All language subtitles for Direct.to.Video.Straight.To.Video.Horror.of.the.90s.2019.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG-English

- I was one of those
kids, who back in the 80s,

was always in the video
store, always renting.

When I wasn't at school,
I was in the video store

and I never realized in
the 1990s I got my chance

to be the movie geek who
worked behind the counter.

I was the guy who people
came to for recommendations.

Because the 1990s gave
way to the straight to video star.

Like your Don "The
Dragon' Wilson,

your Gary Daniels.

Jean-Claude Van Damme,
well he was a continuation of,

and for me the
1990s represented,

the straight to
video side of things,

a chance to just forget
about everything.

Just sit back, relax, enjoy,

take your mind off
your cares of the world

and rent a movie.

Meet Wesley.

- He's such a good boy.

He's a model student.

- What's the matter, retard?

Can't you talk?

But when it comes to girls.

- Have you even talked to her?

He's got a lot to learn.

- Studies have shown that
guys get much further with girls

after they talk.

It's time he got his education.

- I'm Ms. Xenobia.

The new biology teacher.

- Holy mother of God!

Dr. Alien.

- It was Dr. Alien that Charles
Band took to Paramount

and said, "We spent one point
two million making this film."

I think it actually
cost about 350,000

but it was, that's what he said

because they were a huge
studio with huge overhead,

they were still blown away.

We can't do anything
of this quality

for that amount of money.

So that's what basically
started the deal

for Full Moon Pictures
with Paramount.

- Full Moon movies
were like huge to me.

Those were some of
my favorite movies

and still are.

I mean, what set those apart

is you'd go to the video
store, you'd rent those,

and it was your first
glimpse into the idea

of special features
on those VHS movies.

I mean Subspecies,
Puppet Master,

all of those, Trancers.

You'd watch them and
at the end of the VHS

after the credits, they'd have
behind the scenes footage

or a mail order catalog
to get like replicas.

I mean, that blew my mind

and Full Moon was
always that studio

that was like off their rocker.

You had no idea what
you were getting into.

You know, growing up, I
was really into skateboarding

and punk rock because I just,
I wasn't one of the cool kids.

Horror movies and that kind

of stuff was the
only thing I had.

I didn't have many friends.

So, in a lot of ways
Blade, Torch, Jack Death,

those were my friends.

I'd go home from school and
I'd hang out with those guys

every time I put in, you
know, a Full Moon movie.

- I'd written the first draft

of the original Puppet
Master for Charlie.

What happened was they
brought David Schmoeller

in to direct the film

and while they were not
gonna go Director's Guild,

they were willing to
go Writer's Guild,

which apparently
Schmoeller was a member of.

So he rewrote the script

and he did a fairly
major rewrite on it.

There's still some
similarities to my script,

including the fact that
there's puppets in it.

- Charlie, what he wanted
to do with Puppet Master III

is he wanted a prequel
to the first movie

and going back to whether it
was gonna be a period piece

to World War II.

Of course, the first film
is, starts with a period,

you know, kind of the
bookends and all that stuff

with William Hickey
and everything.

So, I was like, okay.

So I sat down and
started really thinking

about this whole thing
as if we did a World War II

and that's when I came
up with a whole thing

and David just
embraced it like crazy

and said, Let's
make this, you know,

Where Eagles Dare and
Night of the Generals

and all those great pinewood
Nazi movies of the 1960s.

David would come
over to my place,

we'd sit there and we
would watch these films,

or I'd be, load him
up with cassettes.

He got completely
totally into it.

Got in the attitude
and everything else

but the big stumbling block was

is I was writing the script,
is we were supposed

to shoot in Romania

and it was gonna be one
of the very first ones

to be done over there.

There was some
sort of a problem.

So, suddenly that was
no longer an option

and we're like going, well
what are we going to do?

Because of course to do
a World War II film there

and what have you, is a
whole different bag of beans

than doing it here and
it was John Schoweiler

and DeCoteau who got together

and they were the ones who
not only convinced Charlie

but made the deal for us to
make the movie at Universal

which was just sensational.

So, we all, you know, we
moved into the Universal back lot.

Had more visitors, probably,

than any other Full
Moon production

just 'cause everybody
wanted to go

'cause we shooting in
Frankenstein village.

So everybody wanted
to be there and every,

it was great.

We had a ball and
of course the film

has this tremendous look.

With David and his
collaborationwith Adolfo Bartoli

because here we have, you know,

a true studio back
lot and a back lot

with this history
that related directly

to the movie we were making.

So, yeah that was really cool.

- You said you
could devise a drug

so it would give a
dead soldier movement.

But Andre
Toulon didn't need wires.

To make death move.

- This is exactly what we
foundin the marionette theater.

- And this will solve all
your problems, doctor?

- If I can get to Toulon

I know we can prolong
the soldiers new life

but I must get to him.

- Herr Toulon has
escaped your custody.

- We are very close
to finding him.

- Nothing will stop me
from seeking you out

and making each one
of you to your knees

for what you have done
and you will cry me mercy.

Puppet Master III.

- Completely and totally
and it is the best one.

No, it's not a fan favorite.

- No, it is.
- Let's, let's.

No, I know it is, but
let's really cut chop

the rest of the heads off.

Come on, it's the best one.

- Some years later they
were doing four and five

and my friend, Mike
Deak, was running a shop

for Charlie called
Alchemy and Wayne Toth

came up with the cool idea

of making this demon puppet.

It was a like a walk
around Bunraku puppet.

I thought it was a cool idea.

Basically, the
operator was concealed

inside a double layered
cape behind the person.

There was a linkage so
the puppet was taller

than a person.

So there was a linkage
from the operator's head

to the neck and head
of the character

I think he had some
medallion on his chest

that the performer could
actually see out of.

The arms had rods
coming out of the elbows

and of course there was
drapey fabric on there

so you didn't see
the puppeteer's arms.

There was something
mounting it to the body

to hold over all weight

and then the performer's
feet fit behind the thing

so it could actually walk

and this thing, of course,
had this impossible anatomy,

very skeletal looking,
very sinewy things,

it couldn't possibly
be a guy in a suit.

- I got involved with Full Moon

on Puppet Master VI and V.

When Ricky Meyers tapped

into the secret of
artificial life.

- It's the formula.

He became the master

of Andre Toulon's puppets.

The future is yours.

Guard and protect it
and keep it from evil.

Now, his newfound power

will make him a pawn.

- And you say there are
seven of these puppets

still at the hotel?

Between a corporation.

Now once we're inside,

what we're looking for
is six string less puppets.

And a demon from hell.

Puppet Master 5.

- It was gonna be one
movie for Paramount

and then they decided
no, we're gonna,

it's not gonna be a
theatrical for Paramount.

We're gonna pare
the budgets down

and do them kinda split
the script in half

and do two movies.

So he got kind of two
movies for the price of none

and those, because they were
Paramount negative pickups,

I guess, or they were
under a Paramount deal,

they got very good distribution,

video wise, around the world.

They were a hoot to make

and it was, the script
had already existed

for the theatrical movie

but it had been changed
a lot through the,

I think there are five credited,

six counting Charlie, credited
writers on the two movies

and we all threw our hand in

and the scripts, both
scripts were incoherent mess.

So the only way you can
have any fun with them

is just to go nuts
as much as you could

within the context
of the production.

- When Charlie asked
me if I would come back

and start writing movies again.

I said look, I really
would want to direct again,

or direct period, I should say.

I had been asking him about
this back in the Empire days

and in fact, I had come up with,

believe it or not, with an idea

to remake Not of this Earth

and this was, of course I
didn't know Jim Wynorski

was doing it with Traci
Lords and all that stuff.

So that was kinda happening.

So that ended that, plus it was,

you know, owned by
a different company.

But, when Empire shut
its door and then Full Moon,

so I was like, okay,
let's try this again.

Trancers Three happened
for me as a director

for really only two reasons.

Albert Band and Tim Thomerson.

Of course, it was
Charlie's ultimate decisions

but his dad completely backed
me on directing the movie

and then Tim just
was, he was amazing.

He, 'cause he had been in
moviethat I had written already.

So we knew each other,
we liked each other,

but boy he just came in there

like the flaming
sword of Siegfried

and he was the series.

A cop from another world.

- What's the matter?

You never seen a cop before?

And a nurse shrunk by aliens.

- Just the thing to
drive G.I. Joe insane.

Are teaming
up with a big partner.

- She's a cop in trouble.

For some deadly fun and games.

- Toys that come to
life and kill people

to help a demon from hell?

You can go where those toys go.

You're the perfect size
to help me kick their butts.

- Let's start up the
entertainment, boys.

And this time.

This is ass kicking.

- Get away from me.

They're picking
on someone their own size.

- Gosh, guys.

This is the best bachelorparty
a guy could ever ask for.

- Pop goes the weasel.

- That was, I think we had
the original Buechler puppets.

I made Baby Oopsy-Daisy
and I made the Jack in the Box.

Baby Oopsy-Daisy I
wasn't terribly happy

with the way that turned out

but I basically had a
week to make each one

of these things.

So there was no stopping

and then I also made
a new character,

which was supposed to be
sort of like a G.I. Joe

action man thing
which was a suit

that was worn by Ted Haines.

- I really like Dr. Mordrid.

I think it's just got
some great stuff in it.

Even though we were, again,
working very limited funds.

There was so much
in that worked well.

I really liked Yvette Nipar,

I thought she was terrific

and we had obviously
a terrific bad guy

in Brian Thompson.

Dr. M. Tom Mordrid

has stood guard
between our world

and the dark dimensions.

Now, after centuries of waiting,

evil's ultimate
warrior has arrived.

- Kabal is a demon who
uses mortals to do his bidding.

- What difference does it make

if I want this dying planet?

- A sorcerer is not a god.

- Full Moon movies, you can
tell every single department

put everything into that.

You know?

The art department, special
effects, practical effects.

I mean, Jesus Christ,
what a glorious time

to be alive in the 80s and
90s watching those movies.

- Parting is such sweet sorrow.

- Totally sucks.

♪ Why do they not believe

♪ I have not lied
even for this ♪

♪ Now no one can conceive

♪ The lie becomes
the loving kiss ♪

♪ Sacrifice

♪ Sacrifice

♪ Sacrifice

♪ Sacrifice

♪ Sacrifice

♪ Pay the price

- I was a huge horror
nerd growing up.

You know, watching things
like Night of the Demons

and Sorority Babes in
the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama

and like the original
Toxic Avenger.

I would, you know, just kind
of watch these crazy movies

on the weekend, never in
a million years was I like,

oh I can make these films.

Because in my head these
are Hollywood movies

and you needed to know
Hollywoodpeople to do that, right?

But where I went to
school in Manhattan,

there were a lot of
actor kids that like would,

you know, Broadway
actors and what not

and they would read this
paper called Backstage

and I was like,
oh let me see that

and there happened to be
an ad for Troma Studios.

They were looking for
extras for their movie

Tromeo and Juliet

and I was like, that's Troma.

Like oh my god.

Surf Nazis Must Die.

Like I have to go
and so I cut school

and I went down to the audition

and I told them
all these stories

about what a great actor I was

and they were like,
what special skills

do you have?

I'm like, man, I'm a
black belt in jiu-jitsu.

I think I was like maybe
a green belt in jiu-jitsu

and I was probably like
a triple black belt

in street fighting but I
certainly didn't have like,

you know, I wasn't Bruce Lee.

But they I think
liked my bullshit

or my excitement for the genre

and James Gunn, it was James
Gunn first movie with Troma

and Lloyd Kaufman were like,

well you know, you're pretty
good, funny or whatever

and they gave me
the part of Peter

the bodyguard to
the Capulet family.

Which I was, like
you don't understand.

Like I would have
walked in the background

of that movie and I
could have been happy

and just kinda of went
on with the rest of my life

but the fact that I had
like a speaking part in it

and I got to fight in it

and you know, have
stunts go wrong, obviously,

because I really
didn't know jiu-jitsu

but it was a dream.

It kinda of, it's the only
reason I'm still in the genre.

- Well, we began Troma in 1974.

So by the 90s, were considered

a major independent
movie studio with movies like

The Toxic Avenger and
I think the 90s for us

was the time that we moved
from the Toxic Avenger

and Class of Nuke Em
High and Troma's War,

we moved into Shakespeare
with Tromeo and Juliet

and we added more
and more genres

to our distinct Troma touch.

Troma movies are not
really genre movies.

If anything they're a
Cuisinart of genres.

They combine horror,
science fiction, comedy, politics,

Shakespeare in the case of
the movie we just finished also,

Shakespeare Shit Storm,
which we just finished shooting.

These are movies
that combine genres

and Troma has kinda
of its own brand,

shall we say, which may be
why we're here for so many years.

- Don't give up the fight for
truly independent cinema!

- By the 90s came along,
the VHS was going away

and so was all the
independent video stores.

Again, I'm a little hazy on it

but it seems that an evil
empire called Blockbuster

put everybody out of business

and they in turn went bankrupt.

♪ What a difference

The two elements that
make us successful

is our movies are
good and they last

and they're still here.

Terror Firmer is literally
a movie that came out

in 1999 that nobody understood

and it is a crazy movie.

Terror Firmer.

- What we got here is
a basic cereal killer.

- You know your killer's
choices of victims

indicates some sort
of personal animosity

against you and your company.

- Family values must be saved!

- Yeah, right.

- Where's the blood?

Where's the blood? God
damn it, where's the blood?

- We're dead.

No!

This is a Troma movie.

- That guy is really dead.

- These movie people
are disgusting.

- Oh, so you're asking
me about Terror Firmer,

my huge big part
in Terror Firmer.

I mean it is like I was the
star of that movie, naturally.

My part consisted, I
think of this, like.

That's it.

That was it.

I think that was it.
I think I came on to the set

to give a really
dumb shocked reaction

to somebody's head
getting like chopped off,

I think, maybe, if I
remember correctly.

I think I was there maybe
amatter of 10 minutes on the set,

if I'm remembering right.

So yes, you're welcome
for Terror Firmer,

it was all me.

Thank you, thank you.

- Yabba dabba do.

- What did I tell ya?

- You know, Jim
and I were friends.

Just he's a fan

and he was friends with Mark
McGee and people like that

and I met him at some
different parties and stuff

but mostly through Bill
Warren and Mark McGee.

Jim and I got to
know each other.

We really weren't
friends but for a few years

and then, you know, we
just started hanging out.

We lived near each other

and eventually we thought of
doing a few projects together.

Which we did and
we've had some fun.

- Dinosaur Island we
decided to co-direct.

Which was wonderful
because were surrounded

by a horde of hot
chicks for two weeks.

Okay and this is
beyond Michelle Bauer,

or Griffin Drew,
and Antonia Dorian,

and Toni Naples, who
was also in that movie.

There were a number of
other, you know, fun girls.

That's where we met
Nikki Fritz for the first time

and we had hired this
girl to do a dance

and she was awful.

We started shooting it and
she just didn't know how to move

and I said, and
Fred was directing.

I said, Fred let's
do this tomorrow.

Call it a night.

I'll get somebody knew
and I had met this Nikki Fritz

who was a stripper from Florida

and she came in the next
day and just nailed it

and I'm so glad we waited.

A house abandoned.

- We're gonna turn this

into the best sorority
house in school.

That holds a secret.

- A Ouija board.

Let's shake up the spirit world.

- There were sets left over

from Slumber Party
Massacre Three

and they were trashed.

They had blood all over
and paint spilled on em

and all the furniture
had been removed

and I called Julie Corman

and said, you know I
could shoot a horror movie

here in about six days,
if you gave me the money

and she said, "Well
those sets are trashed."

And I said, I'll make it work

and so I came up with the idea

that five girls are
moving into a house

that has been trashed

and the villain is Hokstedter

which by, you know, coincidence

was the name of my
Directory of Photography

for the last couple of movies

and it was Clive Hokstedter

and I needed somebody to
play the other villain

and the other villain was
played by Orville Ketchum,

who really wasn't
a villain at all.

That name popped into my head

as I was writing the script.

I had to write the
script in like four days

just to get, make sure
it got read and approved

before everybody
left for Europe.

Rodger and his wife
were just taking off.

So I had to write
it in four days

and I was sitting
there at New Horizons,

in one of the spare
rooms, typing away

and that name just
came into my head.

A few days after they
approved they script,

I was casting, and
he just walked in.

He was the only
guy who walked in

and when he came in I
said, that's my guy.

That's Orville Ketchum, okay,

and he sat down and
he read the script

and he turned on
Orville Ketchum.

He just did it.

Right there in
the casting office

and it was wonderful.

I said, this the guy.

This is a sign from God
that I should make this movie.

- We were reinventing
something there.

We were doing a parody
ofsomething that was very popular

at the time and in Jim
inventing that character

destroyed all the
other movies before it,

in my opinion, because
I just love Orville.

Orville Ketchum is
my favorite character

of all the Jim Wynorski films

and working with Peter
Spellos on those things

was amazing, too.

A madman has sealed

off a Los Angeles high rise

trapping the occupants inside.

- Who's there?

- Hey, the phones dead.

Now, five young
women are joining forces

and fighting for their lives.

- Look, it's three against one,

the odds are in our favor.

- Maybe I can
increase those odds.

- I love that character

and when Rodger Corman
said make another one,

which was Hard to Die,

because he had just
finished this thing

called Corporate Assets

and it's a movie that
everybody's forgotten, everybody.

I don't think it's even
available on DVD or VHS

and he had all these
office building pieces

and I just said I'm gonna
do hard, you know Die Hard

with chicks in a, in
a great, on great sets

and we did.

We had a great time doing that.

Deborah Dutch was
in that one, too.

- We were working in theoriginal
Rodger Corman studios,

Santa Rosa Avenue of Venice

and the turn around,
sometimes, was barely eight hours

but he always made
sure it was eight hours

but driving from West
Hollywood to Venice

and then staying real late.

So the hours, you
know, kind of grueling

because we have a
budget, you know,

in low budget movie making
of maybe two weeks top,

if you have that,
usually 10 days

and I had a lead
role, co-star role.

So it just was boom
boom boom boom boom.

So as long as you
showed up early

before your call time to make
sure you were completely

set ready, camera
ready, knew your lines,

hit your marks, and weren't
a problem, Jim loved you.

We had squibs on us because
I get killed by a machine gun

and we were in the warehouse

where the guns are

and Jim goes, and it's
towards the end of the movie,

so we had to stay on budget

and with the special
effects of squibs back then,

you know, this was a big deal,

'cause blood would
splatter allover

and everything like that.

So you can't mess up.

You just can't do it.

So, Jim goes, "Okay Debbie,

there's gonna be one
shot there, one shot there,

one shot there" with the AK47,

"One shot there, one shotthere,
one shot there, one shot,

and while the shots
there, it hits you in the chest

and you fall back."

And I said, okay.

He says, "Okay, camera rolling."

Boom, boom, boom,
boom and I went

and I made a mistake.

I did not do it on time

and he's like, "Cut, cut, cut.

No, Debbie.

When the AK47", it's a six
shot or something like that,

"That's when you do it."

I said, okay, okay I got it.

So I'm sitting there, you know,

making sure I got
this, with a squib

because they're
gonna explode it.

The bloods gonna go.

So, you go boom boom.

I messed up the second time.

The third time I just
said, I said like,

oh no, this is it, third
one, it's gonna be it.

So boom boom boom boom boom.

I went bam, fall
back on my back,

my feet go straight up in
the air, I scream of course,

and Jim goes, "Cut"

and the whole place cracked up.

When you see that scene,
I literally bounce,

my feet go straight up in
the air and then I go dead.

- What would happen is that
he kind of threw me in there

and, you know, actors are
alwayslooking to pay their rent.

So he would call and
he'd go, "Are you free,

do you want to come
down, and you know,

so you can make a
little bit of money?"

and he'd always have these
weird things for me to do.

I just remember, I think
it was Monique and I,

Monique Gabrielle and I.

- Cut, cut, cut, cut.

For Christ sake, cut.

- What's the matter
with that, Mel?

- Yeah, I thought we
had a real moment there.

- Me, too.

- Look at your feet.

How many times I have told
youto go to bed with your shoes on?

- Well, nobody goes to
bed with spiked heels on.

That's ridiculous.

- Yeah, well some people
think they're sexy,

- It's stupid.

- I agree.

- I've never been to bed with
a girl who keeps her shoes on.

- Yeah and lay you odds

you've never been to bed with
two women at the same time, either.

Neither have the slobs
that rent these movies.

That's why we're making em.

- You know, any movie
with that many machine guns

and that much real pyro

and you can see the
wires coming from Peters.

You know, they had him
wired up with so many squibs

and so many, it was
just, I loved it.

I loved working on
those kind of films.

They broke into the mall

for the wildest all
night party of their lives.

- They're dead meat.

But you're never alone

in the Chopping Mall.

- I met him because he
called me in for a meeting

for, it was called
Robot at the time,

then it was called Killbot

and you all know it
as Chopping Mall.

Much to our chagrin at the time.

However, little did I know

I'd be sitting here in 2019

talking about Chopping Mall.

So, thank you.

I went in and auditioned and
I was doing The Zero Boys

which it was a night shoot,

so we would break at
the crack of dawn.

We did it at Jason's cabin.

So it was kind of a far
drive and everything else

and so I went pretty
much right from the set.

I was exhausted.

So I was super relaxed.

And he thought, okay
this girls gonna be great

to work with because she's got,

hasn't got a nerve in her body

and there's nothing
I can do that's going

to upset her, probably
is what he thought,

and then I had to read for Julie

and I kind of got nervous.

He said, "What's
the matter with you?

You were so relaxed before."

And I said, well
I was tired then

and now I'm auditing
for the Cormans

but you know, I calmed down

and fortunately for
me I got the part

and then from there
on, like I said,

I will reiterate,
you're always happy

to go in and do something for a day or so

because you're always, you know.

It's a freelance
type of gig, acting.

So I was very grateful that,

to anybody that continues to, calls you up

and says do you want to
come and do something,

because it means that,

you know it's that no
like and trust factor

and that's a lot of this
business is all about.

One day I got a
call from Andy Lane

and he said, "Do you want
to be in Servants of Twilight?"

And I looked at
it, and I thought,

this is a great part because
in the book everyone,

I don't know if it
reads in the movie

'cause I don't, I haven't
seen it in a long time

but in the book it reads
like she could be the person,

she could be the
leak in that office

and I thought, that's very,

that's great, I'd love to.

And so, and I didn't really,

at the time I don't think I was
aware of Bruce Greenwood

but I was afterwards, you know,

and I thought, wow,
thank you, Andy.

Servants of Twilight.

- Hello?

Joey Scavello?

- Grandma?

I told you
couldn't hide from me.

I can see you wherever you go.

I'm going to bring
judgment down on you

and cut your vile
little heart out.

- It was so looked down upon.

I remember in the 90s you'd say,

well that's direct to video,

like it was bad thing.

- Well, it was just one
of those old dark house

kind of movies, with a
bunch of girls running around.

I liked working with Dick Miller

and I liked having
Arte Johnson in there

and David Carradine
was friend of mine.

So, you know, it was
pretty entertaining.

Bob Quarry, you know,

who played Count Yorga, Vampire,

he came in and did
some of the voiceovers

for the creature and
then I did some of them

and it was fun.

I mean it was a
quick, quick movie

but it was one of those films

where you were putting
up your own money

and there was no one to tell you

that you couldn't do something.

So just about anything
we wanted to do would fly.

Every step
forward is a step backward.

- I've come to destroy you.

And every room

is a room with a view.

- Doing the animation plates

is something that I had
some experience with already

and we worked with a company
called Streamline in New York

and we did it with an
aerial image of photography

and we were doing a lot
of rotoscoping anyway

with Bret Mixon for movies
like Beverly Hill's Vamp

and stuff like that.

So we knew we had

to have a Mitchell Twin
Pin registered camera

'cause every frame had
to be locked in position

or they'd be gate weave andthat
would throw off everything.

So we did storyboards.

So where we knew we
wanted the monster

to come up and look over a chair

and we would shoot,
you know, the chair

and then, sort of this stuff,

is like where the girl fell down

and then we had to pull
her top off with fishing line.

We pulled the little
wire so it would pop off

and then, and then Bret
would rotoscope it.

He would do a cartoon
animation paper cell,

which drew the girl.

So that then when her
hand would come up,

her hand would pass in
front of the creature

which was actually an
animationcell on top of the footage.

So they would roto out
the shape of her hand

as it passed in front of them.

So it was pretty complicated

and these were
hand painted cells.

You know, there were
thousands and thousands of them

and then would project
the film one frame

at a time onto the
aerial image lens

and hang the animation
cell in front

and then re-photograph it.

So it would then
combine the two things.

It was pretty
complicated for a movie

with $140,000 budget and 35mm,

Screen Actors Guild, and
some of the actors picked

up $20,000 for their parts.

So it was quite a feat

for the amount of
money we spent.

- Fred is a very
efficient filmmaker.

He doesn't give a lot
of personal direction

and unless you would have
like a heart attack on set,

you got one take because
they were shooting on 35mm.

Victoria is
a very frightened woman.

- I'm having dreams.

Dreams that won't let me sleep.

Nightmares.

Most of the time I'm
being buried alive.

- One of my favorite
movies was Haunting Fear

in the probably around
1991, I think it was.

It was the biggest
part I had to date

and when Fred
handed me a script,

I thought it was for the
role of the secretary

but he's like, no I want
you to play the lead.

So I worked with
Jan Michael Vincent,

and Karen Black,
and Robert Quarry.

I was in practically every scene

and it was one of the
first movies where

I go from being a victim
to kind of being a villain

and I didn't die in the end.

That was something
unique and different.

I am very very
fond of that movie.

I wish it would come out on DVD

because it never has.

- Haunting Fear was a movie

that was made in the samehouse
as Evil Toons, same sets.

You see them go into thecellar
where Dick Miller's dead

and you find Dick Miller dead.

That's the same cellar where
the guys body was buried

in Spirits and I don't know
why we made that film

but when we did,
we went and watched

Legend of Hell House and
The Haunting and The Evil,

we watched all these things,

and somebody wanted
to make this.

So we did and it
obviously it seemed perfect

for her to be a
psychic in there.

Well, you know,
we've always tired

at Retro Media, to
produce original content

and I've over the years,
I've invested, of course,

and financed other
people's films.

A fairy tale born from a legend.

A truth more terrifying
than the tale.

- Say a prayer for
Daddy tonight, okay?

Only one man had the courage

to stand against the
forces of darkness.

- In 1994 Fred had a
scream queen contest

with the Phil Donahue Show.

He and some celebrity
guests were on board

and they had people
auditioningto be a scream queen

and whoever did the best
audition got the part

and would come down in
February to meet with us

in Orlando to make the film.

So, he had a concept
and a storyline

that he worked out
and he sent that to us

and we started hurriedly
writing the script.

Because this was
now October of 1994

and he wanted it in video stores

in time for Halloween 1995.

In those days, it was still a
four to six month turn around

after you finished the film just

to get all the
promotional stuff ready.

To get the deals set
up and everything else,

get the release scheduled.

So we were literally
on a time clock

and our first weekend
we had the actress

that won the contest came
down and we did her scene,

she gets to get killed in
the opening of the film.

She's with three
teenagers that inadvertently

resurrect Jack-O and they
get killed for their troubles

and we shot all of that
on the first weekend.

There was a crew from
the Donahue show there

and they shot background
footage for a documentary

and then when the show
aired a few months later

they had that material
as well as the contest

and so forth.

But that's how Jack-O started.

It was the Phil Donahue show.

We're doing a movie that's
supposed to take place

at Halloween in a sort
of Midwestern suburb

and we're in Florida
and we're shooting

in February, March, and April.

What do you need if you're
doing a Halloween film?

Pumpkins.

Okay, so we're going
around in November,

we're going after Halloween
and after Thanksgiving.

We're bugging
everybody, you know,

can we take your pumpkins?

Everybody's like yeah, take 'em.

And I'm storing
them in my garage,

which is also the
neighborhood we filmed in.

My house was at 1764
WaterbeachCourt Apopka, Florida.

We shot all around my house,

all around the neighborhood.

Infuriated the neighbors
when we shot night scenes

because we're
keeping everybody up

but I'm keeping all of these
pumpkins in my garage

and I was warned that
pumpkins rot from the inside

and if they get to that point
where'll they seem solid

but if you just bump it lightly

the whole things gonna collapse

and the smell is horrific.

So we're taking
all these pumpkins

and we're shellacking them

so that hopefully
they'll keep for two,

three, four months while
we shoot that film.

So that was tough.

The shoot itself
went reasonably well.

It was just, it was just
a logistical nightmare.

We had a sequence,

we did it one entire day

we lost all of the
footage because

an inexperienced camera loader

had loaded the
magazines backwards.

So we had to re shoot that.

We had a bunch of pick
up days that we had to do

because it, when
I turned in my cut

it was just missing some
elements that it needed.

So it took a lot more
pickups to get it finished

and get it to where it was.

- In the movie, Jack-O,

I think I only appear on
the television screen.

They're watching a movie.

What they're watching,

Fred and I shot in
Salem, Massachusetts.

I had bought this costume
that looked like it was colonial.

He brought his Bolex
camera on the plane

and we shot in graveyards
and in old buildings

in and around Salem.

Because he was planning to
make a movie called The Coven

and have it be like a
girlschool that is into witchcraft.

Well, I don't think
he ever made the movie

but we shot all this
experimental footage

and so he ended up putting
it on the screen in Jack-O.

- My son's character in
the film is a horror fan

and he's constantly in frontof
the TV watching horror films

and so one of the films
he's watching is The Coven

with Brinke Stevens

and Brinke kindly also
did some dialogue looping

so that it seemed like more of
a movie that he was watching

where a character is talking.

Evil has a new number.

- Welcome to my hell.

And the
devil has found a new way

to reach out and kill someone.

976-Evil II.

- I was going out with
Monique Gabrielle at the time

and she said, "You
can't find a spot for me

in 976-Evil II?"

I said, well you
know the producers

want this certain type.

She said, "You can't
find a spot for me?"

So I went to the producers

and I said, please let
her play the lawyer

who gets killed in the car

and they said, okay,

and if you watch that movie,

that car is not in front
of a process screen.

It's out there getting
hit by other cars.

So she did her little
dialogue scene with the villain

and then the next few nights

she was out doing this car scene

and this car scene
was, as you know,

it was full of bangs and
booms and zips and zangs

and everything else.

She came home the first
night and she said,

"I hate you, I hate you,
I hate you, I hate you."

Her whole body was not contorted

but it was like,
and not bruised,

but had been banged
around in these cars all night

'cause they were hitting
the cars back and forth

back and forth.

Now, that sequence
was so popular

that I used it again
in Ghoulie's Four.

- I'll go back in time to
the actual physical things

that used to happen
when I got a score.

I'd get a phone call.

I have another score
for you, Chuck.

Okay, when's the
work print ready?

It will be ready Tuesday.

Okay, fine.

It would come over
as a VHS tape,

or a three quarter inch tape,

and I would take a look at it

and then the director
would come over,

we would sit down
and look at it,

I would take notes.

The notes, down through
as I've done a lot of scores,

the notes got lesser and
lesser through scores.

It was like, we don't even
use a notepad anymore,

at least Jim and I don't.

Jim and I don't even
spot the movie anymore.

He just hands it to me or
he finishes it and I start it.

I've done almost all
my films in order.

You start at the beginning,
you do a main title,

you use your themes from
the main title throughout the film

and then you end the
movie with either a song

that someone else supplies

or you do a version of the
opening title for the end.

Now, sometimes Jim
asked me not to do that.

Like with, it was
a Tower of Terror

or Sorority House Massacre.

One of them he said, "Do
a spaghetti western."

Of course that's, whenever
Jim gets bored with a score,

he says, "Do a
spaghetti western."

And I would always do
a spaghetti western

because I love them, too.

So I would always love
it when Jim would say,

"Make this a spaghetti western."

So that was the
process back then.

Come in, cassette,
look at the cassette.

The cassette gets synchronized
via time code with the box

and each time you
started the movie

to write a piece of music,

you had like a five
second pre roll

'cause you had to wait
for it all to sync up

and then once it's all sync up,

you can play it against picture

and you had a few
seconds to do that

and then you go back and you'd
start that whole process again.

I like working on set.

I like making the
pictures happen.

I love the process
of making movies

but there's nothing
better than sitting

three in the morning in your
underwear smoking a joint

scoring a film.

- Ghoulies IV was
an interesting film

because I had just thought
about the Ghoulies franchise

and suddenly Paul
Hertzberg, at Cinetel,

said, you now, "They
want another Ghoulies.

Would you like to do it?"

I said, yes but I don't want

to do it with those
little models.

I want to do it with two
little people in costume

and but I do want Peter Liapis

who was in the first one

so that my mine is a
direct sequel to number one.

'Cause I liked number one

and if I had Peter, I could
do a sequel, a true sequel

and so we got Peter
and Stacie Randall

who played the villainess.

It was a lot of fun to make.

They let me do odd stuff.

A lot of stuff
that normal people,

producers wouldn't
let anybody do

but they said ago ahead
and do it, it's a comedy.

So I did it and it
was a lot of fun.

In the time of the witches

in a place of evil.

Morella Lock was put to death.

Now, she's come back.

- Call me mad if you will

but my wife has returned
to take possession

of my daughter.

Morella.

Edgar Allen Poe's

The Haunting of Morella.

- When I was in
Haunting of Morella

you know, I had
just done Playboy.

So I had come from
New York on Broadway,

I was like a little actress.

I'm not gonna take my top off.

I'm not, you know, I'm
not gonna show my boobs.

You know for anything,
I'm a real actress.

I don't want my,

and I bumped into,

well Jim actually
and I had socially,

you know knew each other

and he said, "Well Debbie,

you know I'd love to
use you in my films."

He said, "But let me
know when you're ready

to pop your top."

I said, pop my top?

Okay, Jim I don't want
to get involved with all that

and so then I got into Playboy

and so I called up, Jim.

I said, Jim, I'm
ready to pop my top.

- Oh I loved working
on Evil Spirits.

It was amazing working
with Karen Black.

She is a very very
special person.

I saw is even though
she's gone now

because she still is just,

her energy, she, there's
something very spiritual about her

and I don't know
what her thing is.

Like if she was really
into very spiritual or not

but she had this
beautiful aura about her

and she was so gracious
and she was so kind to me

and it's a spoiler alert

but I do play her daughter.

So she was very loving
and motherly on that set

and I play a mute who ends
up doing some bad things.

Scientists have theorized

that it is possible to camouflage
atoms within themselves

to achieve invisibility.

- Feast your eyes on a miracle.

These theories
have now become realities.

- Yeah, yeah!

Everybody thinks
Keven Dornwinkle is strange.

His mother thought so.

- You're grounded for a year.

So do his students.

- Is this guy for real?

- I'd be willing to
do anything for an A.

- Even his colleagues
think he's wacky.

- And they laughed at me, at me!

But ask Kevin Dornwinkle

what he thinks is weird.

- With this injection
begins my erection.

Tis I.

Your friendly neighborhood
invisible maniac.

The Invisible Maniac.

- One of my all-time
favorite films,

from back in the 80s, 90s era

was The Invisible Maniac.

Okay, directed by Riff
Coogan AKA Adam Rifkin

or vice a versa.

Now he is known as Adam Rifkin.

So I remember I was
waiting to go into my audition

at this nice office building

and I was again,
playing a teenager

even though I think I
was maybe like almost 30,

if not 30 already.

So I just for some
reason, and it had nothing

to do with anything, I
was sitting there reading

my sides to audition

and I just decided,
eh, I'll put my glasses

on for this one.

You know, just to do
something different.

So because I was reading for,

at least I'm not sure,

I'm not sure if I
was actually reading

for the character that
I was cast as, as Betty,

or if I was reading
for another part

I can't remember that.

So I had my glasses on,

I did the audition
with my glasses on

and then I really wasn't
expecting to get cast.

So just because I thought,

oh you know, there's a
million people auditioning

for this thing.

But lo and behold, they
called me up and said,

we would like you for
the role of Betty, the nerd.

And I was like, yay
the glasses was a good,

you know, a good choice.

So that was really fun.

I enjoyed that one.

- Riff Coogan.

First of all, that's
a phony name, okay.

His real name is Adam Rifkin

and when I met him,
I mean were both sort

of territorial about the movie.

You know, I felt
like it was mine

because I was making a sequel

and of course he was
going to put his imprint on it

and we really worked
well together.

I mean we were really,
you're so busy doing the thing

that you don't really have
time for a lot of discussion.

You know.

He would say, "I'm
gonna do this."

I'd be like, fine
that looks good to me.

You know, so we weren't,

there was never any
conflict at all.

Larry and
Bryan thought they planned

the perfect bachelor party.

They took care of the booze.

They took care of the boss.

- Yes.

They took care of the girls.

- Women, women.

Women, women.

Women, women, women, women!

They took
care of the entertainment.

- We're here to party.

They even took
care of the nightwatchmen.

The only thing they
didn't take care of was him.

- You boys wouldn't be
planning anything illegal?

Now they've
got an uninvited guest.

They're just having some fun.

- Fun, fun?

Until someone loses an eye.

- Very wildly creative,
wildly creative

and it shows as you
watch the film now,

you see how he's
Dutching his angles,

and he's moving the camera

and there's a lot of
inventive camera work

by Adam Kane who is a
great cinematographer,

was the shooter on that.

So our thing was always I
would come up to him and say,

is it spooky?

And he would go,
"It's very spooky."

And so then we would
shoot the scene.

Psycho Cop II.

- You know, I'm beginning
to suspect foreplay.

- It's not what it looks like.

- You're drunk and disorderly.

- Well hello there, officer.

- You're under arrest.

You have the right
to remain dead.

- There's something
really wrong.

- Anything you say can
and will be considered

extremely strange
because you're dead.

You have the right
to an attorney.

- Why aren't they dressed?

- They're dressed, they're
just dressed scantily.

- So maybe I should just
let you go with a warning.

- Let's get the
hell out of here.

- Everything okay up here?

Suspect is blonde and
considered extremely stupid.

You understand these rights?

Miles David Dougal

as the hapless yuppie nerd.

Roderick Darin as the
life of the party.

1993 Penthouse Pet of
the year, Julie Strain,

as the bombshell in
bikini leather chaps.

Barbara Alexander as ace
accountant Sharon Wells,

and Bobby Ray Shafer as
mister law enforcement himself.

- Police officer Joe Vickers.

- Adam recruited all
of these local alcohol,

you know drunks, I mean
street people to be in the movie

and so we were filming
the clubbing scene

and there was one guy.

I could smell him.

You know he smelled like
alcohol and vomit and thrash

and he's not
pulling the punches.

He's just wailing away with
his plastic whiffle ball bat.

I mean, really really
hitting me hard.

You know, finally
I grabbed the bat,

I'm like, Adam, who is this?

And he goes, "He
looks great, Bobby."

So I was like, get him
the hell out of here.

He doesn't know what he's doing.

He's hitting me.

So we had to film it again.

I don't know why that
footage didn't work

but then later we shot
it outside of a strip club

in the valley and you know
it's a pretty famous scene

because of the
Rodney King parallel.

That was what
happening right then

and really Adam Rifkin
does his cameo there

where he shows up as the
neighbor with the video camera

and realizes, it's
gold, it's gold,

and starts filming
the beat down, right.

So I think that scene
was really constructed

and re shot again so Adam
could get his cameo in there.

But I can't be sure about that.

- So back at that time my
shop was in North Hollywood

on Lankershim Boulevard
and that area was kind of right

in the center of the
makeup effects area.

Right across the street,

like literally
across the street,

was Don Post Studios.

Maybe a mile down the
road was Makeup Effects Lab

and John Buechler.

Who else was around there?

Rick Baker's shop
wasn't too far away.

There was a lot of stuff
going on right in that area

and right next
door to me was the,

a studio that they used,
a stage that they used

to film IMAX stuff on.

So I met a lot of guys.

It was mostly
cameramen and stuff.

They used it for setting uptheir
cameras and testing things

and I met a cameraman
who was getting ready

to do this movie.

He was going to kinda
produce the effects.

All the effects for this
movie called Dolly Dearest

and we were working on
some different puppets

for a TV show called
Monsters and a few other things

and he'd come over and
take a look at we were doing

and he asked me if I'd
be interested in doing that.

Which of course, I was.

That was, Chuckie was
a real big thing then.

I think maybe one
or two had come out

and so this was gonna be
kinda like Chuckie's girlfriend.

Lower budget version but
still sounded like it

was gonna be a lot of fun.

- This is the doll your
daddy's gonna make in Mexico

and this is factory
we're gonna make her

and sew her little dresses.

Isn't she beautiful?

May I have one, Daddy?

From the moment they met.

- I'm gonna love her so much.

It was a fairy tale come true.

- Good night, Dolly.

Sweet dreams, Dolly.

But this is
where the fairy tale ends

and the nightmare begins.

- Dolly?

- There were makeup
effects, creature effects,

puppet effects, we had a
whole bunch of different things,

working in that movie.

We actually shot,

and I kinda
unofficially got to be

do some second unit directing

because of the puppets
and how we had to shoot it

and one thing that
was really fun

is they called me up,

we were already in the
process of building the dolls.

We built several dolls.

We had a full one
hero puppet doll

that had a rig that so
puppeteers could ride with her

so she could walk.

She had a radio controlled head.

Articulated arms,
legs, the whole deal,

and that was our
main hero puppet.

Then we had several, you
know we had a multitude

of other puppets

because she starts at as a
really like pretty, nice doll,

that any little girl
would like to have

and then morphs into
this evil creature.

So, we had pretty doll,

we had like the
normal looking dolls

that eyes could turn
and heads could turn

and do little things

and insert hands
for grabbing things

and you know a whole

bunch of stuff like that.

So and a lot of
that stuff we did

we shot in second unit.

So I got a call saying,

hey you know we got our stage

where we're gonna be filming

and I said, okay where is it?

And they gave me the address

and it was on Lankershim,

and I went, oh that
numbers really close

and I looked, literally
looked out the window

and they were across
the street from us.

So it couldn't have
been any better.

That was just kind of
random happenstance.

So we just, we could
literally walk across the street

and take stuff back
and forth from the shop

and it was really convenient

and we shot a lot of
the insert stuff there.

We shot a lot of
stuff in the location.

There was a house in
Covina, I believe it was,

that we shot at

but a lot of the stuff
where it was gonna

be more intricate and
we had some sets built

in this soundstage
across the street.

It was really a warehouse,
converted into a soundstage

and we shot quite a lot of stuff

and then at the end of the movie

I mean after we wrapped,

while we were getting into post,

the guys that hired me,
who were the producers

of the effects,
got into, I guess

a bit of an issue
about additional funds

and they thought
they did more work

than they got paid for

and it kinda got all
into a legal thing

and a lot of the
stuff that we filmed

ultimately didn't
make it into the movie

because it was tied up
into this legal thing

and which never got,
I don't know whatever

happened with it, to
be honest with you

but it certainly,
it wasn't resolved

before they had
released the movie.

So there was quite
a bit of stuff

that never even made
it into the film,

which was pretty sad for us.

We did all that work

but it was a lot of fun.

Denise Crosby was in the film.

Sam Bottoms who was her husband

and Rip Torn who was this,

kinda, he was an archeologist.

He was the guy that
released the demon soul

that inhabited the doll.

- No, no!

- It's time to play.

- Play with this, bitch.

Dolly Dearest.

- Yeah, you know it's
been like 30 years

since I did Dolly Dearest

and I just constantly feel like,

you know, that she's around.

She's lurking
around all the time.

It's weird, weird feeling.

Huh?

She's behind me now, isn't she?

I bet you she's...

Here we go.

In this small town.

Check this guy out.

On this quiet street.

- Now, we can talk
to him one on one.

An unspeakable evil

is stalking the net.

- What kind of name
is Captain Howdy?

- Strangeland was a cool
and fun project to work on.

I had been, I actually was
in a Twisted Sister video

several years earlier called
Be Cruel to your School.

So when I got called in,

I don't think I knew it
was a Dee Snider film.

I don't remember knowing that

but coming in and seeing Dee

and I think he remembered
me from Be Cruel to your School

and so we had a good
rapport already, right off the bat.

I really liked the concept
of what he was doing.

It was pretty new at the time

because the internet
was kind of new

and that kind of
messaging and stuff,

which is now, everybody
does on their phone,

that was kind of new.

So it was a pretty
cool, innovative concept

and it was a, to do those
kind of prosthetics on him

to make all those piercings
and tattoos and everything

was challenging
because it had to,

it was very thin and had
to look real on his skin

and then a really cool effect
we got to sew peoples mouth.

I got to work with
Robert Englund.

I had worked with him
a few times before

but I think that
was the first time

I actually applied
makeup to him.

So that was fun, I got
to sew his mouth shut

and overall it was
a really fun film

and Dee's a really cool guy.

I've stayed friends
with him since.

Would love to see a
sequel one of these days.

- Pain is a uniquely
personal experience.

- Oh god, please don't
let this be happening.

My badges are forever.

- My badge represents the law.

- I'll kill him.

- Trust me.

That's better.

- You always remember
your first film.

I'd done, before the
film, in high school

I'd done two shot
on video, you know,

straight to video,
never released,

until actually now.

The Vinegar Syndrome
released Murder Winter

which I did as a
senior in the 80s.

But it was my first
professional film.

In a way it was very easy
because I actually had a crew

and a cast that wanted
to make the film

versus just friends
fooling around

and I was doing everything
on those little movies

so I finally had
support on the film.

I was, I think, the
youngest person on the set

and the lead actor, who I
went to high school with,

Craig Peck, we were both
like 20 at the time.

Everybody else was older.

But I planned it out.

I did a shot list,
I was prepared

and everybody, you
know, understood

that I knew what I was doing

'cause my father was
producing the film

but they could see that
I was making the movie

and I had a very strong vision
on what the film should be.

- This place is great.

- Where's the bedrooms?

- Why don't I take a nice stroll

down that dirt path into
the woods late tonight,

all by myself?

Oh, I think I stepped
on something.

- And afterwards I can go
skinny dipping in the pond.

- I don't see anything.

It was probably nothing.

- There is something out there.

Don't forget, I've rented out

every single horror
film on videotape.

- He's driving me crazy.

There's no need to worry.

- What are we
talking about here?

Those things pop
out of your stomach

when you least expect it?

- Yes, that's it.

You've seen some movies, too.

There is no need to fear.

- There's nothing out there.

That's where
the rest of the chicken was.

- Yeah, no more dinner for me.

- That's insane.

There's nothing out there.

- Did you hear something?

Now, I know I heard something.

- In the opening of the movie

there's a stunt where the girl,

there's a scene
in the video store

which, that was actually added, that was
not in the original version of the script.

The video store opening.

I had seen Lethal Weapon Two

and I loved the fact
that they began the film

in the middle of a car chase

and I thought it
would be really fun

to start the film in
the middle of something.

So we start in the video store

and we found a real video store

and we shot in Pacific
Palisades, New York

and there was a real store

that the guy let us use

and those were all the
video boxes in there

and I though it be
great to have kind

of this nightmare sequence
where she's being stalked

by somebody, something and
all the video boxes are there

and don't show the titles,

so everyone who's
a fan can be like,

I know that movie, that movie,
you recognize all the titles

and then she wakes up in her car

and then drives off the
road with a big stunt

and then gets attacked
by the creature.

So it had like a double opening.

The car jump,

we had a stunt
driver who did that.

We built the ramp
and everything.

It was like a park, I think,

and there was a
bet about how far

the car was gonna go

and of course the
winner was the driver

who wound up hitting the ramp

going like 45 miles
an hour versus 30

and landed on the camera.

Pulled the plug just before

but you can see the
shot of it coming in.

So that was like, oh that
was an expensive little stunt

but looks great on the film.

This is one of the original,

I think they only did two
or three of these creatures.

We destroyed most of
them in the movie.

One had a little animatronics,

so it breathed a
little bit and the eyes

kind of blinked a little bit.

But this was pretty much
our creature that we,

in the movie, in the finale
of the film, especially,

when it's roaming
through the house,

we put it on a
remote control truck

and drove it around with
the camera on the Steadicam

following it from
in front and behind

and that's how we got it
moving through the floors.

There was a little bit of
puppeteering work being done

with the creature
for some of that,

when it's kind of doing
this and moving around.

But the tentacles, green slime,

and yeah this was all
created by Scott Hart

of Imageffects Studio back in 89

and it's made a few
appearance on tape

but hasn't been seen too often

and it's amazing that
it still holds up

as well as it does.

There was a longer tail. I
do have the tail end of the part

but the tail did eventually
fall off 'cause it's, you know.

But this was kind of one
of our stunt creatures

that was sort of
salvaged in the movie

'cause we burnt one up
in the stove at the end.

They took a lot of abuse.

- It's as if his brain
has been sucked dry.

- I say we set a trap.

The lights, hit it
with your lights.

The Killer Eye.

- David DeCoteau I
had known for awhile.

Very nice guy, really friendly,

gave me a lot of advice
on certain things,

when I was shooting
some of these quickie,

six day erotic movies.

'Cause he's the master of speed.

It's amazing what he can do.

Nobody can do what Dave does.

So he was gonna do this
movie called The Killer Eye

which was written
by Benjamin Carr,

AKA, you know who
he is probably.

DeCoteau really didn't
want to do the movie

and he didn't like the script.

So what he wanted to do

was bring me in to do
a rewrite on the script

and then hopefully
convince Charlie Band

to let me direct the film.

So I read the script
and I was actually

the only one who didn't hate it.

I was like, okay it's
about a giant eyeball

that's trying to
have sex with women.

That's different, you know,

so I thought it could
be a lot of fun.

So I wrote an ambitious
little script.

As I said, if I had directed it,

the only thing that would have made it
like even perfect was if it was a musical.

Was about a singing, killer
eyeball would have been,

I said it should be like
Tremors meets Re-animator,

or whatever it is.

I mean that was what the
vibe should have been.

So I wrote the script,
DeCoteau thought it was great

but he couldn't convince
Charlieto let me direct the film

at the point.

So he brought in
Matthew Jason Walsh

to do a toned down
version of my script

and make it doable that
he could shoot in four days

and that's what he wound
up shooting on the film there.

- Bolted doors and
windows barred.

Guard dogs prowling in the yard.

Won't protect you in your bed.

Nothing will from Pumpkinhead.

- And in Pumpkinhead
II when I was hired

to do it was not necessarily
a direct to video movie

even though that
was the ultimate,

probably the ultimate
probable destination

but I remember they were
talking when I first,

the first letter they
sent me with the script

with like oh, MGM, who
had some involvement

in the first movie, might
want to put this out theatrically

so we're hoping for
a theatrical release

but the production
situations were such

that it pretty much
damned the movie

to direct to video no
matter how, how it turned out

and that's one of the things

with direct to video
in the 80s and 90s,

there certainly was
a budgetary component

primarily to it.

There were some
bigger budget movies

that went direct to video

but those were certainly
deemed failures

but in the under a
million dollar range movies

they were almost
all, genre movies,

they were almost invariably
going direct to video.

So Pumpkinhead II ended
up direct to video in America.

Night of the Scarecrow, a
movie I did fairly soon after,

that was, it was a
very strange project

because it wasn't, it
was right at that cusp,

it was right pre
Scream where horror

had really hit a low.

Certainly theatrically
and it was designed to,

originally the
script was written

to be a knockoff of
TheNightmare on Elm Street series,

so the scarecrow was
making wisecracks

all through it and really being

kinda a surrogate
Freddy Krueger figure

and would be able to conjure up

anything and
everything in his power

and was written
to be like a five

or six million dollar movie

and when Steve White
and Barry Bernardi

two experienced television,

primarily at that
time, television

or direct to video producers,

got ahold of the project

they bought it in turn
around from Corsair Pictures,

which was a short lived
theatrical company

run by Frank Perry,
a very good director

who did The Swimmer,

they made a few movie,
Shock to the System,

a few others, that didn't
do anything theatrically

and then kind of folded

and then Barry and
Steve bought the script.

So, I guess they had
attempts to get it made

and they finally
decided, you know,

we'll make it at a
much lower budget

than originally intended

and they got Republic
Pictures involved

to help fiance it.

- It was an accident,

what the hell else could it be?

- What if it wasn't an accident?

- Geeze, you look like
you just saw a ghost.

- It's like they're protecting
some nasty little secret

but nobody knows what it is.

This is hysteria
running out of control.

- Two, maybe three
murders in the last two nights,

it's not being done
by a man at all.

- Hey!

- If we don't guard him
they're all gonna be dead.

- He has come back.

- Dad?

- He will become human again.

- Dad?

- No one can stop his power.

- Republic Pictures
was owned by Spelling

and it was kind of
this weird entity

where they had done some direct

to video Amityville
horror movies, sequels,

and kind of like
reviving the brand

'cause Republic was a very,

in the 40s, you know,
30s and 40s and 50s

a well known studio
that did primarily

kinda cinema fodder
for the masses.

Out of the darkness of our past.

Out of the visions
of our childhood.

Comes the one fear we
thought we left behind.

The one nightmare we
hoped had gone away.

But the evil we once invited in

has found its way back home.

The Amityville Horror
has a new address.

- No!

- It's payback time.

- I think there's a
scene in that movie

where someone gets
stung on their butt

by a wasp or something like that

and it was a girl in the film

but they made a mold of
my butt for it

for the closeup shot
of the thing being done

and uh.

I remember that very well.

Someone made a mold of
my butt in the phone booth

and alginate real quick like,

and I think there's a
giant rat in that movie, too.

We made a giant rat tail
out of hot pour vinyl

and it was attached to a chain,

which is basically
the same material

that dildoes are made out of.

But the movie's
pretty inventive.

It has a lot of really
cool creative ways

that they came up with to
make the haunting new and fresh

and I think there's
even like a father,

like a corpse of a father
that keeps coming back

and he decays like more
and more throughout the film

that my boss at the time,

had built all these
different foam prosthetics

to show the degradation
of his cadaver

throughout the film.

One cold night,

science and evil collide.

- Oh yeah.

Now, a
serial killer is on the loose.

- We haven't tested
the acid on an amoeba

let alone a human cell.

This is a disaster.

Look, I just
something that doesn't belong

in this world and it's out
there killing my friends.

Now tell me what it is.

- Jack Frost.

- Screaming Mad
George had been hired

to do all the makeup effects
and the snowman costumes

for that film, which
was a low budget film,

and his foam
fabricator, I heard,

he refused to make a snowman.

He didn't want to
make a snowman.

That's what I heard.

I don't think the guy just
quit for no good reason.

His good reason was, I don't
want to make a snowman.

So Mike Deak called
me and he said,

"Hey, man, can you
help us out on this?"

and I said, sure.

You know, so we made at
least two complete full suits.

We made upper bodies.

I think we made puppet heads,

including ones with
big icicle fangs on it.

We made a thing for the
end where it was supposed

to be melting but melted
back into a human face

so it was, and for some
reason they didn't use that.

I thought it looked
kind of cool.

But you know, arms and
gags and so forth like that.

I never went, I went up,

I think I went to the
Lincoln Heights Jail

or one of the places they
were shooting the prison scenes

but I never went up to Big Bear,

wherever they were shooting

and apparently
they were shooting

in the most snowless
winter of California history,

at least recent
California history.

So if you look, you know,

there's little patches of
snow which are actually,

cotton ground cover things
that they would move around

from shot to shot.

So, I love the fact
that there's almost

a completely snowless,
ice free parking lot

and this is where they're having

their snowman
building contest, so.

But anyway, it was an
absolutely silly film

and it was made for a
great first Total Fabrication

Christmas card, because we
had a snowman for god sake

and also it was also because,

I remember had
just gotten DirecTV

and apparently their
listings constantly confused

the Michael Keaton
family film by the same title

with this and I
would switch it on.

I said, no that's
not the G-rated film.

Some parents are probably
gonna be a bit upset by this.

It's Christmas
time again in Snowmonton

and they want to get
away from it away.

- It was exactly a year
ago that it happened.

- And that's why we should be
somewhere else for Christmas.

- Another beauteous
day in heaven, eh?

- Welcome to The Tropicana.

Your last resort
in whole paradise.

- This is a job for Captain Fun!

♪ Jingle bells jingle bells

But there's trouble in paradise.

- Everybody's dead!

- Oh no, not the scary dude.

- Scary dude's already here.

- Let's see, Jack Frost 2

I worked on set for
a couple of days.

It was shot here in
the San Fernando Valley

in the middle of summer
and the whole thing

takes place in the winter

and it was shot at a,
like a ranch up in,

I want to say Nordhoff,

Northridge, Northridge maybe?

And uh, the entire, all the,

most people don't know
but all the snow in that movie

was soap and they
had these machines

that they would make
like all this sudsy soap

allover the place and it was
shot in the middle of summer.

So it was hot.

There was soap
allover the ground

and everybody was walking around

and literally like the
soap was like moldy,

it was moldy after a week or so

on the ground with the heat
and the water and the moist

and you know, but it
was pretty inventive.

It looked amazing on camera.

You would have never known that.

I just remember coming
in for some of the kills,

helping my boss, at the
time, build this giant icicle

that like impales a
lover, two lovers,

or something like that

and puppeteering some of the,

I think there will killer
snowballs, I think.

Little like gremlin like
killer snowball puppets

and helping the stunt
performer get into the costume

for the main killer snowman

and I do remember that
they had a giant carrot nose

that they used to drop
on a miniature ship,

a miniature boat at
the end of the movie,

like he was melted,
right, he was snow

and then a giant carrot
smashes the boat.

So there was some pretty
and innovative things

they did for that film.

The wrong night.

- What the hell was that?

The wrong road.

- That son of a bitch
siphoned our tank.

One wrong turn.

- Guys, maybe we should
go back up to the road.

That way if a car comes
then they can call for help.

- Yeah, right
before they kill us.

And four
teenagers are about to learn

that when you tell
too many scary stories

you just might end up in one.

I see you!

- Mom, Mom, Mom!

There's a man under my bed!

♪ Alive today

♪ If I don't get no shelter

♪ Oh yeah I'm gonna fade away

- No!

♪ Oh children

- Get away from me!

♪ He's just a shot away

- If they stop me,
you lock your doors

and wait for sun up.

♪ He's just a shot away

- How bizarre was that?

Campfire Tales.

- Lets see, I was brought
in on Campfire Tales

by my special effects
peer, Mark Villalobos

a that the time, and he's like,

"Joe, come on with me to set.

We're gonna do this, we're
gonna do this bloody scene,

bloody sequence" and
I came in for one day

and it was a scene in
a cabin, I believe,

that is completely destroyed.

It looked like a massacre
had been taken place inside

and at the time, the
set was custom built

by the art department
and it was shot on location

but I believe the
set was built inside

of another room on location.

So someone had come in
and literally put a wall

over another wall and
walls over these walls

and brought in furniture
to make it look like a cabin

and what not.

I don't know if the
pieces were rented

or they were built by hand

but there was this iron stove

and there was all
kinds of stuff in there

and the director was like,

"Okay this scene, I want
to be the bloodiest,

bloodiest scene ever."

He's like, put some
blood on the wall.

So we looked over
at the art director,

who had built this beautiful set

and we're like, we're
gonna put some blood

over here on the wall

and she's like, "Okay
but we have to clean it,

we have to keep it clean,

I mean I have to shoot
it clean tomorrow."

And I'm like, okay so we go
put some blood on the wall

and the director's like,

"No, no, no.

I need more blood than that.

I need some blood over here

and then I need
blood over there."

So, we literally went,

I remember we went
back to the car

to get like another
two gallons of blood

and we emptied it on the walls

and the director came
back and he goes,

"I still see blank spots.

I need it to be blood
all over the walls."

And I looked over
at the art director

and she just like,

like in the nicest
possible voice,

all she said was, "But it
has to be clean for tomorrow."

And we went in and
filled in the rest of the wall

and I have a picture.

It's like my memory from that,

just a picture we destroyed
this beautiful set with blood.

I have no, I didn't
go back the next day.

I don't know how they
were able to clean that up

or what happened or
how they shot that.

So.

Welcome to Hall House.

- According to the
legend, it's not haunted.

It's possessed.

A gateway to hell.

Where this Halloween,

Angela's planning
one hell of a party.

- Come.

A night filled with tricks

and deadly treats.

Night of the Demons 3.

- I remember there
was like a giant long

like serpent tongue
that comes out

of Angela's mouth at one point

and goes through the back
of someone's head, I believe.

The front part of it
is an actual prosthetic

that the actress
wore in her mouth

but then the actual tongue,

the long big tongue was
fabricated out of foam

and I put it on
the end of a pole

so it could be shoved
out the fake out

and through the back
of the guy's head.

- I do remember when I wrote it

and then talking to
the director by phone,

who had not seen the first two,

and I could tell he had
no feel for the material,

he hadn't seen the first two.

He was gonna take this script,

which was a Night of
the Demons script,

which I went back and
read Joe's first two scripts,

Night of the Demons one
and copied the feeling

and the dialog and
the characters.

So it was like a
high school romp

with a lot of blood
and gore and nudity

and this guy was trying
to make The Exorcist

and it's like.

Some secrets
should never be learned.

Some borders should
never be crossed.

Some games.

- Are you here?

Should never be played.

Witchboard 2.

- What happened was
Republic Pictures

picked up to the rights
to the original Witchboard

and Night of the Demons
for video distribution

and they were both
such big hits for them

that they commissioned
that some company

to make two sequels
to Witchboard

and two sequels to
Night of the Demons.

So this was the first
time they didn't have

to go out and raise
the money themselves,

Republic gave them the money

and basically they
became producers for hire.

So they made two
Witchboard sequels

and two Night of
the Demon sequels

and Witchboard 2 was the first.

So they did come out
in some theaters,

like in very niche markets

but it never had
the wide release

that the original Witchboard
had had, obviously.

Limited to my hometown, I think.

No, that's the one
place it didn't play.

The guys who made Witchboard

and Night of the
Demons got hired.

Now that they were
producers for hire,

they were getting hired
by other companies.

Trimark, because of their
success with Leprechaun,

wanted to do a Pinocchio film

and they had found a script

and they were gonna make it

and they were gonna make
it for like 1.5 million

but the guy who wrote the script

was a first time
writer slash director

and he was convinced
this thing was

the next Gone with the Wind

and he wouldn't agree to do it

if the budget was less
than three million.

So I think it was
called Bad Pinocchio.

I don't remember
who the writer was,

I read it and, not a fan.

It was pretty silly

but I wasn't a big fan of
the Leprechaun films either.

I know that's sacrilege
to all you Leprechaun fans

out there and my brother did
do the score for two of them

but I'm not a big fan
of the Leprechaun films

and Trimark had asked me,

tried to get me to do part
two and then part three

and I turned them down.

So I think this was their way.

So when that fell through.

When the Bad Pinocchio
fell through,

these guys at Paragon were kind

of gonna be out of work now.

So they really quickly
said to Mark Amin,

"Well you know, this guy
doesn't own the rights

to Pinocchio, we
can't do his script

but we can still do a
killer Pinocchio film"

and Mark said,
"yeah but who would"

and they said, "what
if we get Kevin?"

and he was like,
"You'll never get Kevin

'cause he keeps turning
down the Leprechaun films."

So they came to me and I
said I would agree to do it

if it could be more like magic

and less like Child's Play.

'Cause I really didn't
want to do a Child's Play.

I'm not a big fan
of the big puppets.

As a matter of fact,

I would never had written
and directed Pinocchio

as a spec ever.

It was because it
was a work for hire.

But I said, I would
beinterested if I could do it more

it's a psychological thriller

and at the end you
don't really know

and they were like, oh,
they weren't crazy about that

and I said, Here's
what we'll do.

In the final scene she
gets hit in the head

and she sees the Pinocchio doll attack her

but then at the end, she
say well she had been hit

in the head, maybe
she imagined it

and it was really her
daughter attacking her.

That way, you still get
the attacking Pinocchio

for your trailer, but I still
get my ambiguous ending

and they wanted a killer puppet.

So that was the
compromise we made.

- I'm back.

- I barely remember
working in Leprechaun 2

and you know what, I've seen
Warwick Davis a few times,

and first of all,

it's wonderful, Ron
knew him from Willow

but the fact that he got
this horror franchise

as a little person,
limited casting options,

he cashed in.

That whole character
was a complete re shoot,

that character didn't
exist in the first draft

of the script and I actually
auditioned for the movie

and didn't get a role.

The director, Tony Randel,

I never really
talked to him about,

but I never got the call

and Dad worked on it

and then I got a call from Tony

saying that they just
felt like they needed

some more horror, some more,

you know, what they needed.

It was too much standing
around and talking

and they invented my character,

which is hard for me to imagine

because it's such a central
character in the story,

but the idea is you
never really saw the ticks,

how they got steroid-ed up,

you know and so you meet me

and we shot all night

and it had to been 32
degrees out in Malibu,

'cause we were out
in Malibu canyon

and it was sure nice
to have that makeup on,

'cause it makes you a lot warmer

and I remember I'm infested,

because finally it was
kind of so late at night

and it was so crazy
that when it was time

to really go for it.

I'm infected!

Silent Night Deadly
Night Part Four was,

I thought was a really
good experience.

Brian Yuzna was an
old friend of mine

and we had worked together
partially in a few things

but he directs and he
was the guy that did

the Bride of Re-Animator,
the Re-Animator movies,

he produced them.

He was making this Silent
Night Deadly Night Part Four,

and it had nothing
to do with Christmas,

it had nothing to do with
Silent Night Deadly Night

Part Three, Brian didn't care

and there was a guy named
Screaming Mad George,

who did the special effects,

they were just a lot of gooey,

kind of slimy creatures

and I played, I
played a homeless guy

that was sort of the
henchman of these witches.

I went and got a 12-pack
and was drinking it.

I was playing a homeless guy.

I could afford to
have a little buzz

and I remember the
production manager

took away my 12-pack
after I had three or four

and that really pissed me off

and I went and bought
another 12-pack

the first break I had.

A bizarre event.

- This would make a great story.

For her, it was
the chance of a lifetime.

- I work for the LA Eye,
I'm an investigative reporter.

There's got to be some logical
explanation for the burning.

But some questions.

- Get away from
me, leave me alone.

Are better left unanswered.

- What happened,
are you all right?

The woman who jumped.

- She was my daughter.

But now you've come
to take her place.

- Make your fear real.

Get it out.

It's the night
you've been waiting for.

- Please help.

- Kill the man.

Became a whole woman.

The night
you've been screaming for.

- It's the final step.

Silent Night Deadly Night 4.

Initiation.

- Clint was great.

He's really a good actor

and very easy going on the set.

So when the first Silent Night
Deadly Night movie came out

Santa Claus was the killer.

That's not right.

There are lines
that you don't cross

and that's one of them.

You don't make Santa
Clause a killer

and I vowed, you know,
all of like 29 years old,

well I'm never gonna do
a Santa Claus killer movie,

'cause that's not okay.

That is not okay.

You can't cross that line.

So, fast forward, you
know, a year later,

two, three years later.

I'm going in on this audition

and I've already done
a couple horror films

and I go in for this
movie called The Initiation.

Now very often, you
don't get to see the script,

you just get like three scenes.

So I do my scenes,
they call me back,

it goes well, I'm feeling great.

Go back again, get the part.

I'm meeting a buddy,
I'm on my way home,

my buddy's gonna
meet me at my house,

we're gonna head to a
party or something afterwards.

He's in the driveway.

He's like, "Hey,
Tommy how'd it go?

I go, I got the part.

He goes, "What was that again?"

I go, it's a movie
called The Initiation.

He's like, "Oh, right.

Silent Night Deadly
Night Part Four."

I go, no, no.

It's called The Initiation.

He's like, "No, Silent Night
Deadly Night Part Four,

The Initiation.

I'm like, no!

I said I would never do one.

When I read the script finally,

when they finally gave
me a script to read,

like the first page,
I am, my character

is having sex with this
woman up against the wall

in a seedy hotel
shot from behind

and I'm like, oh, oh.

Okay, wow.

My butt is gonna be
on film for eternity.

I'm gonna have the best
looking butt in the business

and so for the next, you
know, whatever it was.

I was already in
pretty good shape

but for the next few
weeks I'm just like,

doing butt exercises,
doing butt exercises

'cause my butts
gonna look awesome.

See the movie, they
didn't use that part.

I'm like, come on!

My butt looked great

and I didn't even
realize back that

that it had such a like
Hitchcockian thing about it

and it is really cool

and I found myself just
riveted just watching

Neith and what so goes through

and what's going on in her mind.

She always had stuff going on.

I mean there's not
like a lot of moments

on the screen where you
don't see the wheels just turning.

- There are no bad days
here at Wishing Well.

Only happy days.

- Open wide, Gregory.

It is a happy day,

now he's out, rehabilitated
with a brand new job.

- Here you go.

- I'd like to buy a
gallon of your hard pack.

- Next.

You didn't say please.

- Did you see little
Rodger Smith today?

- He was that park, why?

- We got a missing kid.

His ice cream
has a secret ingredient.

- What the hell is
that ice cream dork

doing out this late?

- What's your favorite flavor?

- Wow.

- Oh, he's so kind to
the little children.

- I brought you
something special.

- Oh, sounds yummy.

I know that you told me
beforeon the phone you didn't believe

I actually watched.

Is that your internal
attitude on it?

- Well, yeah.

I would have $50,

a $50 bounty, a prize,

if anybody can prove
to me that they just

would sit and watch it
just straight through,

like waste two hours of
their life watching the movie.

I'll give you $50.

I've never really had
anybody step up and do it.

They've talked about and
they say they've seen it

but to actually say,
no I'm gonna watch it

and you know I'll put it
on tape that I'm watching it,

you get $50.

I had a blast making it

and Norman and I are
really close friends,

the fellow that directed it

and it was an important part,

an important time in my life

and getting to play the lead

was something that, you know,

actors that's what
we strive for.

I mean all actors dream
of being the matinee idol,

and I wasn't gonna
be the matinee idol

but I, you know,
I want my sirloin.

Dr. Allen
Feinstone is back in business.

Just a small country practice.

Doing what he does best.

- Want to open wide?

He's practicing
under a new name.

- Jamie Devers,
Dr. Lawrence Caine.

- Hi.

- Larry's just moved
here to Paradise.

- I think I'm
gonna like it here.

And he's given his patience.

- Smile.

The care they deserve.

- I got a feeling he's gonna
be real good for this town.

- Whats wrong?

- A little toothache.

- May I look at it?

- Is it gonna hurt.

- Shouldn't.

- Dentist 2 is one of those ones

I'm really proud I got
that notch in my gun belt.

Corbin Bernsen,
Brian Yuzna again

and the wonderful
thing about working

for Brian back in the day

is, of course, you
get a little neurotic

when nobody gives you any notes.

It's like, how was I?

Did it work?

Does the scene work,
too intense or whatever?

And Brian, very early on said,

"You know, I'm not an actor.

You're a lot better
actor than I am.

I'm gonna leave the
acting choices to you

and let me just do
the, handle the shots."

So, by the time
we did Dentist 2,

I mean listen, Corbin
and I just were chewing

on the scenery, we
had fun, we staged it.

The fake needle in the ear

and I still, if I
had a product really,

it would be on it.

It, 'cause I just feel like

that that's one of those ones,

yeah, listen, look at the
way Corbin was playing it

and the way, you
know Mr. Toothache

was my character's name

and that insert shot
of the pus was just

so ridiculously grotesquely bad, it's good.

It just summarizes that
movie, that era, that time.

- 90s horror is great

and a lot of that came from
the direct to video movies.

I mean, Dr. Giggles.

- Return of the Living
Dead III, Mindy Clarke.

- Let's proceed.

- Don't worry,
they can't see us.

Beyond the laws of nature.

- We've got something.

- They came back to life.

Beyond the limits of love.

- Julie.

Beyond the silence of death.

She has returned

to take you on a joy
ride through hell.

- She's dead, isn't she?

- If she attacks him,
he becomes like her.

- No!

- She was the most bad ass cool,

like she kind of
reminded me of a bit

of a Angela in
Night of the Demons,

Amelia Kinkade, kind
of just cool and sexy

and badass and then its like,

when she had to start
shoving glass into her face

and needles into her fingers,

you're like holy shit!

This chick is crazy
and she's cool

and she's still sexy.

I think kind of with
like the death of DVD

and like video store movies

may have been like the
death of the scream queen.

Just because like the
genres much bigger now

but you don't have that thing.

Like you're not going to Netflix

just to search for a
Tiffany movie anymore,

or so and so.

Like where you used to go to
Blockbuster and you'd like go, oh

oh my god, look at
this, she's in this one

and she's in this one
and she's in this one

and like those were the things

that you had much
smaller pool to chose from.

So obviously people like
me you get elevated more.

Now there's like billions
of movies on Netflix

and billions of movies on Hulu

and it's like you don't haveenough
time to watch everything

so I don't know if the term
really still exists as much.

- All those years when
I was making the films

in the 80s and 90s.

I had no idea the, the breadth,

I don't know the word,

of where these films
were going of the people

seeing the films.

I had no idea that these
films were being seen

across the country and
there was all these people

who love these films.

- I have to tell
my fans, thank you

thank you for everything
for all these years

of honoring me as a scream queen

and watching me as
a horror actress,

I couldn't have
done it without you.

- I love talking to you
guys on social media

and I look forward to seeing you

at the conventions
and stuff like that

and I wouldn't do anything,

couldn't be able to do anything

that I love to do without you.

So thank you very
much, I love you.

- That was my childhood

and that was some of the
best years of my life,

discovering all those movies.