Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors - Saturday, April 18, 2009
Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors - Saturday, April 18, 2009
Horror.com's Exclusive Report and Photos continue
Written by Staci Layne Wilson
Photographed by Staci Layne Wilson, Enzo Giobbé, Robert Galuzzo and Andrew Kasch
Top Photo: is Staci Layne Wilson & Virginia Anderson [click to enlarge]
When you start the day with a film clip showing a demonic anal sex scene, where do go from there? Hopefully up, but let's just stay in the pit of hell for a minute or two…
The first Fangoria Weekend of Horrors panel I saw on Saturday was for the Night of the Demons remake (out in theaters on October 9), written and directed by Adam Gierasch. Co-writer Jace Anderson was on hand, along with several members of the cast, including Tiffany Shepis, Monica Keena, Bobbi Sue Luther, and Shannon Elizabeth, to talk to the packed convention hall about this gory, gooey, gratuitous fright-flick.
"This is a movie about personal demons," Gierasch solemnly announced to the black tee shirt crowd. Boos resounded. "OK, I'm lying. It's about fuckin' demons!" Applause. And, he added, Linnea Quigley the star of the original Night of the Demons (which was directed by Kevin Tenney, who acts as producer on this one), has a cameo which is a distinct nod to the fans of that hazily-remembered flick. Whether or not that involves lipstick, he said we'll just have to wait and see.
The first person who came on board for the movie was Shannon Elizabeth. "I'm not sure I remember [my character's] name right now. Um, oh. Angela. What I really liked about her is, that she was bad. She becomes this really evil, bad girl. In the ADR, I got to do this gurgling, growling demon voice that was awesome. It reminded me of the Sleestaks in Land of the Lost!"
Bobbi Sue Luther said, "I'm one of the troublemakers." She has, er, love scenes with both Shannon Elizabeth and Monica Keena. But all's fair in love and war when the demons come to the fore. According to Gierasch: "By the end of the movie, Monica is just soaked in blood, holding a shotgun and just blasting away."
Fangoria's Tony Timpone, and Monica Keena
Shepis, truly the duchess of death, said of her stint on Night of the Demons: "I had to work so hard on this movie. I mean, it's probably the farthest I've ever had to reach as an actor. As a thespian. I mean, my part is kind of small, but I carry this movie. Door-Woman Diana is a character that is going to change your fuckin' world." No doubt! It'll be tough to top her death scene in Abominable, but we'll see…
Monica Keena, producer Greg McKay, Adam Gierasch, Bobbi Sue Luther, Shannon Elizabeth, Tiffany Shepis, and Jace Anderson
Jace Anderson, one of the most kick-ass - and fashionable! - horror screenwriters on the planet
Since the original film is so much of its time, the question about vocal songs and music of course came up. (Joseph Bishara, who worked with Gierasch before on Autopsy, does the original score). "We just wanted to do a fun, 80s redux," said Gierasch. "Back in the 80s, I used to watch this movie when I was in a punk band called CBMT, which stood for Complicated Bone Marrow Transplant. Which is really lame, right? So lame, that we changed the name to Captain Bligh's Massive Testicles, then Charlie Brown's Masturbation Techniques, and the Cocaine Brings Mandatory Testing and shit like that. Anyway, I was a huge fan of any sort of horror-punk. Anything like that, and so with this movie, I promised myself that I would have as much gothic horror punk as I could possibly fit in there so that I could relive my 17-year-old self fantasies… which really isn't that different from my forty-two year old self now."
Aboove are some photos from the panel, and soon we'll have exclusive, on-camera interviews posted with the Night of the Demons filmmakers and cast.
Other panels included The Italian Masters of Horror, featuring Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust), Lamberto Bava (Demons) and FX artist/director Sergio Stivaletti (Cemetery Man); hosted by Paolo Zelati [pictured below]. Other panels included an abbreviated Clive Barker slate, plus a look at Mutant Chronicles with Ron Perlman and Thomas Jane (whose antics onstage are being described by some Twitter users as "a hot mess" … hm, too bad I missed that, but we were doing several on-camera interviews all day and didn't catch many panels).
Here are some other moments from the Convention today...
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Horror Genre Power Couples!
Mick and Cynthia Garris, and Neil and Axelle Marshall
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Also...
Scott Janiak-Ross, jewelry designer at SkinnyDogDesign.com, and a few of his cool rings (I liked the corset ones)
Another popular vendor on the floor (literally!) was MonsterSpaceTV.com
...And of course, the wildly-popular ZombieInkTattoo.com
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Plus, we caught up with...
The Repo! The Genetic Opera shadow cast [Repo-opera.com]
Adrienne King of Friday the 13th fame (and she's also in a new movie. Guess what it's called?)
Director Jim Hemphill
Actor John Saxon
Producer Annette Ashlie Slomka
Director Robert Galuzzo, and actor Christa Campbell
We also spoke on-camera with Lamberto Bava, the director and cast of The Graves, Night of the Demons, John Saxon, author Patrick Jankiewicz, and a whole slew of others... including almost all the stars of Robert Hall's Laid to Rest at the red carpet premiere [separate photo gallery] in downtown L.A. Be sure and stay tuned for the videos....
That's it for the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors Saturday report. Tomorrow, we hope to catch up with Tobe Hooper, Jaume Collet-Serra, Darren Lynn Bousman, Marilyn Burns, and many more!
Related links:
Coming soon: Saturday Fangoria Weekend of Horrors Video
Coming soon: Sunday Fangoria Weekend of Horrors coverage
Coming soon: Laid to Rest red carpet photos & video