Released today from Lionsgate is the werewolf film Wolf Moon.

Last Thursday night, at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, Horroryearbook’s Gary G. and Andrew were ON THE SCENE at the film’s premiere. Written and directed by Dana Mennie, Wolf Moon is the tale of a small southwestern town terrorized by a rash of werewolf murders. It stars an impressive cast of genre veteran’s such as Maria Conchita Alonso, Chris Mulkey, Sid Haig, Lin Shaye, and Billy Drago; alongside up and comers Max Ryan, Ginny Weirick and Chris Divecchio. Horroryearbook was excited about possibly meeting some of our genre heroes, like Mulkey, Shaye and Haig in person.

As Andrew and I pulled up to the Raleigh Studio lot, where the Wolf Moon premiere was being held, we were immediately intimidated by seeing people arriving in tuxedos and expensive cocktails dresses since we both looked like we just got off work, which in my case was the truth. But we soon realized that since Horroryearbook has absolutely no reputation, at least not a good one, to live up to that we could relax and enjoy the ride. As the film’s press agent, Michelle, slyly admitted to us upon arriving, “We know who you are.” Upon which we were immediately directed to the open bar. Clearly our fearless leader, Wil’s, reputation for drunken shenanigans at press events had preceded us. No matter, the open bar really allowed us to loosen up from our initial embarrassment at being completely and utterly unprepared for this event. But kudos to press agent Michelle Czernin von Chudenitz for pretending that we actually mattered while the real press people were out on the red carpet interviewing and photographing the stars of the movie and we sat inside the reception tent slugging glass after glass of Cutty Sark Whiskey, red wine and cocktails. If we had seen the sushi earlier we would have partaken but we were trying to get a load on before embarrassing ourselves.

As we hid in a corner of the reception tent we tried to Google the names of the actors in Wolf Moon on my phone as Andrew stared nervously around the room, which was full of the films crew and who were clearly eying us and wondering who the hell we were. There were faces I recognized like Chris Mulkey, from Cloverfield and a million other movies and Lin Shaye, from There’s Something About Mary, 2001 Maniacs, the original NOES. In fact I had to reach around the tiny Ms. Shaye to get a much needed drink. And Mulkey is much taller and much more imposing in person than onscreen. They hugged and chatted with their co-stars and crew as they all kept peeking over at the two of us , vainlly attempting to look as if we weren’t trying to Google their names in the corner. Just as the Wolf Moon IMDB page loaded onto my phone, it went dead.

BREAKING NEWS! Your WEB service sucks ass, METRO PCS.

After the screening we felt a bit more prepared, now being able to connect actor to character and actually having something to discuss with these people. Sadly Sid Haig and Maria Conchita Alonso were no shows but the rest of the cast couldn’t have been more gracious.

In Wolf Moon Lin Shaye steals her few minutes of screen time playing the dredlocked psychic who is the only person who senses the impending horror. Shaye has been a personal favorite of mine since I first learned her name as the sun burned Magda in Something about Mary. Wearing a stylish red jacket, black cocktail dress with cowboy boots, Shaye was a popular lady at the reception. I got a chance to pull her aside and asked if it would be alright if I gushed over her for a moment.

“Not at all. I’d love it” she replied.

I went on to ramble about how she is one of the horror genres reigning stars and how much I loved her amazing performance in the unheralded gem Dead End.

“You know, you’re the third person who has told me that tonight. People really love that movie.”

I continued to ramble and remarked on how I loved her Granny Boone character in 2001 Maniacs upon which she excitedly asked if I had seen the sequel. I hadn’t, so she told me about an upcoming screening at The Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. Hope to see you there Lin. I love to find out that actors I admire are actually nice people.

As I fawned over Lin Shaye, Andrew was in the bathroom being accosted by leading man Chris Divecchio and Billy Drago. Just as Andrew got to the urinal in the cramped Mens bathroom Divecchio and Drago pull up and hover behind him, causing Andrew an intense bout of pee shyness. “This seems to be the clog,” Drago snarkily commented. Andrew then proceeds to feign peeing then beat it out of there, totally embarrassed. Andrew will kill me for recounting this story. But lets be honest, if Billy Drago was standing behind you, could you pee freely?

For me that question was answered a few minutes later when I literally ran into Mr. Drago. As a long time genre fan who has an affinity for off kilter charter actors like Billy Drago, for me this was like meeting Tom Cruise if I were a bored, overweight housewife, or Robert Pattinson, if I was a virginal overweight teen girl, or Reggie Bush, if I was a overweight armchair football fan. But I’m an overweight genre movie nerd so meeting Billy Drago is the shit.

In Wolf Moon Drago plays Thibodeaux, the detective who has been tracking the murders committed by the werewolf. He brings his customary intensity to the small but pivotal role..

Let me just say this, for those of you who are familiar with Drago’s work playing every kind of miscreant and creepozid and psychopath. he couldn’t have been nicer. Yes, staring into that unmistakable visage was disconcerting. I told him that as a genre fan I had probably seen most of his work. He replied, “Oh I don’t know about that. I’ve been in over 100 movies. Yet when I admitted that my favorite of his performances was in the forgotten 1988 thriller Freeway, his eyes lit up and Drago shook his head in disbelief.

“Wow. Now there’s a title I haven’t heard in ages”

(Score one for Gary G.)

In Freeway, Drago plays a psycho religious fanatic who is shooting and killing people driving in their cars along LA’s labyrinthine freeway system. I told him about how I agonized over whether I should get rid of my VHS copy of Freeway as I packed to move to Los Angeles. Drago told me that the film was practically a guerrilla film-making exercise since the production had absolutely no permits to film any of the films many daring freeway shoot outs, car crashes and explosions.

“We just went out there late at night and did it,” Drago bragged.

Drago was full of stories about his adventures as a leading genre character actor. A quick look at his IMDB page reveals that Drago has rarely been out of work since the late seventies. He travels around the world, called to deliver his trademark brand of intensity to any number of big and small roles.

“I live in the canyons. I sit at home and wait for a call. They tell me the part and when I fly out and I get on the plane. Go shoot the scenes. Then get back on a plane, go home and wait for the next call.” says Drago.

“You probably have a lot of stories. You could write a book.” I told him.

Drago become very animated and replied, “Oh you don’t even know. I’ve seen people killed.” upon which he entered into a story involving Drago filming a scene in a maze inside of a Russian prison during the Cold War in which……

Well, for the safety of everyone involved I’m not going to rehash the story Drago told me, but it was pretty fucking insane.

Did I also mention that Jeff Speakman sat right behind me during the screening. Apparently he will be starring in the next film directed by Wolf Moon director Dana Mennie.

Billy Drago, Chris Mulkey and Jeff Speakman. If only Micahel Pare or Cynthia Rothrock or Rutger Hauer had walked in, I could be a bit player in an HBO Thursday Night Prime movie. (If you get that reference, congratulations, you’re over thirty).

The party was in full swing. Andrew and I had a wonderful conversation with actor Steven Man, star of director Rolf Kanefsky’s One in the Gun, which got a rave review from Amanda By Night. We had a wide ranging conversation about a really interesting project that he is developing with a director friend and why we thought that Splice had flopped despite rave reviews from a slew of major critics. We came to the conclusion that Splice was simply marketed to the wrong crowd. Had it been rolled out into a few art house theaters first it may have attracted a more sophisticated(older) audience attracted by its stellar reviews. This was the verdict of myself, Andrew and Steven, though no one asked us for one. Steven Man was a cool dude.

All evening I kept starring at actor Max Ryan, who played the vicious werewolf killer Bender. Yes, he is incredibly handsome in person and out of werewolf makeup. But that wasn’t it. I felt like I knew him in some other way. Of course it wasn’t until I got home and returned my rental copy of Death Race to the Red Box in Albertsons did I realize that he played Pachenco, the head of the Nazi prison gang. He also played “Lawrence of My Labia “ in that other werewolf horror film Sex in the City 2.

Another new face that I enjoyed was ingenue Ginny Weirick, who plays star crossed werewolf-lover Amy in Wolf Moon. Because her character was such the plain Jane girl next door type I wasn’t prepared for how gorgeous Weirick in person was. The girl is smashing. Hey! Big Hollywood execs! Stop playing with that dollar store off brand Barbie Meghan Fox and start hiring an actress like Weirick who is pretty AND talented. In our brief chat she revealed that she just finished a film called Hit List with Cuba Gooding Jr. She’s a face to watch.

Hunky Chris Divecchio plays Weirick’s love interest, Dan, a drifter with a secret. I had a difficult time picking Chris out during the evening. Later I realized it was because he was wearing a long sleeved silk shirt that covered up all of the amazing torso he displayed many, many, many times in the movie. If you’re into man flesh DiVecchio serves it up fresh in Wolf Moon.

Well, that’s the way it happened. Andrew and I managed to have a great time despite ourselves.

We will keep you abreast of all of our adventures here in Hollywood and

ON THE SCENE.