Devouring Horror One Bloody Chunk At A Time….
Hello everybody! I’m your teacher Billy, and this is my workshop on “How to Make Bad Horror Films”. Don’t be nervous. It’s much easier than one might think. In fact, the more brittle you are, the more you’re prone to making gargantuan mistakes, doubt yourself, […]
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Ravenous Monster is proud to present you with the first gruesome diagnosis from the good Dr. Abner Mality of WormwoodChronicles.com…. Readers of a certain age (often referred to as “over the hill”) will definitely recall the famous ad campaign for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in […]
Featured ArticleRavenous Monster is proud to present you with the first gruesome diagnosis from the good Dr. Abner Mality of WormwoodChronicles.com….
Readers of a certain age (often referred to as “over the hill”) will definitely recall the famous ad campaign for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in the 1970’s. It dwelled upon how an unlikely combination of ingredients, peanut butter and chocolate, could produce a tasty treat. “Hey, you got your peanut butter in my chocolate!”
“Yeah? You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!” The truth of the ad’s point holds up today – not just for candy, but for music, art…and horror movies!
I’ve always had a hankering for odd combinations of genres in film. Sci-fi meets Western. Juvenile delinquent film meets murder mystery. And in the case of one unusual 70’s film, kung fu colliding head on with vampires! That weird peanut butter cup of a movie was 1974’s “The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires” and that’s the flick that the Good Doctor is putting under the microscope for you followers of Ravenous Monster!
By the early 70’s, the powerhouse horror factory known as Britain’s Hammer Films was running out of steam. With the explosion of no-holds-barred gore and exploitation heralded by “Night of the Living Dead” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, the taste for Hammer’s gothic period pieces was starting to wane. Aware of this, the studio rapidly began to inject more blood and nudity into their films. This resulted in some fascinating and titillating (literally!) products like “Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde”, “The Vampire Lovers” and “Twins of Evil”. Hammer also tried to go a more contemporary route by “updating” their Dracula films to the 20th century, a move many now consider a mistake as the likes of “Dracula AD 1972” and “The Satanic Rites of Dracula” seem more dated than the timeless 19th century period pieces Hammer cut its fangs on.
These tactics proved only marginally successful, so Hammer began thinking outside the box. If period horror was starting to decline in the early 70’s, other forms of exploitation were starting to take off. One such genre was the “blaxploitation” movie. The other breakout genre hailed from the Far East and involved martial arts. Driven by the sudden popularity of a guy named Bruce and movies such as “Enter The Dragon” and “Five Fingers of Death”, kung fu films, always popular in the East, began to explode in the West. The early 70’s were kung fu and karate crazy and one could find all sorts of authentic “chop socky” flicks playing continuously on New York’s 42nd Street and other havens of cult film.
The studio synonymous with real Chinese kung fu was Shaw Brothers. This Asian powerhouse ruled the Hong Kong film industry with an iron fist and produced such classic martial arts films as “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin”, “Executioners of Death” and “Five Deadly Venoms”. With their outrageous and often bloody stunts, wild zooming camera shots and melodramatic dialogue, these movies offered nothing but action and entertainment, in an exotic vein unfamiliar to most Western film fans.
Hammer decided to take a chance and reach out to Shaw Brothers. Shaw was looking for new ways to reach the Western market and considered the alliance worth a shot. They would get access to some Western stars and technical people while perhaps Hammer could get a shot in the arm. Peanut butter and chocolate, chocolate and peanut butter….
The collaboration was destined to be short-lived, as financial problems would put Hammer on the ropes in just a couple of years. Only two moves resulted from this odd alliance: the action thriller “Shatter” and the subject of our little treatise, “The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires”.
“Legend…” was a troubled production from the get-go. The film was actually directed by both Roy Ward Baker, one of Hammer’s most respected professionals, and Chang Cheh, a legend of Hong Kong action films. On all remaining prints of the movie, only Baker’s name remains, though it is certain that Cheh directed most of the movie’s plentiful action scenes. Filmed entirely in Hong Kong, Baker was said to be uncomfortable with the Shaw Brothers’ method of doing things. Some of this awkwardness is noticeable in the final product, yet at the same time, the odd juxtaposition of styles has made “Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires” a true cult film.
As far as star power went, the movie boasted the incomparable Peter Cushing as Dr. Van Helsing. Cushing is one of the most professional actors who ever lived and his version of Van Helsing is in this Doctor’s opinion by far the best. Cushing was recovering from the devastating death of his beloved wife at the time but as always, he delivers a great performance as Van Helsing. On the Asian side of things, the main star was David Chiang. Almost forgotten in the West now, Chiang in the 70’s was second only to Bruce Lee as Asia’s biggest kung fu star. His acting in “Legend…” is hardly Oscar worthy, yet Chiang brings an honest earnestness to the role that overcomes his difficulty with English. For sex appeal, the film had the services of the ravishing former Miss Norway and Penthouse Pet, Julie Ege.
The major disappointment for many was the fact that Christopher Lee would not be playing his iconic part of Dracula in the film. Lee had a love-hate relationship with Dracula throughout the years and was in the middle of a “hate” phase when filming for “Legend…” commenced. Despite pleading from Hammer, Lee passed on the part, which went to the less well-known John Forbes Robertson. Robertson made for a passably sinister Dracula, but one can only imagine how the presence of Lee would have boosted the film.
After filming wrapped, trouble persisted. American distributors pretty much raped and emasculated the film, trimming almost 20 minutes of critical footage. It was released in its initial run as “The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula”, where the kung fu was emphasized far more than the Hammer horror aspects. These cuts made an already strange exploitation film virtually incomprehensible and took out a lot of atmosphere. More confusion resulted as the film acquired another name, “Dracula and the 7 Golden Vampires”, in its travels.
The movie was the source of much comment and did reasonable business on the exploitation circuit, particularly “The Deuce” of 42nd Street in New York, but it was not the break-out hit Hammer envisioned. The next Hammer/Shaw Brothers collaboration, “Shatter”, was an all-out failure and marked the final end of Peter Cushing’s long association with the studio. But, as often happens in cult film circles, the movie began to acquire a reputation in underground circles and it is now regarded as one of Hammer’s most unique and action-packed films.
Let’s now take a closer look at the story of “The 7 Golden Vampires” Be warned, spoilers follow!
Our film begins in Transylvania…not an uncommon location for a vampire flick. But a most uncommon figure is making his way through the Transylvanian countryside. A sinister looking Chinese monk is staggering through the forests, frightening a shepherd, and making his way towards a destination most sane people would avoid: Castle Dracula. The monk’s name is Kha and the story of his long voyage from remote China to Transylvania would make an interesting tale in itself
Finally, Kha enters the crypt of the vampire lord, who awakens and demands, “Who dares disturb the sanctity of Dracula?” John Forbes Robertson is not Christopher Lee but he has a commanding sneer of authority. It seems Kha is the evil priest of a vampire cult, serving the legendary Seven Golden Vampires of Ping Kuei. However, the oppressed peasants of Ping Kuei have risen against the vampire tyranny and one of the seven has been destroyed. Kha has been dispatched to Europe so that Dracula, most powerful of all vampires, will assume the position of the Vampires’ leader.
Dracula seems to dismiss the suggestion at first, but then decides he will accept Kha’s proposition. It’s time for a change of scenery and a vacation in China might get the Count away from pesky Dr. Van Helsing. If only he knew! But Dracula will not go as himself. He absorbs Kha’s lifeforce and assumes the image of the evil priest.
The movie shifts to a lecture hall at a Hong Kong university, where the esteemed Dr. Van Helsing is addressing a scholarly crowd on both Eastern and Western vampire legends. Van Helsing relates the story of a cursed village known as Ping Kuei, which has been under the thrall of Seven Golden Vampires, formerly bandit warlords, for centuries. The location of Ping Kuei is unknown but Van Helsing is convinced the village exists.
His audience is not impressed. In fact, Van Helsing’s theories are ridiculed and the Doctor is accused of thinking his Chinese hosts are superstitious fools. The scene makes one wonder why Van Helsing was even invited to China. But one man in the crowd takes heed of what he says and thereby hangs our tale.
The young man is Hsi Ching and he pays a late night visit to Van Helsing. Hsi Ching has no choice but to believe the doctor’s story about Ping Kuei because he himself comes from the cursed village. He confirms that the Golden Vampires have indeed had a reign of terror there, but recently things seem to have become worse. Ching’s grandfather had actually managed to kill one of the fiends but at the cost of his own life. Now some new deviltry has risen in Ping Kuei, making the vampires and their undead servants bolder.
This is the first part of the movie in which the Shaw Brothers influence is really shown. We get a flashback of Ching’s grandfather battling the vampires and this scene is 100% Hong Kong exploitation. The Chinese vampires are quite different from their European counterparts – crusty faced ghouls wearing elaborate robes and golden masks in the shape of bats. These monsters look really decrepit and unwholesome and they are definitely up to no good. In one of the film’s most memorable scenes, a circle of topless Chinese girls are bound and screaming on some sort of circular contraption, their blood running down troughs into a boiling cauldron. This is right out of the most nightmarish Chinese folk-tales!
Ching’s grandfather fails to save his daughter from the vampires but before he is hunted down and destroyed, he manages to kill one of the golden ghouls. This is the act that gives the villagers some hope, but now the vampires are on the offensive again and Ching fears his whole village will be destroyed.
Van Helsing agrees to help. He is not alone in China…his dashing young son Leyland has accompanied him (mostly to provide eye candy for possible female viewers, me thinks). The journey to remote Ping Kuei will be costly and arduous. Van Helsing visits the British Consul to see if help might be available. The British Consul points out the presence of Mrs. Vanessa Buren, a recently widowed wife of a fabulously wealthy husband. Played by gorgeous Julie Ege, I can DEFINITELY confirm she was added to provide eye candy for male viewers, no ifs, ands or buts about it. Julie was a middling actress but an incredibly beautiful woman.
As one might guess, Leyland and Vanessa have caught each other’s eye. Unfortunately for them, she has also caught the eye of local tong warlord Leung Han, who makes a thinly veiled play for the heiress. Leyland sticks up for Vanessa, but the Consul warns them that they have made a deadly enemy in Leung Han. Just how deadly is revealed when Leyland escorts Vanessa to her hotel and they are attacked by masked tong members.
Things look pretty dicey before some new friends come to the pair’s aid. Wielding a variety of weapons and fighting with great skill, the newcomers are the brothers (and sister) of Hsi Ching, who were dispatched with him to find help for their village. The Chings easily defeat Han’s goons. They had been watching Leyland all along to protect him. Each one of them is master of a particular weapon – one is an expert bowman, another wields axes, two are swordsmen, one uses spears. Pretty little Mei Kwei can handle herself just as well as the men and adds some exotic beauty to the flick.
The two parties of Van Helsings hook up and the decision is made for them to journey to Ping Kuei to liberate it from the Golden Vampires. Vanessa has made the decision to fund the expedition only if she can accompany it. She’s looking for some adventure in her life after being a pampered rich lady.
The expedition sets off to Ping Kuei and soon finds itself in barren, forbidding country. I like the fact that the closer they get to the realm of the vampires, the more dead and lifeless the landscape becomes. It gives things a nice sense of foreboding. The group is forced to battle another band of assassins sent out by Leung Han, leading to a spectacular kung fu battle where the Chings get to show their lethal skills.
I won’t reveal much more of what happens when Van Helsing & Co. finally reach the Village of the Damned. Attacks and counter-attacks are constant and the body count amongst our heroes is pretty high. There is a tradition in Shaw Brothers kung fu movies of “tragic heroes” who win the day at the cost of their own life. Well, the tradition lives on in “Legend…” but you’ll have to watch the film to see just who walks away and who doesn’t.
There are several things to note. The night time scenes here are extremely atmospheric and quite different from the Hammer norm. Perhaps the strongest scenes of the film involve the 7 Golden Vampires summoning their zombie slaves to serve them. These scenes of the skull-faced ghouls clawing their way out of their graves reminds me very much of “Tombs of the Blind Dead” and the horrific Templars rising from their tombs. But once roused, these creatures are seen to move with hopping, mincing steps, adding some unintentional humor. In fact, the “hopping” ghoul is a well known tradition of Chinese folklore.
I also got a kick out of how the 7 Golden Vampires are repelled by the sight of the Buddha instead of the crucifix. That makes perfect sense, actually.
It also warms my heart to see kung fu in the traditional old school style here. That means none of the CGI trickery or people flying on wires that has pretty much ruined modern films. If you’re unfamiliar with authentic Shaw Brothers kung fu, it’s a lot more physical and visceral, even with the exaggerated sound effects that make every blow sound like it snaps bones. These scenes were certainly directed by Chang Cheh.
The 7 Golden Vampires are a scary looking bunch but they do not speak. I am kind of split on whether this is a good thing or not. It’s for sure that European vampires like to talk. But these dusty, crusty looking creatures look as if speech might be difficult.
I was disappointed in the final confrontation between Van Helsing and Dracula/Kha. This is a common complaint amongst those who’ve seen the movie and I can’t dispute its lameness. Almost any previous Hammer film had a scarier, more violent battle between good and evil. Cushing has little to do beyond look concerned, but he’s such a natural actor that even limited action communicates a lot about Van Helsing’s character. He dominates the film as I expected he would.
I would have liked to have seen more of the villagers of Ping Kuei and how they coped with constant domination by the vampires and their servants. A little more depth and background would have helped to make the movie truly memorable, but that’s maybe too much to expect from an exploitation film.
What’s the final assessment of “Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires”? Well, for sure, you should seek out Anchor Bay’s original uncut version. Any other version will be the cut version that appeared as “The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula”, which is confusing and lacking the best footage.
I enjoy the movie for its combination of differing flavors…yup; it’s a peanut butter cup of a film for sure. Hammer purists are often disappointed with the movie and if you have no taste for kung fu or Eastern settings, I’d skip the movie entirely. But I think most exploitation fans are a little bit braver than that and the result is a movie that may not be the greatest vampire or chop socky flick you’ve ever seen, but you darn sure won’t forget it!
Even in Baltimore, as history-drenched a city as you’ll find in the United States, Edgar Allan Poe stands out as a favored son. He was by birth a Bostonian, and lived for a time in both Virginia and New York, but Baltimore has claimed him. […]
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The horror genre and independent filmmaking have a relationship similar to that of Ramen Noodles and dorm cooking. These two relationships exist for several reasons, one of which is the relative accessibility of the means required to achieve an end that’s entirely gratifying. In one […]
Movie Interviews Movies & TVThe horror genre and independent filmmaking have a relationship similar to that of Ramen Noodles and dorm cooking. These two relationships exist for several reasons, one of which is the relative accessibility of the means required to achieve an end that’s entirely gratifying. In one case we achieve lunch, dinner, maybe even breakfast, and in the other case we get the almighty horror flick. This is not to suggest that independent filmmaking is easy. It’s not. It’s a path artists take often out of frustration, sometimes out of rebellion, and it’s always fraught with ups and downs, starts and stops, and successes and failures, all of which are the result of a hell of a lot of hard work.
When it comes to independently realizing one’s artistic vision, Bob Heske takes no prisoners. A prolific writer whose work spans across several genres and mediums, Heske is a purveyor of horror at heart who’s steadfastly independent. Most of his award-winning graphic novels and comic books are self published and “The Night Projectionist”, Hekse’s vampire-centric graphic novel, was picked up by Studio 407 – an independent press on the very cutting edge of publishing. Yet these stories have not only garnered the attention of horror fans, but movie studios as well. I caught up with Bob to talk about the adventures of genre writing and to get the dirt on his next independent project, “Unrest” a feature length horror film, and his biggest challenge yet.
RavMon: Your background is in screenwriting, but you’ve successfully parlayed those skills into scripting comic books. Creatively, how do writing films and writing comics compare?
Bob: They are pretty much exact opposites, really. In writing a screenplay, you are not supposed to give too much direction or you’ll come across as an amateur or hack. You pretty much have to “imply” what you want the director to do but are prohibited from giving explicit camera direction other than FADE IN and FADE OUT.
In writing for a comic book, on the other hand, I’ve found it saves time to give as much direction as possible so the artist knows exactly what you want to see on each panel. Otherwise you’ll go through rounds and rounds before they capture what was in your head onto the page.
In many instances, I’ll even insert a picture (a big taboo in film scripts – Final Draft doesn’t even allow you to insert a pic into the script) to reveal a location or show what a character should look like. Both comics and screenplays follow the beginning/middle/end story structure – however, in writing the graphic novel, “The Night Projectionist” I had to create 4 sub-books as it was supposed to come out in comic book form first. So each of these sub-books had a beginning, middle and end.
RavMon: Which do you prefer?
Bob: I prefer writing either short scripts or short graphic tales. Writing a feature or a graphic novel is very time-intensive and requires you to (literally) have the Big Picture inside your head as you settle down to the computer to write it. But if I had to choose between writing a short graphic tale or a short film script, I’d probably pick the graphic tale as it lets you be director/writer and cinematographer all in one.
RavMon: Tell us about “Unrest”. Where did the idea come from?
Bob: “Unrest” is a tale about a brutal home invasion with a supernatural mystery woven in. Think “Eden Lake” meets “Stir of Echoes”. The inspiration came from my older brother who is an ecologist/scientist and lives in a berm house in Illinois. Berm houses are partially built into the ground – almost Crypt-like. I wanted to do a micro-budget film and figured I could shoot at his house for free so I came up with the premise: “What if your bedroom wall were connected to an unmarked grave?”
A few of the events are actually based on things that happened to my brother, although I changed the main character to be a pretty young female ecologist who teaches at a university – better for the hardcore male horror fans aged 17-34 who flock to these indie films. Also, the visiting grandparents who visit the heroine (who is a loner) to celebrate her 30th birthday are based on my own parents – my father is a caregiver to my mother who suffers from severe dementia. In the film, the grandmother’s dementia serves as a portal for ghosts buried at the berm house to “come through” and become central to the present-day home invasion story.
It’s a very creepy, but riveting story that’s tied together by a series of seeminlgy disconnected murders – in the past and in the present.
RavMon: Did the screenplay exist first or did you write it to serve your desire to tackle a micro budget film?
Bob: I wrote it to serve my desire to make a micro-budget film.
RavMon: You’ve had several screenplays optioned. But with “Unrest” you’ve elected to raise the capital yourself. Why?
Bob: I simply got tired of waiting for someone to actually MAKE my screenplays. I’ve had a few short scripts that I have co-written get produced and win awards at film festivals. However, after a few false starts on feature film projects, I decided to put the process in my own hands and try to get it done on my own.
RavMon: How far along is the production of “Unrest”? What’s been the most challenging aspect so far?
Bob: I’ll start with the latter first. The most challenging aspect is that I knew absolutely nothing about making a micro-budget film. Robert Rodriguez I’m not. The first thing I did was pick the brain of a friend who had made two ultra-low-budget films and then find an entertainment lawyer who specialized in micro-budget filmmaking. I happened to listen to a screenwriting podcast called “On The Page” where the guest was a lawyer/author/filmmaker named Paul Battista. I Googled his book, bought it off his website, and emailed him. He eventually read my script and came on board as my entertainment lawyer and mentor.
The next thing I did was hire a Casting Director to get me a few Letters of Interest from notable actors who would be perfect for the project and could attract some financing. I was very fortunate with the names I got – Eric Roberts, Ellen Muth from “Dead Like Me”, and veteran film/tv actors James Keane and Juli Erickson to name a few.
I’m in the financing stage now, making my business plan available to people who are interested in horror films and who might have the financial where-with-all to participate in the project. I’ll be focusing on raising capital and locking down a location over the next 3-4 months while I hold down a day job and try to pay attention to my wonderful wife and two little girls. It’s a juggling act, that’s for sure!
RavMon: Your vampire feature, “The Night Projectionist” is being adapted into a graphic novel in conjunction with Studio 407. A couple years ago there were also plans to also bring the story to the big screen. What’s happening with that?
Bob: It’s been a slooow process – both in completing the graphic novel and in getting momentum for the film. Here’s the upshot – issue one of “The Night Projectionist” was released in January 2009, at the same time that Diamond (the company that monopolizes comic book distribution in North America) raised the sales threshold for titles to be included in their monthly “Previews” catalog.
Issue one sold about 800+ copies, which would have been fine in “the old days”. But under the new requirements, because it sold less than ~2,500 copies, subsequent issues would not be included in the Previews catalog – a virtual death sentence for a comic trying to build an audience and generate buzz. As a result, Studio 407 waited to release the entire series as a graphic novel which will happen sometime in the first half of 2011, I’m told.
The irony was that Myriad Pictures, who shared office space with Studio 407, saw the panels of “The Night Projectionist” and were so intrigued by the premise, they optioned it. As for the film, I wrote a first draft last year and will be doing a rewrite soon. We expect to attach a director and go after funding in 2011, so stay tuned!
RavMon: What were the stories/movies that led a young Bob Heske down the treacherous path toward becoming a writer?
Bob: The truth? Probably the harsh reality that I was a lousy athlete led me down the creative path. If I could knock down three-pointers on a basketball court or hit a 90 mph fastball, I’d probably be too distracted to bother with my morbid imagination.
RavMon: Why screenwriting?
Bob: My first few jobs I wrote a lot of business videos and AV presentations. This, in retrospect, was pretty odd since I failed to get into a creative writing class in college. Apparently all I could write about was keggers and sorority babes back in my fraternity daze.
RavMon: As a New Englander, are there any challenges you face as a screenwriter based on the East Coast?
Bob: Well, it can be challenging not being “local” to Hollywood. Frankly, I don’t have the social personality to market myself and knock elbows with celebrities at parties anyway. Most writers are closet introverts and I’m no different. Sure, I have a day job in marketing and have a wife and kids. But part of my personality is always locked in a secluded corner. So, in the end, the writing has to speak volumes about you. Either that or you roll the dice and make noise with your own movie. Hopefully, I will succeed at both.
RavMon: Among your many scripts, several of them have been comedies. What does comedy have in common with horror?
Bob: Horror and comedy are actually great bed mates – like chocolate and peanut butter. Comedy gives the blood-thirsty nature of a horror film both an anxiety release and a sense of humanity in a world where monsters rule. I love black comedies so when I write horror, I try to infuse a bit of dark humor and when I write a comedy I inject a dollop of death. That’s what life is about anyways, right? Laughter and pain.
RavMon: Do you consider yourself a horror writer?
Bob: I do. But my wife and family just think I’m twisted. They want me to go back to writing pure comedies so they can brag about my films. My horror comics and scripts are too dark for their taste. They constantly tell me, “You’re a father now, what the heck are you writing this stuff for?!”
RavMon: How do you feel about all the incessant remaking, re-imagining, and regurgitating of classic horror that’s happened over the last decade?
Bob: Horrified. Makes me want to kill someone. I’m kidding, of course. I’m not sure if “The Night Projectionist” will become a film franchise; however, I’m certain that “Unrest” will be one and done.
RavMon: Given that the vast majority of studio-backed horror films are remakes does it affect your expectations as a screenwriter with regard to genre material?
Bob: I’m cognizant of it. But when I write something I try to make it “high concept” – something that’s familiar, but done in a different and engrossing way.
RavMon: The horror film has always been the primary vehicle for pushing the creative envelope of filmmaking. I believe this is because of the DIY nature of the horror film and the fact that so many of them are made by people who’ve never operated within the studio system and who’ve had to be extremely creative to overcome a lack of resources, including knowledge of formal techniques. Having said that, there are negative consequences to making movies without the tried and true methods of the craft and they usually manifest in two areas: acting and writing. The result is that there a lot of bad horror movies one must sift through to find the gems. How do you, having a formal education in writing and having been a professional script reader, approach your own horror scripts?
Bob: Great question! In researching and writing “Unrest”, I tried to include several elements:
In summary, the formula is simple: a great story with a great cast shot by a great crew. Oh, and a cool location can also be an additional “character” to set the tone and eerie mood.
RavMon: What are some recent horror flicks that knocked your socks off?
Bob: “Eden Lake” is my favorite (trailer). It stars Kelly Reilly (Sherlock Holmes, Pride & Prejudice) and Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, 300, Centurion) as a couple on a romantic holiday gone awry. If you haven’t rented it from Netflix, you definitely should.
Here’s the logline:
Refusing to let anything spoil their romantic weekend break, a young couple confronts a gang of loutish youths with terrifyingly brutal consequences.
Another good one I recently saw was called “Devil” about 5 people trapped inside an elevator – one of them presumably the Devil himself or herself. A detective who tries to rescue the captives ends up having a strange connection to the last survivor.
RavMon: Admittedly, I haven’t read all your stuff, but the things I have read, such as “Cold Blooded Chillers”, seem to involve elements that are variations on the ghost story. Is this a motif you’re conscious of or have I just coincidentally read all your ghost material?
Bob: One motif I’ve really gravitated to is “Man as the ultimate Monster”. If you read the 3rd issue of Cold Blooded Chillers (Supernatural), then you definitely read the one issue that had a supernatural/surreal bent. All the others focused on people doing bad things to other people.
In writing “The Night Projectionist”, I went back to a creature feature – albeit almost like a Marvel comic where the hero, in this case a vampire who is the night projectionist at a condemned theater, has human imperfections to go along with his vampire super-human powers. Plus, with the outbreak of all these “Twilight” fangirl films, I wanted to write a vampire story that was less romance and more gore.
RavMon: With “Unrest” on the horizon, what else can RavMon Readers look forward to from Bob Heske?
Bob: “Unrest” has pretty much been my focus for this year and for 2011 as well. However, as mentioned earlier, you can look for “The Night Projectionist” to become available in graphic novel form with news forthcoming about the film. In the meantime, readers can check out the first half of “The Night Projectionist” in “noir” (black and white) format.
I encourage readers to visit my website at www.coldbloodedchillers.com for updates on the fllm and as well as previews of my books and links to podcasts which I’ve appeared on.
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The other day my lovely and extremely patient girlfriend was telling me about a soon-to-be-ex-coworker whose ambition is to be a roadie for Bon Jovi. “She’s only missed six out of forty-four Bon Jovi concerts this year,” said Ashley. “And she’s quitting her job because […]
Featured ArticleThe other day my lovely and extremely patient girlfriend was telling me about a soon-to-be-ex-coworker whose ambition is to be a roadie for Bon Jovi. “She’s only missed six out of forty-four Bon Jovi concerts this year,” said Ashley. “And she’s quitting her job because they won’t give her time off to go see him in Massachusetts this weekend.”
“Sounds kind of stalkery,” I said. “Maybe Jon Bon Jovi’s going to wake up with two broken legs and her standing over him with a sledgehammer.”
Ashley, being a horror buff, got the reference immediately. In my head, of course, it didn’t end there. This was Massachusetts, so J.B.J. had probably been scheduled to play in a certain decaying little college town, and Roadie had allowed herself to be impregnated by the eldritch thinghood of Yog-Sothoth in exchange for nothing less than the soul of Bon Jovi, who would be sacrificed in front of standing stones sacred to the Black Goat on Walpurgisnacht unless Ashley and I (Tool’s more my speed, but I’m not averse to Bon Jovi) rescued him, an act that might or might not include Tommy guns and dark pacts with deities from the Mayan underworld.[1] Horror, right?
Not really. I’m amused to an endless (and probably unhealthy) extent by the above scenario. It reaffirms all the things I secretly (or not-so-secretly) want reaffirmed in life: the world is filled with fantastic and mysterious things that regularly intrude in human affairs; a life of dangerous but thrilling adventure is not only possible but likely; all that’s necessary to solve life’s problems is courage and ready access to antique weaponry. That’s not scary–that’s comforting. So despite all those trappings–psycho fans, dark bargains with bloodthirsty gods, the Cthulhu Mythos–I’ve spent the last four hundred words describing a situation that really isn’t horror at all. In fact (to my perhaps diseased mind), the idea of all this happening to the guy who sings “Livin’ On a Prayer” and “You Give Love a Bad Name” is pretty funny. So why am I wasting time for you, the committed horror fan?
Douglas Winter famously claimed that horror isn’t a genre at all, but an emotion. I’ve seen some call Twilight horror based on the reasoning that if it has vampires in it, it must be horror. But when was the last time you really thought vampires were scary? Bad-ass, cool, maybe even sexy, depiction depending, but not really frightening. Horror is one of the few types of genre fiction determined not by its window-dressing but its attitude. Put another way, if I write about a wizard in a castle it’s definitely fantasy of some kind. Even if I make him a necromancer surrounded by zombie servants, it might not be horror. To make it horror, I have to show you something uncomfortable. Our necromancer’s isolation. His mental decay. The way his dick stirs when he looks at the shapely, stiff, pale legs of his maidservants and slides his tongue between their dry, rictused lips. Or, as Jeanne Cavellos says in her essay “Innovation in Horror,” “The horror genre has one requirement for membership: The story must make the reader feel. . .horrified.”
I’ve often found myself in disagreement with both sides of the Literature vs. Genre debate. As much as I railed in college against the expectation that we write nothing but plotless little stories about middle class suburbanites, the genres I love are often guilty of equally mortal sins. One of the worst is the tendency to core a story of all humanity in favor of barely original twists on extant props, like vampires that sparkle instead of burning up in sunlight. If there’s a defense for horror (and I don’t think we need to fall back on any such “it releases our inner devils” bullshit–I’m not drawn to this genre for catharsis), it’s that for horror to work its creator has to understand the human mind.
So imagine a young man who wants to be a writer, unhappily employed at a menial job he despises, having difficulty rising above the realization that he will always work behind that desk or stocking those shelves. When the supernatural intrudes, it isn’t a time for actualization, but a further tightening of the lock. Drawn into a conspiracy involving a musician our protagonist doesn’t much care about one way or the other, our would-be writer realizes, listening to the chanting from the next room, that a nationwide manhunt will result if the musician disappears. But the protagonist? Totally overshadowed, he won’t even have anyone beyond a few close friends to bemoan the fact that he was “cut off before his time.” The novel he’s agonized over for years will probably be thrown out. The girlfriend will move on. Death is the gate of obscurity, and worse than anything he might be subjected to by the secret society that has imprisoned him, he realizes that in a few years he will be almost totally forgotten.
I don’t know if you’re scared, but I am.
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