HYB: HUSH began life as a short story. What is it about this concept that has you continuing to explore it?

AJF: Well it wasn’t so much that I wanted to tell the story in film format originally. The short story was published and was read by a few college students. They came to me and wanted to do a short film version of the story. I told them if they bring me a good script version of it then I will let them do it. After a few attempts I wasn’t too happy with the results. So I decided to write it and it turned into a full length script.

HYB: How did the shoot go? Any interesting or weird stories?

AJF: The shoot went pretty well. Overall. We had some strange things happen right before we actually started shooting. It would seem like there was a dark cloud over this production. First we had received a letter from the city engineers office stating we could not shoot where we intended to. Although we had gotten permission from the mayor’s office, he then decided to back out of letting us do the project in our hometown. Then the school system two days before the shoot also told us the same thing. But my crew refused to go down and that made me realize I can’t fail. Brandon, my producer, on a last minute whim went to schools and townships and got us everything we needed for locations outside of where we wanted to shoot. I think it worked out even better in the end.

HYB: What did you hope to achieve visually and dramatically? Describe the film’s look and feel.

AJF: I actually was going for an old school feel in the sense of not being flashy. I’m a big fan of old italian cinema, such as Fellini, Antonioni, Leone,and then there is Hitchcock, etc. It really had a strong influence on me and the vision I had for Hush. With what we had I think we were succesful in bringing that look and feel to it.

HYB: When did you decide you wanted to direct films? What made you choose directing?

AJF: I first directed my first film when I was in 10th grade. It was a martial arts comedy. I guess I always wanted to direct since I was young. I mean my mother took me to see Creepshow when I was 4. And what freaked me out about it was the segment with Ted Danson and Leslie Nielsen. Just how it was shot mostly. And the actors and the intensity. It was all very artistic visually for me. Then I just loved watching movies. And seeing the different styles and what was effective and what wasn’t. I just hope what I feel was effective for me works for the public. Or it’s me going back to a 9 to 5 job.

HYB: You wrote two different endings for the script. Did you shoot both, and will the alternate be included in the DVD release?

AJF: Unfortunately I was unable to shoot the alternate ending. Due to time constraints I decided against it. But we might see it again in the future. In another format possibly. Maybe animated.

HYB: How was the casting process?

AJF: We had a great casting director in Mike Lemon. He casted Annapolis. He has had tons of experience casting and I knew what he was going to bring to the project and getting me the right people. We had over two hundred people come to the auditions. It wasn’t easy with so much talent but we narrowed it down to a great cast.

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HYB: What are some of your favorite horror movies?

AJF: Creepshow(of course), Phantasm,Evil Dead 1 and 2, Fright Night, Night of the Living Dead, Audition, Ringu, Ju-On: The Grudge, Martin, and the list can go on but these have the most meaning to me.

HYB: How about non-horror?

AJF: Hard Boiled, The Killer, Breaking News, The Godfather, Running Out of Time, Fulltime Killer, Scarface, Narc, and RAD.

HYB: How much of the red stuff can gorehounds expect?

AJF: Hm. We went through 30 gallons of blood. But it’s no where as bloody as it could have been. I figured I’d focus on story and leave the blood and gore for my next film. But I’m sure it will be enough to shock the gorehounds. And we even have a Bruce Campbell moment in the film.

HY: Who handled FX?

AJF: Production Magic, Inc. handled a majority of the FX in the movie. Production Magic, Inc. is the brain child of Gigi Bannister and Reggie Bannister. They did such an amazing job. And to see more of their stuff I suggest renting or picking up Jeff Burton’s Acts of Death. They did the effects on that film as well. Up and coming FX artist John Tatarelli Jr. also provided his skills to the project with some of the wife beating make-up and blood effects, and Make-up Artist Alicia Lucia handled the apparition stuff in the absence of everyone else. Everyone did a great job in what they did. And I will be working closely with everyone on the next projects.

HYB: How does your family feel about your choice of career and genre?

AJF: Well the only support I’ve ever had was from my mother. She loved movies and was happy to see that I shared the same passion. She’s glad that my first film is one that has some blood and guts in it.

HY: Sounds like a special lady. Is distribution in place? If so, when will it hit the market?

AJF: We have had some looks from some distributors but can’t disclose anything more than that at this time.

HYB: What’s your take on the current trend toward re-makes?

AJF: I’d rather people research the movies that weren’t good and remake those instead of “butchering” some of the greatest movies ever made. Those movies that don’t need the remakes are timeless as it is but I guess everything is about owning the rights and selling out. At least Rob Zombie tried something a little different with his “reimagining”. And if it wouldn’t have been him then who knows what we would have gotten.

HYB: Give us a little hint about your upcoming mobster opus SKELETON CREW

AJF: SKELETONS (no longer called “Skeleton Crew” for legal reasons) follows a group of government assassins sent in to neutralize a gangster with politcal aspirations. The project is loosely based on Alexander Dumas’ Three Musketeers. It’s a gonna be a bloody, action-packed, and sick epic.

Read more from Patrick Green in The Dark Arts

If you live in the Hagerstown Maryland area, here’s your chance to join the growing ranks of the undead. Filmmaker Gary Ugarek (DEADLANDS: THE RISING) is shooting his latest zombie epic TRAPPED starting in late September, extending into October. The script is based on Ugarek’s short story The Escape. Zombies and background extras of all types are needed for the shoot, the premise of which is “6 people trapped inside a movie theater while the world around them falls apart from a zombie takeover.”

To supplement the film’s budget, Ugarek is also selling associate producer credits for $20 a pop, on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320152959788.

UK based filmmaker Julian Richards (who stiffed me on a promised interview, thanks JR) has announced that his latest effort SUMMER SCARS will screen at the Raindance Film Festival as part of that event’s competiton on October 2nd and 3rd at the Cineworld in London.

From the press release: “When six fourteen year old kids truant school to play in the woods they are befriended by a drifter whose behaviour becomes increasingly abusive. Held hostage in their den they are forced to embrace the dark side of human nature if they are going to survive the ordeal. “It’s a very dark tale about the loss of innocence” explains Richards ” and like THE LAST HORROR MOVIE, I think it demonstrates that the best horror is real”.”

Distribution rights are available for SUMMER SCARS, and THE LAST HORROR MOVIE is available at K-mart for four bucks.

Patrick Green

This is a recognizable cycle: the studios, emboldened by the strong September and October showings of their most recent genre fare, will then place their next year’s horror crop in an earlier slot, hoping to reap the big paydays that much earlier, and start drawing interest, and thus show a stronger finish for the year, blah blah blah. So the latest sequel turns up in August, instead of September, and though it shows a weaker return than its predecessor, it still makes a dent. The suits (those damned suits…) in their infinite wisdom, consult their yes-men and plan an earlier release for the next installment to feed off the momentum of the last one.

Next thing you know, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE PREQUEL TO THE SEQUEL TO THE REMAKE, dropped into theaters in May, is bulldozed by the unstoppable PR machines driving the summer superhero and pirate blockbusters, instead of the less obtrusive films a horror flick might compete with during the Halloween lead-up season.

That’s right, kids. The modern studio system is that jacked up. Seems like a simple formula: release your scary movies closer to Halloween, and you catch more people in the mood for a good scare. Put them out in the middle of bikini season, and you do battle with the biggest stars in the world, cast in the most expensively produced –and hyped- blockbusters since… last year.

Call it the revolving door effect. There’s no college course that trains one to be a studio exec. Those guys basically fall into their jobs, and fall out just as quickly, replaced by someone determined to make as much money as possible before they too get the boot. This incompetence trickles down to you, the consumer, who must then fight the hordes of teen girls riding the Johnny Depp wave to get to the only screening that day of 28 WEEKS LATER, which by then is relegated to the auditorium with the shitty speakers and ripped seats.

From there, the numbers-crunchers who work for the entertainment section of the nation’s news rags spot a falling trend and before you can say “direct-to-video”, they’ve declared the death of a genre and moved on to the spinning of some meaningless tidbit about the Heiress Whose Name Shall Not Be Spoken.

Then Halloween arrives, bringing with it the studio’s horror output, for which they now have lowered expectations, and thus are unwilling to pay for suitable advertising campaigns. One of these forgotten orphans does boffo box office anyway, re-igniting studio interest, and beginning the cycle once again.

The cool thing about this “horror is dead” business is that it just may discourage some of the hacks and weasels with no interest in originality or making quality cinema who jack into our genre for the quick buck. They move onto teen sex comedies, or maybe porn, and the true artists/fearmongers like Eli Roth and Rob Zombie keep the dark fires burning.

Speaking of Zombie, his HALLOWEEN remix is scheduled for August, pushed back from an Autumn date. While many may feel that this franchise has been a euthanasia candidate for some time, it would be a crying shame if this entry –bound to be the best since possibly the first- got buried simply because of poor planning. Can you imagine if IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE hit the multiplexes in say, April? I don’t know about you, but I would blow it off till the DVD dropped.

Dead? Maybe, maybe not. But a true horror fan knows that death is only the beginning.

Read more from Patrick Green at Grave Misgivings

TOP SECRET CLOWN BUSINESS REVEALED!
AN INTERVIEW WITH SID HAIG
By Patrick Green

Horror Yearbook: “House of 1000 Corpses” began a sort of a career resurgence for you. Did Rob Zombie have you specifically in mind for the role of Captain Spaulding?

Sid Haig: He must have, because I was asked to read the script and if I liked the role it was mine. Later, at his wedding reception, I spoke to his brother, who told me that he and Rob used to watch me Saturday mornings as Dragos on “Jason of Star Command”. To say the least, I was extremely flattered.

HYB: Obviously you made that role your own. Did you do any special kind of preparation to play such a demented character?

SH: Not really. I’m a people watcher, and I have seen a lot of guys like that over the years. So, I just rolled them all up in a ball and put them into one character.

HYB: You’re in a lot of horror films these days, but you seem to have a knack for comedy and drama. Is there a genre you prefer, and if so, why?

SH: I just like to do good work, no matter what the genre is.

HYB: Going back to your role on the A-Team episode, “Bad Day at Black Rock”: how was the working environment?

SH: It was very professional. George Peppard saw to that.

HYB: You played Quuhod in the Roger Corman-produced 80s classic “Galaxy Of Terror”. Were you around for the filming of the infamous giant worm rape scene? Any other interesting stories from that shoot?

SH: Yes, I was there for that. There were two guys in the maggot at the controls, no doubt having a very good time. I could go on and on with stories from that shoot, but it would eat up your whole bandwidth.

HYB: Your directorial debut “Wittenberg” is coming up. Whose idea was it that you should direct?

SH: My agent, Kathleen Schultz, was first contacted by the producers, P. David Miller and Tami Ann Bishop (of EOD Films), to see if I would be interested in playing a role in the film. She said that that might be a possibility, but that she was looking for a directing assignment for me. I guess they thought it was a good idea, because here I am, starring AND directing. And boy, am I ready to rock!

HYB: What can you tell us about the project?

SH: Not too much, as we are still in the beginning stages of production. This film examines the human mind and the possibilities therein. How much can the mind take before it breaks? My character, Doctor Dorian, aims to find out. Being a certified Hypnotherapist, I have a lot of insight into the power of suggestion, and what it takes to manipulate a person into doing, saying and being pretty much anything. Much to my delight, I was able to bring many of my friends on board the project, and we’re going to have one HELL of a time”.

HYB: Is there any serious talk of a third Rejects/Corpses film?

SH: Only amongst the fans, God bless them all.

HYB: You worked in a few blaxploitation films in the seventies. What was different about those productions as compared to others?

SH: Not much really. We were just telling stories about a part of the American culture that had been ignored for whatever reason. They were funny and gritty and sometimes a little stereotypical. It sure gave a lot of work to African American actors and stuntpeople that had been overlooked for far to long.

HYB: The legendary Quentin Tarantino cast you somewhat against type as a judge in “Jackie Brown”. What stands out about Taratino’s method of working with actors?

SH: Quentin imparts his vision to you and then gets out of the way and lets you do your work. This is a very important thing for a film maker to be able to do, and not many can.

HYB: The bulk of your career was spent in episodic television. Now that your film career is taking off, do you think you’ll ever work in television again?

SH: Let’s just say, I have learned to never say never.

HYB: THX 1138 found you working under the auspices of a young George Lucas. Was it an enjoyable experience?

SH: It was amazing. We rehearsed the scene in”limbo” for a week. George would come in in the morning, and ask us to think about a particular scene, then come back in the afternoon and see what we had done. I had never worked like that before. It was great.

HYB: What is your all-time favorite character you’ve portrayed and why?

SH: Usually when people ask me that question I say … “Do you have any kids? Which one is your favorite, because we’re going to eat all the rest.” In other words, I love them all.

Interview by Patrick Green

GRINDHOUSE the movie, and the experience, is great fun for anyone with a strong sense of absurd irony. I may be dating myself here: I was around for the tail-end of the grindhouse movement, and spent many weekends at the local run-down single screen cinemas and drive-ins soaking up wildly mis-dubbed kung fu flix, along with many blaxploitation, Godzilla and Italian gore classics. Younger film-goers, accustomed to watching demographically composed PG-13 fare on their portable DVD players, are probably scratching their green-tinted heads in confusion at the grindhouse concept, wondering what the hell is so great about scratched film stock and missing reels.

I won’t bother to try and explain it. But obviously I’m not alone in my appreciation for The Old Ways. Every other day, a new indie horror feature is announced, its producers enthusiastically promising a “throwback to the classics of the 70s and 80s…” I swear I’ve read some variation of this pitch at least twenty times.

The remake boom, now in full swing, is another symptom of the same philosophy, though many horror fans consider that a minus. Personally, I tend to judge each re-make on its own merits. But the line has blurred, with most filmmakers these days simply taking a tried-and-true concept, tweaking it just enough to avoid legal repercussions, then amping up the shock/gore/cruelty quotient, hoping that will fill any lingering needs for originality among us horror hounds. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. I’m all for loving tributes, but it’s not hard to see who has their eyes on the easy money.

Being a screenwriter, I feel entitled to my rants. More than a few times, I’ve witnessed the scenario of would-be producers asking for something original, only to see them ask that it be extensively restructured to look like everything else. It seems that distributors would rather spend their time on something they can relate to a previous hit: “It’s like ‘The Hills Have Eyes’, but with strippers and hobos.”

And we horror fans wonder why our beloved genre is treated like kiddie porn.

Back to GRINDHOUSE: Tarantino and Rodriguez manage to not only work within the studio system, but to wield unimaginable power, making exactly the film they want (usually). This is a good thing people, not a bad thing, for these two former film geeks definitely come from the “loving tribute” school of imitative filmmaking, giving their well-trod material an original spin without resorting to cheap shocks.

GRINDHOUSE deserves a better fate than it got. And thanks to the DVD industry, you still have a chance to make up for caving to your non-horror-rabid buddy’s and girlfriend’s uninformed assertion that “’Disturbia’ looks better. Besides, it’s shorter.”

So be ready to rent or buy that sucker, and give it a spin. Forget not The Old Ways, for they are The New Way.

Read all of Patrick Green’s articles and reviews at Grave Misgivings

THE QUEEN HAS SPOKEN:

AN INTERVIEW WITH SYBIL DANNING
By Patrick Green
(Special thanks to Peter Bucher)

I still remember the day I innocently walked into a video store and felt my eyes drawn inexorably, uncontrollably, to the cover box for JUNGLE WARRIORS. There before me, burning into me with smoldering eyes, doing complete justice to a camouflage bikini top, stood a vision of powerful pulchritude like none before. Sybil Danning was a presence in the exploitation movie scene throughout the eighties. Now, thanks to Rob Zombie, the action heroine is back and in fine form.

HYB: You seemed to have disappeared since appearing in “Superboy” in 1989. Fans are glad to have you back. What prompted the long hiatus?

SD: Besides the WOLF PROJECT which I am very excited about, I am going into Rob Zombie’s HALLOWEEN!!!!!! I’ve been offered a horror movie wherein I would play a Demon, which would be my first. With my partner, Stephen Smith (former manager of Lenny Cravitz), I am producing an Iggy Pop and the Stooges movie, called SEARCH & DESTROY. Go to my website Sybildanning.net to the newsroom and you will see my partner, the writer and Iggy, who has endorsed the screenplay and will be in our movie. We visited Iggy at a concert in orange County. More is in the planning – that’s for next time.

See More Pictures of Sybil & Bill Moseley HERE

Check out In The Powder Room’s Video Interview W/ Sybil Here

MERCY-FUL FATE FOR FILMMAKER PATRICK RODDY

By Patrick Green

A nice, blood-soaked pat on the back for those who recognized the above reference to a relatively obscure eighties satanic metal band. “Mercy” is a nightmarish little gem from filmmaker Patrick Roddy, a UCLA grad by way of Idaho .

Here at “The Book”, as we the staff like to call it, we get a lot of what could be called “fringe” stuff, the kind of thing that the other sites don’t spend much time on because, well, because the other other sites don’t spend much time on them. “Mercy”, is a noirish nightmare that totally ignores many narrative rules, and yet –surprise!- is completely enthralling.

The plot deals with a freshly released con named John Mercy, who takes residence at a halfway house in a dying industrial town. There he meets a quirky would-be actress who awakens old desires, not all of which are healthy. Mercy’s nightmares lead him to the street corner drug dealer, whose wares in turn amplify his nightmares.

As played by Gary Shannon, “Protagonist” John Mercy is no pretty boy from the WB, but a brooding, weathered man with sad features, as if he is constantly reflecting on his troubled past.

“Very few horror films seem like nightmares to me, so I began pursuing a storyline with dream logic and dream like qualities. I also had decided to direct, produce and shoot myself on a shoestring budget. I let my film school fanatasies go. I never gave a thought to distribution or what people would think of the film. I just made a film I would like to see,” Roddy explains.

Before “Mercy”, Roddy toiled in a series of low budget features including the horror hybrids “Parasite” and “The Phantom Rider”, the latter of which included “Phantasm”’s Angus Scrimm. “Parasite”, which is included in Pendulum Pictures’ Fatal Femmes DVD 6-pack, thrust Roddy into the position of writer, producer and director straight out of film school.

As for “The Phantom Rider”: “It’s the largest film I have produced. It was great making a horror western, the stunts, guns, and effects. Angus was great. We were thrilled when he signed on. Very nice man, extremely pleasant to talk to. That film had a great cast all around. Jerry Whitworth our casting director deserves a lot of credit.”

Roddy brings a decent pedigree. While still in grad school, Roddy worked with Debra Hill and Roger Corman, learning the production and distribution ends of the biz.

Creatively, Roddy places the works of David Lynch high on his list of influences, particularly “Blue Velvet”. But “Mercy”, with its stark and moody black and white cinematography, is more evocative of “Eraserhead” or “The Elephant Man.”

In any case, fans of surreal cinema can’t go wrong with “Mercy”. Roddy’s upcoming projects include a pair of horror flicks and a spaghetti Western. Too few of those, these days, if you ask me.

www.patrickroddy.com

Read more from Patrick Green in The Dark Arts

BLOOD FLOWS FROM THE EAST COAST
By Patrick Green

Taking advantage of the bleak exteriors provided by the east coast winter, several Atlantic-side indie filmmakers are hard at work to bring you the thrills you crave. In Roanoke Va., writer/director John Birmingham is bringing to life a splattery vampire comedy called “The Vampires Of Zanzibar” (formerly “Sex, Blood and Chocolate”). Troma prez Lloyd Kaufman appears in a cameo, along with Robin Watkins (Poultrygeist), Monique Dupree and horror hottie Dark Spider.

Birmingham , who describes himself as a “slapstick comical entertainer”, is shooting on high end 24p DV, which is as close as you can get to “film look” in a digital format, for all you non-tech heads. The plot concerns a high school senior who unwittingly starts a vampire plague when his own latent half-vampire nature overtakes him during a heated moment. He must then single-handedly try to contain the spread of vampirism.

Birmingham plans to hit the fests, and then: ”…to shake down every sales rep and distributor in existence until we are offered a decent distribution deal. ”

The coastal movie town of Wilmington , NC plays host to a thriller called “The Artifact”, but there’s little info on this one. Mike Roberts is directing from his own script. Despite the trailer, which can be found at myspace.com/theartifactmovie, no story or plot is discernible from the limited information provided.

Also in North Carolina , director Aaron Harvey, writer Jason Melling and crew brave the harsh mountain weather to bring you an outdoorsy slasher called “The Deranger”. Here’s the synopsis:

Five college friends head toward the woods for a weekend of drinking and partying at an infamous party spot. Their bud and beer binge is suddenly interrupted by a local park ranger who delivers the mother of all ghost stories. He tells them of another ranger who was burnt alive in the surrounding woods several years back by a group of partying teens who had little respect for nature. Initially shaken up, the group brushes the story off as just a baseless scare tactic. The hard-charging leader of the group, John, proceeds as normal, ignoring everything the ranger warned them about, littering and disrespecting the forest without so much as an afterthought. As the weekend grows longer, things start slowly going down hill for the group as the woods start caving in around them. Tension arises between the friends and round about they end up separating. Then they start dying. As they fight to stay alive, they’re plagued by a mysterious apparition in an old forest service parka. Is it the ranger, or possibly a crazed local? Maybe it’s something more ominous.

The producers cite 70s classics “Halloween”, “Friday The 13th”, and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” as influences but hope to blend the flavor of those groundbreakers with the sensibility of more contemporary fare such as “Wolf Creek”, “Cabin Fever” and Belgium’s “Calvaire”. Keep an eye on this very spot for the link to their soon-to-be launched myspace.

Finally, New Jersey ’s Amel Figueroa is set to direct the hallucinogenic thriller “Hush” from his own script.

The plot centers around college student Michael Rose(Adam Ciesielski of “Kanyon’s End”, and “Miami Vice” ‘06). Trying to piece his life back together in the wake of his mother’s death, he finds himself plagued by shadowy apparitions and an alternate identity who threatens a hostile takeover. There’s more info here: (officeamel.com)

Imagine you’re sitting in a small playhouse; three hundred or so seats. The curtain rises and the performance begins. But instead of spewing confounding Shakespearean soliloquies or clever Neil Simon repartee, the actors steer the drama in a decidedly morbid direction. A few minutes in, the action has escalated, taking even nastier turns. An actress, her screams slicing through the small theatre like a scalpel, struggles against the ropes that bind her to a chair, as a top-hatted fiend goes to work on her face with hooked fingers, bent toward her with his back turned to conceal her teary countenance from you, the paying customer and casual observer. The screams escalate, as those in the murmuring audience around you alternately recoil and crane forward to see what horrible atrocity is being perpetrated on the innocent maiden. The screaming morphs into a series of gut-wrenching gasps that could almost be interpreted as relief. The fiend turns with a sudden flourish, grinning maliciously as he stares directly into your eyes, triumphantly presenting the now-slumped maiden’s eyeball high in the air between the thumb and forefinger of his dramatically splayed hand.

Such a scene was a common occurrence in Le Theatre du Grand Guignol, Paris France , circa 1900. If you’ve seen the Theatre de Vampires scene in “Interview With A Vampire”, or God help you, “Bloodsucking Freaks”, you have an idea of the concepts at work in the Grand Guignol. The plays were unique in all the world to this particular venue, where theatre patrons looking for grim, exploitative thrills could get their French-ass freak on. It was this uniqueness and notoriety that made the theatre a tourist attraction, even a pilgrimage, for jaded travelers from the Americas , England , Germany and Scandinavia . The grim and gory dramas, written in the early days by playwrights Andre de Lorde and a pair of his students, were generally short in length, allowing for as many as five or six separate plays in a row, usually interspersed with spicy sex comedies to make for a complete evening.

The highlight of a given performance of course, would be the maimings and killings, which generally turned up in –or as- the climax. De Lorde, who is said to have consulted and even collaborated with his therapist, wrote in a simple one act structure, presenting a situation that would begin innocuously enough, before spiraling into tragedy, murder, or some combination thereof, until the inevitable dreaded and anticipated moment of frisson, the horrible demise of some poor schmo, wispy femme, or even a small child, conveyed via a low-tech, gory set piece. Effects, such as the above-described eye gouging, were achieved pretty much as you would expect, using floor scraps from the local butcher shop, though the blood was presumably some concoction, using whatever the hell passed for strawberry kool aid in those days.

Privileged audience members could reportedly enjoy the show from the comfort of private, screened compartments called baignoires, where, much like drive-in patrons of twenty or so years ago, they could indulge in other carnal activities, if you catch my drift. These activities probably took place between shows, or more aptly during the sex farces, as the widespread affliction of ‘bored-with-it-all’ syndrome, so popular in today’s culture, had yet to catch on in that era.

Grand Guignol performances were the original torture horror, legendary for causing fainting, vomiting, even hysteria among its patrons, who then likely made immediate plans to attend the next show. When the GG troupe brought a touring version of their show to England , two productions were shut down under authority of British authorities. Such extreme censorship lives on in the UK in the form of their film rating system, which makes the MPAA look like a pretty agreeable bunch.

The movement was the logical extension of the naturalist trend, a deliberate effort to collide popular culture with harsh reality. Though many Grand Guignol plays were too far-fetched to be considered ‘reality’, they did expose a dark place in the collective psyche of humanity that the ruling class might not have liked considering.

With this opening, De Lorde and company found a pretty wide open range of grisly and forbidden topics and scenarios to explore, such as necrophilia, child murder, leprosy and rape. A typical evening’s slate of productions might include displays of victims being drawn and quartered, eviscerated, burned to death, stabbed in the eye with scissors, eaten by wild animals, and hanged.

But the Grand Guignol wasn’t just about gore and shock. Consider the bloodless “At The Telephone”, (http://gaslight.mtroyal.ab.ca/atteleph.htm) one of a handful of translated scripts from the original era.

The Grand Guignol had an impressive run, considering the disdain directed at it by snooty critics and politicians. In 1962, long after its originators had passed on, the theatre closed, owing to the popularity of motion pictures, as well as the generally more jaded outlook of the general public, who had by this time grown accustomed to a nightly dose of atrocity on the television news.

But like a good horror villain, The Grand Guignol would not stay dead. In recent years, revivals of the movement have taken root in playhouses across the country. The Tragedies Theatre Company from Portland Oregon has made Grand Guignol style presentations a regular part of its yearly schedule, taking place appropriately enough, in October. No shortage of interest here, as over 700 lovers of extreme theatre turned out for 2006’s nine performances of two original plays from Le Theatre du Grand Guignol’s bloody halcyon days, “Final Kiss”, and “Laboratory Of Hallucinations”.

They had their work cut out for them. “Today’s audiences are very desensitized to horror and blood. We had to create a real mood to actually scare the audience,” said Brian Linss, Managing Artistic director of TheTragedies.

Nonetheless- “There were screams, laughs and of course groans. One audience member had to leave during “Final Kiss” because it was too intense.”

When was the last time a film had that effect on anyone? Maybe the original “Exorcist”, back in the day.

“Final Kiss” centers around a man seeking cold revenge on a lover who scarred him with acid who sets about evening the odds –and then some.

Linss and company are generous in supplying some lucky audience members with a souvenir of sorts.

“We used several blood effects that utilized a pressure tank, ensuring that the first three rows left with something to remember us by. At other times, more subtle sleight-of-hand trickery led to some truly macabre moments. We tried to utilize the same stage craft of the original Guignol theatre,” Linss reports.

And like the original Grand Guignol itself, the venue used by The Tragedies is a former church from the 1900s, only recently converted to a theatre . Upwards of $10,000 is spent to keep the tradition alive. If you’re lucky enough to be in the Portland area come Halloween time, The Tragedies would be more than happy to give you a holiday memory to rival the best Jaycees spookhouse.

Tourists and residents of San Francisco can also get their Grand Guignol cherry popped at The Hypnodrome, 575 10th Street .

Special Thanks to Brian Linss of The Tragedies for his invaluable help in composing this article.

www.thetragedies.com

www.hypnodrome.com

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On Friday the 13th, I attended my first zombie walk. If you’re not familiar with this growingly popular activity, it’s basically a case of life imitating art. Or life imitating death, if you prefer. A group of people get together, apply some ghastly greasepaint and ragged, often bloody zombie attire, then shamble through a populated area to a designated destination, often a cemetery or movie theatre.

The general idea is to stay in character, offering the vacant stare and clumsy shuffle that is so endearing to us lovers of the dead. Those who choose to offer themselves up as victims for the ravenous hordes usually indicate their status as would-be zombie chow by flashing a ‘V’ for victim sign, better known as a peace sign. They can then expect to be attacked and presumably dismembered. Designated victims are known to bring along some prosthetic body parts or entrails to add to the effect.

The reasons for participation are numerous. Some insist they are making a statement about how information overload is desensitizing us. Others do it as tribute to the movies of Romero, Fulci and company. It fills my twisted, black heart with pride as a member of the horror community that many of these shamble-fests double as food drives or fundraisers. Plus, it’s another excuse to dress up and have a good time. You have to see the mystified stares of innocent bystanders to appreciate the surreal nature of the event.

To add a little flavor, I brought along a brain made of jello, struck from one of those overpriced molds you can get at Halloween shops. I offered it up on the last leg of the walk, and was pleased to see it quickly devoured by the hungry hordes. However, a friendly ghoul informed me that participants are instructed not to accept anything from strangers, which, unfortunately makes good sense. Perhaps would-be servers of brains and body parts should contact the organizers of the events beforehand. Too bad this sort of kills the spontaneity, but better safe than sorry I suppose.

Organized by actor Dan Burello, this was the inaugural zombie walk for my city. Over two hundred walking dead are estimated to have participated, with some coming from several hundred miles. Some larger cities are said to have had in the neighborhood of seven hundred of the life-impaired turn out. One can imagine a future in which annual zombie walks rival the traditional Christmas parade, with macabre pageantry and coffin-shaped floats.

Be sure and support the dead when they come to your city. Or start a zombie
walk tradition yourself! For more info, hit Zombiewalk.com or Dan’s My Space page.

Read all of Patrick Green’s articles and reviews at Grave Misgivings