WEBVTT
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00:00:14.080Welcome back to Nightmare Logic, a podcast about
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00:00:16.640the logic of nightmares. We're your hosts, Christopher
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00:00:19.300Smith and Peter Sawyer. And we're here today
00:00:19.300 -->
00:00:21.739with a special guest, David DelVal, to discuss
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00:00:24.460what horror is and the evolution of our favorite
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00:00:30.239genre. Okay, we're back with a new episode and
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00:00:32.979with our special guest, David, who we'll get
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00:00:36.640to in a second. And first, Peter, David, what
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00:00:38.359did you guys do this last week? Anything fun,
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00:00:41.070interesting? Did you watch anything cool? uh
00:00:41.070 -->
00:00:44.509yeah well i'm always watching stuff uh i watched
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00:00:48.210a movie called nothing bad can happen and i watched
00:00:48.210 -->
00:00:51.329tombs of the blind dead two very different i
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00:00:55.130guess horror movies all right uh you recommend
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00:00:58.149them for different reasons i mean tombs of the
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00:01:01.329blind dead is has some kind of iconic imagery
00:01:01.329 -->
00:01:04.549of these like templar zombies on horseback that's
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00:01:09.030just kind of cool to see um it's It's fun. It's
00:01:09.030 -->
00:01:13.730whatever. Nothing Bad Can Happen is a 2012 -2013
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00:01:17.310German movie that opens in a way that I found
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00:01:21.590subversive because it's about a Christian punk
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00:01:24.709rocker in Germany, in Hamburg, and it opens with
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00:01:27.370him getting baptized. And if you're into punk,
00:01:27.549 -->
00:01:29.790religion is not really your thing. So that put
00:01:29.790 -->
00:01:32.969me on my heels, but it goes into a very dark
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00:01:34.950direction. I mean, he's a good character, right?
00:01:37.769 -->
00:01:40.730Quite a feel -bad movie into those kind of things.
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00:01:43.069Have you seen those, Dave? Yes. In fact, there
00:01:43.069 -->
00:01:47.969are two more. The Ghostly Galleon and Night of
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00:01:50.650the Seagulls, which is all about the Knights
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00:01:53.709Templar that come back from the dead at certain
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00:01:57.390moments and destroy and especially run after
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00:02:00.730women with enormous breasts. Oh, now I'm definitely
00:02:00.730 -->
00:02:03.329going to check that out. And then there's a pornographic
00:02:03.329 -->
00:02:09.050one made by Jess Franco where... The phrase boning
00:02:09.050 -->
00:02:13.050takes on new meaning. All right. And then did
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00:02:16.889you do anything cool this last week? Well, this
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00:02:18.930last week has been kind of amusing because I
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00:02:22.349finished up a bunch of audio commentaries, one
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00:02:24.889of which I did with Peter. But the last one I
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00:02:27.330did, it was a movie called House of the Seven
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00:02:32.430Corpses, which was done in the late. with John
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00:02:35.449Carradine and John Ireland, shot in an old house
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00:02:38.889in Utah, because Utah was offering tax breaks
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00:02:42.030for filmmakers. So the premise of it, which is
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00:02:44.250kind of interesting from what all three of us
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00:02:47.009are into, is the premise is a movie company comes
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00:02:50.409from Hollywood. to this area in this weird part
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00:02:53.310of Utah and shoots this movie in an old mansion
00:02:53.310 -->
00:02:57.550and accidentally reawakens the denizens of the
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00:03:00.569graveyard using the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
00:03:00.849 -->
00:03:04.430So it's complete trash, but I had 90 minutes
00:03:04.430 -->
00:03:08.009to try and make it, you know, somewhat fascinating.
00:03:08.409 -->
00:03:11.849And Faith Demurg, I just love saying her name,
00:03:11.949 -->
00:03:15.759Faith Demurg. was an actress that Howard Hughes
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00:03:18.199discovered, and she's famous to all of us for
00:03:18.199 -->
00:03:21.240This Island Earth, that great science fiction
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00:03:24.099movie with the Metaluna and the weird insect
00:03:24.099 -->
00:03:27.800monsters. All these actors were veterans, which
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00:03:30.259means they were down on their luck. That's really
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00:03:33.979cool. That's really cool. Yeah, and for me, it's
00:03:33.979 -->
00:03:36.080been a little busy week with work, but I checked
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00:03:38.479out the first two episodes of Night of the Seven
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00:03:41.719Kingdoms, which... is not horror but it's you
00:03:41.719 -->
00:03:44.939know a good fantasy in the in the world of of
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00:03:48.099uh game of thrones and uh it's it's the new game
00:03:48.099 -->
00:03:50.819of thrones spinoff yeah it's actually uh you
00:03:50.819 -->
00:03:53.099know it's a smaller in scale so far but like
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00:03:56.139it's actually really really well done still you
00:03:56.139 -->
00:03:58.259know yeah yeah i don't doubt it it's sword and
00:03:58.259 -->
00:04:01.360sorcery yes exactly yeah that can be good but
00:04:01.360 -->
00:04:03.620then it's been overdone so you never know yeah
00:04:03.620 -->
00:04:08.250well did you watch uh um game of thrones or Of
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00:04:10.969course. Yeah. Right. But I also just watched
00:04:10.969 -->
00:04:14.750a thing called 30 coins directed by Alexis de
00:04:14.750 -->
00:04:18.569Iglesias, the great director from Spain about
00:04:18.569 -->
00:04:22.089the 30 coins that Judas Iscariot got for betraying
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00:04:24.829Christ and how it turns out. Cause he's Catholic.
00:04:24.970 -->
00:04:27.800And of course he's, he's like. broken from the
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00:04:31.360church like i am and it's an incredible series
00:04:31.360 -->
00:04:35.25930 coins is it a contemporary yes it's set in
00:04:35.259 -->
00:04:38.180contemporary times but it goes all over the place
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00:04:42.079that's cool and uh he did day of the beast if
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00:04:44.439you remember that uh i mean just i'm familiar
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00:04:47.399with the title but i i'm i'm somewhat of a horror
00:04:47.399 -->
00:04:51.819moderate noobish you know like i i'm not as you
00:04:51.819 -->
00:04:53.439know i don't have as much deep knowledge as you
00:04:53.439 -->
00:04:57.509guys do so well um I just get bored. That's what
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00:05:00.910happens to me. Well, great. I'm glad that we
00:05:00.910 -->
00:05:05.029could finally catch up with you. And I think
00:05:05.029 -->
00:05:06.769maybe a good place to start would be with your
00:05:06.769 -->
00:05:09.250background. You want to talk? Well, okay. You
00:05:09.250 -->
00:05:26.470have a long career. Let's start with that. watching
00:05:26.470 -->
00:05:29.129horror movies at a very early age because of
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00:05:32.689television. Because I'm a baby boomer, television
00:05:32.689 -->
00:05:35.850was the most innovative thing. Television was
00:05:35.850 -->
00:05:39.610what the internet is to you. Same thing. And
00:05:39.610 -->
00:05:44.269thankfully, it introduced me to the entire universal
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00:05:47.449horror package with Dracula, Frankenstein, The
00:05:47.449 -->
00:05:49.610Mummy, The Invisible Man, Creature from the Black
00:05:49.610 -->
00:05:53.850Lagoon, all the offshoots from that studio. And
00:05:53.850 -->
00:05:56.850then that led... As I got a little older, to
00:05:56.850 -->
00:06:00.370being 12 and 13, into Hammer Horror. Because
00:06:00.370 -->
00:06:03.529in 1958, the horror of Dracula comes out. And
00:06:03.529 -->
00:06:07.029it sweeps the world. And every country responds
00:06:07.029 -->
00:06:10.550with a movie. Mexico did one called El Vampiro.
00:06:10.970 -->
00:06:13.850Italy did one called Mask of the Demon Black
00:06:13.850 -->
00:06:19.089Sunday. But Hammer Films of England opened the
00:06:19.089 -->
00:06:22.490door. For the renaissance of horror. And at that
00:06:22.490 -->
00:06:25.069same time. Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine
00:06:25.069 -->
00:06:28.730came out. And I started. I was reading. I got
00:06:28.730 -->
00:06:31.670to the 12th issue. And I saw it from across a
00:06:31.670 -->
00:06:36.089lobby. At this hotel in Portland. 35 cents. And
00:06:36.089 -->
00:06:38.329it had Curse of the Werewolf on the cover. And
00:06:38.329 -->
00:06:40.310I took it immediately upstairs. And started reading
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00:06:45.129it. And I got to the letters column. And I went.
00:06:45.490 -->
00:06:50.220Holy fuck. There's other fans out there. My age
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00:06:53.740that are into horror. And from that moment on,
00:06:53.779 -->
00:06:56.939I never looked back. And I pestered my mother
00:06:56.939 -->
00:07:00.839when we got to LA. We were staying at the Biltmore
00:07:00.839 -->
00:07:03.459Hotel downtown. And I said, I want to go out
00:07:03.459 -->
00:07:05.959and meet Forrest J. Ackerman. And she didn't
00:07:05.959 -->
00:07:08.980want to go. So she put me in a cab and sent me
00:07:08.980 -->
00:07:11.279to Sherbourne Drive, which was over where the
00:07:11.279 -->
00:07:14.600Beverly Center is now. And I met this guy, Forrest
00:07:14.600 -->
00:07:17.480J. Ackerman. At the same time, I met this Swedish
00:07:17.480 -->
00:07:21.399wrestler named Tor Johnson, who is immortalized
00:07:21.399 -->
00:07:24.399in Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space. And he
00:07:24.399 -->
00:07:29.160had a flashlight around his neck and he would
00:07:29.160 -->
00:07:31.879turn it on and it would bring all of his weird.
00:07:32.220 -->
00:07:36.100He was Lobo. I met Lobo. I didn't even know what
00:07:36.100 -->
00:07:41.319Lobo was, but I went literally knee deep or waist
00:07:41.319 -->
00:07:44.620deep. into the horror swamps of Los Angeles.
00:07:44.899 -->
00:07:48.639And I never looked back. And that just opened
00:07:48.639 -->
00:07:51.180the door for everything else. All right, David.
00:07:51.220 -->
00:07:54.759So a couple of questions. The first is what age
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00:07:57.060were you when you came to LA when you're telling
00:07:57.060 -->
00:07:59.899this story? Six years old. Oh, shit. Okay. So
00:07:59.899 -->
00:08:03.399you're that young. So at that age or like as
00:08:03.399 -->
00:08:06.540you became a teenager, how would you have defined
00:08:06.540 -->
00:08:11.410horror back then? Well, for me, because I was
00:08:11.410 -->
00:08:14.610getting into the school system. And I'm sure
00:08:14.610 -->
00:08:17.029what I'm about to say will resonate with other
00:08:17.029 -->
00:08:20.610horror fans, regardless of how old you are. And
00:08:20.610 -->
00:08:24.689that is that I quickly realized that this was
00:08:24.689 -->
00:08:27.569escapism. That watching these horror movies,
00:08:27.629 -->
00:08:31.129which transports you into a fantasy realm, can
00:08:31.129 -->
00:08:34.169be very helpful when you're trying to navigate
00:08:34.169 -->
00:08:38.629your way through life in school with your contemporaries.
00:08:40.039 -->
00:08:44.360I was subject to being bullied, new kid in school,
00:08:44.840 -->
00:08:48.059was anybody going to like me? And I wasn't very
00:08:48.059 -->
00:08:52.059athletic at that time. So I wasn't good at sports.
00:08:52.419 -->
00:08:56.840So by being enamored of the horror film, it gave
00:08:56.840 -->
00:09:00.679me a way to communicate with people that were
00:09:00.679 -->
00:09:03.820strangers by the common denominator, which was
00:09:03.820 -->
00:09:06.759television and the movies. And I was always very
00:09:06.759 -->
00:09:11.139gifted with being able to talk. not being shy.
00:09:11.559 -->
00:09:16.480And so I quickly, you know, kind of kidnapped
00:09:16.480 -->
00:09:20.480all my kids I was in school with to watch William
00:09:20.480 -->
00:09:24.000Castle movies, to watch universal horror, to
00:09:24.000 -->
00:09:26.620watch the Wolfman. And then they would tell their
00:09:26.620 -->
00:09:30.080friends. And then all of a sudden it was like,
00:09:30.179 -->
00:09:34.019I knew that horror films were helping me navigate
00:09:34.019 -->
00:09:37.419my way through my childhood. So back then was,
00:09:37.440 -->
00:09:42.169was horror. More of, you know, like today. It's
00:09:42.169 -->
00:09:46.990more fairy tales. It was not as explicit. The
00:09:46.990 -->
00:09:49.269universal horror movies, there's really nothing
00:09:49.269 -->
00:09:53.070in them that's frightening or transgressive.
00:09:53.129 -->
00:09:57.009The Hammer films, a little more sexuality, a
00:09:57.009 -->
00:10:01.610little more subtext than the European horror
00:10:01.610 -->
00:10:04.970movies, the Italian horror movies, the Japanese
00:10:04.970 -->
00:10:08.379films. They all dealt with vampires and the Turkish
00:10:08.379 -->
00:10:11.740ones with the vampires hopping. I didn't see
00:10:11.740 -->
00:10:13.940all that right away because we didn't have the
00:10:13.940 -->
00:10:16.779internet. We weren't globally connected as much.
00:10:16.879 -->
00:10:20.639But if you lived in major cities, and I lived
00:10:20.639 -->
00:10:22.860in Kansas City, I lived in Portland, I lived
00:10:22.860 -->
00:10:25.340in New York, I lived in Los Angeles. And the
00:10:25.340 -->
00:10:27.620only common denominator for living in all those
00:10:27.620 -->
00:10:30.899cities was being able to see different kinds
00:10:30.899 -->
00:10:34.059of horror movies. And I remember seeing The H
00:10:34.059 -->
00:10:36.960-Man for the first time. which was a Japanese
00:10:36.960 -->
00:10:40.220movie about guys that could just liquefy. And
00:10:40.220 -->
00:10:43.700at the theater, they were giving out little sponges
00:10:43.700 -->
00:10:46.620with the poster art on the sponge. And you would
00:10:46.620 -->
00:10:48.539set it up and you'd pour water like that. And
00:10:48.539 -->
00:10:51.259that was the H -Man. And then the Mysterians.
00:10:51.500 -->
00:10:55.600I'll never forget the Mysterians because they
00:10:55.600 -->
00:10:59.679had a robot in that that was just awesome. And
00:10:59.679 -->
00:11:02.230they were selling them. I would be very rich
00:11:02.230 -->
00:11:04.429right now if I kept all the robots I collected
00:11:04.429 -->
00:11:07.370as a kid, especially Robbie the Robot from Forbidden
00:11:07.370 -->
00:11:11.210Planet. That kind of makes me think that theaters
00:11:11.210 -->
00:11:13.889back then were a lot more fun. They were. You're
00:11:13.889 -->
00:11:16.230getting these cool gifts that are tied to the
00:11:16.230 -->
00:11:18.330movies. Well, the other thing that you're not
00:11:18.330 -->
00:11:21.970going to ever experience again, that I can just
00:11:21.970 -->
00:11:24.710close my eyes and see myself walking, because
00:11:24.710 -->
00:11:28.789if I was under 12, your parents had to come with
00:11:28.789 -->
00:11:31.080you, your mother, your father. And I went to
00:11:31.080 -->
00:11:33.759see House on Haunted Hill, the William Castle
00:11:33.759 -->
00:11:36.500movie with Vincent Price and the Tingler and
00:11:36.500 -->
00:11:39.65913 Ghosts. They all had gimmicks. But when you
00:11:39.659 -->
00:11:41.860were walking up to the theater, you'd hear screams
00:11:41.860 -->
00:11:44.860of people getting ready. They were showing the
00:11:44.860 -->
00:11:47.279last reel and you were buying your ticket ready
00:11:47.279 -->
00:11:50.419to go in 15 minutes later. And I was afraid to
00:11:50.419 -->
00:11:52.080go in the theater because everyone was screaming.
00:11:52.679 -->
00:11:54.740But then when you got in the theater, what they
00:11:54.740 -->
00:11:59.750were screaming at was in the Tingler. It gets
00:11:59.750 -->
00:12:02.730loose in the theater and they turn all the lights
00:12:02.730 -->
00:12:06.230out and say, the only way you can save your life
00:12:06.230 -->
00:12:09.370is to scream, scream as if your life depended
00:12:09.370 -->
00:12:11.330on it. And all these little kids are going, ah,
00:12:11.549 -->
00:12:16.610and you know, uh, it was fabulous. And if you
00:12:16.610 -->
00:12:19.590look at Joe Dante's matinee, which is his best
00:12:19.590 -->
00:12:22.970picture, in my opinion, uh, you can see the recreation
00:12:22.970 -->
00:12:28.860of that, uh, with, uh, William Castle. being
00:12:28.860 -->
00:12:32.419played by John Goodman. So where do you think
00:12:32.419 -->
00:12:37.659that shifted from that kind of fantasy horror?
00:12:38.620 -->
00:12:41.519Was there a certain film that really kind of
00:12:41.519 -->
00:12:44.720modernized it? No, it wasn't a film, Chris. It
00:12:44.720 -->
00:12:48.279was drive -ins. Drive -in movies by the time
00:12:48.279 -->
00:12:52.009I was 14. The drive -in was the go -to place
00:12:52.009 -->
00:12:54.850for teenagers, the go -to place if you had a
00:12:54.850 -->
00:12:57.730bunch of screaming kids. I saw more movies in
00:12:57.730 -->
00:13:01.309my pajamas until I got older than if you wanted
00:13:01.309 -->
00:13:03.330to smoke dope, you would go and watch all the
00:13:03.330 -->
00:13:06.090AIP movies. I saw all the Vincent Price movies
00:13:06.090 -->
00:13:09.230stoned. In fact, I saw everything stoned. And
00:13:09.230 -->
00:13:12.269that went on for years. And then by the time
00:13:12.269 -->
00:13:14.8502001 came out, we all dropped acid to see that.
00:13:15.419 -->
00:13:18.700I even saw 2001 at a drive -in where when the
00:13:18.700 -->
00:13:20.720monolith goes up and because you're out of doors,
00:13:20.840 -->
00:13:22.460I thought, well, I'm just going to go into the
00:13:22.460 -->
00:13:26.460cosmos here. It was pretty good acid. I would
00:13:26.460 -->
00:13:28.500never drop to see Planet of the Apes because
00:13:28.500 -->
00:13:31.120I knew that would be creepy. Never did that.
00:13:31.279 -->
00:13:34.120But no, the drive -ins from television in the
00:13:34.120 -->
00:13:38.44050s to drive -ins in the 60s and 70s, that was
00:13:38.440 -->
00:13:42.159what motivated. And movies were made. by studios
00:13:42.159 -->
00:13:44.580like American International Pictures exclusively
00:13:44.580 -->
00:13:48.799for drive -ins, dusk till dawn. So basically
00:13:48.799 -->
00:13:52.620these, when the drive -ins came, it sort of opened
00:13:52.620 -->
00:13:55.759up an avenue to distribute more scary, more horror.
00:13:56.039 -->
00:14:00.779It became a landscape for young, for the youth
00:14:00.779 -->
00:14:05.539of America, which is why Easy Rider, the Wild
00:14:05.539 -->
00:14:10.980Angels, the Wild Bunch. All those movies premiered
00:14:10.980 -->
00:14:14.399in drive -ins. And then was there a film, though,
00:14:14.440 -->
00:14:16.440that you remember when it came out was just so
00:14:16.440 -->
00:14:20.940fresh and different that it really propelled
00:14:20.940 -->
00:14:23.039the industry into making more sort of modern
00:14:23.039 -->
00:14:27.799movies? The most influential movie in the 20th
00:14:27.799 -->
00:14:30.679century in terms of how it changed the land,
00:14:30.759 -->
00:14:33.539especially in horror, was Hitchcock's Psycho.
00:14:34.720 -->
00:14:38.419Psycho, Night of the Living Dead, Texas Chainsaw
00:14:38.419 -->
00:14:43.179Massacre. Those three movies completely reimagined
00:14:43.179 -->
00:14:46.080the landscape of horror. I'll give you an example.
00:14:46.139 -->
00:14:50.419Psycho came out in 1960. In 1961, Roger Corman
00:14:50.419 -->
00:14:53.399put out Pit in the Pendulum with Vincent Price.
00:14:53.700 -->
00:14:57.779What do these two movies have in common? In Psycho,
00:14:57.779 -->
00:15:02.120Anthony Perkins plays a man who's so weak, his
00:15:02.120 -->
00:15:05.039mother takes over his personality. In Pit in
00:15:05.039 -->
00:15:08.000the Pendulum, Richard Matheson was so influenced.
00:15:09.289 -->
00:15:13.929nicholas medina uh price's character is so weak
00:15:13.929 -->
00:15:16.730that he's taken over by the spirit of his father
00:15:16.730 -->
00:15:21.009who was a torturer and every other all this what
00:15:21.009 -->
00:15:24.549time magazine said psycho brought to motherhood
00:15:24.549 -->
00:15:28.990what moby dick did to whales you know i was listening
00:15:28.990 -->
00:15:34.610to the latest episode of uh uh horror it's a
00:15:34.610 -->
00:15:37.029podcast called uh i'm gonna look it up real quick
00:15:38.790 -->
00:15:43.470horror movie club. And every Friday the 13th,
00:15:43.470 -->
00:15:45.289which we're recording on a Friday. We are indeed.
00:15:45.549 -->
00:15:49.590Sorry, Jason. They do an episode about Friday
00:15:49.590 -->
00:15:52.090the 13th series. And they brought up an interesting
00:15:52.090 -->
00:15:55.750point that in Psycho, which some people apparently
00:15:55.750 -->
00:15:59.710call the first slasher, that the relationship
00:15:59.710 -->
00:16:04.129in that is the son is sort of acting out. It's
00:16:04.129 -->
00:16:06.509Mommy. It's about Mommy. It's about Mommy. And
00:16:06.509 -->
00:16:08.090Friday the 13th, it's like reverse. It's Mrs.
00:16:08.090 -->
00:16:10.549Bates. Yeah. So that's really interesting. I
00:16:10.549 -->
00:16:15.110interviewed Betsy Palmer, and it changed her
00:16:15.110 -->
00:16:19.830life. There is not one movie made after 1960
00:16:19.830 -->
00:16:23.549that is not influenced by that. Now, take it
00:16:23.549 -->
00:16:26.889into reality for a moment, and we owe a lot to
00:16:26.889 -->
00:16:30.610Ed Gein. Because Ed Gein is the source material
00:16:30.610 -->
00:16:34.399for Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, And all
00:16:34.399 -->
00:16:38.000that came before or after. Deranged. Deranged.
00:16:39.299 -->
00:16:45.899And I was not on board for really graphic violence
00:16:45.899 -->
00:16:50.720when I was a kid. And then we come to where I
00:16:50.720 -->
00:16:54.779think horror begins to separate. For me, when
00:16:54.779 -->
00:16:57.580you give a definition for film noir, you always
00:16:57.580 -->
00:17:00.100say it's a movie that has a femme fatale, black
00:17:00.100 -->
00:17:05.089and white, rain streaks streets. A mystery. In
00:17:05.089 -->
00:17:08.190horror, it was always the supernatural, a monster
00:17:08.190 -->
00:17:11.410on the loose, a mad scientist. Once you cross
00:17:11.410 -->
00:17:15.130the line with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you're
00:17:15.130 -->
00:17:17.609no longer dealing with the supernatural. You're
00:17:17.609 -->
00:17:20.089dealing with serial killers. And they're very
00:17:20.089 -->
00:17:24.089real. And they're not based in literature. So,
00:17:24.089 -->
00:17:28.650I don't know whether, and I do this in the trivia
00:17:28.650 -->
00:17:31.990thing until I quit. I don't know if I would call
00:17:31.990 -->
00:17:35.049those movies horror movies. Blair Witch Project
00:17:35.049 -->
00:17:37.009is a horror movie, but it's got a supernatural
00:17:37.009 -->
00:17:42.130premise. Friday the 13th does not. What's supernatural
00:17:42.130 -->
00:17:44.930about it is people keep paying to see the same
00:17:44.930 -->
00:17:46.410movie over and over again. Well, it's supernatural
00:17:46.410 -->
00:17:49.730in that he comes back to life. Yeah, Jason becomes
00:17:49.730 -->
00:17:51.470supernatural. No one ever explains that either.
00:17:51.609 -->
00:17:54.710No, they don't. I know why he comes back to life
00:17:54.710 -->
00:17:57.720because they look at the bank. Yeah, well, totally.
00:17:57.859 -->
00:17:58.839I mean, it was apparently that serious. Nightmare
00:17:58.839 -->
00:18:01.140on Elm Street has a supernatural, but we're not
00:18:01.140 -->
00:18:02.759talking about that, though. Well, and apparently
00:18:02.759 -->
00:18:04.559Friday the 13th was meant to be an anthology
00:18:04.559 -->
00:18:06.400when they first wrote it, which is why it's called
00:18:06.400 -->
00:18:08.640that. So, but I think that you're right. They
00:18:08.640 -->
00:18:10.819saw the money I made and they were like - Silence
00:18:10.819 -->
00:18:13.339of the Lambs. All these movies are about serial
00:18:13.339 -->
00:18:17.579killers. And are serial killer movies horror
00:18:17.579 -->
00:18:19.759movies? Well, I don't know. Are they thrillers
00:18:19.759 -->
00:18:21.160or are they horrors? What do you think? I don't
00:18:21.160 -->
00:18:26.099think they're horror. I take it, look hostile.
00:18:26.460 -->
00:18:29.940It's torture porn. Oh, yeah. So would you consider
00:18:29.940 -->
00:18:32.099Texas Chainsaw Massacre to be a horror movie?
00:18:33.299 -->
00:18:37.700No. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a reimagining
00:18:37.700 -->
00:18:41.579of Psycho with a more realistic. In other words,
00:18:41.640 -->
00:18:44.940Psycho doesn't take place in Texas, but it's
00:18:44.940 -->
00:18:48.200about Ed Gein. Well, then what would they be
00:18:48.200 -->
00:18:52.880then? They would be, it's a new genre. It's a
00:18:52.880 -->
00:18:56.779genre that's populated. with serial killers.
00:18:56.940 -->
00:18:59.420See, I feel like you're - Seven is that way.
00:19:00.220 -->
00:19:05.619Hannibal. Yeah. Silence of the Lambs. Any movie
00:19:05.619 -->
00:19:09.259with - American Psycho. American Psycho. And
00:19:09.259 -->
00:19:11.079I'll tell you something else, Home Invasion.
00:19:11.220 -->
00:19:14.180I think you could take torture porn, Home Invasion,
00:19:14.200 -->
00:19:17.180movies where women are mistreated in Italian
00:19:17.180 -->
00:19:21.119films. There's a night train to something or
00:19:21.119 -->
00:19:24.690other, which is absolutely the most - If you
00:19:24.690 -->
00:19:27.250really want to see disgusting movies, just check
00:19:27.250 -->
00:19:29.490out the Euro trash. It's not called Euro trash
00:19:29.490 -->
00:19:32.009for, it's called Euro trash for a reason, but
00:19:32.009 -->
00:19:34.890these are not because look where I just took
00:19:34.890 -->
00:19:37.190you. I took you from being seven years old, sitting
00:19:37.190 -->
00:19:40.089from my television, watching son of Dracula to
00:19:40.089 -->
00:19:43.890sitting in my car, watching the Raven to sitting
00:19:43.890 -->
00:19:47.349with some drugs, watching Kubrick's 2001. And
00:19:47.349 -->
00:19:50.490then we come to the, to the, to the, to the fork
00:19:50.490 -->
00:19:54.599in the road, which is movies. where women are
00:19:54.599 -->
00:19:59.720murdered, butchered by maniacs. Dario Argento
00:19:59.720 -->
00:20:02.480built an entire career. Bird with the Crystal
00:20:02.480 -->
00:20:06.839Plumage is not horror. Four Flies on Gray Velvet
00:20:06.839 -->
00:20:11.539is not horror. Suspiria is. But being Italian,
00:20:11.839 -->
00:20:14.440I don't know what the fuck it's about. It seems
00:20:14.440 -->
00:20:17.170like you've got a controversial take. that maybe
00:20:17.170 -->
00:20:19.009a lot of people don't necessarily agree with
00:20:19.009 -->
00:20:22.789i'm not saying it's wrong uh well everyone has
00:20:22.789 -->
00:20:26.789the right to my opinion well i mean because yeah
00:20:26.789 -->
00:20:28.609to your point chris like if you look up what
00:20:28.609 -->
00:20:32.369a horror film is it's a literary literary or
00:20:32.369 -->
00:20:35.589film genre concerned with arousing feelings of
00:20:35.589 -->
00:20:39.289fear and horror so texas chainsaw massacre by
00:20:39.289 -->
00:20:41.730definition i would say does that but you're right
00:20:41.730 -->
00:20:44.130it's not supernatural so it kind of brings it
00:20:44.130 -->
00:20:47.890into this kind of like real Well, maybe the way
00:20:47.890 -->
00:20:51.269to make everybody happy, which I never like to
00:20:51.269 -->
00:20:56.549do, is the horror film is an umbrella. And there
00:20:56.549 -->
00:20:59.430are different aspects of it that are brought
00:20:59.430 -->
00:21:03.150forth with different decades. And as people become
00:21:03.150 -->
00:21:08.470more anesthetized to, I mean, all right, I'm
00:21:08.470 -->
00:21:10.109going to bring this up. If I were a psychiatrist,
00:21:10.269 -->
00:21:12.730I would say, oh, I'm feeling stressed. I'm going
00:21:12.730 -->
00:21:15.849to go home and watch. Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
00:21:16.910 -->
00:21:19.769What's wrong with that? First of all, you're
00:21:19.769 -->
00:21:23.450relaxing watching people being butchered. Is
00:21:23.450 -->
00:21:26.269it the same dynamic that makes you look at a
00:21:26.269 -->
00:21:29.829road accident? Yeah. Are we fascinated? Well,
00:21:29.990 -->
00:21:33.589all right. All horror comes from two places,
00:21:33.829 -->
00:21:39.089sex and death. Sex and death. Tombs of the Blind
00:21:39.089 -->
00:21:43.130Dead, definitely. Anything European, definitely.
00:21:45.779 -->
00:21:48.759Dracula. Dracula, the undead lover that has many
00:21:48.759 -->
00:21:54.619brides. Frankenstein wants a bride. Everybody's
00:21:54.619 -->
00:21:57.099horny in these things. Well, why do we call those
00:21:57.099 -->
00:22:01.500traditional monsters? Why do we refer to them
00:22:01.500 -->
00:22:03.559as universal monsters? I mean, obviously, I know
00:22:03.559 -->
00:22:05.559they were all... They were all made at Universal,
00:22:05.599 -->
00:22:08.420and Universal became the studio known for making
00:22:08.420 -->
00:22:10.839them. Like MGM was a studio known for making
00:22:10.839 -->
00:22:14.470musicals, like The Wizard of Oz. Paramount was
00:22:14.470 -->
00:22:17.609known for importing Broadway shows and exotic
00:22:17.609 -->
00:22:20.890actresses like Dietrich and Garbo. Well, as Val
00:22:20.890 -->
00:22:23.630Lewton said at RKO when he made Cat People, he
00:22:23.630 -->
00:22:26.049said Universal's idea of a monster movie was
00:22:26.049 -->
00:22:29.470a wolfman chasing a girl up a tree. He wasn't
00:22:29.470 -->
00:22:32.630wrong. So here's a question. Do you think the
00:22:32.630 -->
00:22:36.529psycho Night of the Living Dead and Texas Chainsaw
00:22:36.529 -->
00:22:40.049Massacre were a response to the Hays Code that
00:22:40.049 -->
00:22:41.990kind of reigned supreme in the United States?
00:22:42.309 -->
00:22:46.089Yes. Also a response to what was good. Remember,
00:22:46.230 -->
00:22:50.829movies are, I regard movies as an art form. And
00:22:50.829 -->
00:22:54.849when you do that, it reflects the times that
00:22:54.849 -->
00:22:57.849we're in. Every horror cycle comes with a world
00:22:57.849 -->
00:23:01.509war. The German, the first world war brought
00:23:01.509 -->
00:23:04.569Nosferatu, the silent films, student of Prague,
00:23:04.750 -->
00:23:09.390all of that. The twenties, an era of prosperity,
00:23:09.450 -->
00:23:12.369all the horror movies made in the twenties. had
00:23:12.369 -->
00:23:15.509trick endings. In other words, London after midnight,
00:23:15.710 -->
00:23:18.690they weren't vampires. Phantom of the Opera is
00:23:18.690 -->
00:23:22.009the only example where it's a monster. Or actually
00:23:22.009 -->
00:23:27.230a guy that's kind of a maniac. The 30s, the Depression,
00:23:27.549 -->
00:23:30.529coming to the Second World War. Second World
00:23:30.529 -->
00:23:34.490War, whole horror renaissance. Then we get to
00:23:34.490 -->
00:23:37.869the 50s, we get to insect fear films and the
00:23:37.869 -->
00:23:40.690atomic bomb. All of a sudden, old castles and
00:23:40.690 -->
00:23:44.859graveyards. Don't do it. Giant bugs, radiation,
00:23:45.819 -->
00:23:48.680amazing colossal man, war of the colossal beast,
00:23:49.200 -->
00:23:51.980attack of the puppet people, either people getting
00:23:51.980 -->
00:23:54.759bigger or smaller. Everyone's afraid of the Russians,
00:23:54.839 -->
00:24:01.259the 27th day. Then we get to the 60s, which is
00:24:01.259 -->
00:24:03.880just the beginning of everything about to tear
00:24:03.880 -->
00:24:07.759up by Easy Rider. Because see, remember, we opened
00:24:07.759 -->
00:24:12.680with House of Usher in 1960. By 1966, 67, Easy
00:24:12.680 -->
00:24:15.259Rider. I went looking for America and it wasn't
00:24:15.259 -->
00:24:17.880there. All of a sudden, the studios were in the
00:24:17.880 -->
00:24:20.799hands of people like Robert Evans, Dennis Hopper,
00:24:20.839 -->
00:24:25.079Peter Fonda. That opened the doors for Charlie
00:24:25.079 -->
00:24:29.559Manson, Rosemary's Baby, Roman Polanski. And
00:24:29.559 -->
00:24:34.319that opened the door for glamorizing, mythologically
00:24:34.319 -->
00:24:38.539making serial killers like gods. Charles Manson,
00:24:38.539 -->
00:24:43.369Ed Gein. John Wayne Gacy, the Menendez brothers,
00:24:44.430 -->
00:24:48.529Robert Ramirez, Ted Bundy. There are women that
00:24:48.529 -->
00:24:51.829would, sex and death. When you tell someone that
00:24:51.829 -->
00:24:54.369you've murdered people and done things with corpses,
00:24:54.670 -->
00:24:57.990you get fan mail. Well, it's the ultimate BDE,
00:24:58.130 -->
00:25:02.130isn't it? Yes. So, well, I got a question for
00:25:02.130 -->
00:25:06.910you. When do you think horror films started saying
00:25:06.910 -->
00:25:10.819more about society? like being more like metaphorical
00:25:10.819 -->
00:25:14.579or the starting at the end of the 60s because
00:25:14.579 -->
00:25:19.539actually the po films with price was a metaphor
00:25:19.539 -->
00:25:24.880for the old order the establishment being represented
00:25:24.880 -->
00:25:29.380by price the younger uh victims or the younger
00:25:29.380 -->
00:25:34.440the romantic lead as a girlfriend were the hippies
00:25:34.440 -->
00:25:38.720and by the time aip They even did a horror movie
00:25:38.720 -->
00:25:41.079called Cry of the Banshee, where the credits
00:25:41.079 -->
00:25:46.200are set that way. The establishment. The counterculture.
00:25:46.799 -->
00:25:50.160And they made movies like Psychomania about a
00:25:50.160 -->
00:25:53.160motorcycle gang that all kill themselves so they
00:25:53.160 -->
00:25:55.380can come back and be immortal. So this is basically,
00:25:55.500 -->
00:25:57.119you're saying, a reflection of the culture at
00:25:57.119 -->
00:25:59.799the time. Yes. The Wild Angels was the Hells
00:25:59.799 -->
00:26:04.039Angels. Hells Angels made their comment at Altamont
00:26:04.039 -->
00:26:07.619when little... Little Red Rooster, Mick Jagger's
00:26:07.619 -->
00:26:10.579going, why are we fighting? What are we fighting
00:26:10.579 -->
00:26:12.819about? How did that feel, though, as a fan and
00:26:12.819 -->
00:26:16.599audience member? Did you, were you, you know,
00:26:16.599 -->
00:26:19.940can you characterize how the youth and sort of
00:26:19.940 -->
00:26:21.480counterculture felt about it? Oh, in two words.
00:26:21.960 -->
00:26:24.240Hippies were holding flowers, then they were
00:26:24.240 -->
00:26:28.119holding machetes. And they're still smoking dope.
00:26:29.019 -->
00:26:32.619Okay, the 60s, then. Does that feel like a cultural
00:26:32.619 -->
00:26:35.559awakening to awareness? Fuck yeah. That just
00:26:35.559 -->
00:26:39.200was either ignored or people wouldn't talk about
00:26:39.200 -->
00:26:42.059before then? Oh, no. I mean, it was a confrontation
00:26:42.059 -->
00:26:47.059between the kids you raised and the world that
00:26:47.059 -->
00:26:48.779you thought you lived in that was falling apart.
00:26:50.000 -->
00:26:52.579Remember, Nixon was a result of this. Reagan
00:26:52.579 -->
00:26:55.259was a result of this. There's the true horror.
00:26:56.259 -->
00:26:59.930But the movies reflected it all. So if you take
00:26:59.930 -->
00:27:05.190that to, like, today, 2026, what do you think
00:27:05.190 -->
00:27:07.690that the horror genre is saying about our current
00:27:07.690 -->
00:27:10.029culture? Like, is it still a response to it?
00:27:10.089 -->
00:27:15.630Everything is dystopian. Everything, 28 days
00:27:15.630 -->
00:27:20.950later, 28 years later, very influential movies
00:27:20.950 -->
00:27:27.740in horror, that series. And well done. I think
00:27:27.740 -->
00:27:30.539we're fascinated with zombies. Well, I'm not
00:27:30.539 -->
00:27:34.119fascinated with them. People are fascinated with
00:27:34.119 -->
00:27:39.339zombies because everyone feels their humanity
00:27:39.339 -->
00:27:42.279being drained out of them to where you're just
00:27:42.279 -->
00:27:44.099a walking shell of what you were. Right, and
00:27:44.099 -->
00:27:46.700you think that's a response. I mean, it sounds
00:27:46.700 -->
00:27:49.079like, to me, a response largely to technological
00:27:49.079 -->
00:27:51.859advancements. Absolutely. Like what comes next?
00:27:52.039 -->
00:27:56.589AI. Well, yeah. Got a lot of AI horrors coming
00:27:56.589 -->
00:27:58.869out here. But now think about it, Chris. We all
00:27:58.869 -->
00:28:03.369make movies, so remember this. Tubi, Shudder,
00:28:03.470 -->
00:28:08.190all these platforms are unindated with bad horror
00:28:08.190 -->
00:28:11.789movies. Movies that no longer need to be greenlit.
00:28:12.089 -->
00:28:16.049Have you ever been able to kind of forecast a
00:28:16.049 -->
00:28:21.589trend in horror movies? Not now. Not now. Well...
00:28:21.839 -->
00:28:25.000The best way to forecast anything in motion pictures
00:28:25.000 -->
00:28:28.819is did it make money? Yeah. Because that is really
00:28:28.819 -->
00:28:31.759what it's all about. I don't think that... Now,
00:28:31.819 -->
00:28:36.200I liked Heretic with Hugh Grant, but I don't
00:28:36.200 -->
00:28:39.640see a sequel there. Right. Whereas something
00:28:39.640 -->
00:28:46.000like It, any of the Stephen King franchise movies,
00:28:46.380 -->
00:28:50.400they make money and they're pre -sold. But an
00:28:50.400 -->
00:28:54.140original innovative horror movie, when we were
00:28:54.140 -->
00:28:59.680talking about the movies that I watched on cable
00:28:59.680 -->
00:29:01.319that you were telling me about with the dummy
00:29:01.319 -->
00:29:04.680in the basement. Caveat. Caveat and - Oddity.
00:29:04.839 -->
00:29:07.859Oddity, yeah. Those are interesting. Yeah. And
00:29:07.859 -->
00:29:11.819they're not like, I don't like the Insidious
00:29:11.819 -->
00:29:16.099franchise at all. Right. And - I can see that.
00:29:16.160 -->
00:29:18.220And I don't like the Scream franchise, frankly.
00:29:18.220 -->
00:29:23.319So for you - Scream's not supernatural. No. Well,
00:29:23.380 -->
00:29:27.619what do you look for in a good horror movie?
00:29:27.740 -->
00:29:31.819Like what tickles your... Well, I'm old school.
00:29:31.980 -->
00:29:36.119So I like horror movies that have a backstory.
00:29:36.319 -->
00:29:40.460In other words, or are kind of surrealistic.
00:29:41.019 -->
00:29:44.099One of my favorite Italian horror movies, which
00:29:44.099 -->
00:29:47.460is really not... It's sort of supernatural. It's
00:29:47.460 -->
00:29:50.839called The House with the Laughing Windows. And
00:29:50.839 -->
00:29:53.200it's about a painter that goes to restore a church
00:29:53.200 -->
00:29:58.000and discovers a moldering evil. I love the idea
00:29:58.000 -->
00:30:02.380of something festering, something hiding in antiquity
00:30:02.380 -->
00:30:05.480that comes back into a modern audience. That's
00:30:05.480 -->
00:30:08.039the premise of a lot of European horror movies.
00:30:08.180 -->
00:30:11.440I love that stuff too. What I'm tired of, if
00:30:11.440 -->
00:30:15.140you're listening Del Toro. No more remakes of
00:30:15.140 -->
00:30:18.539Frankenstein. No more remakes of Dracula. No
00:30:18.539 -->
00:30:22.319more remakes of Jekyll and Hyde. Bring me something
00:30:22.319 -->
00:30:28.400new. There is a vast, vast sea of public domain
00:30:28.400 -->
00:30:32.180short stories and novels. They could make gorgeous
00:30:32.180 -->
00:30:35.779horror movies. Why must we continually remake?
00:30:36.099 -->
00:30:39.700The new version of Dracula right now by Luc Bresson
00:30:39.700 -->
00:30:43.359is a remake of the Coppola Dracula. which by
00:30:43.359 -->
00:30:46.559God didn't need to be remade. Well, that's a
00:30:46.559 -->
00:30:48.440really good point. And remaking Nosferatu again.
00:30:48.599 -->
00:30:50.700I mean, that's true across all genres and all
00:30:50.700 -->
00:30:53.220films. There you go. Well, I was looking this
00:30:53.220 -->
00:30:55.220up because this ties to what you're talking about.
00:30:55.299 -->
00:30:58.160Dracula is probably the most, besides Sherlock
00:30:58.160 -->
00:31:02.220Holmes, the most featured character in film.
00:31:02.599 -->
00:31:05.539I think he's in over 200. Well, it's Christ without
00:31:05.539 -->
00:31:10.079guilt because you have an immortal being that's...
00:31:11.329 -->
00:31:14.349living through the centuries by drinking blood
00:31:14.349 -->
00:31:17.329but he's romantic because remember he's based
00:31:17.329 -->
00:31:21.589on lord byron bram stoker based him on sir henry
00:31:21.589 -->
00:31:25.210irving john polidori who was the lover of lord
00:31:25.210 -->
00:31:28.470byron wrote the first the first vampire book
00:31:28.470 -->
00:31:31.990ever was called the vampire and it was based
00:31:31.990 -->
00:31:36.130on lord byron I thought they were Vlad the Impaler.
00:31:36.210 -->
00:31:39.609No, Vlad the Impaler. Well, what about the Tolstoy?
00:31:39.609 -->
00:31:42.269Jesus Christ. The Valdoruk? How do you say that?
00:31:42.349 -->
00:31:45.609The Valdoruk? Oh, the Voodalak? Yes, thank you.
00:31:46.089 -->
00:31:49.289The Voodalak. That predates Dracula. That's Nikolai
00:31:49.289 -->
00:31:53.829Gogol. And his short story is Tsarist Russia.
00:31:54.029 -->
00:31:57.569So, yeah. In fact, there's a great TV series
00:31:57.569 -->
00:32:00.490I recommended, 30 Coins, and I now recommend
00:32:00.490 -->
00:32:05.089Gogol. which actually shows you, in real time,
00:32:05.930 -->
00:32:09.130Black Sunday, Mask of the Demon, that made Barbara
00:32:09.130 -->
00:32:12.670Steele and Mario Bava famous. Gogol was an early
00:32:12.670 -->
00:32:15.750writer of supernatural horror. But to answer
00:32:15.750 -->
00:32:18.269your original question, that's what I look for,
00:32:18.369 -->
00:32:24.130is background, things that are set in antiquity,
00:32:24.509 -->
00:32:29.829psychological horror, maybe? That's frightening.
00:32:30.569 -->
00:32:34.109What isn't frightening, I think in 2026, we don't
00:32:34.109 -->
00:32:36.410know the difference between being frightened
00:32:36.410 -->
00:32:41.109and being startled. Because every trailer I look
00:32:41.109 -->
00:32:46.009at is boom. What are we going to do? Boom. Yeah.
00:32:46.109 -->
00:32:50.650And that's lazy, guys. I mean, I agree. You don't
00:32:50.650 -->
00:32:53.690have to work on developing real suspense if you're
00:32:53.690 -->
00:32:56.789developing cheap suspense. You bet. You bet.
00:32:56.990 -->
00:33:00.690David, I know you're a big vampire fan. Would
00:33:00.690 -->
00:33:03.269you say your favorite vampire movie involves
00:33:03.269 -->
00:33:06.730Dracula? Because I think of, for myself, my favorite
00:33:06.730 -->
00:33:08.930vampire movies don't involve Dracula himself.
00:33:09.589 -->
00:33:12.230Well, that's a very good question. Because if
00:33:12.230 -->
00:33:15.750we remove Hammer films from the equation, my
00:33:15.750 -->
00:33:18.309favorite vampire movies are Daughters of Darkness
00:33:18.309 -->
00:33:24.369by Harry Kumail, which is based on Countess Batory.
00:33:24.829 -->
00:33:28.329The Countess Elizabeth Batory was a real -life
00:33:28.329 -->
00:33:31.730woman. that believed by bathing in virgin blood,
00:33:31.890 -->
00:33:35.369you have to try my virgin blood, by being bathed
00:33:35.369 -->
00:33:38.549in virgin blood, she can remain beautiful. Carmilla,
00:33:38.690 -->
00:33:43.970the flip side of Dracula, a lesbian vampire who
00:33:43.970 -->
00:33:46.970takes the blood of beautiful young girls by staying
00:33:46.970 -->
00:33:49.930in their homes. Hammer Films even had the temerity
00:33:49.930 -->
00:33:52.730to make a vampire movie about the Karnsteins,
00:33:52.730 -->
00:33:55.589which is what they were called, by placing their
00:33:55.589 -->
00:33:58.390graves, and then they put a girls' school above
00:33:58.390 -->
00:34:01.230that. So when the Karnsteins come back to life,
00:34:01.410 -->
00:34:06.269it's a 7 -Eleven for blood upstairs. The Blood
00:34:06.269 -->
00:34:10.809-Spattered Bride from Spain. Brides of Dracula
00:34:10.809 -->
00:34:13.789from Hammer doesn't have Dracula in it. It has
00:34:13.789 -->
00:34:19.690a very homosexual vampire. My favorite vampire
00:34:19.690 -->
00:34:22.730movie, because I've seen it so many times, it's
00:34:22.730 -->
00:34:25.670not a Dracula movie. It's Dance of the Vampires
00:34:25.670 -->
00:34:28.449by Roman Polanski. Fearless Vampire Killers.
00:34:28.889 -->
00:34:31.369And I was close friends with Ferdie Mayne, who
00:34:31.369 -->
00:34:34.170played Count Von Crolock in that. And he based
00:34:34.170 -->
00:34:37.670it on Lee. But Christopher Lee's Dracula was
00:34:37.670 -->
00:34:41.530very influential. But to me, there's only one
00:34:41.530 -->
00:34:45.070Dracula, and that's Bela Lugosi. Bela Lugosi,
00:34:45.070 -->
00:34:51.010yeah. Well, I got a question then. Horror is
00:34:51.010 -->
00:34:54.849interesting to me because it's a genre that you
00:34:54.849 -->
00:35:00.179have some really amazing creative, um, elevated
00:35:00.179 -->
00:35:04.300films. And then you have like B camp schlock
00:35:04.300 -->
00:35:09.460and fans oftentimes seem to love it all. Yeah.
00:35:09.559 -->
00:35:12.900I'm that way. I love horrible movies. I mean,
00:35:12.900 -->
00:35:16.659uh, I just, I mean, I just, the one I just did
00:35:16.659 -->
00:35:19.760house of the, of the seven corpses. I mean, it's,
00:35:19.760 -->
00:35:22.260it's lame as all get out, but it reminds you
00:35:22.260 -->
00:35:24.880of a TV movie of the week. I love Quinn Tarantino
00:35:24.880 -->
00:35:28.059and I both love. tv movies of the week not just
00:35:28.059 -->
00:35:30.639horror but all the things that were coming out
00:35:30.639 -->
00:35:33.679of television in the 70s and 80s so what about
00:35:33.679 -->
00:35:38.159the the bad movies do you like like the plan
00:35:38.159 -->
00:35:41.000nines from outer space hideous sun demon beast
00:35:41.000 -->
00:35:43.619of yucca flats i could go on and on but is it
00:35:43.619 -->
00:35:45.800is it the campiness that that you like are you
00:35:45.800 -->
00:35:48.340enjoying it from like a humorous point of view
00:35:48.340 -->
00:35:53.280yeah well of course but but for me A lot of these
00:35:53.280 -->
00:35:55.800really bad movies were coming out at the same
00:35:55.800 -->
00:35:58.179time as the really good ones. The same time I
00:35:58.179 -->
00:36:01.440saw House of Usher, I saw Zsa Zsa Gabor in Queen
00:36:01.440 -->
00:36:05.199of Outer Space. You're not referring to the new
00:36:05.199 -->
00:36:07.739House of Usher, obviously. No, I'm definitely
00:36:07.739 -->
00:36:10.099not. I'm not a big fan of it. Follow the House
00:36:10.099 -->
00:36:14.179of Usher. Yeah, well, it really fell. But no,
00:36:14.380 -->
00:36:17.340I mean, the mole people, Universal started making,
00:36:17.519 -->
00:36:20.440well, that takes us back to the insect fear films,
00:36:20.539 -->
00:36:25.110The Fly. return of the fly curse of the fly you
00:36:25.110 -->
00:36:28.829like and then cronenberg remade them oh i didn't
00:36:28.829 -->
00:36:31.369realize that they were his versions were remakes
00:36:31.369 -->
00:36:34.030that's interesting you never saw the 1958 the
00:36:34.030 -->
00:36:37.289fly i fortunately i'm one of those right yeah
00:36:37.289 -->
00:36:40.289the misfit song return of the fly yeah that was
00:36:40.289 -->
00:36:42.809vincent price he says yeah it's one of the lyrics
00:36:42.809 -->
00:36:45.289i did the audio commentary with brett halsey
00:36:45.289 -->
00:36:48.289who played the fly And I did the one with David
00:36:48.289 -->
00:36:51.010Hedgeson who played the original fly. Well, you're
00:36:51.010 -->
00:36:53.949also no Vincent Price, don't you? Yes. I met
00:36:53.949 -->
00:36:57.650him when I was in high school, when I was watching
00:36:57.650 -->
00:37:00.449all these AIP movies. He had just done Witchfinder
00:37:00.449 -->
00:37:03.809General, The Conqueror Worm. And he was downtown
00:37:03.809 -->
00:37:07.630Sacramento. And I took my friend David Stone,
00:37:07.809 -->
00:37:11.590who's now an artist at the Blue Whale here. No,
00:37:11.630 -->
00:37:13.349he's back up in Sacramento, but he's very well
00:37:13.349 -->
00:37:17.420known. And we went there to the municipal auditorium
00:37:17.420 -->
00:37:20.519and Vincent was doing a lecture called Dear Theo
00:37:20.519 -->
00:37:24.219about the letters between Vincent Van Gogh and
00:37:24.219 -->
00:37:26.780his brother Theo, something I would never have
00:37:26.780 -->
00:37:31.139gone to in like junior high. And I go, cause
00:37:31.139 -->
00:37:33.300I'm crazy about Vincent. Right. So you went just
00:37:33.300 -->
00:37:35.920to see. Yes. And I went backstage and he was
00:37:35.920 -->
00:37:40.099standing with his back to me like that. And he
00:37:40.099 -->
00:37:44.239turned around and, uh, I just don't know what
00:37:44.239 -->
00:37:46.980happened to me. He walked over and he said, and
00:37:46.980 -->
00:37:50.900who may you be? And I said, I'm David and I'm
00:37:50.900 -->
00:37:53.159from Encina High School and I'm the editor of
00:37:53.159 -->
00:37:56.079the Tomahawk. And I'm here to interview you.
00:37:56.360 -->
00:37:58.659And he looked at me and said, the Tomahawk? Well,
00:37:58.880 -->
00:38:00.880we better get you over here where we can talk.
00:38:01.079 -->
00:38:04.699So he took both my hands in his and we went and
00:38:04.699 -->
00:38:08.500sat in this chair, this little chair. And that
00:38:08.500 -->
00:38:12.420was 1968. And I would know him until he died.
00:38:12.750 -->
00:38:15.929That's crazy. Did you, were you, would you consider
00:38:15.929 -->
00:38:19.650him a friend? Oh, I was in love with him. I just,
00:38:19.849 -->
00:38:26.789he knew it. He knew it. He felt it. He knew by
00:38:26.789 -->
00:38:31.110me not ever saying anything that he helped me
00:38:31.110 -->
00:38:34.849live through my would have been unhappy childhood
00:38:34.849 -->
00:38:39.150because we moved around a lot. And my personality
00:38:39.150 -->
00:38:42.889today is based on the fact. that I was the new
00:38:42.889 -->
00:38:45.909kid in school all the time. I had to be a star
00:38:45.909 -->
00:38:48.929because those kids would eat me alive on the,
00:38:49.090 -->
00:38:53.489you know, and I wasn't a sports guy. I like sports
00:38:53.489 -->
00:38:56.610guys, but I wasn't one. By high school, I figured
00:38:56.610 -->
00:39:00.449all of that out and I'm still doing it. But the
00:39:00.449 -->
00:39:03.730thing is, horror films have always been an outlet,
00:39:04.010 -->
00:39:07.809not only for one's imagination, but also as a
00:39:07.809 -->
00:39:11.579safety net so you won't be lonely. And do you
00:39:11.579 -->
00:39:13.820think, that's a really interesting point, do
00:39:13.820 -->
00:39:17.800you think that the genre of horror is more welcoming
00:39:17.800 -->
00:39:21.719to queer people? Yes. Well, let's look at the
00:39:21.719 -->
00:39:25.000Frankenstein monster and the director who put
00:39:25.000 -->
00:39:29.980it together. James Whale was gay. And the monster
00:39:29.980 -->
00:39:34.139is an outcast. He doesn't fit in anywhere. And
00:39:34.139 -->
00:39:36.440think about the vampire for a minute. He casts
00:39:36.440 -->
00:39:39.489no reflection in a mirror. When you're a gay
00:39:39.489 -->
00:39:42.269man or you're a gay kid, your looks are everything.
00:39:42.630 -->
00:39:44.989If you don't have looks, you don't have a life.
00:39:46.409 -->
00:39:51.809You don't have a life. And for me, I used my
00:39:51.809 -->
00:39:55.130gift of gab and my sense of humor, which saved
00:39:55.130 -->
00:39:59.610my life. You know, because I wasn't a really,
00:39:59.690 -->
00:40:03.010really handsome guy. I was cute, but I wasn't,
00:40:03.010 -->
00:40:09.130you know. I beg to differ. And I remember. It's
00:40:09.130 -->
00:40:13.130like looking through a glass darkly. You're observing,
00:40:13.289 -->
00:40:16.789you're looking like Hannibal Lecter. Tell me
00:40:16.789 -->
00:40:20.389what you see, Clarice. Look deeper. What are
00:40:20.389 -->
00:40:22.349you looking at? What do you want to possess?
00:40:23.110 -->
00:40:25.929Everyone looks at someone and there's something
00:40:25.929 -->
00:40:27.949about them if they're attracted to them. You
00:40:27.949 -->
00:40:30.710want that. You want to possess that for a minute.
00:40:30.869 -->
00:40:33.769Horror films open the door for that. I knew before
00:40:33.769 -->
00:40:36.869I was even sexually aware that there was something
00:40:36.869 -->
00:40:41.360in the horror film. That was sexual. The vampire
00:40:41.360 -->
00:40:44.840is a sexual being. The werewolf is a sexual being.
00:40:45.699 -->
00:40:50.380Creating different body parts to make a monster.
00:40:51.400 -->
00:40:57.179That's creating life without women. Something
00:40:57.179 -->
00:41:00.519a lot of people think about more than once. Well,
00:41:00.519 -->
00:41:02.980actually, let me jump in on that. Because what's
00:41:02.980 -->
00:41:06.280interesting is, you're gay, I'm straight. And
00:41:06.280 -->
00:41:09.340I watched horror movies as a kid. I would put
00:41:09.340 -->
00:41:12.179that together. In fact, if I saw something with
00:41:12.179 -->
00:41:16.219a witch or came up in the 80s, so Zelda from
00:41:16.219 -->
00:41:18.380Pet Sematary is supposed to be a creepy fucking
00:41:18.380 -->
00:41:21.500woman. I'm like, that is not sexual at all to
00:41:21.500 -->
00:41:25.039me. No, no, no. But you're missing the point.
00:41:26.139 -->
00:41:30.940Vampirism is the taking of bodily fluids from
00:41:30.940 -->
00:41:34.179each other. Dracula is not a love story, guys.
00:41:34.679 -->
00:41:37.500Bram Stoker, if you read Dracula, I'm causing
00:41:37.500 -->
00:41:42.000oceans of time to be with you. No, no, no. He's
00:41:42.000 -->
00:41:45.039an animated corpse that drains blood to survive.
00:41:45.900 -->
00:41:50.099The romanticism comes from Hollywood. Vlad the
00:41:50.099 -->
00:41:53.780Impaler comes from Hollywood. Now, Bram Stoker,
00:41:54.019 -->
00:41:58.000when he was writing Dracula, there was an exhibit
00:41:58.000 -->
00:42:03.019of Romanian artifacts that included Vlad the
00:42:03.019 -->
00:42:07.949Impaler's armor and stuff so it's it's possible
00:42:07.949 -->
00:42:12.329that bram ran down there and looked i don't know
00:42:12.329 -->
00:42:15.369but the fact is he didn't put it in the book
00:42:15.369 -->
00:42:19.789well but when i saw dracula untold that's all
00:42:19.789 -->
00:42:22.929about vlad i i could be mistaken but i thought
00:42:22.929 -->
00:42:25.989i i actually read a book about vlad vlad the
00:42:25.989 -->
00:42:28.929imperial historical well he probably was analysis
00:42:28.929 -->
00:42:32.030he's a prototype of the vampire in in history
00:42:32.519 -->
00:42:35.320Yeah. Okay. Maybe, but not Dracula. Not the Dracula
00:42:35.320 -->
00:42:38.500from the literary point of view. Although I just,
00:42:38.559 -->
00:42:41.840I did a commentary for just Franco's count Dracula
00:42:41.840 -->
00:42:44.980in which Christopher Lee was so proud, so proud
00:42:44.980 -->
00:42:48.380that he had done his, he stands up in front of
00:42:48.380 -->
00:42:50.820a portrait of himself. He said, and we, and we,
00:42:50.820 -->
00:42:55.000and we pushed back the Turkish hordes. He's Vlad.
00:42:56.400 -->
00:42:59.599Christopher thought he was Vlad. He was a Christopher
00:42:59.599 -->
00:43:02.420thought a lot of things among them. You know,
00:43:02.559 -->
00:43:05.780I go back to, I have a place. I go back to Charlemagne,
00:43:05.900 -->
00:43:08.260you know. Were you friends with Christopher?
00:43:08.260 -->
00:43:10.480I was indeed. He's the one that said to me, I
00:43:10.480 -->
00:43:14.260was too short to wear a cape. You know, I'm almost
00:43:14.260 -->
00:43:17.460six. He wanted to be 6 '11", but no, no, you
00:43:17.460 -->
00:43:21.239weren't 6 '11". And he said, no, David, you can't
00:43:21.239 -->
00:43:25.059wear a cape. You're simply too short. And I said,
00:43:25.059 -->
00:43:29.230well, thank you. Did that make you wear capes
00:43:29.230 -->
00:43:31.449to defy him? Well, you know, when I was a kid,
00:43:31.530 -->
00:43:35.349I had a cape for Halloween, but I get his point.
00:43:35.550 -->
00:43:39.010You know, look, I can see mirrors. I'm six. No,
00:43:39.070 -->
00:43:43.309what am I? Five, six, five, seven. No, he's correct.
00:43:43.869 -->
00:43:46.429There's never been a Dracula on screen that was
00:43:46.429 -->
00:43:49.530my size. Fair enough. Maybe there's an idea.
00:43:49.610 -->
00:43:52.449None stood on Apple boxes. Well, then you can't
00:43:52.449 -->
00:43:54.929go anywhere. Oh, wait, you can turn into a bat.
00:43:55.420 -->
00:43:58.280excuse me uh i don't know where that came from
00:43:58.280 -->
00:44:01.679either but no i mean um fun side story actually
00:44:01.679 -->
00:44:05.579about christopher lee uh i i used to be really
00:44:05.579 -->
00:44:07.460into this band i guess i still am called rhapsody
00:44:07.460 -->
00:44:12.579and it's like a a european kind of fantasy metal
00:44:12.579 -->
00:44:17.300band oh boy he did a whole like 13 minute intro
00:44:17.300 -->
00:44:22.340as a wizard you know or or narrator of this like
00:44:22.340 -->
00:44:26.449album this concept album and And man, his voice.
00:44:26.510 -->
00:44:28.909But anyways. Well, you know, Chris, I am a baritone
00:44:28.909 -->
00:44:32.349and I could have been an opera singer. I was
00:44:32.349 -->
00:44:36.329Atlas Scholar. I was going to do Don Giovanni.
00:44:37.929 -->
00:44:39.789You don't have to lower your voice. You already
00:44:39.789 -->
00:44:42.510are in the register. Well, I'm doing my Christopher
00:44:42.510 -->
00:44:45.050Lee, which is different from my Vincent Price.
00:44:45.329 -->
00:44:48.389Right. Vincent's more Nelly. Christopher's more
00:44:48.389 -->
00:44:52.690Butch. unless he's had a couple of drinks. Oh,
00:44:52.989 -->
00:44:54.449that sounds like a story there. Well, I took
00:44:54.449 -->
00:44:57.829Christopher Lee to a gay disco. Oh. I took him
00:44:57.829 -->
00:45:01.929to Studio One in West Hollywood to the backlot
00:45:01.929 -->
00:45:05.030room to see Geraldine Fitzgerald do her cabaret
00:45:05.030 -->
00:45:08.570act, and the disco was closed. But I told him,
00:45:08.650 -->
00:45:12.570well, you knew I was gay. And he said, well,
00:45:12.750 -->
00:45:17.150quite. I don't think I'll bring Gita. I said,
00:45:17.150 -->
00:45:21.099no, let's have a boys' night out. And I had so
00:45:21.099 -->
00:45:22.940much fun with him. Man, I love going to gay bars.
00:45:23.019 -->
00:45:25.119In fact, Peter and I used to sometimes go to
00:45:25.119 -->
00:45:28.219like, or actually, maybe it was more Mike than
00:45:28.219 -->
00:45:31.360you, but we used to go to, it was called Tiger
00:45:31.360 -->
00:45:34.679Beat here in West Hollywood back in the 2000s.
00:45:34.679 -->
00:45:38.039That's a twink bar. Yeah, yeah. What was great
00:45:38.039 -->
00:45:40.699about it as a straight man is it's all filled
00:45:40.699 -->
00:45:44.760with gay men and straight women. Straight women
00:45:44.760 -->
00:45:48.760are there because they can be comfortable and
00:45:48.760 -->
00:45:50.400not be hit on. Exactly. And they know if you're
00:45:50.400 -->
00:45:52.579there that you're not a, you know, creepy jockey
00:45:52.579 -->
00:45:54.639douche, you know. You could be creepy, but you
00:45:54.639 -->
00:45:56.739know, there are, let's face it. Well, you can
00:45:56.739 -->
00:45:58.679be creepy. There are creepy people in every walk
00:45:58.679 -->
00:46:00.340of life. You're generally probably, if you're
00:46:00.340 -->
00:46:01.519willing to hang out, particularly in the early
00:46:01.519 -->
00:46:03.7802000s at a gay bar, you're probably a little
00:46:03.780 -->
00:46:06.219more open -minded. No, but you know, Christopher
00:46:06.219 -->
00:46:13.199Lee was an icon in that genre because of Hammer.
00:46:14.360 -->
00:46:19.300And Vincent was one because of AIP. Karloff and
00:46:19.300 -->
00:46:23.000Lugosi were one because of Universal. So all
00:46:23.000 -->
00:46:26.239these guys had their studio, their background.
00:46:27.539 -->
00:46:30.039That's gone now. Yeah, you don't see it. All
00:46:30.039 -->
00:46:32.079right, let me just be frank. There are no horror
00:46:32.079 -->
00:46:34.659stars. Exactly. Bobby England, Robert England
00:46:34.659 -->
00:46:41.739is the last one. And I like Robert a lot, and
00:46:41.739 -->
00:46:44.590I've known him. I knew him before Nightmare.
00:46:45.530 -->
00:46:48.630In fact, I'm in his documentary, which they've
00:46:48.630 -->
00:46:51.269never sent me. I have to order it, I guess. But
00:46:51.269 -->
00:46:54.670I'm sitting on a balcony in West Hollywood with
00:46:54.670 -->
00:46:58.150Robert England and Martine Beswick. And we're
00:46:58.150 -->
00:47:00.489having drinks. And we're talking about what's
00:47:00.489 -->
00:47:03.789going on. And I'm an agent. And Robert goes,
00:47:04.530 -->
00:47:07.769you know, I'm going to get a real estate license
00:47:07.769 -->
00:47:11.230like Dean Stockwell. Because I just did a movie.
00:47:11.739 -->
00:47:17.739I'm in a mask. I have no lines. I'm done. That
00:47:17.739 -->
00:47:21.280was the original nightmare. The third time I
00:47:21.280 -->
00:47:25.880saw him, I was covering Dream Warriors. And I
00:47:25.880 -->
00:47:28.659wanted to fuck with him. So we had a press conference
00:47:28.659 -->
00:47:32.119and he sees me sitting there. And I raise my
00:47:32.119 -->
00:47:34.820hand and I go, Mr. England. And he goes, yes,
00:47:34.820 -->
00:47:38.480David. I said, well, seems to me that Freddy
00:47:38.480 -->
00:47:42.480Krueger has morphed. from being a child molester
00:47:42.480 -->
00:47:45.739into a stand -up comic. Would you care to comment
00:47:45.739 -->
00:47:49.179on that? And he said, well, since you brought
00:47:49.179 -->
00:47:54.019it up, New Line has decided that we downplay
00:47:54.019 -->
00:47:57.860the origins of the character because you can't
00:47:57.860 -->
00:48:00.960get away with that now. You couldn't remake Nightmare
00:48:00.960 -->
00:48:03.639on Elm Street and imply what in the original
00:48:03.639 -->
00:48:07.500movie he is molesting girls that are seven years
00:48:07.500 -->
00:48:10.309old. having sex with them and then throwing them
00:48:10.309 -->
00:48:13.309in the oven or whatever. It's horrible, which
00:48:13.309 -->
00:48:15.530is why all the parents band together to burn
00:48:15.530 -->
00:48:19.989him up. That is so forgotten in those sequels.
00:48:20.110 -->
00:48:22.230Well, the remake touches on that, I believe.
00:48:22.269 -->
00:48:24.190A little, really? Yeah. I don't think it would
00:48:24.190 -->
00:48:26.769now necessarily. It's been a minute since I've
00:48:26.769 -->
00:48:28.889seen it, but I do feel like they did address
00:48:28.889 -->
00:48:31.250that. Black Phone brings that up. Well, but you
00:48:31.250 -->
00:48:32.909know, I think the reason that they don't now
00:48:32.909 -->
00:48:35.469is because going back to being all about money.
00:48:35.880 -->
00:48:37.599They want to make, you know, they want PG. Yeah.
00:48:37.820 -->
00:48:40.039No one wants to go in that really perverse stuff.
00:48:40.539 -->
00:48:43.159Well, Dave, here's a question because you've
00:48:43.159 -->
00:48:46.519met a lot of, you know, names in horror over
00:48:46.519 -->
00:48:49.159the years. And I imagine plenty of those actors
00:48:49.159 -->
00:48:51.920did not gravitate towards horror. They just found
00:48:51.920 -->
00:48:54.460themselves becoming a horror actor, maybe an
00:48:54.460 -->
00:48:56.880icon. And then it became a life raft. It became
00:48:56.880 -->
00:48:59.940a life raft for them. Did they then not just
00:48:59.940 -->
00:49:02.800embrace like, okay, I'm the horror flavor of
00:49:02.800 -->
00:49:05.750the year or whatever, but did they? take a shine
00:49:05.750 -->
00:49:08.909to the genre? That's an interesting question.
00:49:09.130 -->
00:49:13.809Most likely not. The older actors that became
00:49:13.809 -->
00:49:17.389known for horror roles started out in different...
00:49:17.389 -->
00:49:23.690Let me try and think of a good example. Let's
00:49:23.690 -->
00:49:29.570say Robert Query, who was Count Yorga. He beat
00:49:29.570 -->
00:49:32.010around Hollywood for years doing character work.
00:49:32.469 -->
00:49:37.650William Marshall, Blackula. Same thing. William
00:49:37.650 -->
00:49:40.829Marshall and Bob Query both, if you ask them
00:49:40.829 -->
00:49:43.130if they like horror movies, they would say, I
00:49:43.130 -->
00:49:48.030like the ones I'm in. Barbara Steele, who I was
00:49:48.030 -->
00:49:52.190her agent, so I knew her intimately, never wanted
00:49:52.190 -->
00:49:54.989to be remembered for her Italian horror until
00:49:54.989 -->
00:49:59.250now. Now she embraces it at the age of 88. Well,
00:49:59.250 -->
00:50:01.510I imagine that's probably because at the time...
00:50:02.039 -->
00:50:04.900Christopher Lee never won. Christopher Lee. I
00:50:04.900 -->
00:50:08.519voted. Yeah. You know, we were watching that.
00:50:08.559 -->
00:50:10.280I went with him for the opening of the wicker
00:50:10.280 -->
00:50:12.599mat. This is my greatest role. I said, you're
00:50:12.599 -->
00:50:16.159in it for 10 minutes. Calm down, you know, and,
00:50:16.360 -->
00:50:19.539uh, Vincent wavered, but Vincent was the most
00:50:19.539 -->
00:50:24.059hip of the lot of them. Well, do you think that
00:50:24.059 -->
00:50:26.159this is because he had a sense of humor that
00:50:26.159 -->
00:50:30.639at the time, maybe horror wasn't quite as appreciated
00:50:30.639 -->
00:50:33.690as the, like, artistic statement. Oh, you're
00:50:33.690 -->
00:50:36.829completely right. You're completely right. Horror
00:50:36.829 -->
00:50:39.349movies were always the lower half of the double
00:50:39.349 -->
00:50:41.949bill. And that's what's interesting, right, is
00:50:41.949 -->
00:50:45.889because horror in a way has withstood the test
00:50:45.889 -->
00:50:49.329of time in a way that a lot of dramas and other
00:50:49.329 -->
00:50:51.630things that usually get most of the attention
00:50:51.630 -->
00:50:53.650when they come out. You know what? Parallel it
00:50:53.650 -->
00:50:58.929to books. The horror fiction never dies. It's
00:50:58.929 -->
00:51:01.719always there. Same with the movies. they're interconnected
00:51:01.719 -->
00:51:07.400uh i think we're seeing the end of the comic
00:51:07.400 -->
00:51:09.960book movies at least i hope we are thank god
00:51:09.960 -->
00:51:12.539marvel no you know well look come on guys we
00:51:12.539 -->
00:51:15.000were all into it when the first couple of thors
00:51:15.000 -->
00:51:17.179or whatever only because it had been tried so
00:51:17.179 -->
00:51:19.079many times and they were so awful finally well
00:51:19.079 -->
00:51:21.300the effects were so good yeah the effects were
00:51:21.300 -->
00:51:24.239good and they they they didn't try to push back
00:51:24.239 -->
00:51:26.800on the camp in the you know in the jokes and
00:51:26.800 -->
00:51:30.289stuff like Well, the Guardians of the Galaxies
00:51:30.289 -->
00:51:36.630were the worst for that reason. Thor Ragnarok,
00:51:36.670 -->
00:51:39.289I like. The main problem is they just made too
00:51:39.289 -->
00:51:41.250many of them and they stopped trying to make
00:51:41.250 -->
00:51:44.050them interesting. And I don't know. We could
00:51:44.050 -->
00:51:46.289have a whole episode about that. Well, no, it
00:51:46.289 -->
00:51:48.849became an industry. We're kind of talking about
00:51:48.849 -->
00:51:51.769this particular genre at this particular episode
00:51:51.769 -->
00:51:55.409because it has artistic merit. Yeah. Well, and,
00:51:55.449 -->
00:51:56.809you know, we were talking about this a little
00:51:56.809 -->
00:51:59.050bit in a past episode, which is that, you know,
00:51:59.090 -->
00:52:03.949horror is also kind of this genre that you can
00:52:03.949 -->
00:52:06.670see a little bit more of the creative process
00:52:06.670 -->
00:52:09.869that went into it. Like they're more unique in
00:52:09.869 -->
00:52:12.409terms of their concept and their visuals and
00:52:12.409 -->
00:52:16.710often. And they also kind of have a point of
00:52:16.710 -->
00:52:19.409view in a way that you can have five indie dramas
00:52:19.409 -->
00:52:21.349and they all kind of feel the same made by different
00:52:21.349 -->
00:52:24.579people. But a horror film made by. Eggers is
00:52:24.579 -->
00:52:26.539going to feel different than a horror movie made
00:52:26.539 -->
00:52:31.980by, um, Joe Dante or, or, uh, well, but the three
00:52:31.980 -->
00:52:34.000of us have worked on it. We we've created an,
00:52:34.019 -->
00:52:36.460what might be an anthology film. Yeah. And the
00:52:36.460 -->
00:52:39.139background of that. Wait, hold, before you get
00:52:39.139 -->
00:52:41.300there, let me just, uh, let the audience know
00:52:41.300 -->
00:52:42.679that David, we didn't mention this in the beginning,
00:52:42.739 -->
00:52:44.900but David is actually an executive producer on
00:52:44.900 -->
00:52:47.719the short film last call that we, that we, uh,
00:52:47.920 -->
00:52:50.539are on the festival circuit with right now. And.
00:52:50.989 -->
00:52:53.869is one of the creators of the story. So I should
00:52:53.869 -->
00:52:55.730have mentioned that up top in his introduction
00:52:55.730 -->
00:52:58.010because, you know, he's a great collaborator
00:52:58.010 -->
00:53:00.030and had been really instrumental in helping us
00:53:00.030 -->
00:53:02.090put that together. Well, the beginning of the
00:53:02.090 -->
00:53:05.250anthology movie was Dead of Night, which was
00:53:05.250 -->
00:53:07.969a British portmanteau, as they call them over
00:53:07.969 -->
00:53:11.650there, of four different stories. And then, of
00:53:11.650 -->
00:53:14.349course, Amicus Films, which was a competition
00:53:14.349 -->
00:53:17.449for Hammer, did Vault of Horror, Tales from the
00:53:17.449 -->
00:53:21.369Crypt, Be From Beyond the Grave, The Monster
00:53:21.369 -->
00:53:30.969Club, Asylum, all of that. And always in anthology
00:53:30.969 -->
00:53:34.869movies, always there's one story of the four
00:53:34.869 -->
00:53:37.530that you love the best and you tolerate the other
00:53:37.530 -->
00:53:39.869three. So when Peter and I were putting together
00:53:39.869 -->
00:53:42.110the stories, I said, wouldn't it be interesting
00:53:42.110 -->
00:53:45.630if every story was good and we didn't have to
00:53:45.630 -->
00:53:47.530wait, oh, I want to get to episode number three,
00:53:47.570 -->
00:53:50.940so let's fast forward to that. But there are
00:53:50.940 -->
00:53:53.360rules to be implied with that. And actually,
00:53:53.380 -->
00:53:57.760I created a line in the movie where the the bouncer
00:53:57.760 -->
00:54:00.739at the bar says room for one more. That's taken
00:54:00.739 -->
00:54:06.139directly from Dead of Night. Spoiler. Well, that's
00:54:06.139 -->
00:54:08.400going to go over the heads of most. Of course.
00:54:08.400 -->
00:54:10.920I think plenty of the Easter eggs we have in
00:54:10.920 -->
00:54:13.860there might. But hopefully it doesn't. I laid
00:54:13.860 -->
00:54:17.150some eggs. Well, this has been a great conversation.
00:54:17.489 -->
00:54:19.929Yeah. Well, I, it looks like we're going to have
00:54:19.929 -->
00:54:22.250to wrap things up shortly, David, because we're
00:54:22.250 -->
00:54:23.730going to have to get you to where you need to
00:54:23.730 -->
00:54:27.329go. Any closing thoughts we want to. Good question.
00:54:27.409 -->
00:54:29.530So yeah, I think there's some really interesting
00:54:29.530 -->
00:54:33.329films coming up in the next week or two. And,
00:54:33.329 -->
00:54:35.969uh, well, the news, the news, Luke Bruce on Dracula
00:54:35.969 -->
00:54:38.170is out, but I don't know how much I'm looking
00:54:38.170 -->
00:54:40.769forward to that one. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard mixed.
00:54:41.150 -->
00:54:43.090And Wuthering Heights, which I'm going to go
00:54:43.090 -->
00:54:45.550see. But I hear it's not gothic. It got such
00:54:45.550 -->
00:54:48.750bad reviews. Listen, I saw all of the Fifty Shades
00:54:48.750 -->
00:54:51.909of Grey every Valentine's Day. I'd go for free
00:54:51.909 -->
00:54:55.510with my girlfriends, and we would go and cackle
00:54:55.510 -->
00:54:58.449like the witches in Macbeth. But I had a fabulous
00:54:58.449 -->
00:55:01.230time. The reviews for Wuthering Heights are so
00:55:01.230 -->
00:55:04.340bad, I can't wait to see it. Right. Well, it's
00:55:04.340 -->
00:55:06.179going to be fabulous. I didn't take you for a
00:55:06.179 -->
00:55:09.039straight erotic film kind of guy. It won't be
00:55:09.039 -->
00:55:11.739so straight when I look at it. Oh, right. Fair
00:55:11.739 -->
00:55:14.099enough. But yeah, so this week, I think what
00:55:14.099 -->
00:55:16.940we have coming out is the big one would be Good
00:55:16.940 -->
00:55:19.880Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, which is a cautionary
00:55:19.880 -->
00:55:22.639tale about AI, but kind of like a... That's Gore
00:55:22.639 -->
00:55:25.360Verbinski. Yeah, Gore Verbinski. That looks interesting.
00:55:25.460 -->
00:55:26.840Yeah, I'm curious about that one. Yeah, I want
00:55:26.840 -->
00:55:28.559to see it too. And Sam Rockwell's in it, who
00:55:28.559 -->
00:55:34.099I love. And so that one is about... A man with
00:55:34.099 -->
00:55:36.340a detonator bursts into a proclaiming to be from
00:55:36.340 -->
00:55:38.119the future to recruit a group of unqualified
00:55:38.119 -->
00:55:40.599patrons to stop an impending AI apocalypse and
00:55:40.599 -->
00:55:43.980save humanity. 86 % are Rotten Tomatoes, so sounds
00:55:43.980 -->
00:55:46.619all right. Listen, I like the new Running Man,
00:55:46.840 -->
00:55:50.739which flopped with Glenn Powell. It was more
00:55:50.739 -->
00:55:53.980to the Stephen King book than the Schwarzenegger
00:55:53.980 -->
00:55:57.159was. Or is it Stallone? I forget. It's Schwarzenegger.
00:55:57.199 -->
00:56:00.840It was Schwarzenegger, yeah. But it seems like
00:56:00.840 -->
00:56:05.190not all those succeed. A lot of money was put
00:56:05.190 -->
00:56:07.369into that, too. What's coming up after that?
00:56:07.869 -->
00:56:11.789There's a pair of horror comedies, which I actually
00:56:11.789 -->
00:56:14.269am a big fan of horror comedies. We just did
00:56:14.269 -->
00:56:17.030commentary for one. Oh, yeah. Nightlife. Nightlife.
00:56:17.489 -->
00:56:20.969And the first one is called Mimic, and it's directed
00:56:20.969 -->
00:56:25.829by Christopher Palaha. Is that a remake? No,
00:56:25.829 -->
00:56:29.670I don't believe it is. So he's also the star.
00:56:31.559 -->
00:56:34.119Basically, it's about a Don and his luck impressionist,
00:56:34.159 -->
00:56:36.539like a ventriloquist dummy kind of impressionist
00:56:36.539 -->
00:56:41.260who I guess is gifted a ventriloquist dummy,
00:56:41.420 -->
00:56:44.059a new one that is possessed or something. And
00:56:44.059 -->
00:56:47.900he kind of sells his soul to be a great ventriloquist.
00:56:48.179 -->
00:56:49.820That's all I really know about it. The trailer
00:56:49.820 -->
00:56:53.360looks pretty cool. And then the other one is
00:56:53.360 -->
00:56:55.860Cold Storage, which is directed by Johnny Campbell
00:56:55.860 -->
00:57:00.199for Samuel Goldman Films, starring Joe Keery.
00:57:00.730 -->
00:57:03.889Georgina Campbell has Liam Neeson in it. And
00:57:03.889 -->
00:57:09.570it's a bigger production. And it's about a, from
00:57:09.570 -->
00:57:11.329the trailer, it looks like a group of people
00:57:11.329 -->
00:57:14.090who go into this old government storage facility
00:57:14.090 -->
00:57:17.170where they kind of awake some kind of parasite.
00:57:17.170 -->
00:57:19.769Like Return of the Living Dead. Yeah. Sort of,
00:57:19.769 -->
00:57:22.530yeah. It's zombies. Zombies. A bioterror kind
00:57:22.530 -->
00:57:25.710of thing. Maybe that's a new genre, bioterror.
00:57:25.829 -->
00:57:28.010I mean, it seems like it. Yeah. All the new zombie
00:57:28.010 -->
00:57:30.239films. I feel like they have to have a good explanation.
00:57:30.239 -->
00:57:33.260Would you lump that in with 28 days or 28 months
00:57:33.260 -->
00:57:37.000or 28 years later? I will tell you after I watch
00:57:37.000 -->
00:57:39.179it. Yeah. I mean, I would certainly put it in
00:57:39.179 -->
00:57:45.079there with The Last of Us. Yeah. Yeah, I watched
00:57:45.079 -->
00:57:47.079that. Well, that's a video game. Yeah, it's post
00:57:47.079 -->
00:57:50.360-apocalyptic, but it is like zombie fungus, you
00:57:50.360 -->
00:57:52.619know. So those are coming out. Well, I think
00:57:52.619 -->
00:57:55.559World War Z was the biggest budget zombie movie,
00:57:55.699 -->
00:57:57.460wasn't it, at the time? Well, that's unfortunate.
00:57:57.739 -->
00:57:59.380Which was a piece of shit, so there you are.
00:57:59.460 -->
00:58:01.940That's another example of when you put all the
00:58:01.940 -->
00:58:03.800money into the effects and not into the story.
00:58:04.059 -->
00:58:08.820Well, no, the book is great. I felt like it shouldn't
00:58:08.820 -->
00:58:10.739have been a feature. It should have been a series
00:58:10.739 -->
00:58:13.519because each chapter is an interview with a different
00:58:13.519 -->
00:58:15.360person. It would have worked better. Yeah, in
00:58:15.360 -->
00:58:17.460a different part of the world. Well, they're
00:58:17.460 -->
00:58:19.059going to remake it at some point, I'm sure. Yeah,
00:58:19.159 -->
00:58:21.260we'll see. It's a great movie. Well, we got to
00:58:21.260 -->
00:58:25.119make some stuff too, boys. Yeah. Peter, any last
00:58:25.119 -->
00:58:27.699thoughts from you? No, thank you so much, David.
00:58:27.800 -->
00:58:31.360And we will certainly have you back. There's
00:58:31.360 -->
00:58:33.039so much to talk with you about this. Well, maybe
00:58:33.039 -->
00:58:35.079I'll look at some more movies. Of course I will.
00:58:35.199 -->
00:58:37.079I may have some more movies. Maybe I'll actually
00:58:37.079 -->
00:58:39.559like one. That would be cause for celebration,
00:58:39.800 -->
00:58:41.519wouldn't it? Yeah, how about this? The next movie
00:58:41.519 -->
00:58:44.380that you like, come on and we'll do an in -depth.
00:58:44.730 -->
00:58:48.070We'll do a deep dive. We'll do a deep dish dive.
00:58:48.469 -->
00:58:50.429You know, I just wonder if there's like a generational
00:58:50.429 -->
00:58:54.750difference there. Absolutely. And how do I address
00:58:54.750 -->
00:58:57.710that? Because I'm not part of that generation.
00:58:59.530 -->
00:59:04.309But I do believe that older fans like me can
00:59:04.309 -->
00:59:08.150bring something to the table in reminding these
00:59:08.150 -->
00:59:12.53020 -somethings that there is a rich background
00:59:12.530 -->
00:59:16.480to horror. And you don't necessarily have to
00:59:16.480 -->
00:59:19.579jump on the crazy train of what's making money.
00:59:20.260 -->
00:59:22.400That's a really good way to place to leave it.
00:59:22.440 -->
00:59:24.460Thank you so much. And I feel like that's what
00:59:24.460 -->
00:59:26.860you did today is help remind us. That's what
00:59:26.860 -->
00:59:29.840I did. Thank you, David. Thank you. Thank you
00:59:29.840 -->
00:59:37.239guys. That's going to bring us to the end of
00:59:37.239 -->
00:59:39.619today's episode. We'll be back next week where
00:59:39.619 -->
00:59:41.599we're going to discuss all the sub genres of
00:59:41.599 -->
00:59:45.460horror. For today's show notes. go to NightmareLogic
00:59:45.460 -->
00:59:48.659.net. You can also follow us on Instagram at
00:59:48.659 -->
00:59:52.000NightmareLogicPod. And a big thanks to Lars Lang
00:59:52.000 -->
00:59:55.079Peterson for our theme. We're your hosts, Christopher
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00:59:57.159Smith and Peter Sawyer. Thanks for listening.