2015 Roundup & Reflection

As we rapidly approach last call for this year, I thought it the perfect time to look back and reflect on the year 2015. It was an interesting year, all things considered, and a very successful one for me, professionally-speaking...

During the last year I:

• Was inducted into the HORROR HOST HALL OF FAME
•  Won a RONDO AWARD for BEST BLOG (for this blog!)
• Produced 29 episodes of THE FANTASTIC FILMS OF VINCENT PRICE
•  Had 3 short stories published: Emby Press, Horrified Press, and Empire Comics Lab. Two others were accepted into anthologies but still await publication.
• Wrote 4 Scary Monsters Magazine columns as well as a piece for the Body Count Zine.
• Wrote 10 short film and two feature film scripts
• Was a guest on 14 podcast shows
• Produced 4 video segments for the STAY COOL GEEK podcast
• Did a radio interview with NASHVILLE FILM RADIO
• Hosted THE COMEDY OF TERRORS live at Wonderfest with special guests Sara Karloff and Victoria Price
•  Hosted A NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST., THE GOONIES, & TAILYPO at the Franklin Drive-In
• Hosted the 12th annual DR. GANGRENE'S HORROR HOOTENANNY
• Wrote/Produced a short film based on an H.P. Lovecraft short story
• Wrote 100 blog posts
• Introduced TOURIST TRAP at the Belcourt Theater's all-night horror movie marathon
• Made a number of live appearances around town for various events and fundraisers.

Thank you to everyone who voted for me in the Rondo Awards, and to the HORROR HOST HALL OF FAME for the induction. Those are both HUGE honors, and I'm truly grateful.


This was the first year I actually kept tally of my activities - I started keeping track somewhere around mid-year, and probably missed one or two things along the way. Seeing that list makes me realize that I kept busy, and that makes me proud. I like to stay busy. My goal is to top that list next year - but I'm not really sure if that's possible!


2015 was also a tough year, however, as a number of notable celebrities passed away, including:

Christopher Lee, Roddy Piper, Leonard Nimoy, Wes Craven, Robert Z'Dar, Gunnar Hansen, Terry Pratchett, James Best, Filthy Phil Taylor, and Lemmy...

Damn. That's a helluva list. Looking at all those names together, that would have made an awesome convention if they had all appeared together, wouldn't it? Lemmy's passing in particular really hit me hard. He is such an iconic figure, a true one of a kind rebel, a legendary figure the likes of which we'll never see again.

In 2011 I wrote the following review of the documentary LEMMY - I still find that documentary just as inspirational, and will miss that giant for some time to come. Hail Motorhead.

Dr. Gangrene Live Show 4-26-02

I recently started revisiting some of the old live shows I did at the cable access station in Nashville TN. The one I'm featuring in this post is from April 26th, 2002. The cable access station had just opened shortly before this, and we were the first chow to broadcast LIVE from the new station. This was actually our second show, and featured a band called THE REVERBIANS and their awesome dancing robot, toy collector Michael Lester, writer Stephen J. Hill, and more!

Addams Family Polar Bear on Night Gallery

Now that I finally have a DVR and access to METV I have been a happy Mad Doctor, grabbing a number of old TV series, including Rod Serling's Night Gallery. I was watching an episode the other night entitled "Hatred Unto Death" (with a second very short segment called "How to Cure the Common Vampire") when I spotted a familiar face. Not one of the actors, mind you, I'm talking a famous prop in the background.

The episode (from Season 3, aired May 27, 1973) involves a big game hunter (Steve Forrest) who brings a gorilla back from the jungle to civilization after realizing there is a link between them, a hatred carried on from a past life. At one point the gorilla gets loose in a warehouse, and that's where I spotted the fine fellow featured above - the bear from THE ADDAMS FAMILY TV show. No doubt the prop was sitting around the backlot where Serling and Company filmed and they thought why not throw it in the shot.

Here's a shot of Gomez with his bear - definitely the same one. Night Gallery is perhaps my favorite TV anthology series - although it's hard to pick just one. Karloff's Thriller, Twilight Zone, Tales from the Darkside, Monsters... all great stuff. Perhaps someone will revive the TV horror anthology format. Could be interesting to see some fresh terror tales for today's audiences...!

Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance

Attention Nashvillians, this weekend at the mighty Belcourt Theater, the midnight movie both Friday and Saturday night is:

SAMURAI COP 2: DEADLY VENGEANCE

A followup to the amazingly inept and equally awesome 1991 film Samurai Cop, starring Mathew Karedas and Mark Frazer as a pair of buddy cops who go toe to toe with Robert Z'Dar and the Yakuza in 1990s Hollywood, the long-awaited sequel this time pairs the two men against none other than Tommy Wiseau (The Room) and promises to be just as mind-bendingly insane as its predecessor.

 

A must-see for bad-cinema fans - come raise a katana in tribute to Robert Z'Dar, who passed away earlier this year.

Belcourt Theater, Friday - Saturday December 4-5, 2015.

The Sign of Satan

This weekend I recorded an episode of THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR called The Sign of Satan. Originally broadcast on May 8, 1964, I was excited to find it starred none other than Christopher Lee, and was based on a story by Robert Bloch. Promising!

As the story unfolded I suddenly realized I had read this story - it was from the July, 1938 issue of WEIRD TALES - which was an especially excellent issue featuring works from Bloch, H.P. Lovecraft, Henry Kuttner, Robert Howard, Seabury Quinn, E. Hoffman Price and more. A veritable who's who of Weird Fiction!


The story concerns studio executives who stumble across a foreign horror film that is so realistic it leaves them speechless. They decide they have to have the star, Karl Jorla, in their picture. And they get more than they bargained for, as the scenes depicted in the film were that of an actual black mass, and were never meant for public consumption. Jorla is in fear of retribution from the Satanic cult members.

The screenplay for the  Hitchcock show was written by Barré Lyndon, who wrote the screenplays for a number of films and TV shows, including WAR OF THE WORLDS 1953, The Lodger 1944, and Dark intruder 1965. Interestingly, he also wrote the screenplay for an episode of Boris Karloff's THRILLER I recorded this weekend too called YOURS TRULY JACK THE RIPPER.

Definitely worth tracking down if you get the chance, this is one genre fans - and Lee fans - will want to see. The TV adaptation falls short of the story it's based on, however - but, truth be told, Bloch's evocative writing would be hard to match. You can check out the story for yourself for free on archive.org
HERE

Happy Birthday Boris

 Happy Birthday to the one and only William Henry Pratt, better known to the world as Boris Karloff, born on this day in 1887. Interestingly, he shares the day with his only daughter, Sara Karloff, who was born in 1938. Boris had a long career in movies and television, and embraced his role as horror icon. Here's to the King of Horror, Boris Karloff.

R.I.P. Gunnar Hansen

I was truly bummed to learn of the passing of Gunnar Hansen when I woke this morning. Gunnar was, of course, best known to horror film fans as the chainsaw-wielding lunatic Leatherface in the original TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, in 1974. I had the pleasure of first meeting Gunnar in 2005. He was in town to appear in director Ben Dixon's film Wolfsbayne (later retitled to Aconite) and doing a signing at a local comic book store, Outer Limits Comics. He was an incredibly nice guy, and funny, as the interview he did for my show, CHILLER CINEMA, shows. We shot a second quick promo for my show that still cracks me up to this day.

A true blow to the horror community, Gunnar will indeed be missed. Farewell my friend.