Thursday, September 20, 2018

SHOCK CINEMA VOLUME 2 (1991) ***


The second installment in Scream Queen Brinke Stevens’ Shock Cinema series is even better than the first.  The format varies slightly from the template of its predecessor.  This time, Brinke interviews an eclectic pool of subjects known for their work in front of and behind the camera.  The range of talent runs from Scream Queens (Melissa Moore) to screenwriters (Ted Newsom) and special effects artists (Michael Burnett).  

Brinke gets more screen time in this volume, which is always a good thing.  I especially liked her intro, which takes place in a video store (where several of her films are prominently displayed).  The highlight is her face to face interview with Forrest J. Ackerman in his Ackermansion.  Some might be disappointed that Ackerman talks more about his film appearances than the creation of his Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, but I’m sure he got a kick out of it.  Not only is the interview (which occurs about halfway through) fun, it also helps to break up the talking head format a bit.

There is a wealth of interesting stories here.  Director Gary Graver talks about getting cheated out of money from distributors, Robert Quarry has some good anecdotes about the making of Count Yorga, and Deanna Lund bemoans the use of body doubles.  (She doesn’t mention the title by name, but I can only assume she was talking about her role in the immortal Elves.)  The most flabbergasting tidbit:  Hearing Newsom being touted as the screenwriter for “the upcoming Spider-Man movie” (although he claims he blew all his Spider-Man money making his own film). 

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