Just as promised we've got Mike Pereira's report from Rue Morgue's second annual Festival of Fear, which took place this past weekend in Toronto, Canada. In side you can read reports from stars Clive Barker, Gunnar Hansen, Elvira, Tony Todd, Ken Foree and more. There's also some scoops on films like Final Destination 4, Crispin Glover not playing Joker in Batman 2 and more. Read on and enjoy...
After one long, grueling year of waiting, Rue Morgue’s Festival Of Fear has finally arrived! I had the opportunity of not only meeting some horror icons but also checking out a few films and a theatre presentation in the process. The attendance seemed to have escalated since the previous year. Excellent!
To kick off the series of “intimate and interactive” sessions, we had the one and only Ken Foree. You can instantly tell that he loves to mingle with the fans. Ken entertained us with some really cool stories of his past. His energy was unmatched. While there wasn’t any groundbreaking news, it was interesting to hear that his most frightening moment on set was on Dawn Of The Dead. The basement scene felt a little too real for him.
Mr. Candyman himself, Tony Todd would be next in line. He seemed very down to earth.
-It was interesting to find out that he is a big time gamer. The XBOX game that he is currently addicted to is Darkwatch.
-Todd’s upcoming films include House Of Grimm and Shadow: Dead Riot. In the latter, he plays a vampire in a women’s prison.
-The one that he is extremely proud of though is The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde which he just recently wrapped up. It could possibly come out in January.
-When talking about Candyman, it was cool to find out that despite the studio wanting a bigger name, director Bernard Rose was adamant that Todd was the visual embodiment of the character.
-Final Destination 4 has been pitched by the original film’s writer and he might get involved in that one.
-His favorite horror film is Rosemary’s Baby.
-Todd might be doing Midnight Hits, a television series in the tradition of Nightstalker and Kojak.
Lois Lane herself, Margot Kidder has always been a dream of mine to meet. Sisters and Black Christmas is a couple of my favorite genre films. She was consistently witty and sincere. It was an extremely entertaining and candid panel. No subject seemed taboo. She found the experience of working on Amityville Horror to be a surprisingly funny and ridiculous experience. Margot never took the subject matter seriously. She found the film’s insistence that it was based on fact to be a croak and nothing more than a publicity stunt.
Crispin Glover is one of those people one doesn’t know what to expect. I think he might have answered a whopping 4 questions in 45 minutes. The answers were fascinating but man were they long! Crispin mainly devoted the interview on his directorial debut, What is it? which unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to experience. The whole cast excluding him have Down Syndrome.
-The rumors that he will play the Joker in the next Batman was also shot down. According to Crispin, they are strictly internet based but he would love the opportunity to do it. He hopes that the buzz might rub off on the studio. So let’s keep those rumors going!
-The next projects up include Zemeckis’ Beowulf and a slasher flick called Simon Says. He will play the dual role of the title character and his twin brother. Simon is in the great tradition of Leatherface and Michael Myers but more psychological. He doesn’t wear a mask as well. Crispin found the juicy role a great deal of fun to work on.
The mistress of the dark herself, Elvira aka Cassandra Peterson was next and man does she still look good. She wasn’t in the Elvira gear but it didn’t take anything away from the session.
-During the shoot of the cheese-ball classic, Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold, Sharon Stone was such a nightmare to work with that members of the cast and crew pissed in her bathtub that she used during one of the scenes. Hilarious stuff!
-Richard Chamberlain was originally going to play the Richard O’Brien role in Elvira’s Haunted Hills but had to back out because of another gig. Mick Jagger was also up for the role but backed out as well.
-Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes was the worst experience to parody since in itself a parody also. Elvira’s trademark wisecracks never worked on this one.
-Cassandra is not a fan of the slasher subgenre. She was offered one recently called Vendetta but turned it down. It would have been playing a reporter. She much prefers fantasy-horror.
-There is no Elvira film in the works at the present time. Elvira’s Haunted Hills was a real struggle to make independently. The good news is that there are three television show contracts in the works; a Jim Henson 30 minute animated series, a sitcom and a reality show like American Idol. There also might be a Canadian television series but that is still talk.
-Cassandra is not a fan of the CGI packed big budget horror films of the present. She much prefers the older films in which much was left to the imagination. Now everything is long on money but short on story and creativity.
-She doesn’t own the rights to the movies from her television show. So the possibility of a DVD release looks grim.
-She is doing a show in Australia. They are supplying the films while she inserts the Elvira footage.
-Cassandra sees Elvira evolving into an animated character in the future. She doesn’t want to play the character as she gets older.
To be honest, this was the panel I was least anticipating but much to my surprise Gunner Hansen aka the original Leatherface was one of the more enjoyable ones. It was both funny and fascinating. To start, he gave us an engaging lecture on the pornography of violence and film theory.
-Gunner didn’t research serial killers before playing Leatherface. At the time, he was working at a mentally-challenged state school and spent two days studying the body language of the patients. When Gunner finally arrived to the point where he convinced the staff that he was a patient, he knew he was finished.
-Paul Partain who played Franklin in TCM stayed in character for the whole shoot. He never left the wheelchair. Paul feared that once he switched off, he would never find the character again.
-According to Gunner, an indie horror film called The Stink Of Flesh starring his niece, Kristin Hansen (not daughter according to IMDB) is one to look out for.
-His latest work is Apocalypse and the Beauty Queen and Forest Prime Evil. He will also be in The Demons 5 and the new Toe Tag production.
-He will have a lead role in Chainsaw Sally 2. He played the father in the flashback sequence in the original. In this one, Gunner will play the uncle of the title character.
-Last Horror Picture Show’s option runs out in September. He has no idea why it hasn’t started production. There was supposed to be pre-production meetings in the summer but nothing happened. He co-wrote the screenplay. It would star Gunner, Robert England and Kane Hodder. According the him, Last Horror Picture Show would be a horrific and disturbing horror film with black humor as well. Gunner and England play brothers and Hodder is their cousin. The brothers are aristocrats. In the story, a group of young filmmakers decide to shoot a documentary on a real life crime at the original location. Sure enough, the brothers are pissed off that they didn’t get paid and have them as consultants since they were in fact the killers. The kids get captured and the family decides to make their own (snuff) film and reenact what really happened.
-Gunner didn’t like the portrayal of Leatherface in the TCM remake as it was written NOT on the basis of Andrew Bryniarski’s performance.
-He was asked to play the truck driver in the TCM remake but declined.
-Supposedly Tom Savini has completed Vampirates.
Last and certainly not least, I got the immense privilege to meet the one and only Clive Barker. He was extremely down to earth, funny and intelligent. You can tell that he genuinely loved to interact with the fans. He was gracious enough to offer the first 400 people each day, free autographs. From what I heard, he signed as much as you wanted. That’s what I call stand-up guy. Also, it was interesting to know that Barker set up a canvas in the middle of the convention and periodically would paint in front of everyone. The man is a one of a kind.
-After Clive finished reading his first crack at Abarat 2, he despised it and ended up destroying the manuscript before anyone convinced him to release it. He rewrote the book and supposedly it is completely different from the original version. He still used the original paintings though.
-The Scarlet Gospels will feature the death of Pinhead by his creator. His demise will not go down as we might expect. The book was originally a collection of short stories but now Clive has decided to interweave them all. It will be his equivalent to Dante’s Inferno. Hell as presented by Barker! Supposedly, Jesus is in the book as well.
-The Abarat movie will be made but he doesn’t know by whom. Clive wants to write Abarat 3 before they proceed with the film. The 3rd book in the series of four will be darker and bigger. What will happen in the last two books will challenge readers who thought they understood what the first two were about.
-The Tortured Souls film will happen but not for awhile unfortunately. Barker will still direct. He plans on writing (in order) Scarlett Gospels, Abarat 3, Art 3, Abarat 4 before he goes back to film. The books will take 4 to 5 years of his life.
Between the guest panels, I had the chance to finally check out Lightning Bug. I was engaged and moved for the most part but its weak third act sunk the film a bit for me. It is packed with multiple endings where characters seem to change motivation drastically and even worse…unconvincing happy endings. The final exchange between Brett Harrison and Laura Prepon felt forced and had some of the cheesy and laughable dialogue. Disappointing but I still think the director is one to keep an eye on. There is some strong stuff throughout.
Raw Nerve, Eli Roth’s and Scott Spiegel’s production company long-anticipated debut film, 2001 Maniacs was a hoot! It is packed with gore, laughs, tits and more inventive gore. It begins to lose steam in the third act but the final minutes conclude with a bang. Look out for Roth’s hilarious cameo which finally presents us the origin of the infamous “Face!” from Cabin Fever.
There was also a presentation of the masterpiece in German expressionism, The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari with a score performed by Nash The Slash. He is famous for performing in the disguise of the Invisible Man. Last year he delivered a score for Nosferatu but sadly I couldn’t make it. I put an extra effort this time around to not repeat that again. Nash The Slash performed what I think is the definitive soundtrack to this classic. It complimented the images perfectly. It was a creepy, intense score that took the film into even great heights. Awesome stuff!
To finish off this unforgettable weekend, was Rue Morgue’s Nightmare Picture Theatre. It was a hybrid of live theatre and stop-motion animation. While I admire its originality and ambition, the execution was mediocre. The show lacked an effective atmosphere which should have been a given considering the gothic musical score and lighting scheme. Even knowing the storyline, I found the presentation to be an incoherent mess. I was never drawn into its world. To put it simply, I was bored and unengaged.
So overall, it was another success for Rue Morgue’s Festival Of Fear. I love the effort that they’ve put into making this weekend as diverse and rich as possible. My only issue is that in attempting this, there were a lot of conflicts with screening times and guest panels which everyone that I spoke to complained about. I missed a great deal of independent films because of it. I’m sure that this is something that will be corrected as the years go by. For a second year, Festival Of Fear still rules!
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