Making Monsters For My Friends

I shot this video of makeup artist Ron Chamberlain applying Glenn Strange Frankenstein makeup at the 2004 Monster Bash - cool stuff!!

Twas the Night AFTER Christmas

Thought you folks might enjoy seeing the closing segment from this year's Howliday Special, where Doc Gangrene reads an old family favorite - "Twas the Night AFTER Christmas."

Santa Claws is Coming to Town

Merry Christmas all - here is a rendition of Santa Claus is Coming to Town by the one and only Alice Cooper - rock and roll and Scary Christmas!!

Captain Spaulding Christmas Commercial

Fun little Christmas commercial to help spread them uh, holiday cheer...

Dr. Morgus for Rondo Hall of Fame!!

It's almost Rondo Award time again, and I've started thinking about the nominees for this year's Rondo awards. The Rondo Awards, in case you’re not familiar with them, are an annual award started by David Colton to honor excellence in the field of classic horror. They have entries for everything from movies to books and music and everything in-between, including horror hosts.


They also have a Hall of Fame category, and this is my favorite category of all. This is the one that awards a lifetime of achievement, those folks whose contributions to the field are so huge that they have left an indelible impression. There have been an impressive group of entrants to the Rondo Award Hall of Fame so far, including such notables as Forrey Ackerman, Ray Harryhausen, Ray Bradbury, Basil Gogos and many more. Each year 6 new inductees are added, and there have been 4 horror hosts added so far: Zacherley, Vampira, Ghoulardi, and Bob Wilkins, all very worthy entrants.

The nominee I’d most like to see added this year is another horror host, and one who celebrated his 50th anniversary as a horror host this year – Morgus the Magnificent. Morgus started his program back in 1959 – and has been hosting on and off the air ever since. Morgus is played by actor Sid Noel, and he broadcasts in New Orleans area primarily, although it has been syndicated out to other areas of the country from time to time.

Morgus is a legend in the Horror Host field and truly deserving of inclusion in the Rondo Hall of Fame.

To find out more about Dr. Morgus go to: http://www.morgus.com/

To read his Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgus_the_Magnificent

To download a Dr. Morgus song (off 45): http://devildick.blogspot.com/2008/10/morgus-and-3-ghouls-morgus-magnificent.html

Goodbye Dan O'bannon

I woke up this morning to find that Dan O’Bannon passed away yesterday.

Dan was a true creative genius, one of a kind. He wrote the screenplay for ALIEN, the 1979 groundbreaking horror sci-fi classic. He wrote the screenplay for TOTAL RECALL, (a film I’m proud to say I’ve hosted on my program) based on the Philip K. Dick short story “We can remember it for you wholesale.” He wrote the segment in HEAVY METAL (the animated film) with the WWII Bomber and the zombies, the coolest sequence in the entire film.

And speaking of zombies, he wrote and directed my favorite zombie film of all time. It is a movie that perfectly blends horror and humor, gore and laughs, shivers and scares. I’m talking, of course, about RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD.

The reports that I’ve read so far just mention that he passed away after a short illness, so not exactly sure the cause of death. But I do know that age 63 is waaay too young. Goodbye Dan, rest in peace. You’ll be missed but your films will live forever.

My Recommended Movie of the Week Featuring Return of the Living Dead:

Been busy getting my Howliday special ready to air. It is all laid out on the timeline and I've color corrected everything and added all my transitions - next up is cleaning up audio and eqing levels. I still have a couple of insert shots to add, then it's time for sound effects... should be done in a couple of days, depending on how much time I have to work on it.

Been a busy and hectic weekend - I am feeling kind of exhausted and a bit drained, and honestly probably need to catch up a bit on sleep.

I started watching "House of Long Shadows" over lunch today - That's one I've always wanted to see mainly because of the cast - Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, John Carradine - all together in one movie with... Desi Arnez Jr.? Uhhh...yeah.

Haven't gotten too far into it, so can't really comment on the movie itself yet, but Desi is horrible. Wonderfully horrible, mind you, in an unintended, bad movie sense. So I am enjoying the movie. More on it tomorrow after I finish it... but in the meantime - here's the trailer...

Dr. Gangrene shout-outs

Had a couple of fine blogs give us a nice mention recently...

First off was All Things Horror

http://www.allthingshorroronline.com/2009/12/sunday-morning-die-gest-second-edition.html
who give us a nice plus as well as some links and they posted a Spookhand vid on there, too... Its a great blog that highlights anything and everything horror...

And the Screamstress gave us a mention here:

http://www.screamstress.com/2009/12/the-emmys-howl-for-dr-gangrene/

talking about our emmy nomination and posting the PSA on there.

Thanks to Screamstress and All Things Horror - go check them out!!

Dr Gangrene's Howliday Special promos

Two promos that are running now for the upcoming DR. GANGRENE'S HOWLIDAY SPECIAL - a 15 second and a 30 second promo. In this episode I'm hosting a Christmas Carol, narrated by Vincent Price, and the Three Stooges short "Malice in the Palace." I am also showing a clip of classic Sir Cecil creape's Creature Feature from 1971!! They air Saturday, December 26th at 9pm on Nashville's CW58 - Gonna be a fun one!!

Dr. Gangrene interviewed on Dr. Destruction's Radio show

I did a radio interview last night – it was with fellow horror host Dr. Destruction. He has a radio show on AM radio (WLIP) in Kenosha Wisconsin called Dr. Destruction's Big Top Radio. It was a fun chat and will air tomorrow, Sat. Dec. 12th at 2pm central time.

You can listen online here:

http://www.wlip.com/Dr--Destruction-s-Big-Top-Radio-Broadcast/5126961

So the weather is pretty damn cold right now. We shot our upcoming Christmas special Monday evening – it was down in the 40s that night, which was a break. Our studio isn’t heated or air conditioned, so any break in the weather is fortunate! Last night was down in the 30s and even colder weather is on the way. I am not so much a winter weather guy. I like spring and fall. If it could average in the 70s-80s year round I’d be pretty happy. Guess I need to move somewhere to get that dream weather though, which ain’t gonna happen. I’m a Tennessee boy – born and raised here in the Nashville area. One thing you get used to here this time of year is not knowing day to day what to expect weather-wise. Keeps things interesting!

Horror Host Trading Cards Promo

Here's a quick promo for the Horror Host trading card set from Chris Corpse over at horrorhostgraveyard.com - 10 cards for just 5 bucks - you just can't pass that up!! This is volume one - more to come so keep your eyes peeled!! And be sure to swing by horrorhostgraveyard.com every day for a new video and blog entry of a horror host, both classic and new... you'll have more fun than a zombie at a brain buffet!!

Vincent Price Top Ten Movies Countdown - Part 9

This week we get to the number 3 film in my Vincent Price Top Ten Movies Countdown - it's the 1973 classic, Theater of Blood.

It is a fantastic film with a real dark sense of humor - Price plays failed Shakespearean actor Edward Lionheart, who returns from the dead to seek vengeance on the critics who panned his performances. He is assisted by the lovely Diana Rigg... This is a must-see for all Price fans. A real gem. Theater of blood!!

Dr. Gangrene interviewed on Horrornews.net

Hey gang(grene) - just wanted to pass along the noose that yours gruely was interviewed by Mike Joy over at Horrornews.net recently, and that interview is now live and undead online! So shamble on over to:

http://www.horrornews.net/unexplained_confidential/html/31.html#HOME

and check it out! There is also info on a few classic hosts there as well, including Dr. Shock, Stella, and Zacherley. Horrornews is a fangtastic site and one that is a MUST read for horror fans who wanna be in the KNOW with what's happening in the horror world! So check it out and tell em' Doc Gangrene sent ya!

Daikaiju in Nashville this month!!

Anyone who knows me very well at all knows I totally dig surf music - and one of the hardest rockin' modern surf bands is coming to Nashville twice over the next couple weeks! It's Daikaiju (Japanese for Giant Monster) and they're playing Thursday, Dec. 10 at The Basement and Wednesday, Dec. 16 at Springwater Supper Club.

If you haven't seen Daikaiju you're in for a treat. They wear Japanese Kabuki masks and matching jumpsuits, and totally tear up their instruments. It is quite the spectacle and I'm proud to say they played our Horror Hootenanny a couple years back.

Here's a song of theirs on youtube - this is Attack of the Crab Women. If you're in the Nashville area definitely make plans to see them and I'll see you at the show!

Goodbye Paul Naschy

Spanish actor/filmmaker Paul Naschy passed away yesterday, December 1st, 2009 from a long battle with cancer. Paul dedicated his career to making horror movies, most notably a series of werewolf films where he played the cursed character Waldemar Daninsky.

We here at Creature Feature salute the one and only Paul Naschy - his memory lives on!

Spookhand Live @ the Horror Hootenanny - shock rock

I got a lot of requests for this one - it's a music video of the song Rock N Roll Zombi, performed live at the Horror Hootenanny 09 - in this video a "fan" runs onstage, to Gangrene's displeasure - and he deals with it in an appropriate fashion - by ripping his arm off!!