HorrorHound Weekend 2010: Matt Youngerman

Matt Youngerman

Matt Youngerman, Insect Artist

Y Spy: Who are you and why are you here?

Matt Youngerman: My name is Matt Youngerman, and a lot of people call me “The Bugman.” I sell framed insects and butterflies from all over the world. Taratulas, scorpions, scary stuff that I think goes pretty well with the horror genre.

Y Spy: How did you get into that?

Youngerman: When I was five years old, the Dayton Museum of Natural History in Dayton, Ohio had a summer program. There were different classes, and one was called Backyard Bugs. Since then I was always one of the kids who would carry a butterfly net around, catching bugs. My degree is in zoology, and in grad school I studied insects. I started my business of selling framed insects about seven years ago.

Y Spy: What’s the process involved in gathering and displaying your insects?

Youngerman: We travel all over the world and find villagers who raise butterflies and insects on what are called butterfly farms. They ship them to us all dead and dry, legs and wings folded up, and then we have to take each one and rehydrate them. Then I put them on special mounting boards and spreading boards, opening their wings up, opening their legs up. Then I let them dry for another day or so, and then I can put them in the frames.

Y Spy: So they’re otherwise as you’d find them in the wild.

Youngerman: Right. Because some of the colors are so metallic and so bright, people assume that we paint them or alter them in some way, but everything that we sell is natural colors. In the United States you don’t see insects that have colors like tropical insects do.

Y Spy: Do you get flak from people who claim that you’re exploiting insects?

Youngerman: Not really. Sometimes when they first come, [people] are upset because they think that we went out with bug nets in the rainforest and caught a bunch of insects. But they’re raised on farms, so it’s sustainable, and the primary purpose of butterfly farms is to supply zoos with living butterfly exhibits. My dry insects are what they do with the extra insects that they don’t sell living. Most people understand that, but you always have people who don’t agree with that. That’s fine; as long as I can educate them as much as I can, they can make their own decision.

Y Spy: The insects don’t have long lives, so it’s not as though they have to be killed for your exhibits.

Youngerman: Right. Most tropical butterflies only live in the wild for three weeks, as a butterfly. Most of their lives are spent as a caterpillar, eating leaves. Butterflies can only mate one time, so really their only purpose once they have wings is to fly around and find a mate. Insects, compared to other animals, have a very short lifespan.

Y Spy: How do the tarantulas and scorpions work?

Youngerman: That started with people raising them for the pet industry. For the tarantulas, male tarantulas on average only live three years. Female tarantulas live a long time, 20-30 years. I only sell male tarantulas, because the way that the breeders work is that they’re not going to sell or kill their female tarantulas. They let the males and females breed, the males die, and they prepare them and ship them out to me. It’s really the same with scorpions.

Y Spy: How does having a pet like that even work?

Youngerman: I honestly don’t know, because I’ve never had one. I wouldn’t want it to get out and not be able to find it. A lot of people do, though. I ask them how it is, if they can play with it. A lot of people don’t even play with it. It’s more or less a living piece of artwork that stays in the cage. But that’s okay, because tarantulas and scorpions in the wild never move very far from one spot. They’re perfectly happy in a cage, as long as they get food. In that sense, it’s not as though you’re torturing them.

Y Spy: Are they dangerous to own?

Youngerman: Some are. A lot of the ones in the pet trade aren’t dangerous, but there are some that you can mail order that you wouldn’t want to get bit by. That’s what freaks a lot of people out – you don’t know. Even if it’s a relatively harmless tarantula or scorpion, you don’t know how you’re going to react to that venom until it bites you. It might not be dangerous to most people, but if you’re allergic to it, what are you gonna do? I’ve never had one, which might sound weird. Maybe it’s because I know enough about them, and I see them all the time in the wild, which is pretty cool.

Y Spy: So your sign says that you’re donating some of the proceeds you make at the convention?

Youngerman: The countries that have butterfly farms highly regulate them. The farmers have to pay a certain tax to become farmers. Those proceeds go to these countries’ fish and wildlife departments. They use them to buy and maintain parkland, which in return helps protect land for wild butterflies and insects. It’s actually a pretty big business. Whenever I buy insects from another country, I usually have to pay an export tax to that country, and that money is usually used for the same thing. It’s not necessarily an individual charity.

Y Spy: What are your environmental beliefs?

Youngerman: I’m really big on conservation. That’s why I only work with butterfly farmers. I understand that people are always going to want products like this, but I think it’s really important to find the best way to give people these products without taking them from the wild. I’ve been to over 30 countries, and some of them are in desperate need to protect their land. It’s really sad and bad, and there are so many animals that have been lost forever because they haven’t been protected.

Y Spy: So is this all you do?

Youngerman: Yeah. I used to have real jobs; I say real jobs because people look at what I do now and say that it’s so cool. I started this seven years ago, part time, and turned it into [what it is now]. I travel all over the country, go to different shows, I have a storefront in Ohio, sell online.

Y Spy: Is it a profitable business?

Youngerman: Yeah, it is, and the reason why is because I actually go to the countries and find the farmers. There’s no middleman for me. A lot of people who do this as a hobby buy from people like me, and it’s not as profitable.

Y Spy: And you’re offering a physical art form that can’t be duplicated.

Youngerman: Every butterfly is different and unique, even if it’s the same species. There are so many different insects and butterflies that you could collect for years and come nowhere close to having everything. It’s a very unique product, and if done right, it’s a good business.

An Example of Work.

Matt Youngerman can be found at www.theinsectkingdom.com.

August 9, 2010
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HorrorHound Weekend 2010: Neil Autry

Neil Autry and his Amazing Shirts

Neil Autry, Proprietor

Y Spy: Who are you and why are you here?

Neil Autry: My name is Neil Autry, and I own Western Evil, and we are currently running a booth at HorrorHound Weekend.

Y Spy: Did you make these cross-stitches yourself?

Autry: Yes. My girlfriend sews these professionally, and she’s going to be opening a website for them soon. She’s done them all by hand, and all original designs, each unique in their own way.

Y Spy: Did you make the shirts yourselves as well?

Autry: Yeah. I do all my own designing. I don’t silk screen them; I send them out, and they’re sent back to me. We have such great designs as the “C.H.U.D. Nelson” and “Your mom swallows period blood.”

[At this point, I noticed the C.H.U.D. Nelson t-shirt, which features the head of a cannibalistic underdweller on the body of the bad boy from “The Breakfast Club.” For a few seconds, I’m stunned by its magnificence.]

Y Spy: So how did you get Elvira’s tits in a box?

Autry: She actually posted a thing on her website connecting to her eBay store. She was having an estate sale; she sold a lot of rare items and autographs. Among the things that caught my eye was the fact that she was selling a life-cast bust of her tits. I paid $198 for Elvira’s tits, and really only had to outbid one person. It’s completely bizarre; you’d think something as historical as Elvira’s tits would bring more than $198.

When I purchased them on eBay they were said to be from the “Haunted Hills” Elvira, but I recently had them signed and she informed me that they were from “Allan Quartermain and the Lost City of Gold.”

Y Spy: How awesome of a marketing technique has charging to see Elvira’s tits worked out?

Autry: I have had a lot of people buying $2 stickers and $1.25 pins just to take a look at Elvira’s tits. It’s working out, slowly but surely. I definitely made my money back.

Y Spy: What scares you?

Autry: Death! Actually dying.

Best for Job Interviews, Bar Mitzvahs, and Funerals.

C.H.U.D. Nelson and his friends can be found at www.westernevil.com.

August 9, 2010
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HorrorHound Weekend 2010: Mister Hamilton

Mister Hamilton

Mr. Hamilton, Artisan, Sideshow Performer, and Owner of a Sweet Mustache

Y Spy: Who are you and why are you here?

Mr. Hamilton: My name is Mr. Hamilton, and I am a sideshow performer. I’m here to perform tonight and sell my artwork.

Y Spy: What do you do in your performances?

Hamilton: I do hula-hoop tricks; I put hands and other body parts into mousetraps and rattraps, have shit smashed on my body with sledgehammers. But mainly I talk.

Y Spy: What do you talk about?

Hamilton: Whatever comes to my mind at the moment. I’m called a talker; it’s kind of an emcee, but goofier.

Y Spy: Like a carnival barker?

Hamilton: No, a barker is a hack. We look down on the barkers. With sideshow talkers, there’s an outside talker and an inside talker. The inside talker is more of an intimate emcee and explains what’s happening with the show as you’re watching it. They do a lot of improvisation, cause they’ve gotta work with live audiences, drunks, and morons – and also some really educated, fun people. So you gotta play off of them.

Y Spy: When did you begin pursuing your interests?

Hamilton: I’ve always been a talker. I’ve done a lot of improvisational theater, a lot of street performing. I’ve always been a bit of a ham. The artwork I’ve always done as well, and I realized that I can do these shows and be creative and combine it all.

The first time I put my dick in a mousetrap was last year. We had this ongoing thing where for a hundred dollars I would do it. We played a fetish night at a gay bar in Champagne-Urbana. We performed at this thing, my old troupe and myself. We did the usual offer, and no one’s taking us up on it, when a little voice in the back goes: “Hold on, I’m going to the cash machine!” At that point I realized that I have to do this! I thought about the logistics and physics of it, and thankfully it went off without a hitch.

Y Spy: You didn’t take any practice runs before?

Hamilton: Nope! I’d been putting them on my tongue. The rat traps are very dangerous, though; I would not put my dick in a rat trap. With a rat trap, if you do it right, it’ll hurt like hell. If you do it wrong, you’ll fuck yourself up.

Y Spy: How do you go about making your art?

Hamilton: These are original paintings, and then I took my paintings and made a laser print. These are called bas-reliefs, which are images that pop from a background pieces. The backgrounds are just pieces of wood with fur and bits of fabric on them. With the front, I color copy the painting and use a template to cut everything out, and then I hit it with glitter glue, because everything looks better when it looks like a transvestite took a shit on it.

Y Spy: I’m in full agreement.

Hamilton: You should have seen my prom date! I looked great afterwards! Couldn’t walk right for a week, but I was shiny, like a vampire in the sun!

Y Spy: What do you do when you’re not working conventions?

Hamilton: I’m from Austin, Texas. I emcee once a month at a thing called “Sessions,” which is like an Austin City Limits showcase. I also work at a place called the Museum of the Weird. In future shows I’m going to be traveling with the Oddity Museum. I tour quite a bit with my sideshow, which varies from member to member. I’ve yet to tour with the same person twice.

Y Spy: Is there a reason behind that?

Hamilton: I am a fucking taskmaster! Nah. Circus performers do things called spots. You do a spot somewhere. They are more transient, and they’ll get offers, because there’s not many of us. A lot of people do it, but sideshow performing is a lot like burlesque or poetry. It’s often really horrible, or else it’s all right, or else it’s fucking amazing. There’s a giant gap between all right and amazing, so a good performer is often in high demand. I work with people from Coney Island, and for my next tour I’m probably going to be performing with one or two ex-Jim Rose Circus people.

Y Spy: So you just don’t want to be stuck in one place.

Hamilton: Yes, and it’s also about coordinating. If you’ve ever had a band, doing shows with four consistent people is difficult. One guy has a job and a house, one guy’s a big asshole and no fun to travel with, and another guy’s on drugs. It’s the same thing for sideshow performers, but we have more places to go.

For this particular performance, I’m working with a gentleman who does contact juggling, and I took him up from Texas with me. I’m going to be collaborating with one of the Horror Hosts; he’s gonna be eating razor blades. Another Horror Host from Dark Carnival will be doing a blockhead routine; we’ll be hammering nails into his head. The band Shriek is going to be doing some incidental music behind us. It’s nice to be able to collaborate.

Y Spy: How easy is it to keep your life running?

Hamilton: You have to have the right attitude. Is it easy? Probably not, but it’s all I do. If you love doing something, whatever it is, you’ll have a better chance of success at that thing than anything else. If you hate something, even if you’re successful, you’ll be resentful.

Do I make a lot of money? Sometimes. Most times, not. It’s a feast or famine situation, but I’m always doing what I love doing, so I don’t notice the time going by. We were on the train coming up, and it was a 23 hour train ride from Texas to St. Louis, where we caught a ride with a friend to here. And the gentleman I’m with, he’s bored shitless, while I’m like, that was the shortest train ride ever! But the whole time, I was painting and finishing up my artwork. I didn’t even notice.

Y Spy: What can I expect tonight?

Hamilton: I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised, hopefully shocked, possibly amazed.

Mr. Hamilton can be found at www.museumoftheweird.com, and on Facebook under the fan page “Mister Hamilton.”

August 9, 2010
Categories: Q&A, Y Spy . Tags: . Author: Y . Comments: Leave a comment

HorrorHound Weekend 2010: The Zombie Rights Campaign

The Zombie Rights Campaign

The Zombie Rights Campaign

Y Spy: Who are you and why are you here?

Zombie Rights Guy: We are the Zombie Rights Campaign. We are here to promote the cause of zombie rights and try to reduce the anti-zombie hostility in the horror community.

Y Spy: What is the history of zombie oppression?

Guy: Zombies were long used as manual labor by voodoo witch doctors, and then the U.S. government created a lot of them with secret programs and chemicals, usually for cannon fodder. Recently, they’re something you take out your aggression on. If there’s an apocalypse, you blame the zombies. You occupy a mall and start shooting everyone around who doesn’t have a heartbeat. It’s really unfair.

Zombie Rights Girl: You make a game out of discovering how many you can kill, in how many different ways. These are people. This is not how you treat people.

Y Spy: Will mankind always be looking for a scapegoat? Did the Civil Rights campaigns of the 60’s force our society to find another target?

Guy: Zombies are a convenient target. If you can’t oppress the living, people are generally willing to oppress the dead.

Y Spy: Like Jesus!

Guy: He did come back from the dead after three days. We would let him into the Zombie Rights Campaign!

Girl: That is an explanation, but it’s not an excuse. This is another stage in the process of trying to make it so that we give everyone an equal shake, an equal share of respect.

Y Spy: Are zombie rights similar to animal rights?

Girl: That is a harmful stereotype. We have this idea that’s perpetrated by the media, by movies, by George Romero especially, that zombies are mindless automatons; all they want is to eat our flesh. People don’t realize that zombies are more than the desire for brains. They have higher desires, like anyone. They enjoy art, they enjoy culture, they want to live, and they want to have families. They want to have all the things that we do, but they’re not allowed.

Y Spy: Is George Romero the Glenn Beck of zombies?

Girl: I think that’s giving Glenn Beck too much credit.

Guy: George Romero’s been around a lot longer, to be fair.

Y Spy: But in “Day of the Dead” he did make an intelligent zombie. He did seem to open himself up to the idea that they were more than just rabid animals.

Girl: It’s a step in the right direction, but we haven’t seen anything more, from him or media in general.

Guy: It’s a small step forward, to go from zombies that you just kill to zombies that you lock in a room and teach repetitive antics.

Y Spy: How did you feel about the ending to “Shaun of the Dead,” when zombies became megamart employees?

Girl: That’s sort of admitting the possibility that they can be useful, but they’re being used. They’re not being treated as people who went out and got a job. And there are the other depictions of them being used for reality shows. We wouldn’t do that to living people, but it’s alright to do it to the undead.

Guy: It’s clear that Shaun knows better, because he protects his zombie friend and they play games together. They share a living environment; they share video games and fun.

Girl: This is another bright spot, but those bright spots are few.

Y Spy: Why do zombies never eat dogs in movies?

Guy: Maybe dogs aren’t tasty. Some people eat dogs, so I don’t know why zombies would be averse to it.

Girl: Maybe there haven’t been movies with Korean zombies.

Y Spy: That brings up another idea: that zombies only eat humans because that’s all there is to eat in an urban setting. There aren’t any cows in the middle of a city street. You go for what’s available, like what people do when they go to McDonald’s.

Girl: But why can’t zombies just go to McDonald’s?

Guy: They wouldn’t be allowed in McDonald’s. It would be a violation of the health code.

Y Spy: But a smelly guy can go to McDonald’s. There are some pretty rotten people who can get in while still alive.

Guy: But then we’re getting into the issue of passing for a living person, and a zombie shouldn’t have to pass for a living person to order a Big Mac.

Y Spy: How can people help your campaign?

Girl: We’d just like to get the word out so people start thinking about how they feel about and act toward zombies, and whether those attitudes are at all justified.

Y Spy: Is there any danger that acceptance will turn into patronization? Will there be people who befriend zombies not because of who they are, but because they’re zombies?

Girl: That’s a possibility, and another thing we have to worry about. But we’re not even to that point yet, which is perhaps worse.

Guy: Maybe someday Stephen Colbert will have his one zombie friend along with his one black friend. Even that would be a step forward.

Y Spy: Would zombies have a place in a Gene Roddenberry Star Trek utopia?

Guy: Well, Spock came back from the dead!

The Zombie Rights Campaign can be found at www.zombierightscampaign.org.

August 9, 2010
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HorrorHound Weekend 2010: Emil Hyde

Emil Hyde

Emil Hyde, Filmmaker

Y Spy: Who are you and why are you here?

Emil Hyde: My name is Emil Hyde, and I’m here at HorrorHound Weekend promoting our film, “The Landlord!”

Y Spy: What is “The Landlord” about?

Hyde: “The Landlord” is a heartwarming tale of a young man who inherits a demon-infested apartment building from his devil-worshipping parents, and with it the responsibility for finding new tenants for the demons to devour, and cleaning up the mess when they’re done!

Y Spy: Is this your first time as a director?

Hyde: Yes. This is my first time directing a real movie. We had a few cases where it was just us running around a backyard with camcorders. Those don’t count.

Y Spy: What is the difference between then and now?

Hyde: Money. And people.

Y Spy: How much did it cost to make this movie?

Hyde: This movie cost an affordable $20,000 to produce, paid largely on credit cards. The other ones cost about $175.

Y Spy: What is your take on horror?

Hyde: You can’t watch a “horror” movie; you’re always watching an individual movie. You might be watching our film, which some might call a horror-comedy. I don’t know how one can say: “I don’t like horror-comedies,” when there’s probably one out there that’s good. I generally don’t like remakes, but occasionally you’ll get something like the remake of “The Hills have Eyes” that kind of kick ass. There’s an audience for the genre, and as for the art itself, there’s good films and bad films.

Y Spy: What has the reaction been thus far to “The Landlord?”

Hyde: We started showing it at film festivals in August, and as with any little film that doesn’t have the Hollywood bullhorn people were looking at us as if we were trying to sell them a vial of the Ebola virus. But as word got out that it was a really funny film – almost a sitcom version of “Hellraiser” – and not just another backyard zombie film, it’s been getting easier and easier to sell.

Y Spy: Would you be okay with making a Hollywood film, considering all its restrictions?

Hyde: You’re dealing with some major restrictions when you’re working on the independent level. Yes. I’d absolutely take a job doing a Hollywood movie. I’d figure out how to fuck with the system later.

Y Spy: Is there anything coming down the pipe?

Hyde: Yeah, we’re working on a couple of projects. One that you’ll probably be hearing about soon is called “The Dog Cage.” We’ll be producing a graphic novel first and a movie later. You should be hearing about that this fall.

The Landlord

“The Landlord” is available now. More information can be found at www.thelandlordmovie.com.

August 9, 2010
Categories: Q&A, Y Spy . Tags: . Author: Y . Comments: Leave a comment

HorrorHound Weekend 2010: Sean Clark

Sean Clark, with Hare Krishna Zombie

Sean Clark, Filmmaker, Writer

Y Spy: Who are you and why are you here?

Sean Clark: My name is Sean Clark, and I’m here because my parents had sex.

Y Spy: Why are you in this room? Same reason?

Clark: No, they had nothing to do with that part. I’m here promoting my movie, “The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond,” which I wrote and produced. It’s coming out on about 350 screens. I also write for HorrorHound Magazine, who is putting on this show. So I’m here pulling double duty.

Y Spy: What is the movie about?

Clark: About 90 minutes. [Punny laughter] That never gets old. It’s about nine friends who every year get together and take a trip. This year they rent a Victorian house on a private island. Through a series of circumstances they uncover a hidden room in the basement of the house that has all these artifacts from an excavation in the early 1900s in Turkey. One of the things they find appears to be a game, so they take it upstairs and start playing it. As they play the game it turns them against each other. It’s kind of a possession thing, but it affects everyone differently. What it ends up being are nine friends on an island, stalking each other.

Y Spy: Is it more of a psychological thriller or a straight horror film?

Clark: It’s got a lot of elements of everything. There’s a lot of psychological horror, there’s a thriller aspect, there’s a slasher aspect, and a supernatural aspect. It’s different. That’s what I think fans will appreciate. It isn’t the same bullshit that they’re used to being spoonfed. I’ve had real positive feedback. One of the best compliments [I’ve received] is that it’s original. It’s not a remake; it’s something new.

Y Spy: So what’s your take on the current state of horror?

Clark: Fear is an adrenaline rush. That’s why we love to be scared. We love to be able to go to a movie and get the shit scared out of us, but be safe. Nowadays it is fucking hard to be scared in a movie. I am so disconnected, or perhaps inundated with horror that it’s very hard to get scared. The last movie I saw that genuinely freaked me out was when I went to a screening of “Session 9” in a big empty theater. It’s one of my favorite movies. It’s really hard to scare people nowadays, and I hope I can achieve that in my career.

There’s a lot of good stuff coming out, more independent. All the big studios are interested in now is capitalizing on a title and remaking it. They’re not even remaking the movies so much as just taking the name. Some of them are nothing like the original. They’re pointless. And it’s paying off! At the end of the day, all they care about is money. The filmmaker has integrity, but he’s at the mercy of the people who are financing it.

Y Spy: Is it harder to scare audiences because modern horror films are putting less emphasis on characterization?

Clark: I agree with that. One thing you will notice about “Black Waters,” something that I am very strict about: I am big, big, big on character development. The first 45 minutes of this movie almost plays out like “The Breakfast Club.” It’s people sitting around, and you’re getting to know them and their relationships. You genuinely care about these characters when the shit starts to hit the fan. That’s important to me.

Let’s take the last “Friday the 13th” remake. You didn’t give a shit about any of those people. When they start getting offed, it means nothing to you. When I’m in a slasher film, I wanna know that I want the bitch to get killed, I wanna know that I want the cool guy to live. It frustrates me when I see movies that are just gratuitous. I want people to care.

Y Spy: How was writing and producing this movie?

Clark: It was completely independent. We had investors, and for the most part they left us alone. There was nobody breathing down our neck. We did have a schedule, and it did get tight at times. There were a couple things we had to comply to, put a couple of people in the movie who they wanted. Beyond that they let us do what we wanted to do. It was a lot of freedom. As a writer, I was completely spoiled. I’ll probably never have an experience as good as this again.

Y Spy: What is your writing experience, and how did you end up writing this film?

Clark: I’ve been trying to get my original scripts off the ground since about 1999. This is my first theatrical. I’ve written stuff that’s been optioned, almost was made. This is the first thing that’s actually been made. It’s finally happening. The experience of writing it was great. The constant rewrites were challenging, especially rewrites during filming, which happened a lot. There was a major location that we lost at the 11th hour that really changed things. I had to come up with something new. Beyond that it was great.

As far as writing for HorrorHound, it’s a completely different thing. I’m not so much a journalist for HorrorHound; I write a specific feature article called “Horror’s Hallowed Grounds,” which is a retrospective on the filming locations of a classic film. I pick one per issue and do that. I’m not having to interview people and go to press junkets and screenings. I did that before; I used to write for Dread Central and bloodydisgusting.com. I did that for years and am trying to get away from that, doing more of my own creative thing.

Y Spy: What are you planning next?

Clark: I’m writing a script called “Sugar,” which is a horror film. I want that to be my directorial debut. I’ve been finishing the “Nightmare on Elm Street” episode of “Horror’s Hallowed Grounds,” the TV version of it. That’s gonna be on the new “Nightmare on Elm Street” documentary, “Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy.” That’s coming out at the end of April. It’s all filmed; we’re just editing right now.

Y Spy: What frightens you?

Clark: Not a whole lot, to be honest. I guess I have a fear of heights. I mean super high. You’ll never catch me sky-diving.

The Black Waters of Echo's Pond

“The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond” is out now. Visit www.theblackwaters.com for more details.

August 9, 2010
Categories: Q&A, Y Spy . Tags: . Author: Y . Comments: Leave a comment

HorrorHound Weekend 2010: Cory J. Udler

Cory J. Udler

Cory J. Udler – Filmmaker

Y Spy: Who are you and why are you here?

Cory J. Udler: My name is Cory Udler, and the reason I’m here is because I work for Full Moon Entertainment out of Hollywood, California. I come and schlep Angry Dolls and shit like that to fans at conventions, but I’m also here because I wrote and edited and directed “Incest Death Squad,” starring the lovely and talented, sexy Lloyd Kaufman of Troma fame.

Y Spy: What is an Incest Death Squad?

Udler: That is a brother and sister duo who obviously love each other a lot, and kill tourists in the name of God.

Y Spy: How does Kaufman fit in?

Udler: Lloyd is a newspaper editor who wants more stories about dead hookers, and he’s very upset that people haven’t gotten stories about dead hookers. They’re doing stories on spelling bees, but he wants more dead hookers, butchered in bathtubs.

Y Spy: What about dead hookers in spelling bees?

Udler: You know I never thought about that, but Lloyd is here, so you should ask him if that’s acceptable!

Y Spy: Did Lloyd go method for this role?

Udler: I think he did. I think he went totally method, and by method I mean he was on meth when he was doing it. But Lloyd is so funny, because he’s insane. He’s going nuts, and you think he’s going to burst a blood vessel in his head, but then afterwards he’s very nice and soft-spoken and very gentle and intelligent. It’s funny because it’s a big contrast. But I know that Lloyd likes dead hookers and crush porn and reach-arounds and all of these wonderful things, so he fit right in with “Incest Death Squad.”

Y Spy: How did you get a hold of him?

Udler: How it went down was I had written the script for “Incest Death Squad” years and years ago, and I always said that this is a Troma movie, whether Troma produces it or I produce it myself. They had on the website a thing that said, “Lloyd’s looking for the next film script! Send it in!” So I sent him the script to “Incest Death Squad,” and I’m waiting, and a month later I get a phone call from Lloyd. He goes, “I love this script! It’s wonderful! It’s fantastic! We don’t have a billion dollars to produce whatever we want, but if you ever do it, good luck, keep in touch, and I’ll come and be in it for you.” That was the catalyst for me to make the movie, and he held true on his promise. We shot with him in Chicago a year ago.

Y Spy: How easy was it to put the movie together?

Udler: For me it was easy, because I went to school for editing and videography. I had a vision in my head about how I wanted the movie to be, and I was in charge of everything. I wrote, directed, produced, and cast it, and then I got it done and edited the whole thing as I went along. We finished shooting in June and I had the entire post-production done by the middle of July.

Y Spy: How much did you doing everything yourself affect the film’s cost?

Udler: That saved me a ton of money! Any independent filmmaker: learn to do as much as you can! You will save incredible amounts of money, and headache, too. I know a lot of guys who just want to do the vision and direct it, but then they need somebody to DP, and edit, and do sound design. All the technical stuff. It costs them a shitload of money and it takes forever to get it done. The budget for the movie was about $8,000 tops, and that included new equipment. To make the movie itself was about $2,500 to $3,000. No budget, and that’s because I did everything.

Y Spy: How did the increased availability of high-grade technology affect that?

Udler: If you have $200, you can go online and download some free editing software, scriptwriting software, and you can get a camera. I have a little Samsung that I bought at Best Buy for about $140, and you could make a feature on it. It all depends on what kind of movie you want to make. As a low-budget filmmaker you have to be realistic about what you can do. You can write a script that has a massive zombie invasion of the Prussian Army, and you go, “I can’t really do that, so how am I going to make it work? Instead, I’ll have a brother and sister who fuck each other and kill tourists, and I’ll pop Lloyd in there.” There’s your exploitation!

If you have a camera and you can get some of this stuff for free, that’s the best way to do it. Like Lloyd says, just make your own damn movie! Anybody right now can make a movie. I know a lot of people complain about that, but the guys who complain are guys who came in when it was 35 mm. They made movies at a time when you had to prove to people that you weren’t going to lose their money. Now anybody with $2,000 can make a movie. I think that’s great!

Y Spy: Does that redefine the old term, “B-movie?”

Udler: The term “B-movie” comes from the drive-ins. There was an A-picture, which was usually “Star Wars,” and there would be a B-picture, which would be “Alpha Incident.” Now, I don’t think that B-pictures exist anymore. You either have a budget or you don’t.

Y Spy: You’re either a big studio, or everyone else.

Udler: You’re either “Avatar,” or you’re “Incest Death Squad.” There’s nothing in-between. It’s incest, or it’s blue Smurf things flying around in 3-D. Hopefully we can do the next one in 3-D.

Y Spy: What else have you been up to, and what are you planning to do next?

Udler: Right now we’re in production for “Incest Death Squad 2.” We just started; we’ll probably have the premiere in September. I’ve also been writing movies for grindhouse legend Ted V. Mikels. I wrote his last two movies, which were “Demon Haunt” and “Astro Zombies 3.” I write films, I work for Full Moon, I just finished a documentary called “I Made My Own Damn Movie and Lived to Tell About It.” That will be on the “Produce Your Own Damn Movie” box set from Troma.

Y Spy: How has the reaction to “Incest Death Squad” been?

Udler: Amazing. We’ve gotten a tremendous response from around the world. We’ve sent it everywhere, and everybody gets back to us. That’s the one thing that I say: please just let me know what you thought. Good, bad, or indifferent. It helps you grow as a filmmaker. People get back and say: “I can’t believe this! I can’t believe what you did in this movie! It’s crazy, it’s insane, it’s sick, and I love it!” It’s really been gratifying to see people embrace it and make it their own. As a filmmaker, you make it, but once you turn it over, it’s theirs.

Y Spy: What’s the worst reaction you’ve gotten?

Udler: The worst reaction and outrage I got was from Fangoria Magazine. The dude who reviewed it freaked out! He freaked out because he knew incest survivors to begin with, so I had one strike there, but he hated everything about it. He said it was like a home movie, like I shot it with my friends, that the direction was terrible, some of the acting was okay, the stunt casting sucked. What was great was people started defending the movie in the comments section. Fans of the movie stepped up. It’s not about the reviewers.

Y Spy: How much of the negative reaction is solely due to the title?

Udler: They’re done! They’ve already made up their mind. But the title more often than not sells it to people. They see “Incest Death Squad” and say: “I’ve gotta own this!” For the exploitation crowd, they go nuts for it. Nobody embraces stuff like the horror community.

Y Spy: What’s your favorite psychological horror movie?

Udler: “Texas Chainsaw” always got under my skin. “Night of the Living Dead” I liked. “Exorcist” of course is always frightening. I don’t know if it’s a horror movie, but “El Topo” from Alejandro Jodorowski, and also “The Holy Mountain” from him was crazy. But if you go back and watch Ingmar Bergman’s “Virgin Spring,” that’s a creepy movie! There’s a lot of stuff outside of the horror genre that’s creepier than the stuff that horror folks are doing.

I used to watch “The Incredibly Strange Film Show” with Jonathan Ross. He would interview all these crazy filmmakers, and that was what turned me on to these weird, crazy movies. Basically I like the grindhouse/exploitation movies more than horror movies, so that’s what I really embraced. A lot of the stuff that’s popular now are zombie movies, slasher in the woods, teeny vampires. So when a movie like “Incest Death Squad” comes out, there’s no ambiguity. This is as graphic and grotesque and offensive and smutty a film as I could make, and the second one’s going to be even worse.

Y Spy: What scares you?

Udler: Failure.

Incest Death Squad

“Incest Death Squad” can be found at www.incestdeathsquad.com. “Incest Death Squad 2” comes out September 17th.

August 9, 2010
Categories: Q&A, Y Spy . Tags: , . Author: Y . Comments: Leave a comment

Life among the Dead/Alive: HorrorHound Weekend 2010

Gary Indiana: Hell on Earth

Appropriately enough, the most terrifying thing to happen during the last weekend of March – a weekend I spent among grim reapers, zombies, stilt-Nazis, and filmmakers – was driving through Gary, Indiana. NOBODY has made a fiction that is as frightening as Gary, Indiana.

The driver of our adventure took us through the hell that doubles as both Chicago’s Toilet and Michael Jackson’s birthplace in his girlfriend’s Prius. The car was as out of place as a drag queen giving a lap dance to Bono at a tractor pull. When I made the mistake of cracking a window, the outside air swooped inside our climate-controlled sanctuary, shat itself, and then died. The Gary-Air belied a greater desperation which seeped into every inch of the landscape. Thankfully, the safer pastures of Indianapolis awaited, and the ghouls of HorrorHound Weekend made us forget about the devastation – well, at least until we had to drive back home.

THIS is the best that Gary, Indiana has to offer.

* * *

One of the main reasons why I had decided to tag along with my friends and come to March’s HorrorHound Weekend was because of the adventures they had at the previous con during the past November. The big story from that weekend involved a crowd of people getting stuck in an elevator for an extended period of time. Some of them freaked out, while a few had a blast. My friends were in the latter camp.

Another elevator story came from that weekend, when a friend of mine ended up in an elevator with scream queen Linnea Quigley. This time there was no surrounding group, just him and her. Having been one of horror’s hottest babes in her prime, you’d think that he’d have been thrilled at the erotic possibilities, but as it turned out, she just mumbled a lot, laughed at random moments, and scared the crap out of him.

Yet the strangest thing to come out of November’s convention were the series of baffling texts I received from this same person, who kept telling me that James Duval was a cool guy. Duval, whom I’ve always knocked for coming off as an indie film version of Keanu Reeves, apparently took my pal under his wing and showed him his latest film, “The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond.” According to my friend, both the film and the actor were pretty alright.

The stories from that convention made me want to go to the next one.  And I’m glad I did.

* * *

Still, we were stuck in Gary for much longer than we had hoped, however, and as a result we didn’t arrive on Friday’s scene until the day’s events were almost over. We received our blue wristbands and stuck our toes into the pool, not stopping at any one exhibit until we hit the mask room, where I conducted the night’s only interview.

I dunno... do you think people will get it?

Of course my first interview of the weekend would be with a guy who made a movie called “Incest Death Squad!” There just wasn’t any way around this glaring appropriateness. As I followed my group into the mask room, where a vast array of horror-themed costumes greeted the spectators, I found myself at a booth manned by Cory Udler, the film’s director. Eager to get the word out, he handed me a copy of “Incest Death Squad” after the interview was over, autographing it with the tagline: “Incest is best!”

* * *

Friday night was spent in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel, where we drank overpriced drinks and watched a crowd filled with podcasters, internet dignitaries, and the costumed. Among the ghoulish guys and scantily clad ladies were two characters of note: a woman with orange hair and turquoise skin, and a guy who came off as a recently-electrified green goblin. A few legends mingled among the masses, most notably the great horror propagandist Joe Bob Briggs and actor Sid Haig. My friends met old acquaintances made from previous conventions, and we stood around plotting our next move.

Suckup.

We met Lloyd Kaufman at the entrance of the hotel. Originally our plan was to go to a karaoke bar with a crowd of podcasters, but we decided that we didn’t want to shell out money for a drunk taxi and were returning to the bar. As we approached the Marriott’s revolving door, we saw Kaufman standing at the drop-off, holding a bag and looking around. We approached this titan of Bizarro cinema with reverent caution. While there were plenty of horror legends in attendance at HorrorHound Weekend – including George Romero of “Living Dead” fame, Clive Barker of “Hellraiser,” and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark – Kaufman was really the guy we had come to see. Yet he was incredibly gracious – a quality that I suppose comes in handy when encountering lines of hundreds of people who come bearing similar adulations. I told him that I was excited to see him in “Incest Death Squad,” and he agreed to do an interview for the next day. Kaufman soon made a quick exit, and my comrades and I went back to wandering.

Later on, I made a brief return to our scummy-ass motel across the street, and when I came back there was a leather-clad dandy behind a miniature piano in the corner of the bar.

First Jason, Fucking Shit Up.

“Dude,” one of my friends said, “that’s the first Jason Voorhees!”

Indeed he was. Ari Lehman, who played the child version of the hockey mask hacker in the first “Friday the 13th” movie, was ready to rock. He lit a candelabrum, placed it upon the piano, and proceeded to blow us away.

Following this performance came more waiting, more standing around. The crowd in the lobby was impatient for the next day to begin, but unwilling to sleep away the time between. It was late when the masses broke off and returned to their respective rooms, and even when we fell asleep to the televised whore-mongering monologues of Artie Lange, we were impatient.

* * *

We woke the next morning, ready to go. After a fast food breakfast and a few laps around the convention floor, I got to work. The floor was packed with sightseers and autograph seekers, so my first order of business was approaching all manner of prospective interviewees and putting out the vibe, asking them if they’d be interested in a few minutes of conversation once the crowds died down.

One thing I noticed throughout the day was the amount of people who wore (or occasionally sold) t-shirts with disturbing statements on them. It seemed that for those who didn’t come in full costume, a snarky message would suffice. The first person interviewed on Saturday was no exception to this idea. His message: “Dead Girls Do Anal.”

Here's Another.

* * *

Following a goofed-up interview with film legend Tom Noonan, I decided to switch off journalist mode for a bit and wander the floor. I met assorted ghouls and monsters, a couple wearing hospital scrubs splattered with post-natal blood (with baby still attached), a ten foot tall gas-masked fascist type, and a pair of girls sporting facial road rashes. In the hallway, Elvira was flanked by an autograph line that ran as far as I could see, while in the men’s room, a giant guy in full Michael Myers costume was asked by another person if he had held him the year before. “I probably choked you,” Myers answered. “I don’t fuck around.”

Art!

I soon found myself back in the mask room, wandering around all manner of latex art. In the back aisle lurked some of the room’s best pieces: life sized statues, a raygun wielding Killer Klown, and exhibits from the “Hellraiser” films. All were magnificent works of art.

Returning to the main hall, I met Emil Hyde, director of “The Landlord.” My friend had already made the film’s acquaintance the previous night, when he was farted at by someone associated with the film while in the same bathroom where I met Michael Myers. “Consider that a gift from the Landlord!” the guy cackled.

Afterwards, I went to lurk in one of the hall’s back corners and saw some fine examples of humanity. There was a masked luchador hard at work on his laptop, a bald, eerie gnome lady, and a middle-aged guy with a beautiful, wavy mullet (which we decided to pronounce moo-lay in this case). When I met a lady dressed up as a fishnetted Ghostbuster, I knew I had found the hottest dame of the convention. Luckily, I have had no erotic dreams featuring Egon Spengler or Vigo the Carpathian as a result.

Amidst all this, a well-dressed man with tentacles growing out of his face spoke loudly for the cause of zombie rights. When I approached him in order to discuss his pet cause, he directed me to the masterminds behind the movement, a guy-girl duo wearing matching t-shirts that read: “Ban Headshots.”

Featured: "Your Mom Swallows Period Blood," "C.H.U.D. Nelson." Not featured: Elvira's boobs.

Neil Autry has one of the best promotional schemes I’ve ever heard of. As we approached his booth, taking in its delightfully vulgar t-shirts – including instant classics like “Your mom swallows period blood” and the Breakfast Club/Cannibal Underdweller mashup of “C.H.U.D. Nelson” – we noticed a box on the table which was covered in black cloth. The sign above it read: “See Elvira’s Boobs free with any purchase!!” You better believe we paid up. Being that I didn’t have the money to buy one of his hilarious t-shirts,  I bought a dollar pin featuring a shirtless Elvis punching a guy in the gut, and Autry took me to the Promised Land. And it was good.

* * *

Mister Hamilton had been at the top of the list of people I wanted to interview since I met him the night before. My group knew him the previous convention, and introduced me to the raconteur as he strolled through the hotel lobby. The first thing I thought was that he had one of the most bitchin’ curly-tipped mustaches I had ever seen. The thing could go toe to toe with the lip mane of Rollie Fingers and come out ahead.

Yet as I’d find out the next day, Mister Hamilton was much more than a set of well-groomed whiskers. In the corner adjoining the convention floor’s entrance doors sat a humble table of art, manned by a hefty guy with a denim vest and a two-toned Mohawk. The art depicted all manner of horror icons, set against leopard printed and/or fuzzy backgrounds which often used tops from soda cans as their hanging pieces. I knew that this was an art I wanted to know more about, but the guy was only the magician’s assistant and told me to come back later.

When I returned, there was Mister Hamilton, presiding over his artistic empire. He soon began to talk about putting his dick in a mousetrap. The man is amazing.

Goddamn Right.

* * *

Of everyone I met and talked to over the course of HorrorHound Weekend, only one person was a dick. That person was Robert Z’Dar, star of the “Maniac Cop” series. As I walked past his booth it dawned on me who he was, and I asked if I could take a picture of him.

“You got ten bucks?” he asked.

I was taken aback. People with cameras were all over the place, taking pictures with or without the subject’s permission, and nobody asked for or received any compensation. “No,” I said, probably sneering a bit past polite, and I began to walk off.

“Hold up,” he said, pointing at me as though I had grossly insulted him by not throwing wads of cash on his table. “I’ll let you take one picture. One.”

Not caring at this point, I snapped a quick shot and disappeared. Worth every penny.

Maniac Cop, Philanthropist.

* * *

Not Fake.

Someone whom I was much more excited to meet was a guy running the most unique booths at the convention, selling framed butterflies, spiders, and scorpions. The creatures were so stunningly colorful that I initially didn’t believe that they weren’t painted or otherwise modified. But as Matt Youngerman explained, that’s the beauty of nature.

Hare Krishna Zombie rules! We made the acquaintance of the “Dawn of the Dead” star early on in the day, and we saw him wandering about the floor from time to time, mostly mingling with horror and movie makeup legend Tom Savini, whom we were all far too chickenshit to talk to. When I finally made my way back to HKZ’s booth and conducted this interview, he dropped some knowledge on my friend and I, talking about the Rothchild family and the dangers of globalization. Talking conspiracy theories with a Hare Krishna Zombie is as awesome as it sounds.

Hare Krishna Zombie, Droppin' Knowledge.

* * *

So here’s one person I didn’t expect to meet at a horror convention. Early in the afternoon, someone got on the loudspeaker and made yet another of the day’s proclamations. “Would everybody please welcome – Catherine Mary Stewart!” As usually followed such announcements, pockets of people politely cheered and then went about their business. But I was stunned. The star of “The Apple” was here.

Bizarro Gold!

For those who haven’t heard of this titan of Bizarro cinema, “The Apple” is simply amazing. It’s Rocky Horror set to disco. It’s the Book of Genesis and the Book of Revelations in one. And it has one of the most insane, mind-blowing endings in any movie, ever. Holy shit, I thought, I had to talk to her. And she ended up being one of my favorite people at HorrorHound, even though I’m still not sure why she was there. Then again, “The Apple” has been confusing me for years, so that’s fitting.

* * *

Soon after this point, another voice boomed over the loudspeaker. This time it wasn’t announcing the arrival of another celebrity or issuing dire warnings against parking in fast-food lots, but stating that the convention halls were closing in 15 minutes. Shit. I still had work left to do. I looked around for Lloyd Kaufman and Joe Bob Briggs, but the former was still knuckle-deep in fans at the Troma Line and the latter was already being interviewed. So I decided to do a series of quick interviews with people I had already met.

Eventually, Ari Lehman was free to talk. He gestured wildly and spoke in exaggerated tones, lending no doubt to the idea that he really enjoyed being a part of horror movie history. At least in the context of HorrorHound Weekend and other such conventions, people such as Lehman and Hare Krishna Zombie have turned relatively small movie parts into big notoriety. Yet having played the first Jason Voorhees, the malformed kid who leaps out of Crystal Lake in the first “Friday the 13th” film, Lehman seems to have taken it further, making his hot minute of film lore into a huge part of his life.

The voice on the loudspeaker quickly returned and announced the end. The convention hall was now closed. Joe Bob Briggs was still being interviewed, so I figured that my chances of getting to talk to him were a wash. I walked back to the center of the room, hoping to find Lloyd Kaufman and get an education on things Bizarro. The line at the Troma booth was fading, and after he spent a few minutes talking to Catherine Mary Stewart, he was ready to talk.

As could be guessed from the many movie introductions he’s produced for Troma, Kaufman likes to get other people into the act. Well, that, and he’s a hilarious ham. While we were getting ready to start, he saw Louise Robey, star of the “Friday the 13th” television series, and pulled her into our conversation. Later on, Joe Bob Briggs himself walked past us, and Lloyd roped him into our circle of madness as well.

What followed was a work of joyous chaos. It made no sense. There were no points made. No ideas were being advanced. But it was without a doubt the best way I could have ended HorrorHound Weekend.

Horrorgasm.

* * *

And with that, I left the Marriott and returned to my crappy motel across the street, satisfied. I spent the next few hours transferring all these interviews to my computer, watching TV movies in the meantime. After that, I went to a liquor store, filled a Burger King cup with screwdrivers that were half vodka, and got triumphantly drunk.

I left my motel room and began walking back to the Marriott when I saw someone I recognized outside a room opposite mine. It was the frazzled green goblin I had seen the night before, hanging outside with his face paint (almost) scrubbed off. Introducing himself as Freakshow, he invited me into his room, and together with his partner, by day a fetish-dressed lady named June “The Meat” Cleaver, we talked about the convention. They were in town covering the event for Madison Horror.

“Hey, do you want to do an interview with us?” Freakshow asked.

I swayed on my feet, for some reason unwilling to sit down, but barely able to stand up. “I think I’m done,” I said.

* * *

The Marriott remained in high spirits when I came back some time later. My cohorts were lurking around the lobby, but I heard tell of a mass hula-hoop demonstration in the depths of the hotel, so my friend and I ditched the entrance. We weren’t disappointed. The giant hallway was packed with people spinning rings around their waists, while Mister Hamilton looked on and performed a trick or two. I briefly spotted Ari Lehman in the mass, but my focus fell on a girl whose butt was turning purple from a violent spanking she was receiving at the hands of another girl. I tried my hand (and hips) at hula-hoop, but I was as inept as I’d always been.

The night wore on and the crowd wore out, and soon I was one of the last people in the halls. At this point I looked out into the hotel courtyard, where amidst a sudden rainstorm, a luminous fountain cascaded water down a giant staircase. I had to climb it. Stripping down to my underwear, I ignored the rain and leaped into the pond, climbed up the stairs and bellowed like King Kong. Pleased with myself, I soon decided to head back to my room, and I walked across the street, barefoot in the rain.

The ultimate result? I was very, very sick for two weeks. But I regret nothing!

Partied Out.

* * *

We cleared out of the motel early the next morning, having decided that the long drive ahead didn’t leave us with any time to take in Sunday’s festivities. We had seen all that we needed to see. The drive home was one of contented fulfillment – well, until we had to drive through Gary again.

Oh, the horror of Gary.

Gary Indiana: Still Hell!

August 6, 2010
Categories: Wandering, Y Spy . Tags: . Author: Y . Comments: Leave a comment

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