Oct 11 2012

Doug Bradley Talks about Pinhead, Masks, and Clive Barker

By Jason Harris

Doug Bradley

Doug Bradley, best known for the role of Pinhead in the Hellraiser movies, doesn’t think of himself as a horror icon. He jokingly said it sounds like there was a morning where there was a letter on his doorstep stating, “Dear Mr. Bradley, you are now a fully accredited horror icon with a membership card enclosed.”

He credits his appearances at conventions for helping him become known to his fans since he isn’t recognizable with the make-up on.

“I have always said that every actor’s biggest enemy is anonymity.”

Pinhead

He is known more as Pinhead then the character of Lylesburg in Nightbreed.

There’s always an interest in Nightbreed and that interest has been raised recently with the attempt to restore it back to the movie Clive Barker intended to have released in 1990, Bradley said.

Bradley and Barker became friends in high school in Liverpool back in the 60s when they were in a play together. He describes his friend as “the most extraordinary person I’ve met.” He says he “tries not to throw the word genius around lightly,” but he does apply it in Barker’s case.

Bradley said people expect Barker “to be weird and fucked up and sacrificing virgins [and] biting the heads off live chickens. For all I know, he may do all of that,” he jokingly said.

He considers Barker, “very funny, very witty” and a person with an “extraordinary imagination to be able to produce the movies that he has, the short stories, the novels, and his artwork.” He’s “a person with a tremendous sense of the absurd and the ridiculous.”

“For all these decades, it has been a privilege to be close to that process,” Bradley said.

Barker is one of the reasons he turned down portraying Pinhead in the ninth installment of the franchise, Hellraiser: Revelations, which came out last year.

“I didn’t feel like the movie was in anyway, shape, or form a serious attempt to move the franchise forward nor reinvigorate it in any way, shape, or form. I felt it was something of an insult to the franchise, to Clive, to me, to all the people who had worked so hard on the series over the years.”

Bradley hasn’t seen the movie, which had a microscopic budget and a brief shooting schedule, he said. He has heard about the movie from fans and nothing of what he is hearing about it is good, he said.

When he first became Pinhead, it took him five to six hours in the make-up chair, but it was shortened to about three to four hours by the time he made the eighth movie in the franchise. The longest time he was in the make-up for was 18 hours. It all depended on what was needed of him, he said. He could be needed for one scene or for several.

These days he is enjoying just acting and doesn’t have any aspirations to direct.

“I wouldn’t shy away from the possibility of directing, but it’s not something I have a desire to do necessarily.”

Besides acting, he has written a screenplay and a book. The impetus for his book, Behind the Mask of a Horror Actor, “goes back to his relationship with Clive” and how they were always working together for ten years in the theater before Hellraiser.

“We were always using masks one way or another as part of our work. I always had a fascination for it before I came to Pinhead so I guess I just had the ideas in my head …”

When asked about writing an autobiography, he isn’t thinking about writing one because it feels to him if you write one “your life and career are over,” which he feels he is nowhere near that point yet.

“If you are writing your autobiography, you want to make yourself sound as interesting as possible. You want to make your life story as interesting as possible. I don’t know if we’re necessarily capable of telling the truth about ourselves.”

Bradley recently read Lance Henriksen’s autobiography, Not Bad for a Human.

“He has an amazing story to tell particularly in terms of his early life and his journey into the profession. I truly enjoyed reading it.”

Bradley will be attending Rock and Shock this weekend at the DCU Convention Center & The Palladium in Worcester, MA.

Oct 6 2012

The Good and Bad of the 2012 NEIBA Fall Conference

By Jason Harris

The New England Independent Booksellers Association 39^thAnnual Conference took place from Oct. 3 through 5 at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence, Rhode Island.

I will start with the good first. I went to the first day of the conference on Wednesday. I was looking forward to the panel “Social Media 2.0: Beyond the Basics: Using Social Media to Drive Sales and Customer Engagement.” As the NEHW Director of Publicity and Webmaster and Marketing Director and co-owner of Books and Boos, a bookstore, I knew I could learn something from this panel. The panelists were Sarah Rettger, of Newtonville Books in Newton, MA., Mary Allen, of Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, VT., Kirsten Hess, of R.J. Julia in Madison, CT, and Ann Kingman of Random House.

The panelists mentioned there are ups and downs when using social media. One downside is that you have to use it five times a day, Hess mentioned.

One thing I was surprised to hear was the fact that the panelists don’t like Hootsuite, which could help with having to be on social media five times a day. The reason is it’s not genuine and people know it from seeing where the message is from. “Voice is important” when posting in social media, Hess said.

Hess also mentioned that people should be looking at other Facebook business pages, not just look at the book business.

Allen mentioned that people love photographs and live pictures of things with authors. She wasn’t talking about pictures of authors reading from their books either. She’s talking about a picture of them making a funny face or something behind the scenes before they become professional to do their reading.

Hess said customers want to see the people who sell them their books.

If you own a bookstore or any type of business, a good word to keep in mind is “partnerships” with other businesses in your community, Allen said.

Rettger said you should do what’s best for you and not to force it.

The other panel I checked out was “It’s All About Customer Service: Strengthening the Brick and Mortar Advantage.” This one wasn’t has interesting to me as the Social Media one, but it did contain some good ideas. The panelists were Susan Mercier, of Edgartown Books in Edgartown, MA., Ann Carmichael, of Kennebunk, ME, Michael Kanter, owner of Cambridge Naturals in Cambridge, MA., and Karen Corvello, of Baker & Taylor.

Kantor said that customer is all and everything. Stores should be kept cleaned and stocked, he said.

“My goal is for customers to leave the store and say ‘wow’ that was an amazing experience,” Kantor said.

He has noticed that in many bookstores employees are indifferent.

It was mentioned that every customer should be greeted as they come into the store.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Carmichael said. She also said that customer service begins on the sidewalk before the customer even comes inside. This means that the landscaping to the windows to the building itself has to be in the best shape possible.

Now we come to the bad of NEIBA. I had a couple of assignments on Thursday, which kept me away from the conference. I was able to attend on Friday and I wish I didn’t. The main reason I was going to go on Friday was to attend the panel, “Think Tank Round Tables – New ideas for New Business.” This is how the program guide described the panel: “Whenever booksellers get together the room seems to fill with new ideas. This 45-minute ‘think tank’ is an opportunity to gather – at tables organized by small, mid and larger-sized stores – and talk with each other about what exciting things you’ve done in your store in the past year and what things you’ve learned at the Fall Conference you’re going to do. We hope this will be a useful and focused way to wrap up the educational offerings of the Conference.”

When I got to the convention center, I found out that the trade show exhibit room was already shut down and packed up. It only went on one day this year and that day was Thursday. I didn’t realize this would happen from the program guide. I figured it would go on the entire conference. This was the first year they only had it for one day I was told. NEIBA was trying something new this year. Hopefully, they will go back to having it open all three days next year.

After being disappointed about the trade show, I went to the room where my panel was going to be held. I was about twenty minutes early so I waited outside the room. As it started getting closer to the 11 a.m. start time I wanted to the door. Once it got to 10:55 a.m., I was leaning against the doorway and started to worry. When I heard Steve Fischer, of NEIBA tell Neil Strandberg of the American Booksellers Association to continue talking and that he had plenty of time and it was around 11:10 a.m., I started getting upset. Later on, Fischer said that Strandberg could continue until 11:30 a.m. The last twenty minutes of the supposed panel I went to see was used to continue the discussion of the Kobo e-reading program, which was the subject of the previous panel. I had made a two hour and fifty minute round trip from Connecticut for nothing and I wasn’t happy about this. If NEIBA wasn’t going to have the panel they promoted in its program then they should have gotten the word out. Instead of still promoting it, by having the panel’s name and description listed on the wall outside the convention center’s conference room.

Oct 5 2012

Actor Talks about the role of Michael Myers in the Original ‘Halloween’

Actor Talks about the role of Michael Myers in the Original Halloween

By Jason Harris

Actor Tony Moran portrayed the 23-year-old Michael Myers in the original Halloween (1978).

He had a great time on the movie and compares John Carpenter to a computer because of the way he had every shot planned out.

“We never shot more than three shots for every scene,” Moran said. “He was pretty amazing.”

He considers Jamie Lee Curtis, his Halloween co-star, “really cool and really good.”

“[She] was a down to Earth chick.”

When asked if there were any scenes filmed that didn’t make it into the movie, Moran didn’t know of any.

Moran was asked to be in the sequel, but turned it down.

“I didn’t want to wear a mask,” Moran said about his reason for turning down the sequel.

The mask was uncomfortable and “really hot,” he said.

“You couldn’t breathe through it. The only holes through it were for the eyes.”

When asked how long he was in the mask on a typical day, he replied. “It seemed like forever.”

Moran received credit in the sequel since footage from the original was used in it, he said.

He doesn’t plan on seeing Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake.

“It’s a remake of me so I won’t watch it.”

Moran is proud to have portrayed the character of Michael Myers

Tony Moran

and wouldn’t want to be known for Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees, two other horror icons from Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13^th fame, respectively. He states “Halloween started it all …”

Moran has added producer to his resume when he took on that job when a guy messaged him on Myspace and sent him a script for Beg, a short film. It’s now a full-length movie starring his friend Tony Todd, P.J. Soles, and Michael Berryman, who he got to be in the movie. Debbie Rochon is also in Beg.

He would love to work with director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro.

“They are brilliant.”

Moran will be appearing at The Nightmare Factory, located at 2 Museum Place Mall in Salem, MA. from Friday through Sunday.

Sep 27 2012

Massachusetts Native Talks about Writing and Hollywood

by Jason Harris

J.P. Ouellette

J.P. Ouellette has worked on a number of films in Boston such as The Box and The Fighter. Working in the city allowed him to “learn filmmaking from some of the best crews around” while being at home.

“The mix of local and Hollywood talent brought my knowledge of film to the next level,” Ouellette said. Being an assistant to great storytellers like Richard Kelly was better than grad school.”

Kelly was the writer and director of such movies as The Box and Donnie Darko.

Ouellette started working in Hollywood after taking a risk in order to pursue his writing career. He states that “Los Angeles is the best place to be for an emerging writer.”

“The whole city is dedicated to the film business, and there are endless opportunities here to build your resume.”

His latest film, Captured, which he produced, wrapped in June and is scheduled for release in October of 2013, which is “a perfect time” to release it, Ouellette said. It’s about a rock band that goes off to shoot a music video where an escaped convict becomes obsessed with them.

“It is a classic slasher flick with a lot of psychological twists. It blends genres, and is made for the true horror fan who is tired of the same old thing.”

Ouellette became involved with Captured when writer and director Joe Arias hired him to write new drafts of the script.

“It took us (a lucky) 13 drafts to get the shooting script ready. It was the hardest writing sessions either one of us has been apart of, but it was worth it, this story will blow your mind!”

Captured took three weeks to film, but it was in the works for two years since Arias came up with the film’s concept, Ouellette said. He is in the process of working on the sound editing, special effects, and the score now.

“It’s been quite a labor of love. It’s all very exciting to see something you help create come together.”

Along with finishing up Captured, he is producing another horror movie, Do Not Watch.

“Due to the high-concept of this project, the synopsis is being kept under wraps.”

Not only has Ouellette worked on more than 20 movies in his career, you can take a look at his Internet Movie Database profile, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1965594/ to see everything that he has worked on, but he has also found the time to write a novel, 2501. His writing and this story’s style was inspired by Arthur C. Clarke and George Orwell. Its “hard science-fiction blended with political overtones is something everyone can get behind.” The e-book can be purchase on Amazon by clicking here.

It originally started out as a script idea, but “it was way too involved for the screen at that time.”

“I really had to dig into the characters and the science in order to find my story. Funny enough, the book now represents the outline for the proposed film version.”

He is still looking for the right Hollywood screenwriter to adapt 2501. He could adapt it himself, but he wants to step back and let someone else take care of it.

“The projected budget for this Blockbuster is over $50 million, and that is not in my price range … yet.”

He “would love Steven Spielberg to direct [2501] because of the Stanley Kubrick feel of the story.” If that happens he would love to be on-set, which he would consider “a dream project for sure.”

He does have an outline for another book, but his screenwriting schedule is keeping him from working on it.

“With 2501, I had to isolate myself while traveling in Mexico, writing the first draft freehand while sitting on the steps of the Mayan Ruins. It is the only way to get a novel done in this distracting day and age.”

Ouellette has a number of directors such as John Carpenter, J.J. Abrams, Duncan Jones, and Kelly, who has influenced him. He says that Kelly’s film, Donnie Darko, is the reason he went to film school, he said.

He has worked with many directors and actors, and wants to work with many more.

“They all have their own style to this art, and I love learning from them.”

He doesn’t have a dream project. All he wants to do is “to keep making great movies, and create opportunities to make more of them.”

Sep 7 2012

Pictures from the First Day of the Hebron Harvest Fair

The NEHW sign at the back of the booth at the Hebron Harvest Fair. Photo by Jason Harris.

Author Stacey Longo at the NEHW sign promoting the readings and skits. Photo by Jason Harris.

The Mystic Woodcarvers (www.mysticcarvers.com) booth right next to the NEHW booth. Photo by Jason Harris.

The NEHW Director of Publicity in his skit costume. Photo by Stacey Longo.

Author Stacey Longo and a spider hangout at the NEHW booth at the Hebron Harvest Fair. Photo by Jason Harris.

Author Stacey Longo giving a reading at the Hebron Harvest Fair. Photo by Jason Harris.

The Mystic Carvers busy carving at the Hebron Harvest Fair. Photo by Jason Harris.

The NEHW booth at the Hebron Harvest Fair. Photo by Jason Harris.

Author Stacey Longo getting her hand ~~eaten~~ licked by the Farmer’s Cow’s calf. Photo by Jason Harris.

Sep 1 2012

The man behind the ‘Guy Who Kills People’ talks about what inspired his screenplay

The Man Behind the ‘Guy Who Kills People’ Talks about What Inspired His Screenplay

by Jason Harris

Screenwriter Ryan A. Levin’s script for Some Guy Who Kill Peoplewas inspired by his short film, “The Fifth.” His short film only came about because he had written it for fun and wanted to avoid it becoming just another file on his computer, he said.

“I wanted to see it come to life. I had no aspirations to be a director, and still don’t, but I ended up writing, producing and directing the short film.”

Some Guy Who Kills People

As he traveled around the festival circuit and saw the positive reactions, he started thinking about an everyday guy who happens to be a serial killer and wondered if he could expand the main character’s world. Through brainstorming, he slowly developed his character’s background, family life, friends, and motives for killing. By developing his short into a movie, his character changed and it allowed him to let go of the character from the short film.

“Ultimately, while the short and the feature bear little to no resemblance to each other, there would be no Some Guy Who Kills People without “The Fifth.” Fortunately, our distributor, Anchor Bay, was cool enough to include “The Fifth” on the Some Guy Who Kills People DVD.”

The movie contains bullying, which came about because of “creative need.”

“Ken, the killer in Some Guy Who Kills People, needed a reason to kill his victims. In early drafts, he was just a serial killer who chose victims at random.”

The script shifted to Ken focusing on victims who treated others poorly, and then, ultimately, he began killing people who had done him wrong, Levin said.

“News about childhood bullying and suicides just started popping up on the news as we were in pre-production on this film, so while it was not intentional, I knew I hadn’t gone too far in scripting the often sad ramifications of bullying.”

Levin wrote the screenplay between 2007 and the end of 2009. It took about two and a half years to write the script, but it wasn’t a constant writing effort. There were many breaks “as other things came up” which caused him not to look at the script for six months or more.

“Ultimately, this worked to my benefit, as it allowed me to come to the script with fresh eyes each time.”

The movie stars Kevin Corrigan, Barry Bostwick, and Karen Black.

“It was, and continues to be, surreal,” Levin said about Corrigan, Bostwick, and Black being in the movie. “Kevin was someone we approached immediately for the lead role, and we just crossed our fingers he would find something in the script he liked enough to say ‘yes.’ He knew he would essentially be working for free, not to mention working in LA, away from his family in NYC. I imagine it’s a lot easier to take those few weeks off and live elsewhere when you’re making real money, but he wasn’t getting that from us. ”

Levin never pictured Bostwick and Black in their roles and was shocked that they auditioned for the movie considering “their credits and experience.”

“It was perfectly clear to Jack Perez (the director), Lisa Essary (casting director) and myself that we wanted them, and that if we did indeed land them, our movie was headed in the right direction.”

These actors took their characters and elevated them to levels beyond anything that was on the page, he said.

“They are three fearless actors who gave everything they had to this movie, and I can’t thank them enough.”

He was living in New York City when he decided to wanted to write for television and knew he had to get a production assistant job to be able to do that. These “jobs are actually quite hard to come by, as they are essentially the jobs that get you in the door on a production.”

“I sent resumes to every single show imaginable, super-eager to work for any of them. Through sheer good fortune, I ended up knowing someone who knew someone who got me an interview to be a PA on Scrubs, my favorite show at the time.”

When he got the production assistant job, he thought he had “made it” even though he considers “being a PA sucks.”

“I was on the show, I was writing in my free time, but I just wanted to move up the ladder as quickly as I could. I became the writers’ PA, then writers’ assistant then script coordinator. I knew the show runner would never promote me to a full-time writer because of a policy he had against doing so. But I also knew that if I could prove to him I was a capable writer, I could write an episode. Fortunately, that’s what happened. I wrote one episode in season 5, and was told I could return as script coordinator the following season to write another one.”

He didn’t return to work on the sixth season of Scrubs instead he went out looking for a full-time writing position.

“It took a couple of years of close-calls, of working on web series and pitching ideas, but, ultimately, I got a job on a Disney show called I’m In The Band, which ran for two years, and was far better, funnier and more creative than a lot of shows on network TV, which I’m allowed to say because I didn’t create the show.”

The writing staff for The Simpsons, seasons three through seven, and the playwright/screenwriter Martin McDonagh are writers that have inspired Levin. He loves McDonagh’s film, In Bruges.

“I’ve always been drawn to the darker content – always loved horror films and dark comedies, Fargo and Better Off Dead – and I was blown away by how [McDonagh] took these seemingly morbid stories and injected them with some of the funniest characters, situations and dialogue I’d ever heard. McDonagh’s ability to find the comedy in such dark material through characters with very specific points-of-views and his ability to seamlessly blend such different tones is what I can only dream of being able to accomplish.”

Levin is working on another Disney show and developing several features.

“The features are in various stages – from third drafts to basic outlines – and I keep moving back and forth between them. The great thing is I have several ideas about which I’m very excited; however, I really need to just focus on one of them, see it to completion, and then move on. If I don’t, none of them will ever get completed.”

The Some Guy Who Kills People DVD can be purchased through Amazon, click here.

Aug 27 2012

Pictures from the Middletown Open Air Market and Festival

by Jason Harris and Stacey Longo

The NEHW booth at the Middletown Open Air Market and Festival. Photo by Jason Harris

Author Alan Kessler at the NEHW booth. Photo by Jason Harris.

The Middletown Symphonic Band performing at the Middletown Open Air Market and Festival. Photo by Jason Harris.

Authors Rob Watts and Stacey Longo. Photo by Jason Harris.

The Middletown Open Air Market and Festival at the Wadsworth Mansion. Photo by Jason Harris.

Author G. Elmer Munson signing an autograph for a fan. Photo by Stacey Longo.

From left to right: authors Alan Kessler and Robert Duperre and Duperre’s daughter. Photo by Jason Harris.

The Buttonwood Tree booth at the Open Air Market and Festival. Photo by Jason Harris.

Author David Price autographing his book for a fan. Photo by Jason Harris.

Author G. Elmer Munson. Photo by Stacey Longo.

Author Alan Kessler signing his book for a young fan. Photo by Stacey Longo.

Connor and Lily Duperre, siblings, posing with their freshly painted faces. Photo by Jason Harris.

The other NEHW table at the Middletown Open Air Market. Photo by Jason Harris.

Another shot of the table. Photo by Jason Harris.

Author Rob Watts signing his book. Photo by Jason Harris.

The Balleks Garden Center booth at the Open Air Market. Photo by Jason Harris.

Author Rob Watts. Photo by Jason Harris.

The NEHW members’ books at the Open Air Market. Photo by Jason Harris.

Author Alan Kessler handing his novel to the mother of a young fan. Photo by Jason Harris.

Author Alan Kessler handing his novel to the mother of a young fan. Photo by Stacey Longo.

Aug 23 2012

Celebrities Coming to Rock and Shock

by Jason Harris

Rock and Shock is lining up the celebrities for this year’s convention and it seems a new one is added every day. In the last two days, Heather Langenkamp (Nightmare on Elm Street)and Danny Trejo (From Dusk till Dawn, Machete) were added to the line-up. They join Doug Bradley, who portrayed Pinhead in eight Hellraiser movies and Lylesberg in Nightbreed, Sig Haig and Bill Moseley, who both appeared in House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil Rejects, Brian o’Halloran who portrayed Dante Hicks in the two Clerks movies and Anthony Michael Hall (The Dark Knight), who has been in the John Hughes’ classics The Breakfast Club and Weird Science and in The Dead Zone television series. These are just a few of the celebrities appearing at Rock and Shock.

If you are not into the movie celebs, there are also a star of the written word appearing at the convention. Author Jack Ketchum will once again bring his talent to Worcester. The writer of such novels as Red, Offspring, The Woman and The Girl Next Door, which all have been made into movies.

Wrestling star turned actor Diamond Dallas Page (The Devil’s Rejects) will be at Rock and Shock too.

It seems like the organizers of Rock and Shock can’t get enough of the music group, Kiss. They invited Ace Frehley, former lead guitarist of KISS, to last year’s convention. This year Peter Criss, the former drummer of the band, will be on hand signing autographs.

For a list of the other guests appearing at Rock and Shock, click here.

Rock and Shock takes place at the DCU Center, located at 40 Foster St., in Worcester, MA.

Aug 22 2012

The NEHW Attends Middletown Open Air Market for the Second Time

by Jason Harris

The New England Horror Writers will be attending the 10th annual Middletown Open Air Market and Festival this Sunday, August 26.

This will be the second year the NEHW and its’ authors have been at this event. This years authors will be Robert J. Duperre (The Gate), Alan Kessler (A Satan Carol), Stacey Longo (Pookie and the Lost and Found Friend), G. Elmer Munson (Stripped), David Price (Tales from the Grave), Kristi Petersen Schoonover (Skeletons in the Swimmin’ Hole – Tales from Haunted Disney World), and Rob Watts (Huldufólk).

Click here to see the other vendors participating at the market.

Last year the event happened in October after Tropical Storm Irene hit the state and caused The Wadsworth Mansion at Long Hill Estate to postpone the event from its usually date in August.

The Open Air Market happens from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Wadsworth Mansion at Long Hill Estate, located at 421 Wadsworth St. in Middletown, CT.

Aug 19 2012

Barbeque Benefit a Success

by Jason Harris

The Paulette Smith Family Fire Fund Chicken Barbeque benefit was a big success with more than 60 people attending.

The benefit was held at Creaser Park in Coventry, Connecticut. Along with food, there was music and raffle prizes. Mike Greenfield of the Presh Catch Show on WHUS, announced the winners of the raffle baskets along with performing with the event’s band.

Paulette Smith and her son, J.P. Photo by Jason Harris.

The event was held to help out Paulette and her son, J.P., who lost their home at 102 Rabbit Trail in a fire on July 21. Several fire departments were called in to help battle the fire, which caused extensive damage and destroyed all their belongings including the family dog. The family wasn’t home at the time of the fire.

Three Lug Doug performing at the benefit. Photo by Jason Harris.

Donations to help in the rebuilding of thier home can be made out to “Paulette Smith Family Fire Fund” c/o First Niagra Bank, P.O. Box 415, Coventry, CT 06238 or to Northeast Family Federal Credit Union, “Smith Fire,” P.O. Box 180, Manchester, CT, 06045-0180.

People milling around at the three-hour event. Photo by Jason Harris.

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Doug Bradley Talks about Pinhead, Masks, and Clive Barker