Just a reminder that the Cinema Wasteland event is this weekend in Cleveland, and this fall's show features a number of important regional horror filmmakers on the guest list.
Daniel Boyd, the West Virginia director/writer of Chillers (1987) and Invasion of the Space Preachers (1990) will be on hand to promote the 25th anniversary of Chillers (a great little anthology film), as well as the upcoming graphic novel version of the film. He'll be at the Troma booth.
Chester Novell Turner, the warped mind behind the notorious SOV flick Black Devil Doll From Hell (1987) and its obscure follow-up, Tales From the Quadead Zone (1987) will also be on hand, despite rumors surfacing a few years ago that he was actually dead. Turner will host a screening of Devil Doll, and Massacre Video will have a double-feature DVD of his films available at the show.
There's also going to be a screening of the VHS collector documentary, Adjust Your Tracking (2013). Trailer below:
In addition to being a great place to pick up a zombie teddy bear or a bootleg copy of Unholy Rollers, the Wasteland always has a great guest list -- and there's usually a heap of regional horror-related celebrities in attendance.
Of particular interest to Dead Next Door readers this year: David Hess, the leering lead baddie in Wes Craven's Last House on the Left (Connecticut); Evil Dead (Michigan) stars Ellen Sandweiss and Theresa Tilly (Betsy Baker, unfortunately, had to cancel); Evil Dead effects artist Tom Sullivan; frequent George Romero collaborator Michael Gornick, who worked as a cinematographer and/or sound technician on Martin, The Crazies and Dawn of the Dead; actress Lynn Lowry, who appeared in I Drink Your Blood (New York), Sugar Cookies, and The Crazies; porn pioneer Radley Metzger; and Night of the Living Dead actors Judith Ridley and Russ Streiner.
The headliners this year also include director Ruggero Deodato, actor Michael Berryman, Tom Atkins, John Carl Buechler, and William Forsythe.
It's still just $20 at the door Friday and Saturday, and $15 on Sunday. Kids ten and under are free.
Have we mentioned lately that Code Red is rapidly becoming one of our favorite DVD labels? In addition to unleashing Slithis last month, the company has finally announced the specs for its upcoming Horror High DVD: a brand new widescreen transfer, an interview with actor Austin Stoker, bonus TV footage shot for the Twisted Brain version of the film, and an uncut theatrical trailer.
On top of that, the company plans to unleash the obscure swan song of actor Joe Spinell, The Undertaker (a.k.a. Death Merchant, 1988) in October. Although videos of this otherwise unreleased film have been circulating for years, this will mark the first legit DVD release of the title. Our friend Steven Puchalski over at Shock Cinema wrote a nice article on the film for Fangoria a few years back (issue #229).
Joe Spinell in The Undertaker
Getting back to Austin Stoker, we mentioned here that he would be at the October Cinema Wasteland show in Cleveland.
Since then, the folks at Wasteland have updated the guest list to include Ohio filmmaker Jim Van Bebber (who made the jaw-dropping Deadbeat at Dawn in 1988), along with frequent collaborators Mike King and Marc Pitman (who also appeared in Van Bebber's The Manson Family).
And that's not all -- Texas filmmaker Matt Devlen, co-producer and director of Tabloid (1985), will also be on hand to discuss his work with Bret McCormick on Ozone! Attack of the Redneck Mutants (1986) and The Abomination (1986). Joining Devlen will be actress Barbara Dow and fellow Texas director Glen Coburn, who also worked on Tabloid, but who is better known for directing the inventive Bloodsuckers from Outer Space (1984).
All and all, the next Wasteland is shaping up to be a cornucopia of regional horror, and we plan to make the trek north to drink it all in.
Book Update: We finally wrapped up the intro to the book, and a gaggle of horror historians is currently reading through it to check for errors and, later, mock me mercilessly for making them. I've also begun the laborious task of writing captions for the photos. Next up: copy editing the whole thing. Again.
I usually mark the arrival of Spring with a number of annual rituals -- the first official lawn mowing, blowing the soot off the grill, and making the trek up to my old stomping grounds in Strongsville, Ohio, for the Cinema Wasteland expo.
I only made a quick trip this year, just long enough to snag an autograph from Day of the Dead's Bub the Zombie, buy some stills for the book, and wolf down a pulled pork sandwich in the Holiday Inn restaurant with some of my friends over at The Extreme Society Show.
I did make time to snag a flyer for the October event, and as is often the case, regional horror fans have plenty of reasons to make the journey to Cleveland.
Topping the guest list, and back by popular demand, is the Godfather of Gore himself, H.G. Lewis, along with the star of the Connecticut-spawned I Spit on Your Grave, Camille Keaton.
Also on the bill will be Austin Stoker, veteran of both Horror High (Texas) as well as William Girdler's Abby and The Zebra Killer (Kentucky), along with his Abby co-star, Carol Speed. Evil Dead alums Josh Becker and Tom Sullivan will also be on hand.
On a completely unrelated note, we were stoked to learn that Don May and the folks at Synapse Films will be releasing three long out-of-print Hammer horror films on DVD -- Vampire Circus, Twins of Evil and Hands of the Ripper, along with all 13 episodes of the "Hammer House of Horror" TV series. That has nothing to do with regional horror films at all, except our friend Daniel Griffith -- the busy documentarian behind the upcoming K. Gordon Murray biopic, as well as the William Grefe doc They Came from the Swamp-- will be handling the extras for the highly anticipated discs. Synapse hopes to have the DVDs available by this fall.
The Dead Next Door is a blog about regional or "backyard" horror and science fiction films made from the late 1950s to the earlyl 1990s (and beyond). These films were released during the peak years of independent film production, created by a motley crew of seasoned pros, gifted amateurs, and enthusiastic genre fans, along with dozens of eccentric dreamers -- doctors, lawyers, insurance salesmen, publishers, commercial filmmakers, TV production crews and moonlighting pornographers -- all looking for their big break or a fast buck or both.
