It’s hard not being a hypochondriac when doctors have been telling you that you’re going to die from an pulmonary embolism for over 12 years. That’s why I decided to pullout of our Ti West / Sara Paxton interview when I started having chest pains in Penn Station. Fortunately, Madeleine Koestner was there to cover for me and that’s why we have this shitty text interview instead of video.

That’s also why she posted half of it on her website YouWonCannes. Here’s part one where Ti is joined by the lead actress, blonde hottie Sara Paxton, to talk about his new film The Innkeepers and why he still hates Cabin Fever 2. — Wil Keiper

HORROR YEARBOOK: How’s The Innkeepers doing?



TI WEST: So far so good. Theatrically it comes out February 3rd. You know, indie movies these days, theatrically it’s like blleehh. It’s just not a great time, so you can only do so much. The VOD started a few days ago, certainly the last year of festivals we’ve been really fortunate with reviews. Since the VOD release we’ve still been fortunate with reviews. And I think the overall reaction from just gauging websites and twitter is kind of astoundingly positive. So hopefully that continues.



HYB: I totally agree with that. What’s been really amazing is the reaction it has been getting from people outside of the horror community.


TI: I’m very happy with that. I got that a lot with House of the Devil, but it was harder because the movie was called The House of the Devil. So, not only did I have to convince people that it’s not like what you think of horror films, also don’t think about the title! This movie doesn’t have that… although it does have that face on the poster.

SARA PAXTON: I love that face.

TI: The most satisfying thing is when people are like, “I don’t watch horror movies,” and someone’s response is, “I know, neither do I, and that’s why you should watch this one.” Although, I do like horror. To me, it’s interesting when you ask people who normally wouldn’t want anything to do with horror movies about The Shining, or Rosemary’s Baby, or The Exorcist, and they say, “Oh, those are different”. No, they’re just good. That would be my goal, to have people who don’t usually watch horror movies, who just think of them as lowest common denominator, people getting killed, will see this movie and go, “that wasn’t what I thought it was, I liked that.” Because they do like horror movies, they just don’t know it.



HYB: And Sara, you don’t come from a horror background, but it seems like you’ve been acting in a lot of horror films. Is that what you want to do now?



SARA: Yeah, I don’t know. I did a movie called The Last House on the Left, I was in that a couple years ago, so ever since I did that, I’ve been doing a lot of horror movies. It’s just sort of what’s been happening.



TI: They make a lot of horror movies now. 



SARA: Yeah, they do. It’s been fun. I like to work in all the genres.



HYB: One thing about The Innkeepers was, it was very subdued, compared to a lot of stuff that’s been coming out, which was interesting, as you could have gone balls to the wall, people being slaughtered, ghosts everywhere, but you didn’t.



SARA: [Laughs]

TI: That’s right.



HYB: Tell me about it.



TI: I think one, it’s not really my style. And two, in ghost movies, that’s tough to do. I think ghost movies are more traditional, slow paced narratives. They’re like mysteries. The other part is, this movie, it is a ghost story and it’s a horror movie, but I was really trying to make a charming movie about minimum wage jobs and about these people who are stuck. When you’re at work, you can’t leave. They’re stuck in this hotel where the ghosts are. They don’t really know where they’re headed in life; they don’t quite have ambition. They’re just sort of floating around, thinking, “I really need to figure out when I’m doing, why can’t I.” It’s a weird confusing state. Me, I could either make movies or have that job. I don’t know anything else. I could have a minimum wage job, which I don’t want to do, or make my own movies. I can’t even work on other movies; I don’t know how to do it. It was my third movie before I ever even saw a call sheet. I was like, “What is this thing?” I don’t know about this stuff! I’m getting better. But I wanted to make a charming movie about that lifestyle. Those people don’t belong in horror movies. If these people who just have these minimum wage jobs find themselves in a horror movie, the way they deal with it, to me, is far more interesting than if I put Sara in a wife beater with an axe, asking, “What’s up ghosts?”



SARA: I’ve done that before! [laughs]



HYB: In the end, I felt the film was a lot about skepticism. Was that topic important to you?



TI: It’s greatly important that you can make a clear case for both there being ghosts and not. It’s not like I secretly want you to think one. I personally am a skeptic. We stayed at that inn, and everybody believes that place is fucking haunted as shit. It might be. Until I see a ghost pop out, I don’t believe.

HYB: And Sara, are you a skeptic?



SARA: I don’t know! It’s kind of the same thing, I’ve never seen a ghost. Weird stuff has happened that would make me nervous. I don’t not believe it ghosts, but I haven’t seen one.



TI: Here’s why I don’t believe in ghosts! Ghosts are always doing movie-ghost shit. They’re always peeking out from the corner, why aren’t they doing ghost shit?! 



SARA: Yeah [Laughs]



TI: Why are they doing our movie-ghost version?! Aliens–same thing. They’re always poking out with shit, I don’t buy it. It’s too movie-ghost to be real. But it could be real. Not to get way off topic. There’s an element like… you can’t see electricity. There very well could be much more to this. And there is much more to this than we think.



SARA: I did get freaked out though.



HYB: I recall you mentioning the inn where you shot was really creepy.

SARA: I’m just a pansy.



TI: It’s weird; it’s the closest I’ve ever come for sure.



SARA: It’s all off balance, you’ll walk into one room and all of a sudden it sinks. Weird stuff. Plus, there was that awkward dead ghost lady walking around at craft service and I’d be like, BWAAAAHHH!!! With her like, creepy ass eyeballs.



TI: Sara did get scared of Brenda in costume.



SARA: I had to lay next to her in bed! She scared the crap out of me!

HYB: Aside from being scared, you enjoyed working with Ti and his crew?

TI: I remember when I met Sara, I was really going out of my way to be like, “You’re really going to have a great time, I work with great people.” And she was like, “cool.” and I knew she didn’t believe a fucking word I said. I knew it. Nobody does, and she shouldn’t, ‘cos everyone lies all the time. I know that afterwards, I was vindicated.



HYB: He didn’t lie to you?



SARA: No, he didn’t.



TI: It’ll be really hard making a movie with me, but I dare you to have a… more better–



SARA: More better!



TI: A more better experience! I try to surround myself with people who are not only more talented than myself, but people who as human beings, are pleasant to be around. 



SARA: It’s true, everyone was really great.



HYB: Are you guys going to work together again?



TI: Never!



SARA: Never.



HYB: Really?!



TI: Ah, I don’t know, probably. I gotta figure out how to get another movie made first. I’ve got this mermaid rape film she might be perfect for. 



SARA: I’m perfect. I’m a shoe-in!



HYB: Sara, what are you working on now?



SARA: I worked a lot this year. I did a movie called Static, which is another horror movie that I have a small part in. I did a murder mystery called Liars All. I did a movie called The Boys Of Abu Ghraib. And I did a few TV movies in the last couple months.



HYB: Anything you’re excited about?



SARA: It’s so hard to say right now. I either did like really tiny indie movies, where I just don’t know what it’ll end up looking like because my part is so tiny. Or TV movies. Yeah. 



HYB: Ti, do you still talk about Cabin Fever 2 at all?

TI: Sure.

HYB: Tell me how you feel about it now.



TI: Not good! [Laughs] It was a situation where… it was the greatest movie experience I ever had, until it became the worst. I tried aggressively to get my name taken off of it. Unfortunately I couldn’t do it. People always say, if I wrote it and directed it, how much different could it be? It’s like Dane Cook telling Seinfeld jokes. The material isn’t that bad, but the delivery is all fucked up. Like a local band playing Michael Jackson songs. Same notes, same songs, same words. But something doesn’t sound the same. That’s how I feel about it. I really feel it’s more the producer’s movie than it is mine. That’s why I want to get my name taken off it. If you take my name off it, then we can just leave it at that. But if you leave my name on it, I feel compelled to try and explain what happened. Yeah. It’s a shame. I’d love to fix it, I don’t think that will ever happen. 



HYB: You’re completely right! It’s so weird watching it. It’s like, so many of the elements are there but…



TI: It’s Dane Cook telling Seinfeld jokes! It’s like, it’s good, but it sucks. But… it sucks.



HYB: Are you a fan of the band Sparks?



TI: Did they put a Sparks song in there?



HYB: Yeah, at the prom, there’s a couple. It’s really bizarre.



TI: I was so out of it by then. It was supposed to be all Ramones songs. It was going to be a totally different movie. I was even playing the songs on set. I worked really hard on that movie, it was unfortunate.



HYB: That is sad. You’re getting much more control over your films now though.



TI: If someone picks it up at blockbuster and is like, this sucks, whatever. But people who are aware of me generally are aware that I made a big stink about it, they know it’s not my fault.


HYB: Lastly, it’s a battle royale of horror actors, AJ Bowen and Noah Segan have to battle to the death. Who wins?



TI: AJ, he’s got like four feet on him.



HYB: Sara, is there anything else, anything you’ve been dying to tell someone?



SARA: I’m lactose intolerant, I just found out. I’ve been wanting to shout it from the rooftops!

TI: She’s been looking for a forum to get that out there.

SARA: I’m relieved actually.

____

Interview by Madeleine Koestner

Check out our spoiler-free review from earlier this week right here.

The Human Centipede was a disgusting piece of cinema. The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) is, believe or not, more depraved than its precursor. In celebration of the UK ban of the film being lifted, despite a couple of minutes being cut, we’re posting this interview we did with the director and star of the movie, Tom Six and Laurence R. Harvey. You may not be able to tell from their work, but both are shockingly silly, good-natured guys. HYB got a chance to talk with them about how the new film compares to the first, building a real life human centipede, and why depravity can just be so much fun.

HYB: I don’t know where to start. I’m slightly nervous being in the room with you two!

LAURENCE R. HARVEY: The only other female interviewer we’ve had who came on her own just came into the room and sat right down, all the way back in the couch and could not look either of us in the eye.

HYB: But you’re so cheery!

LAURENCE: She was fine at the end. She warmed to us.

HYB: I guess a good place to start is… why have you done this?

LAURENCE: Why?! [laughs]

TOM SIX: When I was writing part one I had so many ideas, and I couldn’t put them in one film, of course. So I first wanted the audience to get used to the sick idea, which is why I made it very psychological . What happened was, a lot of people wanted to see more! The horror fans were begging for shit, and they wanted to see more ass, and they really asked for it. I knew in the second one I could go full force and show everything. I really wanted to have a different story as well. I took a complete turn and made it a totally different film. Part one is really about the centipede, part two is more about the Martin character.

HYB: Even aesthetically it’s such a different film. The first one is a very straight forward narrative, it’s glossy, it looks very good. This film is so much dirtier. Even in just the execution.

LAURENCE: There’s a lot of opposition going on. There’s a different psychology to the very visceral gore. Physically, Dieter versus me. Dr Heiter is a powerful figure, and Martin is a powerless figure. And so on. There’s all these oppositions at play. They are flip sides of a coin.

TOM: It was all intentional. All the clinical colors and the nice camera work is very slow, stedi-cam. It helped the story of Dr Hieter. This time I wanted a dark, dirty look. And it’s all handheld. I think, Really, the black and white helps the story of Martin. It’s gives us this uncomfortable feeling. Of course you see a lot of gore, but you’re not distracted by an overload. It’s more of a dark feeling I wanted to get access.

LAURENCE: The color of the gore would distract from Martin.

TOM: Absolutely! And I did a little Schindler’s List thing. Spielberg has the red dress, and I have the brown diarrhea.

HYB: And that’s disgusting! When I saw the movie last night, there was a handful of people who were hysterical during that scene. They were laughing at Martin, laughing at people getting shit on their faces… is that what you want from the audience?

TOM: Yeah! It’s so over the top. People wanted to see shit, so I gave them shit, in full force. That’s the comedy. Not everyone can laugh about it, but the ones with a certain sense of black humor do. There are also people who take the shitting scenes very seriously. All they think about is the disgust, not the humor. Each person reacts differently to the same scene. I can laugh about it very much, I love it.

LAURENCE: When I read it in the script, I thought it was so funny. It felt like the key comedy moment of the film. Funny and disgusting, just like the end of Society, the Brian Yuzna film. And it is satirical about society, about all the shit we’re forced to consume.

HYB: So are you saying you found the screenplay deep?

LAURENCE: Uh, yes and no! I think Tom’s one of those directors who can use high art references and exploitation film references, and manages to mix them together. The first film has got all these references to Pasolini, and uses Dieter Laser from Volker Schlöndorff’s Katarina Blum, and then it makes this film that just feels sleazy! Even though it doesn’t show much, it just feels so sleazy! I loved the way he mixed all these things together. It’s there if you want to pick it apart, but you can also enjoy it as a midnight movie. That’s why I went for it.

HYB: I can’t believe you weren’t even hesitant considering the subject matter. Well, actually step back, how did you get involved?

TOM: We did auditions in London. We met about eight Martins, and I was very disappointed in everybody I saw, until Laurence came in. I thought, “Oh man, he could be very interesting.” So we put a camera on him. He has such an amazing screen presence. He’s really there, he doesn’t have to say anything, and you just want to look at him. Of course, looks are not enough. Somebody has to have the balls to be in a film like this. So I asked him something extreme, to see how far he would go. I asked him to rape the centipede. Laurence, he took a chair, and… he did it. And he did it with so much passion! I immediately knew this was the guy; he’s brilliant! People will talk about him! I couldn’t understand how he was not cast in horror films more, just like Dieter.

HYB: Laurence, you do a lot with your eyes. And there are lots of extreme close ups on your face. It’s very powerful. I’m really in shock that you’re such a nice guy! In the film, you’re really, really freaky.

LAURENCE: For my approach to Martin’s character I thought it was really important for me to get sympathy from the audience, since within the first ten minutes, he’s bashing someone over the head. I decided to treat it like it was a silent comedy.

HYB: Earlier you both mentioned some of the influences on the first film, but is there anything that specifically influenced you for the sequel?

TOM: Really, the film that has affected me the most in everything I do is Salo. I saw it when I was 15 or 16. No other film has made such an impact on me. It’s such a level of filmmaking, of new filmmaking. It’s the kind of film I would like to make. I like Salo, but I also like Borat. Lars Von Trier and Werner Herzog are all brilliant filmmakers. I’m very attracted to dark humor. Human Centipede is my creation, coming from my brain. But unconsciously, I am influenced by so many things. Comedy shows, whatever. I have this particular sense of humor, and you can see it in part one and in part two. Some people laughed more in one or two.

HYB: You heavily reference The Human Centipede in a way that’s quite meta. You show scenes, you even show the credits from your first film, in a scene of the sequel. It’s kind of disorienting. Why did you choose to do this?

TOM: At festivals all over the world, they said, “what if some maniac out there copies your idea?” I was already thinking a little about that, but then I knew for sure, I had to use it as my main theme in the sequel. So it’s about this obsessed man who watches the first film over and over and over again. And then, without any medical knowledge, copies it. That’s much scarier than what happens in part one. There, there was surgical precision going on, by a real surgeon, and Martin is just this crazy man who does it with kitchen tools. I’ve never seen a sequel use the first film as just a film. Most filmmakers copy their first film, and that fails.

HYB: Laurence, you don’t really have a Human Centipede scrapbook, do you?

LAURENCE: [pouting] That… was my scrapbook. They said they would only let me be in the movie if they could destroy it. [He drops the act, laughing] No, no. But I actually did make it. Before we started shooting, I was asked to make one up. It had my writings in it and my drawings.

TOM: We didn’t have an art department make it. It’s really his thoughts.

HYB: What’s next for both of you?

TOM: Part three! But I won’t spoil it. I can say that part three starts with the ending of part two. You will be able to connect them all into one four and a half hour centipede. It will have a totally different story, with references to the previous. It will have a strange happy ending, since it’s the final film. And then I’d fed up with it.

LAURENCE: For me, I have a satire coming out sometime next year in America. It’s a comedy film, but I think genre fans may like it. Before that comes out a documentary, where I acted in a recreation of the performance artist Stuart Sherman’s version of Hamlet, who died a few years ago. I appear in that as Stuart Sherman.

HYB: So, my closing question is, if you guys were going to build a human centipede, who would you put in it?

LAURENCE: It depends on what purpose! Is it punishment or sexual fantasy?

HYB: Your choice!

LAURENCE: If it’s punishment, George Bush in the middle, and Margaret Thatcher on one end… I just would never want to see them naked. So they’d have to be covered up.

TOM: In the front, a person with colon disease! [Laughs] It must be people who are awful. Like child molesters. With someone with bowel disease in front of them. And a gay man that really enjoys being in there and can’t wait to do his business!

HYB: I had a running joke of building a centipede out of the three main characters of Twilight, with Bella in the middle.

LAURENCE: They definitely deserve it!

TOM: And we can put Justin Bieber on the end.

With tons of kick-ass acts such as The Other, Calabrese, Gorgeous Frankenstein, The Crimson Ghosts and countless others, the horror punk scene is stronger than ever these days. And one group, that definitely deserves to be mentioned among the very best bands of the genre’s “second wave” as well, is Blitzkid from Bluefield/Virginia! Since these cool ghouls have just released an excellent new album and announced some pretty important line-up changes, I’ve hooked up with founding member Argyle Goolsby and asked him to fill me in about the latest news from the Blitzkid camp. Here’s what he had to say…

Note: The interview has originally been done in February 2011 for Germany’s Virus magazine, where it appeared in a shortened, translated version. Of course, half a year later, it isn’t brand-new anymore, but it’s still an entertaining read that introduces one of the best punk bands of our time to the HYB readership. Enjoy!

HORROR YEARBOOK: Hey guys, first and foremost I gotta confess that this interview caught me kinda off guard, cause I was already through with my questions when I took another look at your website and found out that singer/guitarist TB Monstrosity had just left the band after more than 13 years in Blitzkid. Damn… so, in order to keep the Virus readers up-to-date about the latest news from the Blitzkid camp, please let us know what led to TB’s decision to leave the band. And, of course, what does his departure mean for the future of Blitzkid?

ARGYLE GOOLSBY: “Yes we have had a rather significant lineup change over the last few months. TB has left Blitzkid because he is now married, has a family, and his life is no longer able to support the lifestyle of a touring band. Aside from this, he wants to move on to play other kinds of music. He’s just not finding a happiness in playing Blitzkid’s style of music anymore.

We can see how the fans who don’t know the band intimately would interpret this as a huge potential for the band to lose i’s edge, but it’s not going to. This wasn’t a sudden change. we knew of TB’s desire to move on for some time and we took plenty of time to test it out without him. What we discovered is that the band is no less strong than it ever has been. This sort of thing happens all of the time. Members, even key members, sometimes come and go. That’s life. Being a band for over a decade, it’s very easy for something like this to eventually happen. People get older and their priorities change. I still have just as fresh of a vision for Blitzkid as I ever have and with Nathan Bane writing songs with me, we have a lot of great material ahead. I’ve been at the wheel of this band for a long time, and I accept my leadership position in it. I also take the responsibility very seriously as I always have. The face of the band may have changed but as you will all find out in time, the quality of the music is still within me.”

HYB: Roughly three months ago, you were still takin’ part in another successful incarnation of the legendary „Hell Nights“ tour with you buddies from The Other. These tours have become kind of a tradition for you guys and you’ve played in Germany around Halloween three times in the past five years. What is it that makes the “Hell Nights” tours so special and draws you back to the old continent again and again?

AG: “Hellnights began as something that we were invited play in 2006 and since then we have played it 3 times. It’s a great tour and has always had a very intimate atmosphere to it. All of the bands we play with on this tour are always close friends so it’s like one big week long slumber party. Haha. The crowds are always great. All of these things keep us coming back.”

HYB: Last year, however, was the first time you played infront of German audiences as a four-piece instead of the original power-trio. So who’s the new guy on board and why did you decide to ask him join your ranks? And will you recruite another new member now that TB has announced his departure or will you go back to rockin’ as a three-piece from now on?

AG: “Our new guitarist is Nathan Bane. He is from Cincinnati, OH. We’ve known Nathan since he was 14. I booked his old band, The Epidemic’s, first show. He’s been a good friend of mine for a long long time. Last year, we decided it was time to get a full time second guitarist to better fill out our sound at live shows. Both TB and I immediately suggested Nathan. We asked if he wanted to join and he did.

He’s a tremendously talented guitar player and an amazing singer. On top of all of that he is an incredible singer. The first time I heard him sing when he was 14 I couldn’t believe the voice i was hearing was coming from him. Nathan is involved on all levels of the band and is an integral part to the operation of this band. As for finding a new guitarist we may or may not do that. We’ll see. We’d like to not rush it. If the time comes that we want to do it and we find the right person then it’s definitely something we would consider.”

HYB: If I’m not mistaken, Nathan Bane can also already be heard on the new album, “Apparitional,” which is due to be released through Germany-based People Like You Records in late February, 2011. Why did you decide to part ways with Fiendforce Records after five years and three albums and what convinced you that People Like You Records would be the right label for Blitzkid in the future?

AG: “We had heard that PLY was interested in Blitzkid and we talked with them about it. We wanted to take the next record as far as we could and maximize its potential. We felt like PLY was a great label to do this. We talked to the guys at Fiend Force records and expressed to them our desire to move over to PLY. They were totally supportive. That’s the cool thing about Fiend Force records. They want to see their bands succeed and take all the opportunities that they can, and that was the case for us in leaving. We still support Fiend Force Records just as much as we ever did and they do the same for us. It was just time to go forward and everybody understood.”

HYB: Now that the new album’s finally in the can after you’ve worked on it for two years, how satisfied are you with the result? Is there anything that you would have changed with hindsight or has everything turned out exactly like you wanted it to be?

AG: “I LOVE THIS RECORD! I know opinions will vary and that is natural, but for me personally, as an artist, on a level of feeling happy with my work, I’m totally satisfied with how everything on this record turned out.”

HYB: Personally, I gotta say I absolutely love “Apparitional.” One thing, that particularly amazes me, is the fact that in case of Blitzkid there are never any fillers on the albums but only kick-ass horror punk anthems with true hit potential! So I wonder how you manage to come up with all these great songs? Do you actually write a lot more tunes and only pick out the best ones to be on the album or do you already know right from the first “outline” whether an idea is worth drawing up or not? And do all members of Blitzkid contribute to the songwriting process in equal shares or do you have any main songwriters in the band who are particularly responsible for the tunes that end up on your albums?

AG: “Thank you very much! We strive to write good songs. It’s not something we necessarily sit down and intentionally TRY to do, but we try to remain conscious of how the song feels and try to keep an outside perspective on how the song may make other people feel. Usually we know right away when a song has this quality and we develop it into a finished product. An important element in the way I approach songwriting is melody and how it blends and interacts with harmony and scales. It’s something very fundamental in our music and I think people really enjoy that aspect of our songwriting.

I’ve always been fascinated with melodies and vocal harmonies. They have so much potential to bring great depth into your songs and most of all mood. There really isn’t a process of how we decide what songs go on a record. There also isn’t a screening test to see what can or can’t be a Blitzkid song. If it feels good to us we do it. Even if it’s ‘different’ than what people expect or think a band like us should sound like.

We are associated with the horror rock community and we gladly accept it back, but in songwriting, we don’t try to write to fit into that genre. As long as a song we write convinces us then it’s real enough to become a part of what we do. Even if it is different, i think people see that we are convinced by what we are doing no matter what, and like it or hate it, embrace it and accept it. Because really, at the end of the day, you want to see a band playing something it believes in. This is why we’ve been able to be a band for so long. Both Me and Nathan Bane are the primary songwriters of Blitzkid. We have been writing so many songs lately. Coming out of the recording process for APPARITIONAL, I have felt such a creative energy and Nathan has been feeling the same. We’ve been using that to create all of these new songs. We already have our next album planned. Haha.”

HYB: If my ears haven’t mislead me, I noticed that lately quite a few 50s rock’n’roll influences have found their way into your sound as well and blended in perfectly with your punk rock roots. Would you agree with this? And what would you say are your biggest influences, besides the obvious marks that bands like the Misfits or the Ramones have left on your sound?

AG: “Personally, I have always been influenced by old American Rock n’ roll. Particularly, the rock and roll created in the mid to late 1950′s. I love Doo Wop as well. This is what I listened to religiously as a kid on the radio and this is where my love for harmony and my desire to understand it began. Those songs, even though I was just a kid, had such power over my overall mood and feelings. I look back on this and realize that when you are a kid you don’t have any junk or lies, or bullshit in your head yet. To identify with that music was proof to me that there was a magical innocent quality about the songs from those days.

As I got older and my musical interests started to broaden and I started writing my own songs, there was a natural incorporation of 1950′s rock and roll into what I did because it was just a part of me. Initially being a punk band, it’s hard to incorporate it into your music, but I never tried to write any kind of song. A lot of our music reflected us as individuals at those times in our life. So punk and that energy was always a big part of what you would hear in our songs.

As I continued to write, and I understood it better, and understood myself better, more of those old influences started making their way into Blitzkid in not just harmony styles, but in the form of actual song structure. The biggest influences I had on me as a kid was Buddy Holly (who i have a tattoo of on my leg), Jerry Lee Lewis, and Dion and the Belmonts.”

HYB: On “Mr. Sardonicus” Blitzkid got support from a true horror punk legend, namely Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein of Misfits fame! How did you get him to play on your album and what does it feel like to have a guy like him play on one of your tunes?

AG: “Doyle had told me that he really liked that song and that it had become his favorite Blitzkid song overall. I had shown it to him when I was playing in his band Gorgeous Frankenstein. When we decided to put it on Apparitional ed him up and asked him if he would want to play on it. He said he would and the rest is history.”

HYB: Your lyrics on “Apparational” once again deal with the dark, eerie and macabre. What is it that is so fascinating about the classic horror movies and spook stories that you keep writing so many songs about them?

AG: “There’s a nice underlying beauty in macabre subjects. Namely in imagery. I like macabre and gothic literature, but my favorite aspect within that is the descriptiveness to detail. I love stories by Algernon Blackwood, Wilkie Collins, JS Le Fanu, M.R James, Lovecraft, and Poe. They are artists that had a wonderful knack for words and understood the power of them. I learned to appreciate literature and the world around me in general because of literary greats like this. So naturally as time and my life developed, my own future perspective was born through the awakenings their works brought me. When I started writing songs, it naturally became a part of not only what i wrote about, but how I wrote it.”

HYB: All in all I’d still say that the whole horror thing plays a rather subtle role in Blitzkid’s sound and appearance. Sure, you wear zombified make-up on stage, you got ghastly fiends on your album covers and you sing about monsters and stuff, but it’s nevertheless always the music itself, that is in the centre of the attention and the creepy imagery rather supports it than distracts from it. So what would you say, how important is the connection to the horror genre for a band like Blitzkid? Is it something that you’d do forever or could you also imagine to record a couple of tunes someday that have nothing to do with the dark and twisted at all?

AG: “We’ve always had a direct link to the horror genre and we feel we have a kindred spirit to that genre in general. I think it’s a very important link for Blitzkid but it’s not something we solely do in order to be a band. I think the horror genre identifies with us because of our approach to songwriting and our subjects. On the same page we identify with the horror genre because it embraces many of the things we love so it’s a nice relationship. If the genre didn’t exist we would still write the way we do. It’s just nice that what we create falls so nicely into something as it does with the horror world.”

HYB: If one wonders what your fave horror films of the past are, one only has to take a look at song titles such as “Hellraiser”, “Candyman”, “My Bloody Valentine” or “The Hills Have Eyes.” But what are your fave fright flicks of the last few years? Which contemporary movies did scare you the most and could you imagine writing a song about any of them in the future, too?

AG: “I really enjoyed the remake of the Wolfman. I don’t really like horror movie remakes. I do understand why people remake movies, though. So I try not to criticize a horror remake until I watch it and can determine if the same message of the original was conveyed. That’s the crucial part. Some movies have such a powerful message that they capture the hearts of people all over the world and instantly become timeless. Their messages are so universal that decades and generations later they can be re interpreted to fit the current worldview. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t. In the case of the Wolfman, I thought it was a success in that department. I also liked the Sam Raimi movie Drag me to Hell. That was awesome”

HYB: Now that the new album is about to be released soon, what can we expect next from Blitzkid? Are there already any new tours or festival appearances planned, for example?

AG: “Yes, we will be touring quite a bit when Apparitional comes out. We will be back to Europe in Late April and will tour there until Late May. We will then be back for some festivals in August and again I hope, around Halloween.”

HYB: Out of personal curiosity, what’s the name of the metal song you played as an encore at your Hamburg gig together with the guitarist of The Other and one of the guys of Nim Vind? I absolutely loved it but have to confess I have no idea what it was… was it a cover or one of your own tunes?

AG: “It was called “The Sarge Song”. I made it up one day at sound check on Hellnights. We were in Frankfurt I believe. Sarge and the other guys from The Other were standing around and I just started playing this riff and singing these lyrics about how metal Sarge is. Hahaha. He had been wearing an Overkill shirt for nearly 5 days straight and it just came to me at that moment. I think we will actually record this song! So many people really liked it which is awesome. I just find it funny because it was just this random joke.”

HYB: Well, that’s it for now! Thanks a lot for the interview! If there’s anything you’d still like to get out to your fans, now’s the time to do so.

AG: “Thank you for your undying support. Monsters may change faces, but what they represent will never die. Such is the case with Blitzkid. We want to thank all of our fans in Europe for making this band so amazing to be a part of. We love you all and promise to continue doing what we do and kicking ass no matter what.”

- – -

Questions by Tobias Piwek
Answers by Argyle Goolsby

HYB: Since you just reprised your role from Hatchet in Hatchet II, I imagine you must be a fan of the films, and working with Adam Green. Can you talk to me a bit about what appeals to you about that series?

Tony Todd: Well, I love Adam Green, first and foremost. He comes from the fan world, and he’s one of the few people who have been able to make the transition from loving the genre to making product for the genre. I admire anyone who is able to do that. I find similarities in my own journey, I was a single kid who grew up reading comic books, and I decided in High School that I wanted to try acting. Things were able to fall in place, I went to acting school, went to New York. Now here I am kinda living my dream. Whenever I can see that in another person, I try to help them. You gotta give back to go forward.

HYB: It kinda seems that fans are a bit torn on the Hatchet movies. Some seem to really love it, some just don’t. Why do you think that is?

Tony Todd: I think sometimes people just have favorites. There are people that really love the original Night Of The Living Dead, and my remake, not so much. You can’t please everybody. But if you surround yourself with people who are really dedicated to their particular medium, whether it be special effects, make-up, continuity, or acting, you get people that love the work and the process and therefore get along, you’re going to have something the majority of people enjoy. You can’t predict success, but you can influence the output.

HYB: I’m glad you brought up your Night of the Living Dead performance, you’re a pretty awesome Ben. You tend to make roles that you take really iconic. I’d say Reverend Zombie is iconic, obviously Candyman is iconic, all those.

Tony Todd: I think it’s come full circle, just this week I did a voice over for a new series on Cartoon Network called “Young Justice”, about the Young Justice League of America, and I got to play a new superhero. His name is Icon. How about that?

HYB: Is that the kind of role you’re drawn to, or are there other parts you’d like to try?

Tony Todd: Of course there’s other parts, I think I’ve only been able to show the world 10% of my talent. I’ve been very careful about not being pigeon holed or type cast, which could have happened very easily after Candyman came out. I come from a theater background, and, not to be self promoting, but I have a pretty big range, just from life experience, and everything. I’m drawn to independent films, where directors seem to take more chances and flourishes with characterization. I consider myself a character actor first and foremost.

HYB: There’s been this whole new wave of independent horror directors emerging. Aside from Adam Green, is there anyone else who has really stood out to you?

Tony Todd: I have to give a plug to a film I did last year called Unbroken. Totally independent, shot it down in Richmond, Virginia. I really think it’s some of my best work in the genre. It’s directed by a guy named Paul Moore. I’m really proud of that.

HYB: Aside from the independents, are there any big names in horror you haven’t had a chance to work with yet that you’d like to? I saw the Roger Corman produced short film you did with Joe Dante recently, Splatter, I thought that was a really good time.

Tony Todd: Thank you, that’s the reason I chose that, because I wanted to work with Joe Dante and Roger Corman. We shot it in seven days, that was great. I would like to work with Wes Craven, I never got that chance. I was glad when I got to do the Masters of Horror thing and get involved with that group. I’d love to work with Tobe Hooper, and I’d love another chance to work with Tom Savini.

HYB: I’d like to see you work with Hooper. That seems like a really good fit.

Tony Todd: We had dinner once during a convention, and he indicated to me that he wanted to work on something, and we actually talked about a Candyman possibility, but that’s all mired up in ownership. A lot of directors I meet are interested in Candyman! [laugh] We shall see. I prefer new stuff. I’m not one of those guys that needs to do the same part a million times, which is why you don’t see me in weekly television a lot.

HYB: Would you reprise Candyman?

Tony Todd: If the situation was correct. Every two years or so they talk about it, then it dies away. It’s owned by three different groups and they can’t ever seem to get on the same page.

HYB: Is there another actor you can think of who would do justice to that character?

Tony Todd: That actor from “The Wire” (Omar). Michael K. Williams. But I think if they do it, they’ll probably go towards the rapper direction. To tap into what they think is the fanbase.

HYB: Speaking of rappers… I know you had a chance to work with Flavor Flav on Night Tales. This question is just for fun, but he just announced he is opening a Fried Chicken Restaurant. On that shoot, did you have a chance to try his cooking?

Tony Todd: No, I haven’t tried his cooking. But I am a cook, so he better bring it. Flavor and I have met, and he’s a great guy, I’m a huge fan of Public Enemy. I don’t really know what’s going on with Nite Tales. I was a guest star on two of the productions.

HYB: So this question is really for my editor, since he’s a huge Xena fan. He wanted to know if Cecrops or Meleager the Mighty, Tim Thomerson’s character, would win in a fight, if Meleager was sober during the fight?

Tony Todd: [Laughs] Well, it depends on what element it was on! Cecrops was master of the ocean, and a close relative of Poseidon. If it was anywhere near the water, Meleager wouldn’t have a chance. If it was on land, it would be a little more balanced.

HYB: Last question before I let you go, are you planning on directing?

Tony Todd: Yes I am. I can’t wait.

HYB: What are you working on?

Tony Todd: I’ve got this project called Eerie, PA that I’ve been developing for a couple years now. As it turns out, that might not be my directing debut. I liked working on Unbroken so much that I might let that director direct it, so I can focus on the acting and the producing. Eventually I am going to direct a film that is going to kick the shivers out of horror. It will have the impact that The Exorcist or Rosemary’s Baby had. I’ve been around horror long enough to know. I’m an actor’s actor, I will get people who know that they can’t bullshit me, and I will know the things to say to them to bring out their best work.

Buy Hatchet II on Blu-ray or DVD.

AJ Bowen is tripping on acid. He tells me he’s coming down now.

But not really, he was just making a joke on twitter to scare off journalists …I think.

He’s gotten in trouble with his publicist before, social media has been a strange thing for him. It seems a lot of people don’t understand when to take a tweet seriously. He’s got a lot of followers, sure, lots are a result of the horror films he’s been acting in over the past few years; House of the Devil, The Signal, and most recently, Adam Green’s Hatchet II and the lesser known A Horrible Way To Die, directed by Adam Wingard and written by Simon Barrett. For AJ Bowen, it’s still pretty much just something he does for fun, a way to communicate with friends. Some of his friends just happen to be the people behind those films. It’s a weird phenomenon for people like me, reading the tweets of those who have been making the films you’re watching, as they talk to and joke around with each other.

Adam Green and AJ Bowen were friends before Green asked him to play a role in Hatchet II. Bowen was uninvolved with the first film, but there was no way he could pass up a chance to work with Tony Todd, Danielle Harris, Kane Hodder, and the rest of that cast.

This whole wave of “throwback” horror that’s been popular lately makes a lot of sense to Bowen. He tells me that it’s just what him and his colleagues grew up watching. “Adam Green is a huge American Werewolf in London fan, he loves John Landis, and that mix of slasher movie and comedy.” Ti West, director of The House of the Devil, also another good friend of Bowen’s, was much more into psychological horror films, his inspiration coming from movies like The Changeling. Bowen doesn’t think every movie being made just on inspiration from older horror is a success, but when horror fans make horror films, there’s a lot that fuels their work.

On the topic of Adam Wingard’s films, Bowen tells me that again there’s a correlation between his cinematic taste and output. The difference is Wingard watches films that are a lot more experimental and avant-garde, not exactly what Bowen is accustomed to watching. But it really stands out in the director’s visuals, as Wingard also acts as cinematographer on his own films. “He’s so visually specific, and I think as he’s gotten older, it’s gotten stronger and a lot more in sync with the story.” And I imagine anyone who has seen Wingard’s previous films (Home Sick and Pop Skull, along with numerous shorts), will admit it’s true, the visuals are nothing short of intense.

But getting to work with director Adam Wingard on A Horrible Way To Die was a slightly different story. Writer and Producer Evan Katz, yet another of AJ Bowen’s buddies, had sent Bowen a screener of the first 3 parts of a 4 part anthology movie he was working on, hoping to get him involved in the last story. The screener arrived, simply labeled “DATE RAPE MOVIE”. After just a few minutes of watching, Bowen called Katz, and told him: “I have no idea what this is, but I’m in.”

What that screener was, is the still unreleased film directed by Adam Wingard, written by Simon Barrett, Evan Katz, and Wingard himself, titled What Fun We Were Having, an anthology film about date rape. As soon as Katz found out Bowen was interested, he also sent him the Simon Barrett penned script for A Horrible Way To Die.

Both films had such an incredibly dark subject matter, Bowen was sure he wanted to act in What Fun We Were Having, but not so sure about A Horrible Way To Die, until he spoke to Wingard on the phone. He was surprised to find the director seemed to reflect nothing of the tone of the screener or the script. “Adam was so laid back, like this chill, hippie guy. I changed my mind.”

A Horrible Way To Die premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival with huge success, scoring a distribution deal with Anchor Bay, due to be released on DVD Labor Day. The film was made with almost no money, so the whole experience has been pretty amazing. Since then, it’s been like a party for Bowen and everyone else, aside from promoting the film, screenings at Festivals have been cast and crew reunions of booze and barbeques.

Our interview has ended, but a moment later I notice Bowen on twitter again, this time letting me know he’s going to be taking some shrooms next, and watching Gasper Noe films. I, again, am pretty sure he’s kidding… but if not, I imagine he’s going to have quite a trip.

Hatchet II hits DVD and Blu-Ray on Tuesday, February 1st. For Los Angeles area fans, there will be a signing at Dark Delicacies that night, featuring AJ Bowen, Adam Green, Kane Hodder, and a ton of other cast members.

Buy Hatchet II on Blu-ray or DVD.

I Spit on Your Grave (2010)

Produced by CineTel Films’ Lisa Hansen and Paul Hertzberg in association with Anchor Bay Films, and directed by Steven R. Monroe, 2010′s I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE tells the story of Jennifer Hills (Sarah Butler), a city girl who rents an isolated cabin in the country to write her latest novel. On one terrifying evening, a group of local lowlifes break into the cabin, overpower and assault Jennifer, ultimately leaving her for dead. But Jennifer miraculously survives her ordeal; consumed with hell-borne vengeance for those who so violated her, she repays their heinous acts in gruesome ways that these lowlifes never thought imaginable.

Peter Podgursky has a sweet mustache and a slew of great ideas. About two years ago he made a short horror film called Cheerbleeders. Cheerbleeders is the story of two High School outcasts, Penny and Devon, who stumble across an ancient vase, that turns Devon into an incredibly popular cheerleader sex-magnet. And then everything goes nuts. Since then, he’s done a lot of stuff, including a web-short called Murder Baby which was screened at last month’s Shriekfest Film Festival. Peter is exactly the kinda of independent filmmaker Horror Yearbook loves; he makes movies that are funny, gory, and perverted. HYB got a chance to sit down with Peter and he gave us a lesson in low budget filmmaking.

Check out Cheerbleeders on iTunes.
Check out Dracula’s Daughters Vs Space Brains on iTunes.
Watch Murder Baby at Funny Or Die.

HYB: I really, really liked watching Cheerbleeders. I thought it was really good.

Peter: Did you feel like it was too much? Like, too much story in eleven minutes?

HYB: No! It would have been too much if it had been, say, five minutes. I think you could expand it.

Peter: Well, we wrote a feature version of it. I had a writing partner for the feature named Donna Thorland. We wrote Cheerbleeders, and then I got laid off from my job. To cheer me up, we went and saw Jennifer’s Body and we were incredibly disappointed. If Jennifer’s Body had been a slam-dunk hit we probably could have gotten someone to read Cheerbleeders, but because Jennifer was just a horrible mess, that was the end of our script and it went in a drawer. Because they had the exact same tone.

HYB: Yeah, I guess the tone is similar, but Cheerbleeders feels a lot more grounded in horror.

Peter: They are both a high school horror movie. If Jennifer’s Body had made like 10 billion dollars, then it would have been easier to make something like that.

HYB: When I first watched it I was thinking Heathers. It’s got the exact same tone as Heathers, just a black-comedy girls-in-high school movie. So did you find funding for it? How did you actually get it made?

Peter: Well, when I went to USC I was a TA and I got a stipend, to pay for rent and food and such. I just lived really, really inexpensively for three years, and put the stipend in the bank. I didn’t want to go into debt for my thesis film–

HYB: Oh, Cheerbleeders was your thesis?

Peter: Yeah, Cheerbleeders

HYB: And you’ve gotten it seen by people. Did it go to festivals?

Horror Yearbook: To start of the interview, would you just introduce yourself for any of our readers who may not be familiar with your work?

My name is Peter Straub, I live in New York City and have for maybe twenty-five years. I am a native of the Midwest, however. My wife and I lived in England and Ireland for ten years during the 70s. I forget how many books exactly I’ve written, but I think it’s eighteen or nineteen novels, two collections of short stories, and one nonfiction book of critical essay and memoirs. My work has been popular enough to allow me to live off the proceeds, so I make a living by writing, which nobody seems to be able to do nowadays. The world has gotten tougher. I’ve been able to sustain myself through my work for a very long time, and that’s a privilege and an honor. It’s something that I’m very happy to be able to say. To tell you the truth, it’s exactly what I wanted, and exactly what I needed when I began.

HYB: Let’s get right into A Dark Matter, which you just completed and hit shelves about two weeks ago. I just finished reading it, and it’s seriously good. You use this reflexive technique, in which the main character is an author, investigating this terrifying occurrence from his high school years which he wasn’t directly involved with for a novel which the character is writing. Structurally, it’s like Citizen Kane. And it’s extremely creepy and effective.. so where did this story come from?

Peter Straub: My writing process isn’t always the same. Almost always, I have this sort of outline that I like to think of as a safety net. If I’m on a day where I feel sort of uninspired, I’ll have a road map of what exactly it is that I’m supposed to be doing. Sometimes I’ll depart from this map very early along in the course of a book. I’ve written outlines where I’m more or less in the middle of a book, so I’ll have some clear version as to how to get through to the end.

This time, it was particularly strange. I was going to write a novella. A book which was then called “Skylark”. It was going to be ninety pages long and have nine chapters, so each chapter would be about ten pages. The first chapter turned out to be about one hundred and fifty pages, so my novella was cooked. And I still had outlines for the other sections, but I understood that each of those sections was going to be longer than I anticipated, and the whole project was going to be much, much longer.

I passed through various illnesses while I was writing this book, so there were times I wasn’t as clear headed as I should have been and I wasn’t too sure what sections were going to be about. When I’m in a position like that, I just keep writing, hoping something will emerge out of the fog. Eventually my problems got straightened out, I was able to work better, I had more energy, and I discovered that I had been in a process of building a house around me without quite being sure if it was supposed to have three stories, or four stories; whether or not the kitchen was in the basement or in the middle of the house. It was all kind of vague. I had no choice but to proceed with the brick and the lumber that I had set in place. That’s why the book is as strange as it is. I didn’t know when I began that it was going to have that Citizen Kane-like search, with a central narrator tries to listen to other people who try to explain what they think happened and it never occurred to me that I was reinventing Rashomon, but I was reinventing Rashoman. However, once I had the book set up, I had this incident of the occurrence in the meadow, and then kind of parallel to it, a rather buried, but very hideous crime in the past: the whole matter of Keith Hayward. I had two elements that could be kept very nicely in balance, both of which seemed extremely interesting to me, and I would then have the pleasure of seeing how all these people remembered exactly what happened to them.

And I wanted to get in the dead babies, the fact that one of the characters saw a tower of dead babies. Once someone has remembered the character saying that, that’s all we need of it. I wanted his contribution to be a very strange, dislocating story that questions meaning altogether. What’s so frightening to Jason “Boats” Boatman, and should be very unsettling to us, is that in the end it seems to suggest that nothing means anything at all. Everything is reduced to a word printed on a piece of paper. Things themselves have no real meaning. In fact, things themselves barely have an existence. That’s as nihilistic as I know how to get.

That then stands in balance to what happens when The Eel finds herself climbing a stairway to heaven. Which, if you were to find yourself in such a position, is absolutely terrifying, because the deity at the top of the stairs incorporates every single aspect of every single reality we know, and therefore it incorporates violence, ugliness, and destruction, as well as beauty and music. A friend of mine said: “You have it exactly right. You can always get to the stairway to heaven after you walk through a field of dead babies.” And that, let me tell you, is more or less the truth.

HYB: And you’ve written a couple novels with Stephen King?

Peter Straub: Stephen was a friend of mine from very early on. He was just beginning to be sort of well known, but he wasn’t actually famous. The people who respected him most and knew him the best were publishers. Very early on in his career, they understood that this guy was going to do very, very well, that his instincts were fabulous, and the signs were he was going to make a ton of money. The general public didn’t have that insight yet, so the Stephen King I met was basically just another writer like me, but he was doing a little better than most. He was a very engaging guy, a lot of fun to be with, and very smart, very funny, very driven. He was really wound up with energy. We liked each other, and we spent a good deal of time together. We were both living in England at the time, he had a place way out of town. So he stayed at my place when he came to London.

One night, very late, he asked me if I knew what would be a lot of fun, and I said no, I don’t, why don’t you tell me, and he said I think we should collaborate on a book. It sounded great to me, so we decided to do it. And I think we really got somewhere with The Talisman. It was at times, very hard work. There was so much of it. When it was done, we knew that this book was filled with tenderness, it was filled with affection, which makes it kind of rare I think. I think it comes from the fact that so many people really loved that book. It took us about a year and a half, which is rather longer than Stephen’s books have generally taken. I was writing as I still do a lot slower than he does.

The next time around, which took place a long time after, we already knew that we could absolutely trust each other. We were writing something a little closer to what we normally do, it was more of a horror story than a fantasy. And the work moved very quickly, it was very enjoyable. We worked up the ground rules, the big chronology, and moments of climax in the book out in Florida where he was residing. We were settled in about ten days, and we retired to our corners. I wrote the beginning, sent it to him, he was delighted. He sent me back fifty pages, then I sent him fifty pages. We kept it up until we were sending back sets of about one hundred pages each. That book took less than a year I think to write. It was smooth sailing the whole time, Stephen wrote the ending, and the ending is gorgeous. It came out of the blue. We hadn’t planned any of that stuff, about Jack Sawyer getting shot and what happens after he’s shot. King just made it up, an invention of inspiration of the moment. It was a great experience. We’re going to do it one more time in perhaps two years.

HYB: Moving off the topic of writing; there’s been at least one film adaptation of your work, correct?

Peter Straub: There were two actually. The first one was a version of a novel called Julia. The movie wound up being called The Haunting of Julia, it starred Mia Farrow, and it was pretty good. It was made in London. The producers had very little money and that kind of showed. The screenplay is not the most articulate, or better say, not the most coherent script ever written. It’s certainly no Citizen Kane. It never gets around to departing certain bits of information that are kind of essential to the story. Those absences make the movie a little surreal, so it’s kind of enjoyable in that one peculiar way. The film does have some power, it has a beautiful ending. And Mia Farrow gives one of her better performances in the sort of injured wife role that Mia Farrow could do extremely well. Fairly similar to the injured wife in Rosemary’s Baby.

The next film was Ghost Story which had a big, big budget. This one was a studio movie. It should have been a wonderful film. The screenplay might have been a little dodgy, but what really worked against the movie is, I think, after it was shot, certain studio executives wanted to play a more creative role than they already had. So they re-edited the film in a disastrous way. Their “improvements” made half the movie make no sense at all.

HYB: So, this one is more of a question for me. I stumbled across this bit of information a couple nights ago, after viewing Richard Stanley’s Dust Devil. It seems, Stanley cites your novel Shadowland as one of his favorite books, and I read he wrote a screenplay adaptation of it.

Peter Straub: Yes, but I haven’t read it. I knew that he and his people have been taking out one option after another on Shadowland, and they felt they had a very good script and are just hoping to interest a producer or some film star so they can begin to attract the money they’ll need. I certainly wish them luck.

HYB: One more quick question, something fun to wrap up with. What is your favorite horror film?

Peter Straub: What’s my favorite horror film? That’s tough. I’m going to give a good answer. I was just thinking this morning, in fact, that probably my favorite horror film is a really crazy Japanese movie called Visitor Q by the director Takashi Miike.

HYB: Wow. I wasn’t expecting that at all.

Peter Straub: He’s a really oddball Japanese director. He makes a lot of movies. So they’re not polished in a way. And boy oh boy, are they visceral.

HYB: I’m a big fan of his!

Peter Straub: Yeah, it’s an amazing movie. Really, really weird.

HYB: Have you seen his film Gozu? That’s probably my favorite work of his. I can’t even figure out what’s going on in that.

Peter Straub: [Laughs] It’s very strange. I saw it when it first came out here in New York. It’s got a lot of surprises in it.

HYB: Well, thank you, so much for talking with me. This has been really exciting.

It’s my pleasure.

Click here to order A Dark Matter

A Dark Matter

The charismatic and cunning Spenser Mallon is a campus guru in the 1960s, attracting the devotion and demanding sexual favors of his young acolytes. After he invites his most fervent followers to attend a secret ritual in a local meadow, the only thing that remains is a gruesomely dismembered body—and the shattered souls of all who were present.

Years later, one man attempts to understand what happened to his wife and to his friends by writing a book about this horrible night, and it’s through this process that they begin to examine the unspeakable events that have bound them in ways they cannot fathom, but that have haunted every one of them through their lives. As each of the old friends tries to come to grips with the darkness of the past, they find themselves face-to-face with the evil triggered so many years earlier. Unfolding through the individual stories of the fated group’s members, A Dark Matter is an electric, chilling, and unpredictable novel that will satisfy Peter Straub’s many ardent fans, and win him legions more.

Hatchet director Adam Green stopped by the Horror Yearbook offices for a little snoodle time and to chat about his new film Frozen… Just kidding! Anchor Bay sent us a press release that included a Q&A with Green and I thought some of you might enjoy it. Frozen stars Kevin Zegers (Dawn of the Dead), Shawn Ashmore (X-Men, The Ruins) and Emma Bell (Dollhouse, Supernatural).

The film follows three three snowboarders who get stranded on the chairlift before their last run. As the ski patrol switches off the night lights, they realize with growing panic that they’ve been left behind dangling high off the ground with no way down.

With the resort closed until the following weekend and frostbite and hypothermia already setting in, the trio is forced to take desperate measures to escape off the mountain before they freeze to death. Once they make their move, they discover with horror that they have much more to fear than just the frigid cold. As they combat unexpected obstacles, they start to question if their will to survive is strong enough to overcome the worst ways to die.

Frozen (watch trailer) opens on February 5th, 2010.

Q&A With Director Adam Green:

Why did you want to make Frozen?

While I can never predict what my ideas will be or where they will come from, as soon as I had the basic beats of the story and the characters for Frozen I knew it had to be the film I made next. The concept of being left behind on a ski lift really struck a chord with anyone who I brought it up to and the primal fears that the story plays on felt like just the right ingredients to really deliver an audience with true thrills.Frozen was extremely ambitious and challenging in regards to creating and sustaining terror and suspense with such a contained scenario and only three actors who can’t even move. Throw in the physical challenges we faced with telling a story that is taking place in severe weather and fifty-feet off of the ground and Frozen simply excited me and challenged me. As a director, these are the kinds of stories you dream of telling. When you can’t sleep because you’re thinking about it and you’re terrified each day you go to set because people are telling you that what you’re doing is crazy… that’s when you really feel like you’re part of something special.

What makes the film unique?

One of the most unique things about the film is the fact that every frame of it was shot practically. While most producers and production companies I met with were adamant that the film have at least a good portion of it shot in the safety and comfort of a sound stage or against a green screen, I have too much respect for my audience to try to pass a “survival film” off on them that did not look and feel 100% authentic. Everyone involved at Peter Block’s “A Bigger Boat” production company understood and respected that. It was one of many reasons why they were the best home for this project. The actors and the crew were really out there. We were really fifty feet in the air. The weather, the cold, and the elements we faced were all real. And it’s because of that realism that the movie’s tension never lets up. There is no relief.

How/where did you come up with the story?

I was watching the morning news in Los Angeles where the weather report is always the exact same thing. When they show the forecast, however, they always pull up a visual from a different part of the area to be the background behind the graphics. On that particular morning the background was a streaming feed from Big Bear Ski resort. At 7am the mountain was not yet open and operational, so the chairs on the lift were all just hanging there. In a flash, the image on the screen brought me back to my childhood days of skiing and it reminded me of how scary it is to be on a lift when it stops for no reason. Where I grew up in the Boston area, the mountains that I skied on were not the glamorous resorts that you see in commercials for the major mountains out West or in the far North East. They were low-rent mountains with merely a few operational chairs that were often only operational on the weekends due to lack of business during the weekdays. I started thinking about how shady some of those lifts seemed back then and how terrified everyone on the lift would get when it would inevitably stop for a few moments. I drove in to the office that morning and excitedly explained my “high concept thriller” idea for Frozen to the rest of the guys at my production company, ArieScope Pictures. It was probably the easiest pitch I’d ever done as it was so clear-cut and straight-forward. “Three skiers, forgotten and stranded on a chair lift at a New England mountain that’s closed for the week.” Everyone was instantly on board, with no questions asked. We even decided that we would produce the film completely on our own. “It’s just three people in a chair. How hard could it be?” Man, were we wrong. And boy, were we in for it.

What were the challenges of writing the script?

I actually wrote Frozen while on the set of a movie I was producing called Grace. When inspiration hits, I just have to go with it. As much as I’d love to have my best writing happen when it is scheduled to happen at home in my nice office, more often than not it happens at the worst times- like during friend’s weddings, in airport bathrooms, or on set of a different film. Conceptually the hardest part of the film was the dialogue. The story beats were easy and the thrills and terror moments were all there from the conception of the idea, but for any of it to matter or really have an effect on the audience, they would have to believe and feel like they knew the characters. It’s a tricky situation with films like these as if you use too much comedy to win over the audience the tide can turn and dilute the suspenseful moments. At the same time, if the audience isn’t enjoying watching the characters you wind up with a film where people just wait to see “how they die.” My producers were well aware of the fine line I had to walk, and they encouraged and pushed me to keep making the script more personal on every re-write and polish that I did in pre-production. In the end, it was the best advice I ever could have gotten. Frozen wound up being a very emotional film that really tugs on the heart strings at times, something that most suspense/thrillers cannot accomplish. It really gets you and I think a great part of that is because all three of these characters are real people and every story they tell and everything they say is so obviously coming from the heart. My heart. It’s a very open and personal film where I really laid it all out there and left myself very vulnerable on the page.

How/why did you choose the cast you did?

In Hollywood I have found that many young actors are more interested in being famous than actually working on the craft of acting. For many of today’s Hollywood youth, they are more interested in how famous a role can make them, how many Twitter followers they will get from the marketing campaign, how many times they can get on TMZ, and how pretty they will look in the finished film. I’m very good at sniffing out the poseurs during casting and with this film it was no different. Once word got out that my plan was to shoot the film all practically, many turned away in fear. So while my unpopular decision to shoot the film the way I did drastically cut way down on the amount of actors I would be seeing to read for the roles, I knew right off the bat that I was going to be seeing the real deal walk through the doors. Emma Bell was surprisingly the very first person to walk in and read for the film. At the end of the casting process, she had become the standard to which every other actress was held, and she got the part. That may be a “first” in Hollywood. She was real, she was very sympathetic, and most of all- she could really, really act. I had met Kevin Zegers years ago through a mutual friend and was very familiar with his work on screen. When he and I sat down to discuss Frozen, you could tell right away that he was not just another pretty face. He sat down with countless ideas and questions for me, something that as a director I long for. There’s nothing worse than an actor who just wants to be told where to stand and how to say the lines. Actors like Kevin who constantly contribute and bring their own soul to the project are more appreciated in the process than anyone can possibly imagine. And Shawn Ashmore not only fit the role and had the chops, but he and Kevin had been best friends for almost two decades in real life. You can’t buy that kind of natural chemistry between actors. Shawn’s character in Frozen has the biggest and most radical arc so in many ways he inevitably started stealing scenes before our eyes. Some nights it almost felt like watching a boxing match on the chair as these extremely talented actors just kept hitting me so hard with all that they had. You didn’t know who to watch or where to focus on next. There was no weak link and all three of the actors really carried the film over the finish line.

What was the most challenging part of shooting the film?

One of the most difficult aspects of shooting the film was shooting the scenes that take place while the lift is still operational and moving. While on the page I just assumed we’d use a hostess tray off of the actor’s chair and then perhaps a second camera shooting back at them from the chair in front of theirs, I was soon to find out that both of those ideas would not work. Due to weight limits and the actor’s safety, there was no way that a camera could be attached to the actor’s chair- period. Plus, had I shot these lengthy scenes of dialogue entirely from the chair in front of them, the movie would have failed cinematically. Everything would have been one focal length and from one perspective. The audience would have felt like they were just watching the characters rather than feeling what it’s like to ride one of those rickety chairs up the mountain. So my Director of Photography (Will Barratt) worked with our grip department to build a rig that felt a bit like a “cherry picker” basket that would hang from the lift cable directly in front of the actor’s chair. Since no one had really done this before and since the ski mountain would not endorse the rig as 100% safe, my camera crew was quick to tap out of the ring for these scenes. Will and I found ourselves strapped in to this sketchy rig and shooting all of these scenes ourselves. When it’s just two of you up there with no camera support, it’s nearly impossible to change lenses or even just to slate the cameras. There we were, fifty-feet in the air, in huge gusts of wind, in the middle of the night, at 10,000 feet, using the actors to help us change lenses and slate the shots… and I’m thinking to myself; “I’m afraid of heights! That’s why I wrote this? What the hell am I doing up here?” Thankfully no one was ever hurt, but there were many times on set that the cast or the crew was in real danger.

What do you hope audiences will experience while watching the film?

I would love for audiences to experience real primal terror, suspense, fear, and hope. I want them to have an emotional ride. I hope they see and appreciate the epic challenge that a film like this was to pull off and that it reminds them of the type of storytelling that the real film greats used to do. Not a bloated, effects ridden, fake looking, CGI fest- but a movie that prides itself on such things as the writing, directing, and acting. I hope they are exhausted when it is over and that Frozen becomes the thing that they don’t want to talk about whenever they go skiing for as long as they live. I want to leave some scars and become a part of my audience’s subconscious from this day forward.

Have you always wanted to be a screenwriter/ filmmaker? If not, what got you into screenwriting/filmmaking? If so, why?

It all started with E.T. telling Elliott “I’ll be right here” and leaving on his spaceship. I’ve never cried so hard in my life, and even at the tender age of eight, I realized that a film had completely taken control of my emotions. I knew that it was only a movie. I knew that E.T. wasn’t real. I knew that it was just a rubber costume that had walked up the plank to that fake spaceship, yet I was crying like I’ve never cried since. I left the theater that summer absolutely blown away by the process of filmmaking and I knew then that this was what I wanted to do. When your father is a gym teacher and your Mom teaches Hebrew School in an average rural New England town, dreams of Hollywood and filmmaking are not always supported or encouraged by the other kids and authority figures around you. I had more than my fair share of people try and tell me how hard it is or that I needed connections and money to attempt a real shot at this. Everywhere I turned, even in film school, people were telling me the odds. But as Han Solo said, “never tell me the odds.” Every film I get the chance to make and every little victory each film accomplishes, I always remind myself how lucky I am to actually have a career in this industry. This business is so hard, you are down way more often than you are up, and it’s not exactly fair as to which projects get made and supported, which ones get dumped into obscurity, and which ones just don’t ever get a chance, but no one is here because they think it’s a good place to be or because it makes sense for their sanity and livelihood. We’re here because there is nowhere else that we could possibly go.

Who are your favorite screenwriters/filmmakers?

Some of my favorite filmmakers are Alfred Hitchcock, John Landis, Chris Columbus, John Hughes, Guillermo del Toro, George Lucas, and John Carpenter. But above all will always be Steven Spielberg. As with many of the filmmakers of my generation, Steven Spielberg is the reason so many of us got into this in the first place. He’s my inspiration as an artist and my aspiration as a human being.

What upcoming projects are you currently working on?

I am currently in production on the sequel to my 2007 hit Hatchet. In many ways it is the victory lap for those of us who made the first film against all odds back in 2005. Hatchet was a great example of having doors slammed in my face and people telling me the odds for years, yet it went on to win over an army of genre fans worldwide and become one of the biggest selling hits that its distributor has ever had. While some in my camp feared that making the sequel would be too much of a lateral move during a period where my career is quickly moving forward, to me making the sequel is a celebration, it’s my party, and it’s where my heart is. I can’t describe the feeling of getting the band back together and standing on that set five years later to hear my AD yell “Pictures up onHatchet 2 ]]> http://www.horroryearbook.com/547665/q-a-with-frozen-director-adam-green/feed 0 http://www.horroryearbook.com/547258/interview-lewis-jackson-christmas-evil-director http://www.horroryearbook.com/547258/interview-lewis-jackson-christmas-evil-director#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:01:43 +0000 Brain Hammer http://www.horroryearbook.com/?p=7258 Miracle on 34th Street and A Christmas Story probably come to mind, but for most horror fans films like Silent Night, Deadly Night, the original Black Christmas and of course Christmas Evil are required Holiday viewing material. It has been 30 years since Lewis Jackson wrote and directed Christmas Evil, and our own Brain Hammer chatted with him through E-mail, to find out what it was like creating the Christmas cult phenomenon. ]]>

When most people think about Christmas and Christmas movies, great films like Miracle on 34th Street and A Christmas Story probably come to mind, but for most horror fans films like Silent Night, Deadly Night, the original Black Christmas and of course Christmas Evil are required Holiday viewing material.

It has been 30 years since Lewis Jackson wrote and directed Christmas Evil, and our own Brain Hammer chatted with him through E-mail, to find out what it was like creating the Christmas cult phenomenon.

Horror Yearbook: What was your inspiration for writing and creating Christmas Evil?

Lewis Jackson: It was Christmas Eve 1970 and I smoked a joint. I saw an image of a Santa Claus with a knife in his hands. Ten years later, I figured out how to make the script work.

HYB: How did the chance to direct your debut film come about?

LJ: Because I came up with a great idea of how to make a soft-core comedy.

HYB: Christmas Evil is widely regarded as one of the very best “Christmas Horror Films.” Was that your intent when making the film – a pure horror film, or were you going for something more psychological and character driven?

LJ: I was trying to make a black comedy and truthfully, if you are not trying to make the best movie you possibly can make, then you are a hack – which is basically 95% of the people in Hollywood.

HYB: Were/Are you a fan of the horror genre? Where do think Christmas Evil belongs in horror history, especially when compared to other X-mas horrors.

LJ: There are no other great horror Xmas movies and I believe I am in a genre with Fritz Lang and Alfred Hitchcock.

HYB: The film is also known as You Better Watch Out & Terror In Toyland. Do you have a preferred title?

LJ: I originally called the film You Better Watch Out, some asshole who bootlegged the film changed the title card over and over and over again – and only because I had an original print, did Synapse allow me to use the original title because I had the original print.

HYB: It’s impossible for me to imagine anyone other than Brandon Maggart in the lead role of Harry Stadling. Was the part written for him specifically or did you discover him through casting?

LJ: I discovered him thru casting. Originally I cast George Dzundza who played the bartender in Deerslayer. We started working and he said to me that we needed to rewrite the script and I realized he wanted me to write him “Marty”. It was a disaster. Somebody found me a great NY casting director who sent me a whole new group of actors. They all came in, they all did videotape auditions. Brandon’s audition turned out to be Brandon’s performance and that was quite a revelation.

HYB: The film has a number of violent scenes. Did you find the filming of the sequences to be difficult or more time consuming?

LJ: The answer is both. Filming violence is not pleasant, but it has to be precise.

HYB: One of the film’s most outspoken fans is John Waters. He mentioned the film at length in one of his books and even participated in a commentary track for the Synapse dvd release. When did you first become aware that you had such a famous fan? What are your thoughts on John and his love of your film?

LJ: 1983 someone told me that John had written about it in Rolling Stone, but I had never seen the article. After the book came out, someone called me and said “have you seen the book?” I hadn’t. When I did, I was overwhelmed basically because I had been treated like a crazy person for making this movie. I didn’t meet John for 20 more years, but then he started to do art shows and invited me to be a part of the film showings accompanying the art shows. I finally met him at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg.

HYB: When the film was originally released did you receive any sort of criticism or protests from moral crusaders?

LJ: I was treated like a leper and I thought I was making a comedy and only John understood it was a comedy.

HYB: Christmas Evil has been released on vhs and dvd several times. I’ve even seen dvds selling for as little as $1. Did the film ever slip into the public domain?

LJ: No, it was stolen and it has taken me 5 years to regain the rights.

HYB: In an age when seemingly EVERY horror film ever made gets a remake, it seems like only a matter of time before someone attempts a Christmas Evil remake. Have you been approached about this?

LJ: Yes. Twice, but this one seems to be one that no one wants to touch. It still seems too transgressive. It may be the most impressive thing I have done in my life.

HYB: The remake of Bob Clark’s Black Christmas was met with a fair amount of controversy because of the title. Do you think a remake of Christmas Evil would have the same sort of reception?

LJ: Worse.

[Editor's Note: In the ultimate act of laziness and in an effort to quickly update the site, I did not edit Insan0's typed answers. They appear exactly as he sent them to us, and perhaps that is the way he wanted them to appear in the first place.]

It’s should be no secret to horroryearbook alumni that your old pal Brain Hammer loves Satan. I say it all the time. Any of friend of the Devil is a friend of mine…and one of my more interesting myspace friends is an INSANELY talented and demented motherfucker named insan0. insan0 is blowing the fuck up out of the underground with his unique brand of “Ultra Psychopathic Snuff Serial Killer Horrorcore Brutal Evil Extreme Satanic Death Murder Music.”

On Halloween Night 2009, insan0 dropped a brand new ep titled SAY YOU LOVE SATAN. This 3 track ep was created specifically for the true crime/murder music enthusiasts. SAY YOU LOVE SATAN is inspired by true events – a violent murder that occurred in Northport, New York back in 1984. Ricky Kasso (RIP) was THE ACID KING. He supplied the town of Northport with all the doses, dope, and dust they needed, and then some. Gary Lauwers was a scumbag who made the fatal mistake of ripping off the Acid King and he paid with his young life. Ricky, along with his evil disciples Jimmy and Albert invited Gary out for a night of fun in Azteka Woods, and then butchered him as a sacrifice to SATAN.

insan0′s SAY YOU LOVE SATAN ep takes you right back to that dark night in 1984 and puts you right inside the twisted mind of the Acid King. The three new original songs are titled “The Acid King,” “Knights Of The Black Circle,” and “Say You Love Satan.” There are also several samples and intermission skits that stretch out the running time to over 15 minutes. The whole ep is meant to be listened to from start to finish, and it not only neatly tells the story of Ricky Kasso, it also captures his spirit. This is pure aggression, unbridled rage, and drug fueled paranoia. It’s also a crushing hybrid of hardcore hip hop and heavy metal. Fans of demented shit like Necro, Twiztid, or even Macabre will eat this up.

I was so fucking impressed with insan0′s music and the new SAY YOU LOVE SATAN ep that I decided to drop him a line and ask him a few questions…

Horror Yearbook: Give me the story of insan0. How did you get started? How long have you been making music?

insan0: I have been dropping underground albums since 2002.. & Been making alternative hardcore music for over 17 years..& producing recording my own music (and music for others) for nearly 6 years…

i always knew i wanted to be a muso of some sort as a kid..& just kept with it..i started playing guitars and drums in school bands in my early teens,…I’m self trained…& had a few lessons in school on drums…along time ago my best friend pedj showed me all the power chords on guitars…i basically took it from there and rolled with it.

The first punk hardcore metal grunge band i joined in the 1990′s at the time ‘clinic’ had 2 guitarists…so because i could play drums,i took the job of beat smith & one of the song main writers..i still played guitars but not as much,So we got good,we did shows in our home town,wrote over 100 songs…picked the best songs & we recorded a album on 2 inch tape in a proper studio in 2002..the album is a classic..we weren’t online…we were 100% crazy at this stage…,people that had computers were nerds & geeks to us,in the end the album was never released & soon after we broke up.

i got really into the drums & a lot of crazy music in this period,and had a natural ability to write songs on keyboards,guitars or drums…and i was ok with lyrics..besides skateboarding or motorbike riding or watching movies,making crazy music was something i liked to do and was good at. .i been recording decent alternative underground music since the year 2000, played shows in clubs & pubs in my home town to decent sized crowds.,we did it old school no Internet promo…word of mouth & by putting out flyers and networking.we did sick shows,pulled big crowds and got paid fuck all because we didn’t know anything about business or how to handle our shit.we got ripped off for a long time….no manger..or brains,you know the deal,,i paid my dues old school style.

So i came into a nice bundle of cash in 2002 wheeling & dealing and spent $4,000 on a sick new drum kit (i got a big discount…it was like a $7,000 kit..but i knew the shop owner and paid in cash..i was lucky to get it) & in 2003 i jammed with lots of other bands in my home town..

i knew nothing about the Internet or computers & began to see the power of the net….i began to teach myself and got some tips,hooked up a net rig ‘n’ i finally Went Online in 2004…..Quit the bands in 2004,got back into song writing,guitar playing,writing lyrics & studied audio engineering at S.A.E college,i began to slowly set up my recording studio which cost me a lot of money,finally i went solo & dropped my first solo album called ‘Psychotic Behaviour’ ( since then re released as D.E.A.D) in 2004.it went number 1 here on out fm metal radio station..and got played a lot..i know it did well because at the time it sounded so different & raw….my music was in the charts and was charting above Marilyn manson and Anthrax…i got told Many Fans rang the station asking for my album…but i didn’t have money to release it..it was a wasted opportunity,but gave me the confidence boost i needed,i reassured me i was on the right path..it was a blip on the radar,& it was a album made from hate and anger..and was very experimental,thrashy death metal cyber grind…very unorthodox …i learned heaps of stuff in this period.& how to channel my anger into music..its not my best shit at all…but served as an exorcism because i was really depressed at the time…everything started to fall into place after this…and i found my own fucked up style…and my shit was getting out there to & heard by fans for the first time…it felt good.

After years of commitment,practice & lots of money,my skills,experience,training,my talent for writing sick deranged songs began to seriously escalate…my vision for insan0 had been born & i focused,nurtured,developed & morphed it into what it is today…

HYB: When did the concept of insan0 come together?

insan0: Early 2005…. All my past band experiences prior to 2005 left me quite bitter about ever being in another band situation,i was sick of relying on others for one thing, failing because of others & compromising because of other peoples lack of talent,skill,motivation,peoples different work schedules,personal drive & musical differences & really just sick of the band vibe etc…..so i went solo and have never looked back.I checked out tons of bands all over the world & still do & i realized there are only a hand full of artist making true evil shit….But there is so many fake evil music making poser sheep bands out there it makes me sick..they are all clones of each other & sound the same….look the same… & have enjoyed huge mainstream success…its all weak & all cashing in..but its not real evil…its commerical manufactured big budget evil poser evil….& i knew there was not 1 single person in my town that was doing what i wanted to,would want to do what im doing,or could do it that way i can…

i knew when i was creating the image of insan0 & sound/vibe,i wanted more of an overall b grade quality feel to my stuff,nothing glitzy or super slick n shiney..the polar opposite,like the feeling of finding a fucking brutal old school grimey cult horror grindhouse snuff slasher style vhs video you have never seen,& after you watch it you think fuck! thats was fucking insane shit…that director or writers that came up with that shit must have been crazy psychopaths for real!!

on a side note…for the main part,Most of the feed back i get is awesome from dark music fans….Lots of new insan0 fans always send me messages & leave comments online daily saying my shit is sicker then icp,necro,goretex,mr. hyde…..im just glad to be mentioned in this class of underground music artists,these guys have made some serious noise & cash in the underground…….so i guess im on the right road..”much love to all the insan0 fans out there.”

The difference between me & them is,I’m living in a long way from the action in Australia,Theres no scene here for fans of what i do in my country,i’m really underground…,& im un signed with no budget + i really dont care to much about being a scene queen or need my ego fed as much as them..+ i dont fit in anywhere musically in my country.

if i wanted to be rich popular & famous,i would not be making the type of music that i do…that’s for dam sure.

my only goals for insan0 are to create the sickest songs i can,what ever happens because of it is a bonus,ill cross the bridge when i get to it..i got lots of drive & ambition,but i dont have dreams of grandure..& at the end of the day music fans have ears & can tell the difference between real hardcore evil scary shit or show pony fake poor quality shit…no matter if im un signed or havent sold 50,000 cds…as my exposure & fans base grows,my day in the sun will come & fans let me know all the time,

for now im still in the shadows.Since 2005,every song i have made i actually purposely set out record pure evil & capture it in my songs.The musical reality to me,is that proper sinister devious evil music is rare to find in todays times,vary rare,,its more of a popularity contest for these poser fuckhead horror music wanabees…when i was creating the insan0 concept,i didnt want to be a part of that contest.

I think bands dont need to rap or play tunes 1 million miles a hour to get your point across..or need to have the deepest craziest cookie monster death metal vocals that most people cant understand a word of..or bands dont need to be be preaching anti religous black metal themes just so fans think your evil..or being lyrically gross just for shock value….or because your wear black clothes or paint your face….most bands dont really have a grasp or understanding of what is really scary or truely evil….& come off more comical..fake,…watered down..or more to the point,their version what they think is evil music is played out & weak and sheepish…too many bands sound the same & ripp each other off..specially all the swededcore & emo shit everyone tries to copy thesedays..fuck it makes me puke.

originality, balls & inovation to do something different is gone in todays times…

its as if all these dark vocalists & lyric writers of today are way to pollitically correct..or a vague with lyrics..scared to say what they really want,,.they make dark commerical music to pick up Fluff (aka Poon Tang aka Pussy) & get laid,emo fags…

violent guys or tuff guys or bad guys in music is fading ….it makes me sad.

Most musicians/vocalists are scared to make shit like what i do because they know most people,thier own families,friends,music fans,major record lables, a & r types,shrinks,cops, & law people will think they are crazy…

i dont care what most people would think of insan0, letting go is freeing & i know im failry crazy & offensive to most humans…

i really dig words & lyrics with impact,deeply psychological catchy violent shit that most people can remember & understand even if there is alot of lyrics & words in the song..to me,it doesnt have to rhyme at all,So i started to apply it in 2005…with no remorse…

HYB: Describe your music to someone who has never heard it.

ill try to break it down as best i can for people that have never heard of my music…or that dont understand it,.or for people that are new to this sort of stuff,or never knew it could exist.

Evil, Psychological, intense, scary, catchy, gritty, underground, lyrical, disturbing, raw yet slightly polished..

an unorthodox experimental fusion of hardcore hip hop/rap,grunge,metal & electro…i really love making brutal scary sick disturbing songs…each one is like a short psychological thriller/horror/snuff movie…Forget about any pre-conceived notion of what you may think is extreme evil music..such as your typical metal head shit like playing ultra ultra fast guitar riffs or double pedal kick drums or blast beats ..cookie monster vocals etc etc…or douche bag shit like limp biscuit metal rap shit…my shit makes Marilyn mansons horror music sound like a pg rated kids stuff…..my music scares most women….it doesn’t attract them…its like 80s proof alcohol….too much of it can fuck you up.

(its like the movie the exorcist,..that movie actually contains real evil…its a crazy fuckin’ old school film…movie fans that have seen it dont watch it everyday,day after day, after day…if you did, i think something very bad would happen to your mind.)

Musically speaking,its a mash up but a very stylized and solid sounding blend of looped soundtracks/scores, with a hip hop-rap based central foundation,with a very strong sprinkling of crust, punk, grindcore, death metal, black metal, hardcore, electro & goth….on paper, with all these genres its sounds crazy…but its not schizophrenic A.D.D music like mr bungle or is discordant or messy or has lots of changes..its a lot more straight up & simple,..the music is a back drop for the story telling.

Lyrically ….extreme psychological first person style lyrics mostly ‘in the mind of a serial killer or psychopath,mass murderer’…i don’t try to be a wigga like necro,im not a ‘g’ or a baller,i was a death metal grind punk head but i didn’t really fit in,im not a juggalo,i liked rap as a kid but im not a nigga or a crack dealer,& i liked psychological thriller/horror movies & true crime docos & books…..i don’t try to be funny in my music (but to some people its funny) or have comedy in it…i dont try to copy anyone.

Vocally,i do lots of different vocal styles….from singing,screaming,rapping,growling,death screams,hardcore vocals,whispers to multiple character style vocals….

i wouldn’t call it horrorcore or death rap or acid rap or horror rap…its not really metal rap as most people know it……but its related to these genres,..

i grew up listening to 70s & 80s rock,80s shit,…metal,thrash,punk,goth,new romantic shit,grunge,grindcore,death metal,cheesy 80s music,rap/hip hop…& im a big fan of movie soundtrack composers…they are all different genres,but some how i manage to fuse them all in my music and make it work.

HYB: What inspired you do do an ep about Ricky Kasso?

insan0: The age old argument that ‘music & drugs make people kill & make people turn evil’ was a driving force, ..and its still being fought today…Ricky was like a martyr for this cause.

People of this generation need to know his story.

i read all about Ricky kasso in one of my brothers books along time ago,and when i saw the movies ‘the black circle boys & my sweet satan’…it deeply affected me in a profound manner.

My brother & i would always talk about him & those movies when we get high on weed.,so i began to research a lot more about him online & in what ever books i could find,its as if the spirit of Ricky kasso possessed me to do it,he was very much alive in my soul & mind for a few months making me do this.

I like to think of it as a very relevant cautionary tale the shouldn’t be forgotten.

in my teens i was living the sort of life at 1 time that Ricky & his friends did…the music,the huge amounts of hard drugs,were living recklessly,had the evil influences….many others can relate to him,his friends,his story all around the world…..When i read his story,i freaked my out how many similarities there was,i felt as i personally knew him and his crew.

At one stage of my life…i was so crazy that a really good friend of mine that i knew for at least 6 or more years at the time,…owed me $20…..i literally wanted to kill him because he was giving me the run around…it was getting into some Gary and Ricky style shit…over something small.I can see how stupid & petty it is now years later that im a grown man,,,but the same principal applies.At the time,I was fucked up on drugs,depressed,living in the dark side,my home life was in shambles….& had poor self impulse control..bad things can happen when all these thing are combined & you have no parental supervision or guidance.

At any one time anywhere in the world, there is ‘rick kasso’ types out there about to loose their mask of sanity….Teenage killers are on the rise in todays times…people should be scared.

HYB: Are you down with the Acid King?

insan0: I’m down all right….i released this Satanic E.P on Halloween night oct-31 2009 as a tribute to the Acid King…(Ricky once did a seance at the infamous ‘defeo’ house in amityville on Halloween night) & it cost $6.66 to buy.

HYB: Do you condone murder?

insan0: In real life (or my personal life or person own views) i don’t condone senseless murder of innocent people for no reason..,i don’t condone abuse or murder of children…but i specially condone murder for self defense purposes,& for revenge (an eye for a eye type shit)

i also condone murder against rapists & pedophile’s…any pedophile or rapist deserves to die in the most brutal fashion possible…i have no remorse for pedos or rapists…i could kill them day in,day out & i wouldn’t loose sleep over it at all…id sleep really good & would be a happy man. (unfortunately its against the law,& i value my freedom, so i fight back the urges of wasting this type of scum off the planet as im sure many other fathers out there do…)

In my songs/lyrics,not too much is held sacred, i have slaughtered, hacked, slashed, tortured, stabbed, shot, strangled, poisoned to death & done what ever else your mind can imgine to thousands of fictional/semi fictional souls…

i have to let go of most rational sane thoughts when i write my lyrics & record my vocals,So lots of different semi fictional & fictional characters get murdered in my songs & lyrics…..,young,old,male,female,gay,lesbians,trannies,straight,all races,family pets & animals,theres female & male rape..i don’t discriminate against anyone in my lyrics/songs..but i will say this, i usually dont do lyrics about killing kids or babies,thats a super rare thing for me,im not really into child killer lyrics at all..theres better killers or things out there to write about.

HYB: Do you love Satan? If so, how often do you say it?

insan0: hahahah…Cool question….

I dont mind him…to me,its not about how often you say it,its the way you show it…sometimes actions speaks louder then words do,if i loved him,he would have to be my leader…i don’t have leaders or follow anyone or worship anyone,specially false music idols..

i really admire and agree with lots of things that charlie manson has said or stood for….in the same token,i know its part is his skill as a charismatic leader to suck people in with his words & speeches,regardless if he truely belives in what he is saying.

i have the laVey satanic bible & satanic rituals & have read them,its very funny stuff…i have studied up on lost of different religions and beliefs by freaks..Crowley,the Scientologists,Hinduism,buddism,the freemasons,illuminati etc etc…..im not a person that can be brainwashed..im a non conformist..i dont follow anyone…or i dont have a leader….im my own man,anti religious,I’m not a official member or the satanic church,(a church started by a organ playing jew!) nor do i want to be,..but i practice and live my life fairly close to the ideals of left hand path..with some pagan , buddhist – hindu philosophy & street life twists…you know,like… mind body & soul as 1……or karma & pay back is a bitch….or clean your own back yard before you point the finger..fuck with the bull you get the horns etc..

i remember doing one album a long ago and it was quite evil and i was fucked up at the time… i remember in my head i was like (ill sell my soul to Satan to be rich & famous….)

I’m not rich….& the fame never came….it was all in my head,not to say, pure evil or evil as a force isnt real or does not exist is a lie…we all know it is,& it is alive and healthy…

you cant have the ying with out the yang,they both co exist together on the same plane & need each other to remind them selfs who they both are,for with out each other,they would not know which one is really the good or which one is the evil….& lets all remember there is a grey area……lots of people including me live in this grey area… not everything is black & white…sometimes there is a mix of both sides into 1….

its important to remember popular satanic violence inciting bands like slayer just use the imagery for shock value & to sell lots of albums…when in actual fact, the singer from slayer is a devout catholic & is religous,Sure they make fucking kick ass music no doubt & Sure they are metal legends….but you cant get more fake then that to me…yes,sure evil musos can have separate lifes from music & raise good normal kids & live normal,that’s not what im saying,…for the most part,a lot of music fans out there are dumb & are tricked way too easy with a few heavy riffs & a big advertising budget.

HYB: Tell me about the tracks on the album.

insan0: First of,i wanted to capture the essence of Ricky kasso in this e.p as best i could, my own way.

& wanted to do a beginning,middle and end story style..to make it informative for people that have never heard of ricky kasso,at the same time make it as legit & true to the real story as i could with out being to anal about it or contrived…and to make a music release that could really become ‘cult like’ one day for all the people that are ‘in the know’ about the ricky kasso story.

i knew i didn’t want to make a full rap or hip hop album,or something that was to cheesy electo or 80s hair metal sounding…

Because Ricky was a rocker & a metal head from the 80s,i wanted to do my own thing musically & still add the underground cult vibe to it….it definitely needed to have a metal vibe & hard core rap vibe…bringing it into todays times..i mean its his story retold in 2009….insan0 style.

i thought about doing a full album about it,but if you get a chance to check out my e.p,and have read ricks story….i did manage cover all the bases in the songs with out dragging it out…its like a condensed compressed version of factual events…with out the boring stuff…with the additional audio samples & intermissions,they fuse the gaps and also help top paint the picture & profile who ricky was.

the first intro is called ‘A child of the devil.’…That’s actually a title for a song ricky once played on guitar intimately to his girlfriend.

The front cover features a real picture of ricky as he was being led into the police station ,& you will notice in the background a gazebo,that’s a actual place where ricky used to spend alot of time hanging out and get wasted & talk shit with his friends.

The back cover features a authentic picture of a actual acid tab sheet from the circa 1984.

HYB: What is you favorite Ricky Kasso movie?

id have to say the short film by Jim Van Bebber ‘my sweet satan’ is the most authentic or appealing to me to date,or the black circle boys.. i really love those movies..i saw a bootleg of Ricky 6..but the dude looked like a little girly fag that played Ricky..other then that, it was fairly good.

HYB: What are some of your favorite horror flicks?

insan0: my collection is fairly extensive…and growing weekly..its a disease….i have was too many favs to list and could give you a really big list,ill give you the short list of some favs of the top of my head that’s stick out to me so you can get a idea…

lots of people have different interpretations of what horror is,….specially in the last 5 to 10 years the face of horror has changed..I’m really big into revenge films more these days….super natural movies or movie monsters don’t scare me to much anymore…i think its played out to the max…

in recent times

some of my fav new flicks & favs over the past few years are- Martyrs, High tension, Sheitan,Calvaire, Frontier(s), irreversible, Cigarette Burns,E den lake, Midnight Meat Train, Death Sentence, Hills have eyes, The August Underground movies,S crap Book, old boy, 13: Game of death, 13 tzameti, ichi the killer, Death Proof, Planet Terror, No country for old men…I’m sure theres more.

& oldies….note some of these are not horror…

id have to say – Cannibal Holocaust, Guinea Pig:Flower of Flesh and Blood , Cannibal Ferrox, Faces Of Death, The New York Ripper, The Thing, Fright Night 1 & 2, Night Breed, Re Animator, Henry: Portrait of a serial killer, Driller Killer, Pet semetery, Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste & Brain Dead, The Fly, Maniac (joe Spinell) Men behind the sun, Death wish 1 & 2, The Exorcist, Lost boys, Ghost busters 1 & 2, the omen,i spit on your grave, Henry:Confessions of s serial killer, white of the eye, Taxi driver, Gods lonely man, Bad Boy Bubby, No Apparent Motive, Bad Lands,the list could go on and on….

im also a big 80′s movie fan,martial arts,blaxsploitaion,& grind house style movie fan..

HYB: How can people get SAY YOU LOVE SATAN?

insan0: Go to my web sites insan0.com or myspace.com/insan0 & all the info is there for anyone that wants to buy it..you wont find this in any store..

its a digital download only.

HYB: What’s next for insan0????

insan0: my independent underground serial killer movie should be out in 2010 if all goes to plan..and 3 new albums are in the works,stay tuned sickos..

Clay Borris may not be a name you recognize immediately, but trust me, you’ve seen his work. A veteran of film and television, Borris has been writing, acting and directing since the early 1970s. In 1981, he wrote, directed, produced and starred in the film Alligator Shoes. He is most well known for Quiet Cool, a 1986 film from New Line about an unconventional New York cop. He also directed the genre flick Prom Night IV: Deliver Us From Evil, and was Second Unit Director on the now classic Wrong Turn. In addition, he’s directed numerous episodes of genre television mainstays like Forever Knight and Highlander (TV). Over the last few years, he has done more television than anything, but has taken time to talk to us today about his return to the silver screen.

Horror Yearbook: Tell us about your latest project.

Clay Borris: It’s called Picture the Sound. It’s about a blind woman who by chance becomes a world famous photographer. I based the screenplay on a short film I did.

HYB: What was your inspiration for the story?

CB: A friend of mine saw a blind man buying a camera in a camera store. He told me about it and I instantly visualized the movie. So we sat down and wrote the script, and we shot the short in a couple of days.

HYB: With the excepiton of several films in the 90s, Prom Night IV was one of the last films you had directed. Was there anything paticular that drew your focus to television?

CB: Not really. As a director living in Canada, you wind up doing both a lot to survive. I learned a lot from doing television. I never on purpose did one or the other; I just like to direct.

HYB: I know you worked on Forever Knight. Withe the resurgence in vampires over the last few years because of the Twilight phenomenon, have you ever thought about doing anymore vampire stories?

CB: No. Those aren’t the kind of films I’m really geared toward. With Forever Knight, I guess they hired me because they saw PN4 and they knew I could do that kind of stuff. I’ve never sat down and wrote a horror film. But I certainly can direct them. I think they’re fun to do and they’re a challenge.

HYB: Prom Night IV was the last true sequel to the films before they rebooted the franchise in 2008. Did you happen to see the remake?

CB: Actually, I never did. I don’t know why. Paul Lynch, the director of the original Prom Night is a friend of mine. I was talking to him about it (the remake), and I can’t remember what he said but I believe he enjoyed it.

HYB: I was watching PN4 a few days ago and there is a scene where Father Jonas had crucified two of the kids to burning crosses. In the final shot of that scene, one of the dummies falls off of the cross. I was just curious if that was originally scripted?

CB: Yes, it was. Everything in that movie was meticulously planned. When you’re doing horror you have to have a jump every five minutes.

HYB: In addition to all of the directing and writing you’ve done, you also have some acting credits too. Most of them are smaller parts, but have you ever wanted to pursue a larger acting role in anything?

CB: I starred in Alligator Shoes with my brothers which I also wrote, directed and produced. I gave myself a huge role in that! I’ve also acted in other films for other people. I’ve gone out and auditioned for commercials just to see what it’s like to be on the other end. It’s a real drag, but I understand where actors are coming from. I’m always open to it if someone wants me out there.

HYB: You were nominated for a Genie (Canada’s OSCAR) in 1982 for Alligator Shoes. What was that like for you being only a budding film maker at that time?

CB: It was great. There were actually four nominations, one for best original screenplay. When I did Alligator Shoes I had never really written a script before. So I got a book on how to write a script, but I never understood the book! So I just sat down and wrote the script in forty hours. When I was nominated, I got a kick out of it.

HYB: You directed second unit for Wrong Turn which has now become a franchise.

CB: I guess they hired me because of Forever Knight or the producer liked my stuff. I enjoy second unit because I love doing action. It was a lot of fun.

HYB: In closing, after Picture the Sound, do you have any other ideas you’re working on?

CB: Yes I do. I’m working on a film called Saddle Copps about a rookie horseback police officer named Joe Copps. Sort of like Lethal Weapon with horses.

Clay, we appreciate your time and look forward to hearing from you again.