DISSECTING THE DIRECTOR: Kevin Tenney

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

“KEVIN TENNEY”

Whenever I hear the name Kevin Tenney from now on, all I will think of is ouija boards, demons and boobs. To be perfectly honest I feel ashamed, because up until a few weeks ago I had only seen one Kevin Tenney film. It’s not because I didn’t want to. Since I was 12 years old I wanted to see the original Witchboard. It’s because his films are a little more on the obscure side, which is unfortunate. I set myself out the goal to watch as many of his films as I possibly could in the span of two weeks. Aside from Bigfoot and Endangered Species, I managed to track them all down and watch them. After seeing the majority of his film, I have to say that he’s an extremely talented director and that he surprised the heck out of me! Call me a new Kevin Tenney fan!

BEST WORK

Once I had watched most of his body of work, the two films I expected to be his best turned out to be his best. I’m talking about Witchboard and Night Of The Demons (All my life I have always gotten it confused with Night Of The Creeps), which are probably his most well-known films. They are both great to watch, fun films with an awesome aura of the supernatural. They are both actually quite different films, with Night Of The Demons being a bit more on the black humor side and Witchboard being a little more serious. When it comes down to it, however, I think that Witchboard is slightly better. Perhaps it was the fact that it was a more serious film and the acting was solid all-round. In contrast, Night Of The Demons has some more humorous performances, but they seem to work so well with what he was going for with that film.

Let’s take a closer look at Witchboard, Tenney’s directorial debut from 1986. It centers around three people: Linda (Tawny Kitaen) and Jim (Todd Allen), with their friend Brandon (Stephen Nichols). The three of them get involved with a spirit via a ouija board and strange things start to happen. It soon dawns on them that the spirit that’s been terrorising them wasn’t the one they were in contact with. I love ghost stories, and as a kid I remember being shit-scared of ouija boards and the possibility of contacting spirits. This film certainly played to those old fears, and I got a sense of that old feeling I had for them. To be quite blunt, Paranormal Activity kind of ruined them for me, but this film (released when I was a wee two year old) had better effects and it was more frightening then that recent film. Not an easy achievement to say the least, the central mystery was quite interesting, and it really pulls the viewer in and kept me guessing. The love triangle type relationship was at the core between these characters, and it worked really well. It felt like it was handled in a realistic way and I completely bought it. The three leads are quite good as well. Sure, they do have off moments, but it didn’t ruin anything for me. I really miss films like this, and I am so glad after all these years I finally had the chance to see it.

WORST WORK

I kind of didn’t expect the film I’d picked as his worst to be his worst. In all honesty, I expected Pinocchio’s Revenge to be the horrible one. This was a case of me doing a silly thing and ‘judging a book by its cover’. In fact, Revenge turned out to be a pleasant surprise (see Hidden Gem), and the one I thought would be decent ended up horrible. I’m talking about his 4th film Witchtrap, which is about fifty steps back from his previous films. This was a mix between Witchboard and Night Of The Demons. At least that’s what I believe the aim was. Instead, it seems like everything that was weak or not good about those films was used here and amped up. It’s a very campy film, but one that does not work at all. The humor (if you can call it that) was meant to be dark, but it comes off as silly and cringe-worthy. The acting was pretty bad. I mean, compare it to, say, Troll 2 and the Waits family. They actually seem like Oscar contenders compared to the family in Witchtrap. It could have been ‘so bad its good’ but it even failed there. Instead of laughing at the bad stuff, it made me want to reach for a fork and gouge my eyes out and stab my ears. It’s a haunted house film that really just did not work, and it’s a shame, too. The central story is really interesting, and the location was great to look at. Plus, there were some decent gore effects to be found. But those few things couldn’t save this terrible film, and I’m sorry Kevin, but this was a letdown. This isn’t his only bad film, mind you. The Second Arrival (sequel to The Arrival) isn’t very good, either. It is slightly more tolerable than Witchtrap, but not by much.

TRADEMARKS

Tenney has some fantastic things as his trademarks, which is something that his fans can brag out. When you get a Tenney film you are almost certainly guaranteed gore and boobs. And it doesn’t go lightly on those things, either. When there is blood, you get a whole lot of it. The effects aren’t sloppy at all, either. They might be the low-budget type, but you wouldn’t guess that they were when you saw them. His goriest effort was Brain Dead. Just watching some of the stuff that was pulled off in the film had me picking my jaw up off of the floor. I’d say a good 90% of the films I had watched had naked ladies and boobs (usually in a shower). We even get some full frontal action. How can anyone not enjoy that? Tenney uses some lovely-looking ladies, too (Linnea Quigley a few times), and he doesn’t shy away from a few sex scenes here and there. I mean, no matter the scenario it doesn’t feel out of place. I love how he manages to do that. Tenney is also a writer, and not only does he write the films he directs, but he’s written and contributed to a number of other films. He’s had cameo appearances in some of his films, the most memorable of them was in Witchtrap, and he wasn’t all that bad either. He definitely takes a lot of inspiration from Sam Raimi, as there’s a feeling of the Evil Dead trilogy in a lot of those earlier films. His brother Dennis provides musical scores for his films, as well as working in the sound department.

HIDDEN GEM

His entire filmography could fit into this section, but I narrowed it down to two films. These films surprised me the most and I honestly expected to hate them, or at the very least not enjoy them. Pinocchio’s Revenge from the outside looked as if it were some Leprechaun or Child’s Play rip off. However, it really was anything but. It had an interesting story about a serial killer on death row, and his lawyer ends up with his Pinocchio puppet. The puppet (which looked fantastic) gets into the arms of the lawyer’s daughter and bad things start happening. The film had some great performances, especially from the girl who could have been the annoying type but wasn’t. I was on the edge of my seat while watching this, as I had no idea what was going to happen and usually I am pretty good with that. It was a really nice surprise, and I’m glad I gave this a chance.

On to a completely different film with Tick Tock, which at first glance looked like a rip-off of Bound. But again, it wasn’t. Yes, there were some similarities, but it went and did its own thing. Using flashbacks and telling the story from different character perspectives to keep things fresh had me guessing (yet again). The performances are all really good and it definitely had some of the best performances Tenney has ever gotten from his cast. It looked fantastic and I never would have guessed it was made for a million dollars. The film does have sex and nudity, and I can’t complain about that, especially when it all made sense in context, and worked itself into the story. Plus, I got really excited to see the original Johnny Cage himself, Linden Ashby, as one of the stars. I really have to urge all of you readers out there to try and track this one down. It’s the very definition of a hidden gem.

NEXT PROJECT

It would seem Tenney does not have any projects coming up as a director. However, as a writer and producer he does, the most notable of those is a Witchboard remake. Tenney and his company Prodigy Entertainment have acquired the rights to it, and are hoping to get all the financing in order for the remake. He already was a part of the Night Of The Demons remake, and he seemed happy with the finished product. It makes sense that he’s going ahead with another remake. Even though I am not on the remake bandwagon, I can certainly understand why he felt the need to do this.

OVERALL

I am proud to say that I am now a Kevin Tenney fan. I wish I had seen these films of his a lot earlier. It is quite sad to think that a lot of these titles are obscure and not that easy to find. He is a filmmaker whose work should be seen and appreciated, and he surprised me big time. His films are fun, interesting and entertaining. He’s done a great job with most of his films, and it is too bad that at first glance, some of the artwork for his films is misleading. Do what I did: take a chance with the man and the films. They are well worth the time, and they have great replay value.