Count Gore in the Lab!

My good buddy Count Gore DeVol, TV Horror Host in the ultimate city of bloodsuckers, Washington DC, flew on bat wing to Shackle Island once for a visit. While here the Count and I hosted the film Dr. Blood's Coffin - here is a picture of the Count and me in the lab!

This Blog It Is A Changin'...

I have decided that this blog needs to get back to what it was originally intended for... updates about the Creature Feature TV show, Doctor Gangrene himself and all his current happenings and appearances, as well as insights into the roots of the show and it's evil incarnations.

If you have been tuning in to read the current stream of weirdness and fun posts of what I've been up to outside of the show, then I have started a seperate blog where those and other assorted shennaginans will continue...

the11thtier.blogspot.com

Feel free to join me over there - and I now turn this blog back over to it's rightful owner... Dr. Gangrene himself.

He wouldn't even hurt a fly...

I finally sat down and read Psycho.

I've wanted to read this 1959 Robert Bloch novel for quite a while, but never made time for it. I should have. Psycho was just as entertaining as I had hoped, and I see why Hitchcock chose to adapt it to the big screen.

The Universal film is actually very, very close to the source material. There are a few differences, of course, but the majority of what you see on the screen is straight from the book.

One of the major differences is the character of Norman Bates himself. In the book he's a middle-aged, overweight bookworm - a recluse who still lives at home with his mother while running a shabby motel located at the bottom of the hill below their house.

In the movie the part is played by Anthony Perkins, who is much younger (and leaner) than the character described in the book. Bloch was asked what he thought about this change in the screen version of the character. Here's what he had to say in an interview with Randy and Jean-Marc Lofficier when asked what he thought of the movie adaptation (you can read the entire interview at: http://mgpfeff.home.sprynet.com/lofficier_interview1.html)

"I was absolutely delighted. You know, it's generally the case that they take a title and the book and change it radically. But, in this case, it was about ninety percent from my book. He made only two drastic changes. He downgraded the age of Norman Bates, which was necessary visually. If they had presented a middle-aged man on the screen at that time, you'd automatically suspect that he must be the villain. So, that was a brilliant stroke on his part. The other thing he did was take a large segment of scenes that were in the book, but didn't describe fully. But the rest of it, the characters, the setting, various devices, all came from the book, right down to the last line."

There are several theories of where the character of Norman Bates might have originated, and one of these lies with real life serial killer Ed Gein. The Gein murders happened just a few miles from the small Wisconsin town where Bloch lived, and it certainly played a part in influencing the development of the character. But it was more of an inspiration, a kicking off-point, than a blueprint. Bloch also addressed this in interviews and mentioned the ideas of the murders themselves being influential to Psycho, but not so much the man Ed Gein himself.

Another very interesting theory is that Bates was based on real life magazine publisher Calvin Beck, best known for his ground breaking magazine CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Science Fiction writer Tom Weaver explored this connection in an article that is reprinted on the terrific B-Monster website .
Like Bates, Beck also lived with his mother and was dominated by her overbearing personality. Bloch knew Beck, and the idea that he based Norman Bates on Calvin Beck is more than plausible. Give that article a good read - it is fascinating and is just another example of the fine research that Tom Weaver has done over the years.

I wondered how well the book would hold up, given the fame of the movie adaptation. Psycho met all my expectations, and is a really good read. Of course, I expected no less from one of Bloch's lineage – he comes from the Weird Tales line of writers. Anyone who had work published alongside the likes of Robert Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Henry Kuttner, Ray Bradbury and Clark Ashton Smith is in the company of the finest horror writers of all time, and indeed is rightly considered one himself.

Dark Shadows, The Night Stalker and Other Productions

I ran into my good buddy Jeff Thompson the other day at the PLANET OF THE APES screening at the Belcourt Theater. As I entered the theater I recognized a familiar face, so I went over and sat with Jeff. Before the film started we had a chance to chat and catch up a bit, and Jeff told me about an exciting new book he has coming out through McFarland Publications. It's called Dark Shadows, The Night Stalker and Other Productions, 1966–2006. Here is the McFarland website description:

The award-winning and innovative director Dan Curtis was known for helming epic war movies, but before that he darkened the small screen with the horror genre’s most famous soap opera. Curtis directed the groundbreaking daytime television serial Dark Shadows from 1966 to 1971 and then turned his lens to numerous made-for-TV horror movies. This book examines 16 horror films that Curtis produced, co-wrote, or directed, as well as the cultural impact of Dark Shadows and its various incarnations. The book features 69 photographs and a foreword by Jim Pierson of Dan Curtis Productions.

According to Jeff the 69 photographs are rare and some never before published photos of Dan Curtis. Jeff is a lifelong Dark Shadows aficionado. I've been to his house and it is a veritable museum of Dark Shadows and other fantastic memorabilia. (Tennessee Crossroads did a segment for a Halloween episode there, focusing on Jeff's enormous collection of memorabilia).

Jeff is an English professor at Tennessee State University and incorporates his love of horror films into his courses, even screen various movies for his students. He has written articles on Dan Curtis and Dark Shadows and attends conventions as a guest on Dark Shadows and horror cinema.

His new book will be available starting Friday, March 13th on the McFarland website,

and you can also order it through Amazon.com.

2008 Wonderfest Live Show featuring the Robot Monster

For the 2008 Wonderfest Live Show Doc Gangrene and crew hosted the b-movie classic "Robot Monster." The Exotic Ones played before, during, and after the show. As always, the doc had the assistance of Nurse Moan-eek, and the one and only Bob Burns was on hand as the special guest of the evening. Bob gave his memories of Robot Monster to the crowd and talked about owning the helmet from the original film, and also showed a clip from a special 3-D version of Robot Monster in which he starred (the crowd were all given 3-D glasses upon entering the theater). As the main movie started rolling it was interrupted by a real "Ro-man" - and Doc Gangrene was startled to hear that the visitor from another planet was actually very interested in his assistant, Moan-eek. Well, Doc decided he couldn't let this alien ruin his fun, so he enlisted two fellow scientists (John Goodwin and Frank Dietz) to help. One of them had in tow what appeared to be a simian creature (which looked suspiciously like Dave Hodge in Planet of the Apes makeup from John Goodwin's makeup session earlier that day) - the doctors all conferred and decided they could learn some clues to defeat the Roman from this specimen. Together they built a similar control helmet to the one Roman wore, a Calcinator Death Ray Helmet. As the movie wrapped the show was invaded by Ro-man himself (Bob Burns wearing the original helmet, no less) - and he confronted the Doc. He was talked out of destroying the world, but he did destroy Doc Gangrene's helmet, much to the Doc's chagrin! The gang all tossed out goodies to the crowd while the Exotic Ones played a Robot Monster song, and afterwards the crowd was able to get photos with Ro-man. A grand time, and thanks again to Wonderfest for allowing us to host the event! - photos by the Wonderfest photo staff

Cinema Suicide

One of the new categories in this year's Rondo Awards is Best Horor Blog - and this looks to be a very tight race. Formerly blogs were lumped in with other websites - which, technically they are, a website that is... but blogs have become such a prevelant force on the internet, that it was inevitable they get their own category, I suppose.

Well, there are some really good blogs on this listthat I was aware of such as Tim Lucas' Video watchblog (former best website winner) and Kirk Demarais' Secret fun spot blog, but also some really cool ones I wasn't aware of... and one such blog just put up a neat little post today about... us!

Bryan White over at Cinema Suicide put up a really neat little entry telling folks all about our "Go Green with Dr. Gangrene" campaign. Bryan does a great job with his blog, writing about all things horror from events to movies and more. Just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to Bryan for spreading Gangrene to his readers, and beast of luck to Cinema Suicide in the 2008 Rondo Awards!!

Wonderfest Robot Monster Live Show

The 2008 Wonderfest Live show is nominated for a Rondo Award for Best Fan Event! It is my pleasure to post it below (special thanks to J Sorrels for videotaping and posting this on youtube) - at the show we hosted Robot Monster with help from special guests Bob Burns, Frank Dietz, John Goodwin, and musical guests THE EXOTIC ONES:

Part One





Part Two





Part Three





Part Four





Part Five





Part Six





Part Seven





Part Eight