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!!

Did you have a Childhood Horror Host?

Were you one of the lucky kids who grew up with a horror host on late night or afternoon television? Many a monster-kid has fond memories of their favorite horror host... and if you're one of them chances are you can find out info on your host with the most here:

http://myweb.wvnet.edu/e-gor/tvhorrorhosts/

at Egor's Chamber of TV Horror Hosts - this is a fantastic and exhaustive list of hosts from the first hosts (Vampira and Zacherley) to the present day hosts (such as your's truly).

Speaking of Zacherley, the cool Ghoul - he still is active and has a site here:

http://www.zacherley.com/

and he can be seen, along with a host of horror hosts, in the documentary American Scary. I'm proud to say I was one of the hosts interviewed for this documentary - Filmmakers Sandy Clark and John Hudgens did a fantastic job with this documentary. Here are two trailers for it:

Recommended Movie of the Week #21

For those of you new to this blog, or my recommended movie of the week series, it isn't really so much a review as it is exactly what the name implies - a recommendation. It is a movie I like and recommend you watch because I feel you'll like it too. And this week's recommended movie comes from 1979 - it's the Don Coscarelli film, Phantasm, a truly bizarre movie that is absolutely drenched in atmosphere. It is a bizarre film that plays more like a nightmare than a straight forward narrative. 

It is a fun ride and spawned three sequels - Phantasm II, Phantasm III Lord of the Dead, and Phantasm III: Oblivion.

The Devil's Rejects Panel

Back in 2005 I moderated a panel on the Rob Zombie film The Devil's Rejects. This was at the Full Moon Tattoo Festival in Nashville, TN. It was held March 18, 2005, before the movie came out, and features Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, and Ken Foree. Matt McGrory was at the show and supposed to be on the panel as well, but didn't make it to the panel.


Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:



Part 4:

Horrorblips featured Blog of the Week

Horrorblips has made our blog here their featured blog of the week! Horrorblips is a site that collects stories from the web's most popular horror news and blog sites. It's like one-stop shopping for horror fiends! Definitely a site you want to bookmark for daily consumption, as they have links to all kinds of sites...check them out and tell em' Doc Gangrene sent ya!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Here's a little Thanksgiving Turkey served up from good ole Doc Gangrene. I have an 8mm castle films version of this movie, and used to project it onto the side of my house when my kids were younger - now my 8mm projector is broken. I have to get a new one. I also have a poster of this movie, believe it or not. I have a real soft spot for this TERRIBLE film! haha!

Anyway, here is this Thanksgiving turkey, so bad it's good - THE GIANT CLAW:

Meet the Horror Bloggers: Dr. Gangrene's Tales From the Lab

Over at the excellent blog ZOMBO'S CLOSET OF HORRORS  there has been an ongoing series called "Meet the Horror Bloggers." Here is the official description of this series:

Many fans of horror, amateur and professional alike, have devoted themselves to blogging about the thrills, chills, and no-frills side of the genre as seen in cinema and print. In this ongoing series that highlights the writers behind the blogs, we meet the unique personalities and talents that make the online horror scene so engaging. Up close and personal.

This is really a very, very neat idea and a great read. It is fun to find out what is behind the minds of the folks who blog regularly on the horror business, and what got them into this genre. So this week I was asked to participate, and am very honored to do so. You can read the post here:  http://www.zomboscloset.com/  

When you're there do yourself a favor and take some time and look around, because there is a veritable feast of fun links and information on this blog. It's attractively designed and organized (love the vintage Halloween art) in a way that makes it very easy to find links to just about anything you could be looking for, from Horror Hosts and Haunted Attractions to comic books and online horror radio programs and everything in between. Definitely a great site, and one to bookmark for sure!

Max the Drunken Severed Head

My buddy Max over at Max the Drunken Severed Head blog added a couple of posts about Doc Gangrene over at his site the past couple of days. Max has a great blog with entries on all things monster-kid related. check it out at: http://drunkenseveredhead.blogspot.com/ and prepare to spend some time over there as there is a ton to see and more links than you can shake a headless corpse at!

Happy Birthday Boris!

November 23rd is the birthday of Boris Karloff, king of the monsters. Happy Birthday Boris - think I'll rewatch "Targets" in your honor.

November 23 is also my mother's birthday, which makes it easy to remember good ole Boris' BD every year. I always wished I shared a birthday with someone cool like Boris, but alas, it wasn't to be.


Anyway, in honor of Boris' birthday, here is a old radio show featuring Boris - "Death Robbery" from "Lights Out" which aired July 16, 1947 - enjoy!

Recommended Movie of the Week #12

The recommended movie of the week #12 was the George Romero classic, Night of the Living Dead, perhaps the greatest horror movie ever made.

Werewolf of Nashville PSA nominated for Emmy

Our Werewolf of Nashville PSA got nominated for an Emmy - specifically director Cameron McCasland in the writing category. Congrats Cam!! That's the PSA on cleaning up after your pets in public, and in it I get to throw the line "Remember, it's not what you don't do - it's what you DO do." doodoo. classic.

Fox 17 News story on Dr. Gangrene

This story ran on the Fox affiliate out of Nashville, TN (WZTV) a few years back when the show was still on cable access. It was part of a series spotlighting various community access shows and their producers.

Recommended Movie of the Week #12

This week Doc Gangrene recommends a tried and true classic - the 1931 Universal film, Frankenstein.

More Spookhand pics!

A few more shots of me in my Manster costume have surfaced. These were taken at the Spookhand show (Punk Rock Party) at The Muse - a HUGE thanks goes out to Angelica Dahl for these. I didn't think anyone took pics that night but lo and behold, there they are.



And there she is, the heroine of the day, Angelica with boyfriend McNasty from the Creeping Cruds!

Doc Gangrene at the Nashville Opera

I went to the Nashville Opera today for the House of Usher Philip Glass show. Pictured here is lead actress Jennifer Zetlan, who played Roderick's twin sister, Madeline Usher. She is buried alive and comes back from the dead as you see her here, very much worse for wear.

It was a beautiful 70 degree day, and as I parked and walked to the Tennessee Performing Arts Center I heard fireworks going off in the distance as the Tennessee Titans, whose stadium is just a couple of miles from there, scored on the Buffalo Bills (Go Titans)!

The Nashville Opera asked me to come be a judge for their zombie costume contest... I had wondered how zombies tied into the play, and with the return of Madeline pictured above it made perfect sense. Before the show director John Hoomes did a pre-show talk, giving some behind the scenes information on the play, Philip Glass, and the Nashville production of this play.

Doc Gangrene and Director John Hoomes

Afterwards the show began, and it was a multimedia show with giant screens that had imagery and animation projected onto them. The actors interacted with them, and most of the backgrounds and sets were actually projected. It was visually stunning, and quite the unique show. The music was all Philip Glass, and amazing.

During the intermission the zombies gathered. I was a judge, along with one of the actors (Paul Dawson) who played the family physician in this performance.

(actor Paul Dawson)

So we gathered them all and voted on them in three categories - they tallied the votes...

Contestants with Doc Gangrene and Paul Dawson

and the winner was this lovely paper-mache headed fellow who had a brain and eyeball hanging out of the socket!

Director John Hoomes presents zombie dvd prize pack to winning zombie

After intermission they finished the performance, and had a post-show talk with the director, actors, maestro, and special effects technician.

It was a fun time and I appreciate being invited to take part. Hopefully they'll do more gothic shows in the future. To find out more about the Nashville Opera go to:

http://www.nashvilleopera.org/Usher.html

Doc backstage with Reed Hummell, Director of Marketing


Director John Hoomes with actress Jennifer Zetlan

Top Ten Vincent Price Films Countdown continues - #4

The TOP TEN VINCENT PRICE FILM COUNTDOWN continues with the number 4 entry - so SCREAM, SCREAM for your life with The Tingler!!

Dr. Gangrene episode of The Graveyard Show available

The Dr. gangrene episode and interview of The Graveyard Show podcast is now available for download at http://caretaker.graveyardshow.com/ - check it out, it's a really good podcast and their older episodes are available for download there, too!

Recommended Movie of the Week #11

The Recommended Movie of the Week #11 was THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE, a movie I first caught on AMC years ago then couldn't find again for several more years. I was happy when they released it on a Midnight Movie dvd...

Horror Host Podcast

Over at Halloween Haunt they recently posted a really nice podcast about horror hosts - it is an overview of hosts through the years, giving a brief history and mention of various hosts across the country (including yours truly). You can download it here:

http://halloweenhaunt.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/horrifying-and-hilarious-horror-hosts/

Just click the "before there were 2,500 channels and nothing on" link to download it!

The Nashville Opera is putting on a pretty interesting show this coming weekend - it's The Fall of the House of Usher. This show promises to be a pretty cool one as it features music from Philip Glass and interactive video throughout!

The show takes place November 13th, 14th and 15th at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center Polk Theater.

Show times:
Friday, November 13, 2009 (8 p.m.)
Saturday, November 14, 2009 (8 p.m.)
Sunday November 15, 2009 (2 p.m. matinee)

There is a pre-show talk as well, one hour before each performance. Join Nashville Opera Artistic Director John Hoomes and members of the artistic staff for a fun informative preview talk, one hour before each performance in the theater.

In addition, Sunday, November 15th’s show also features a special Zombie Matinee. Any members of the undead that attend the performance will be entered in a zombie costume contest to win a special Zombie DVD prize pack hand selected by Director John Hoomes. In addition they will be seated in a special “zombie” section, (in the Orchestra seating), which is actually some really terrific seats.

So make plans now to get out to the opera and support this Edgar Allen Poe classic retold through the music of Philip Glass. It’s not all that often the Opera dips into the realm of the supernatural, so let’s shamble out and support this endeavor.

http://www.nashvilleopera.org/Usher.html

Monster Kid Home Movies

I realized I have several youtube videos that I never posted on the blog here - so I'll remedy that over the next week or so. Below is my Recommended Movie of the Week #10 - it is for the Monster Kid Home Movie dvd. This is an awesome collection of home movies made by kids in the 50-70s, shot mostly on 8mm film - and it is one of my favorite dvds. It's a loving tribute to the monster movies we all grew up with, and is one of my favorite dvds.

200th blog!

So here it is one week removed from Halloween and the 200th post on this blog.

That is a milestone for me - I haven't been that regular of a blogger, instead just writing as the fancy strikes, and this is the second time I've started this blog. Its had a few changes throughout the past 3 years, and has been a cool place to announce news and share my thoughts. My thanks to those of you who visit here regularly. I do hope to continue writing here more frequently over the next year or so.

So anyway, this is post #200 - in honor of the event, I want to pay tribute to someone else celebrating the number 200 this year - Edgar Allen Poe. This was the 200th anniversary of Poe this year. To find out about all things Poe related, visit the Edgar Allen Poe 200 Project at:
http://edgarallanpoe200.com
and here's to the next 200 posts on this site!!

Dr. Gangrene interview

I was interviewed for the Graveyard Show podcast this week - I visited the boneyard and chatted with the Undertaker about my horror career - I tell ya, he's a ghoul after my own heart. The show will be online soon, so I'll let you know when it's available.

The Graveyard Show is a really cool podcast that features interviews and discussions with people in the horror community - What I like about it is the conversational style of the interviews. Very relaxed and informal yet interesting and informational - check it out at:
http://graveyardshow.com/
and tell em' Doc Gangrene sent ya!

Top Ten Vincent Price Movie Countdown continues - #5

We now continue the Countdown of Top Ten Vincent Price films with the number 5 entry - The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Dr. Phibes Rises Again!