Welcome to part deux of my 2006
Rue Morgue’s Festival of
Fear adventure. Click here to
READ PART 1 and dig into the horror goodness
that is Part 2 below! Come on! What are you waiting for? READ ON!
Although the last panel was a
disappointment, the next one exceeded my expectations. I sat in my seat hoping
to God that Juliet wasn’t going to come on stage and become another “Tom
Cruise-worthy” activist clone like Linda Blair, and thankfully I got what I
hoped for.
Juliet Landau, who is best known for her portrayal as the wacky
vampire, Druscilla on the hit shows Buffy and Angel, pleased her
fans by recalling memorable moments from filming the shows, talking in different
accents, and showing off how polite she is. (She kept saying “God bless you” to
people who sneezed in the audience.) Here is what I got out of her panel:
-She is the daughter of famous
actors Martin Landau and Barbara Bain. (I don’t know if I was the only one who
DID not know about)
-She starred alongside Johnny
Depp in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood. She also appeared in Theodore Rex, a
movie she admitted sucked big time.
–Has
currently shot a period piece film called Yellow Wallpaper. In the movie,
she plays Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a feminist writer. The film takes place in
1894, and stars alongside Michael Morarity. She said the film has a feel like
The Others. There is a supernatural twist to it. She also got heatstroke a
few times while filming this movie.
–Juliet
and her co-star James Marsters (Spike from Buffy) were only supposed to be the
villains in season two of Buffy and were supposed to be killed off by the
end of the season. Due to their characters’ popularity, the writers decided to
keep them on longer.
–She
talked about her experience on filming Tobe Hooper’s The Toolbox Murders.
The first day of shooting, she had to shoot her death scene. She said it was a
brutal shoot for she was completely banged up by it at the end of the day. She
had to go to another audition with visible bruises all over her body.
-When asked if she would play
Wonder Woman in Joss Whedon’s upcoming movie, she told the audience that Kate
Beckinsale was cast as the role. (HA! HA! People still believe the April Fool’s
Day joke created by JoBlo! ) *Note-Kate Beckinsale is NOT going to be
Wonder Woman.
–When
asked if she ever misses playing Druscilla, she told the audience how she would
play her again in a heartbeat, but doesn’t really miss playing her.
To be quite honest, I didn’t
know too much about this year’s guest of honor. All I really knew about Alice
Cooper was that he sang rock music, appeared in Wayne’s World, and
supposedly killed a chicken on stage. I had no idea how much he has influenced
the world of horror.
I also had no idea how intelligent and horror savvy this
man really is. (He knew everything from Vincent Price to Tashaki Miike!) The
hour went by pretty quickly because he was really entertaining and I learned a
lot about one of the most notorious rockers of all time.
-Although you wouldn’t think by
looking at him, Alice Cooper is a Christian.
–Loved
Friday the 13th movies only for the fact that all the
characters in a Jason movie, are characters you wanted to see killed in high
school.
–He
has a distaste for the “torture” movies that are out now. He feels that they’re
gratuitous, and you might as well be watching a snuff film. He said he would
only like those kinds of movies if you saw Paris Hilton or Courtney Love being
tortured in them. (I love this man already!)
–He
loves Asian Horror. His favorite horror film right now is
Oldboy.
–When
asked about his role in Prince of Darkness, he said he honestly had no
plans of being in the movie. He was just coming down to the set to watch John
Carpenter work. It was then that John Carpenter asked him if he wanted to be a
zombie, and then eventually he ended up being the leader of the zombies. He was
there for three days filming his scenes. He loved the experience and the movie,
but said it needed a better ending.
–The
movies Carnival of Souls, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, and Barberella
inspired the Alice Cooper persona.
–When
asked about his “chicken-killing” performance in Toronto decades ago, he said
that someone had actually thrown a chicken on the stage, and he threw it back,
thinking chickens could fly.
Well the chicken plummeted in the audience, and it
was THE AUDIENCE that tore up the chicken. (He also noted the first ten rows
were people in wheelchairs!) His agent then told him not to deny the rumors of
him killing the chicken because it was good for his image.
–Creature
of the Black Lagoon was the first film that scared the
living sh*t out of him!
I was expecting to see the same
weird and creepy dude that horror fans have seen in movies such as The
Frighteners, House on Haunted Hill and of course, who can forget the
Re-animator series. When I saw a friendly “Dr. Herbert West” come out
onto the panel and stand on top of a table to greet his fans, it was
surprising.
It was also cool to see such a humble and funny person display a
side of themselves so rarely seen in his movies. During the hour, Jeffrey gave
his fans the scoop on working with long time friend, Stuart Gordon, his
“trekkie” days, (which you’ll have to read somewhere else, due to the fact I
tune out when I hear the words, “Star Trek.”) and what’s been happening with the
next sequel to the Re-Animator movies.
–When
he read the script for Re-animator for the first time, he said he thought
it was a bloody motherf*cker. Originally, Dr. Herbert West wasn’t the center of
the film, once they edited the movie, the focal point shifted towards his
character.
-He told the audience that
there are actually two versions of Re-animator. (The unrated version and
the rated R version) He recommends everyone to watch the unrated version,
because the R rated version changed things about the movie that he didn’t like,
such as the “hypnosis angle,” and having his character shoot up.
-He finished filming an episode
of Masters of Horror entitled “The Black Cat.” Re-animator’s Stuart
Gordon has directed the episode. He plays Edgar Allan Poe, and says fans will
like the twist to the episode.
-Said the last movie that
disturbed the sh*t out of him was Wolf Creek.
–He
has just finished filming a horror movie called Wizard of Gore. He says
the remake sticks with the main premise from the original film and updates it.
The film also stars Crispin Glover and Brad Dourif. (Herbert, Chucky, Mcfly…oh
my!)
-He said the show The 4400
has been picked up for another season.
-He said he has no idea what
the status of House of Re-animator is because the film needs
distributors. He said the film will be about Dr. Herbert West going to The
White House to reanimate the Vice president, and the President is an idiot and
has no idea what is going on. (Insert “Bush” joke here)
He also said William H.
Macy was once attached to play The President, but now since the project
flat-lined, there is no momentum for making it at the moment. (Cross your
fingers! Hopefully, it will be picked up!)
When I asked someone who Ben
Chapman was at the convention, and found out he was the man who played the
original “Creature” from Creature From the Black Lagoon, the first
thoughts in my head were, ‘That man is still ALIVE?!’ I’m glad I went to his
panel, because this man was a sweet man, and his panel was surprisingly
interesting because he had a lot of funny and even nasty stories to tell. (You
don’t want to know how he had to go to the bathroom in his creature suit.) Here
is what I got out of the “Creature’s” panel:
-He is the last living
Universal Classic Monster.
– He
was cousins with actor John Hall. (I had no idea who this was, but he made it
seem like this person was a big deal.)
–He
filmed The Creature From the Black Lagoon when he was 24 years old. He
hired because he was a free diver.
-He wasn’t in Revenge of the
Creature, but told the audience that a young Clint Eastwood was. Clint was
not signed on to do another film, because…get this…the filmmakers thought he
had NO talent, and also said his enormous Adam’s Apple was too distracting.
(That’s pretty funny!)
–He
only did the original film. In total there were 4 men who played the creatures
in the trilogy.
-Universal Studio’s was going
to go bankrupt, and the revenue Creature From the Black Lagoon made at
the box office actually saved the studio.
The convention saved the best
for last. Again, I didn’t know too much about this WWF wrestler/actor. The
only things I knew were that he was considered the “rebel” in the series, and
starred in John Carpenter’s cult classic, They Live. I am so glad I came
to see this man speak, because he was freaking hilarious.
He had my attention
from the moment he walked on the stage in glasses, a leather coat, and a quilt.
During the hour, he recalled times from when he ended up accidentally kicking
Cyndi Lauper in the head, his experience on filming horror movies, his family
life, and being Canadian! (woo-hoo!) Here is what I got out of the final panel:
-When asked about his “stellar”
performance in Hell Comes to FrogTown, he laughed and said how
embarrassed he still is for doing that movie. He said it was humiliating when
he was sitting in the theatre, and watching himself after Toni the frog dies.
He said he was using his best acting skills during the scene, and everyone just
laughed at the screen.
–When
he signed on to do They Live, he had never heard of John Carpenter or his
work before. He had no idea what an honor it really was until he started
shooting.
–He
said the long fight sequence in They Live with Keith David was completely
improvised. John Carpenter had wanted the longest fight sequence ever shown in
a film. When they had tried to stage fight, Keith David kept missing his marks,
and Roddy had eventually told him to really hit him instead. So after a while,
they were really fighting.
–His
latest project is a horror film called Sin-Jin Smyth. He said the movie
is very character driven. The story is about two bad marshals. His character is
a wife-beater, (which he mentions he hates) and the second marshal is a
murderer. (played by Richard Tyson) They have to take in a prisoner to prison,
(played by Korn’s lead singer, John Davis) and what they don’t realize is that
the prisoner is The Devil, and he is actually planning on taking down to Hell.
(Sounds like a really frigging cool movie!)
–He
has a meeting with Lion’s Gate films to possibly make a movie off his life.
“Great for Insomnia” he joked.
Here are a couple of
choice pictures from my weekend!
Jason
says “Whassup!”
Looking for Neil LaBute to punish him for the Wicker Man remake?
Me and
sweetie JoBlo.
Karen “I turned down Devil’s
Rejects” Black!
Arrow
with fan of the site Steven! (Thanks for the pic Steve)
Director Mike Pereira, me and Jay Clarke!
Me,
director Kevin Lane, Director Darren Bousman and Arrow…drunk again (Arrow that
is)
LEATHER SAYS…SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!