It’s hard to find the gratitude sometimes, right?!? Money worries, career concerns, the state of the world, seasonal depressions… But you grab what you can when you can and sometimes the littlest things can turn you around.
My friend Deborah Dutch was visiting this past weekend. As we chatted and prepped for our evening adventures, I noticed my copy of the recently released Creepozoids soundtrack on vinyl. I asked her to pose with it…and, suddenly, life seemed kind of cool again.
As an overview, I was lucky enough to interview horror queen Linnea Quigley for the liner notes for this Terror Visions product. The fact that Deb is often associated with her, having appeared as an actress in such projects as Hard to Die, Sorority Girls and the Creature from Helland others, made this photo pairing seem like electric kismet. (Deb and Linnea actually even appear together in a scene in the cult slasher film Graduation Day!) This simple photo op made me realize how cool my life is. I have some amazingly creative friends and have been able to work on interesting projects. I’m also sure I’m not the only one in this position. I have a hopeful feeling that any person reading this right now can say the same about their life.
So, here’s to the vibrant connections that make our existences special!
Meanwhile, if you have exploitation soundtrack fever, Terror Vision is always uncovering amazing, rare celluloid tunes. http://www.terror-vision.com/.
You spend your 20s doing your morning workouts while watching the exploitation films you’ve taped off of cable the night before. Time, as it does, swirls by and, one day, you find yourself acting in a movie with one of the actresses that you adored during those AM stretching sessions. It’s surreal. It’s a bit mindboggling. It’s also vital proof that life is full of surprises and asserts the fact that even when certain dreams crumble, other unexpected ones can replace them.
Indeed, during a summer when Wonder Woman and (to a lesser degree) Atomic Blondeproved that female action blockbusters were important, both socially and financially, I found myself performing in a femme based comic book film myself. Created and executive produced by beloved scream queen Deborah Dutch (Hard to Die, Sorority Girls and the Creature from Hell), Hollywood Warrioress: War of the Godsexplores the continuing adventures of a West Coast actress who has been imbued with the powers of Athena. (Note: The first Hollywood Warrioressfilm is available to rent on Amazon and has just received national distribution.)
Nicely, Dutch’s goal of bringing a sense of justice and harmony to the screen was amplified on the Chicago set. Firstly, in a moment of supreme camaraderie, she flew into Chicago to make sure that we were sharing the same space as performers instead of connecting through green screen magic. Supportively, our mutual friends at the award winning AlleyCat Comics allowed us to film in their open courtyard space while director Chad Hawks returned (from the original production) to guide us, with caring conciseness, through our paces. Granted, my role as interviewer to Dutch’s heroic interviewee felt pretty natural…but I still had to, metaphorically, pinch myself from time to time. Luckily, I was also aware enough to appreciate the significance of the afternoon. I was surrounded by loved ones and positive energy (and beautiful weather) doing something creative and incredibly fun.
This joyous enthusiasm wasn’t contained to just the set either. A trip to a local ice cream shop, during a break, brought out a new sense of excitement as Deborah, still in costume, got quite a response…not only for her ensemble, but for the film, as well.
Freddy, Jason and Michael may get the lion’s share of horror loving, but the thing that I have always loved about the terror genre is how it has given women such a fertile ground to explore multiple characters. Even when the odds are against them and extremely exploitative elements present themselves as hindrances, strong portrayals can emerge.
Such is the case of Hard to Die which, if the world is fair, will one day be acknowledged as the Queen Mother of All B-Movies. Featuring a bevy of beauties who lit up the screens in a plethora of grindhouse projects, this Roger Corman produced quickie allows the (admittedly) scantily clad heroines to exert themselves in Amazonian manners. Here Deborah Dutch (Graduation Day, Sorority Babes and the Creature from Hell), Melissa Moore (Sorority House Massacre 2, Repossessed, The Invisible Maniac), Toni Naples (Death Stalker 2, Dinosaur Island), Karen Mayo Chandler (Stripped to Kill 2, Out of the Dark), Gail Harris (Curse of the Komodo, Forbidden Games), Monique Gabrielle (The Return of the Swamp Thing, Transylvania Twist) and Kelli Maroney (Night of the Comet, Chopping Mall) are featured in tale about a group of hard working retail princesses whose late night inventory shift turns into a deadly game of survival. After opening up an ancient text, the beauties soon find themselves either being possessed by an evil spirit or finding Rambo-like sensibilities within themselves as they take down their out of control colleagues. This gives the actresses plenty of emotions to play with – fear, rage and, finally, exhausted triumph. Tying into Slumber Party Massacre, another Corman property, through flashback sequences and the reuse of the Sorority House Massacre 2 character of Orville Ketchum, a scary looking yet sympathetic foil played with beleaguered dignity by Peter Spellos, adds many levels of genre joy to the film, as well.
Nicely, Midwest residents will get to catch a free screening of this micro epic on Saturday, August 5th at AlleyCat Comics, 5304 N. Clark, in Chicago. Dutch, who will be in town filming scenes for the sequel to her beloved The Hollywood Warrioressproject, will be in attendance, talking about the film and taking photos and signing memorabilia for fans. Therefore, if you haven’t seen the film before, this will be a truly unique way to experience it for the first time.
You don’t always need a time machine to revisit the past. Sometimes you just need a determined director…and an even stronger fan base! Coming in on the latter stretch, exploitation auteur Jim Wynorski has recently announced plans for a sequel to the early ‘90s cult classic Hard to Die.
Hard to Die, connected to The Slumber Party Massacreseries via its reuse of footage and plotlines from the original film, is perhaps one of the most notable projects of the VHS and direct to cable era. Luxuriating in that period’s excesses by taking place in a shopping mall as a bevy of gorgeous women do inventory in a lingerie store, the film reintroduced the audience to the hapless Orville, a misunderstood lug, compassionately played by character actor Peter Spellos. Orville, as many enthusiastic viewers can attest, had already been put through the ringer in the very similarly themed Sorority House Massacre II(AKA Nightie Nightmare).
Honing in on Spellos’ popularity, the new film will be titled Orville in Orbit. Naturally, Spellos will be returning along with HTD’s original actresses, Deborah Dutch, Melissa Moore and Gail Thackery (Harris), who were all important figures in the initial, genuine reign of the Scream Queens.
Have you been…feeling mightier than the Joker? Ready to pop your anvil to the max? Humming Blondie’s Atomic nonstop, for days?!?
Well, then you are definitely ready to take on the latest episode of Astro Radio Z, where the wonders of early 90s T and A crime comedies Vice Academy 3 and Vice Academy 4 are, lovingly and pitifully, examined.
Featuring a bevy of VHS goddesses, such as Ginger Lynn Allen, Darcy DeMoss, Julia Parton and Deborah Dutch, these films should be scintillating time-wasters. But are they?
Join host Derrick Carey and the boys (including myself) and find out!
Are you having an Up All Night with Rhonda Shear flashback? Well, you should be! One of the famed and original queens of scream, the eternally divine Deborah Dutch (Sorority Girls and the Creature from Hell, Hard to Die, Vice Academy series), has been working on her dream project The Hollywood Warrioress (with a variety of behind-the-scenes contributors) for over the past year.
While the film, a combination of super heroine vengeance, horror and action, has shot most of its footage in (and around) LA, the East Coast and Midwest have, also, been used as locations. In fact, one very chilly March day in 2014, I gathered with Chicago director and terror entrepreneur Chad Hawks to shoot a newsroom sequence for the film.
Was I excited? Sure! But, in a special case of behind-the-scenes madness, I almost didn’t make it to the studio where we shot. Like most creative types, I have a primary job that serves as my (ahem!) financial oasis. So, while I was finishing up my shift for the day, Chad set up the space. Needless to say, after I left work, I was totally unable to find a cab to get me to the location. As I set about to call one, my phone, naturally, died due to the (suddenly excessive) Midwest wind chill. Frantic, I ran back to my place of employment, plugged the phone in and tried to summon a cab from there. I couldn’t get through to a single cab company! I got in contact with Chad and we, quickly, decided that I’d take a nearby bus to a certain street where he would pick me up. He urged me to keep my phone on, as well, just in case he decided to come fetch me in route. It turns out we only had the filming space for a certain amount of time.
I schlepped onto the bus with my backpack and (by now drooping) garment bag…where my phone promptly died again. Defeated, I turned it off, completely. Then, after, excitedly, getting off at the wrong stop and promptly hopping back onto the bus again, I flicked on my phone and discovered it had powered up again. At that very second, it rang. It was Chad. He was in his car, directly behind us. Flustered and unkempt, I hopped off that dusty yellow chariot at the next stop and got into Chad’s black sedan. After offering profuse apologies, we rushed onward.
At the spot, I discovered, once again, what a consummate professional and total trouper Chad is. Not only was the green screen we were going to film against ready to go, but he also had to help me make costume choices and style my recently cut hair into something I was (at least vaguely) happy with. He then allowed me to pound through the very florid, very fun dialogue a couple of times as a warm-up and then we set to filming. We worked through the material in a variety of tempos and Chad added a few, interesting visual flourishes. After checking to make sure the different takes all had sound, we then broke the set down and headed out for a much needed dinner celebration.
Now, would I have liked it much better, on the day itself, if everything had gone a bit more smoothly? Sure. But, as a writer type, I sure do love having a good story to tell and, with a year’s distance, I now can say I wouldn’t have had it any other way!
You can get a sneak peek at some of our efforts at:
Be sure to follow The Hollywood Warrioress, which recently had a highly successful preview showing in LA, at https://www.facebook.com/hollywoodwarrioress. More screening dates should be announced soon.
Do you long for those good old days (in the late 80s and early 90s) when flicks by Wynorski, Corman, Schmoeller and DeCoteau were always popping up on cable, featuring appearances by the video box ladies that we all grew to love? As the Bloody Goddess can tell you, I certainly do! So, let’s re-visit a classic, now!
Proving that no one made (or makes) an entrance quite like her, DVD doll Deborah Dutch resonates, mightily in the first moments of Fred Olen Ray’s gritty 1994 effort Mind Twister. Though the film features everyone from Telly Savalas to Richard Roundtree, it is Dutch’s portrayal of the doomed Sheila Harrison in the opening moments that, ultimately, counts the most here.
Struggling against a demented transgressor, Dutch/Harrison eventually loses her life in a glass splattering frenzy. Though quickly dispatched, Dutch makes every second matter, providing the film with its most memorable moments. Her obvious stage training bursts forth – even as Harrison flies through the air to her doom.
Whenever I wake up, bloodied and dangling from a cliff, wearing only my Miley Cyrus underwear, I often wonder why there isn’t someone around to help me out! Well, count my worries as being over, for amazing genre icon Deborah Dutch (Hard to Die, Sorority Girls and the Creature from Hell, Graduation Day) has created the heroine to end all heroines, the Hollywood Warrioress.
Long a dream project of the vibrant Dutch, this action-fantasy flick (with heart) has recently completed filming. The generous Dutch has begun sharing clips from the project and, here, are a couple scenarios to whet your appetite:
Be sure to check back often for more on Dutch and the Hollywood Warrioress.
Big Gay Horror Fan 