Writer/Director Chad Archibald at the Black Fawn booth.

I don't know how Horror-Rama did financially, but everything I saw looked like a rousing success. The fans were stoked, the vendors were happy and the guests looked like they were having a good time. Congrats to everyone involved, as this was one hell of a weekend!