Monday, February 22, 2010

Whither thee, Alabama?

In the course of preparing my upcoming book on regional horror films, one of the most daunting tasks has been trying to prepare a relatively comprehensive state-by-state list of films that were made during the period I'm covering (1957 to 1990).

While I was hoping to find at least one film for each state, there were a few places where it seems there just weren't any low-budget, indie horror films made during the "classic" era of regional filmmaking.

So far, the no-shows are:

Alabama
Hawaii
Idaho
Maine
Minnesota
Montana
Nebraska
North Dakota
South Dakota
Washington

I also haven't turned up any independent horror films made entirely in the District of Columbia (although several movies in the book do include some location footage filmedthere). What about Puerto Rico and American Samoa? Should I include them? Have there even been any homegrown horror films made there (outside of runaway productions like Creature from the Haunted Sea)?

So I'm putting out a call to you, the viewing public: Have any of you turned up info on any regional horrors from those remaining states? Any monsters in Montana? Hellspawn in Hawaii? Remember, the films had to have been shot between 1957 and 1990 and produced independently. Shot-on-video films count, as long as they were distributed somewhere beyond the director's living room. I'm trying to avoid runaway productions made by otherwise California-based film crews. Rack your brains -- remember, the people of the great state of South Dakota are counting on you.

Feel free to post in the comments section, or shoot me an e-mail at regionalhorrorfilms@yahoo.com.

3 comments:

  1. The Being (1983) was made in Idaho

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would like to comment that the 1972 film "journey through rosebud" was filmed in rosebud south dakota-it made its way to vhs in the 80s i heard the vhs was a really poor transfer from a 35mm print-I think now you can consider it a lost film, their is probably a lost print some where, hidden away in the midwest-would be cool to find!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a wonderful blog!
    Filmed in Montana:
    Winterhawk (1974, d Charles B. Pierce)
    Beartooth (1976, d Zack Belcher)
    SuperVan (1977, d Lamar Card) was filmed in St.Joseph in Montana but this probably counts as runaway Hollywood production.

    In Dakota:
    Deadwood '76 (1965, d James Landis) filmed in Black Hills (Custer State Park, South Dakota)
    Hex (1971, d Leo Garen) filmed in Gettysberg (South Dakota
    Johnny Vik (1972, d Charles Nauman) - South Dakota

    ReplyDelete