The documentarians behind the film Kreating Karloff have placed the entire thing online, which is not a bad idea when you consider the purpose behind the production. Conor Timmis is a Boris Karloff fan so taken with his hero that he has put together a show reel in an attempt to convince major studios to produce a full biopic of the horror legend with him as the star. This film is a look behind-the-scenes at the various people who have helped him along the way, along with their observations on both Karloff and how they perceive Timmis’ obsession with the actor.

This is about as good as it gets. Darkness director Leif Jonker has concluded a decades-long quest to find commercials he saw as a kid that showed a double bill of Phantasm and The Fog. And it wasn’t enough to find them, he felt he had to share them with the rest of the world. A second commercial can be found here.

While you’re at it, I recommend checking out the thread on DVD Maniacs where Jonker first posted the clips. There he talks about his quest, and other people join in with some great admats for other double bills of the era.

Bloomberg.com has posted a short interview with Roger Corman, the infamous director and producer behind way more films than I’m going to go into here. The interviewer picks Corman’s brain on horror’s cyclical appeal, old age and developing a good work ethic, and the guy shows he still has it in spades.

The strategy was to make the best possible film for the money. I’ve seen so many people slough off low-budget films. You cannot do that. When Jonathan Demme did his first film, which was for us, it was a woman-in-prison picture. He said to me, “I’m going to make the best woman-in-prison picture ever made.” That’s the attitude that you must have.

“I’m going to make the best woman-in-prison picture ever made” is going to be my new positive affirmation. Go large or go home, man.

With the casting of Takashi Miike in the first Hostel, and the announcement of a very special appearance by Edwige Feneche in the second, Eli Roth has shown that he likes to stack the deck with infamous cult movie icons. Now Bloody Disgusting has leaked the identity of yet another grindhouse favourite appearing in the sequel.

While enjoying the single best set visit I’ve ever been on, I learned that horror legend Ruggero Deodato has been cast in Eli Roth’s highly anticipated Hostel sequel in an amazing cameo role. Although I can’t spill details I can tell you that the Writer/Director of the infamous Cannibal Holocaust is in one of the best “holy sh-t” moments of the film.

Jiminy Crickets! I wonder if there will be any budding horror fans who watch Hostel 2 and use it as a guide to track down some of horror’s more notably sleazy practitioners, and if so, whether they’ll lean on the side of the angels (Edwige Feneche…sigh…) or in the pits with the devils (Ruggero Deodato).

“If it’s your cup of tea, drink it!”

Most mainstream actors who dip their toe in the horror genre seem to accept the job as a necessary evil, to be filmed quickly and forgotten even more quickly. Not so Phyllis Kirk, perhaps the most reluctant scream queen to ever grace the silver screen. A contract player with Warner Brothers, the outspoken Ms. Kirk was dragged kicking and screaming into the 1953 3-D production of House of Wax where she exceled as the damsel in distress. She never appeared in another horror film again, though she did make an appearance in The Twilight Zone. Ms. Kirk passed away Friday of an aneurysm.

The Astounding B-Monster has what is probably my new favourite interview, where Phyllis Kirk looks back on her fight to stay out of House of Wax, her acceptance of its virtues (if not the fame that came with it), Vincent Price, excessive discussion about her bosom (or lack thereof) and the use of the phrase “Tough titty”. Man, they just don’t make them like that anymore.

Rest in peace, Ms. Kirk.

As I’m sure everyone is sick of hearing, Hostel was my favourite horror movie of the past few years. Even though I’m looking forward to the sequel, it’s with some trepedition. Now it appears that producer Quentin Tarantino is stacking the deck, making it near-impossible for me to dislike this film. Ladies and gentlemen, DVD Trash has the scoop on the lovely Edwige Fenech’s return to the silver screen.

Quoted as saying that he “knows all about my films” she was only to happy to agree to the role. This will be a return to the big screen for her after many years as a producer.

Swoon!

I try my best to post only horror items on this blog. I know that discussing topics other than horror is a slippery slope, and if I let myself go even a little bit it could become a routine. This is why I will only post those non-horror items which I consider to be of the utmost importance and gravity; earth-shattering announcements that simply must be conveyed to my readers.

At long last, Gymkata is being released on DVD.

I have a very special relationship with Gymkata. Everytime I visited J. in Montreal we would head over to the Metro Video at Du Parc. They had a phenomenal collection of cult movies, and nestled in their action section was a big-ass box full of gymnastic martial arts mayhem. As the store slowly replaced their VHS with DVD, I would enquire as to the purchase of Gymkata and each time I was denied. On a few occassions I offered to pay for the movie but let them keep it in perpetuity as their sole film considered irreplacable. Once again, not realizing my sincerity, my offer was denied. The last time I was in there, Gymkata was gone. And so was a little piece of my soul.

But now the world rejoices, for Gymkata will be released on January 30th, 2007. Truly we will witness the skill of gymnastics, and the kill of karate!

GYMKATA!

The big news of the day appears to be Horror Roundtable miscreant Don May, Jr. and Billy Kirkus’ discovery of a large amount of unused footage from John Carpenter’s Halloween. These are the multiple takes that ended up on the cutting room floor. Though the boxes haven’t been completely catalogued yet, May seems convinced that it will contain at least a few interesting surprises.

“The most exciting possibility is that Wallace told me about the original ending—and if this is indeed all the original camera negative, then we certainly have it. Wallace explained that he always thought it was funny that, even in the ‘original shooting scripts’ that are for sale for HALLOWEEEN, the ending always has Michael Myers disappearing at the end. That isn’t the way they originally shot it. The original shooting script, and the way the movie was initially filmed, had Michael dying at the end.”

May has also been offering up a few tidbits on the DVD Maniacs message board.

“One of the things I am hoping to find is the original opening sequence, without the mask overlay. I’ll have to ask Wallace (or Carpenter, if he calls me) about it, but I think, when little Michael goes to the house and puts on the mask before he kills his sister, that the “mask” portion of the screen may be an optical effect. If so, chances are we may have the un-masked version, or an alternate take version, of the opening scene death scene without the mask covering the picture! THAT is something I want to see…”

I’m not that big a fan of Halloween (more of a Black Christmas man, myself) but I love the discovery of hidden treasures from the days before every piece of footage from even the most unassuming movies was tucked away for the inevitable DVD extras. It would be especially instructive watching Carpenter at work and actually seeing the process that went into making a low-budget horror film of that era.

From yesterday’s clip of the day, The Manchester Morgue, comes a music video for the kult klassic Killer Klowns from Outer Space by SoCal proto-punks The Dickies. Just in case you missed it.

Just when it seemed as if the proprieter of DVD Trash was taking a few weeks off, he comes out swinging with a bevy of Turkish movie clips from Onar Films, from superheroes to Kilink and even giallo! This is exactly the kind of exploitation trash I covet. Cheap sets, brutal action, and hot Turkish women in bikinis.

That Kilink is a fucking badass. He sure gets a lot of play for a guy in a skeleton costume.

The Norliss Tapes was Dan Curtis’ follow-up to the wildly successful Kolchak TV-movies. While it also centred around a reporter caught up in supernatural events, the twist on The Norliss Tapes was that the main character was only ever portrayed in flashback. Norliss had gone missing, leaving behind a deskful of cryptic audio tapes which his publisher believed could hold the answer to his disappearance. Unfortunately, The Norliss Tapes never got past the pilot episode. Now, according to Fangoria, The Norliss Tapes will finally get its chance to shine on DVD.

And there’s a lot more coming in October from the Bay, for whom Halloween is Christmas: The 3rd also sees the DVDebut of THE NORLISS TAPES, the 1973 pilot for a never-launched TV series directed by Dan Curtis and scripted by William F. Nolan, who would reteam soon thereafter on TRILOGY OF TERROR.

As a huge fan of Kolchak, and creepy seventies horror telefilms in general, I’m really excited that I’ll finally be able to watch it.

Tim Ormond has left a comment in my post concerning the passing of his mother, Nashville exploitation matriarch June Carr Ormond. It appears that a tribute page has been set up, with a number of wonderful articles and reminisces from friends, family and the film community. It’s a touching memorial, filled with the kind of passion that informed Ormond’s life. Where else are you going to find heartfelt appreciations from close friends side-by-side with anecdotes from fellow dancers from The Monster and The Stripper? If you knew Mrs. Ormond or admired her work please pay a visit to the tribute site and leave a message.

My condolences, Tim. I never knew your mother personally, but she seemed like a real firecraker.

The groovy vinyl sharity site Mondo Daddykin has closed up shop. While there may not have been a whole lot of horror content, there sure was plenty of music from The Archies, which is great since I fucking adore Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Reggie and the rest of the gang (Take that, T. Van!).

In honour of this maestro of the bubblegum arts, I present to you one of the as-yet-unsullied files, otherwise inaccessible as of Mondo Daddykin’s retirement; Rods and Rat Finks!

As a kid in the 60’s, I couldn’t resist Roth’s awesome hot rod designs. They were on everything from gum cards and stickers to model cars of his classic “Outlaw” and “Beatnik Bandit,” just to name a couple. Big Daddy’s character Rat Fink became a cultural icon of the hot rod world.

So sayeth Mondo Daddykin! He will be missed, and I hope to see him return some day.

The long-awaited, much-anticipated DVD release of Rock ‘N Roll Nightmare has finally arrived. This sweet slice of hair metal heaven is a Canuxploitation legend and worthy of the attention of the Gods themselves!

Don’t take my word for it. Synapse Films, the masterminds behind this special edition, have compiled a handy list of reviews for your perusal. But wait! Even more exciting is a link to an interview with Writer/Producer/Actor/God of Metal Jon Mikl Thor, the steely hand behind Rock ‘N Roll Nightmare! This is a man who was immediately placed on my top friends list on The Horror Blog MySpace as much out of awe and fear as respect.

But my hammer’s gotten more developed over the years, as well as the costuming, more leather and studs, and the hammer have gotten bigger and more powerful.

Intercessor Rides…Through The Night!

It appears to be stop-motion animation day here at The Horror Blog. Animation Magazine has an informative review of Equinox, a 1960s backyard homage to Harryhausen madness by special effects pioneers Dennis Muren, Dave Allen and Jim Danforth. Leave it to art-house favourites Criterion to give the deluxe treatment most budget DVD companies wouldn’t even touch. I’ve been waiting for this one for months, and it doesn’t sound like it will disapoint.

Fans of mainstream movies will probably want to take a pass, but those who appreciate bizarre cinema, stop-motion animation and low-budget, creature feature drive-in fun (you know who your are!) will definitely want to add this one to their collection.

Add “Likes long walks on the beach” and you’ve got my personals ad. Check out a scratchy trailer for the movie here.