First off let me start by saying congratulations and a celebratory handshake , you and I are both celebrating 6 years of our efforts I with my blog and you with Horrorshow.
- Thanks Anthony. Yeah, 6 years... where does the time go? Seems like only yesterday we were meeting for the first time to do one of these interviews. Congratulations to you as well for doing what you love for 6 years! Blog work is a lot of thankless writing and I hope you know that there are folks out there that read and appreciate what you do. 6 Years is definitely a mile stone and I'm happy to be able to be here and still be doing what I love to do. -
Some of the history as well if you care to share.
- Well, the history of Horrorshow really stems back to my life long love for film, in all of it glorious forms, and specifically my love for monsters and the macabre. Coming from a very strict Christian valued home, I started to gravitate towards anything that was creepy or supernatural as a way to break out from the strict restrictions that were put on what I was allowed to watch at home. Oddly enough, my love of monsters was actually spawned from watching films with my mom. She loved to watch old movies, and I would often watch them with her, stuff that wouldn't be considered "horror" or anything of the sort, but had monsters and fantastical beasts none the less. Films like "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad", "Clash of the Titans" and other Ray Harryhausen films, with their amazing creature effects. Classics like my beloved 1930's "King Kong" which I still hold as the greatest achievement in cinema history to this day, and a slew of others that really start to set me on the path to seeking out oddities and creatures that could never exist in this world. Those early films left a heavy impression on me, I then found the Universal monsters, which I was allowed to watch for some reason, probably because they were soo old, and had no blood, or gore, nudity or violence. Then I made my way to the video stores and found that my friends parents didn't much care what we rented as long as we stayed quiet and didn't disturb them in the evenings. That opened the flood gates for me. I did a LOT of sleep overs after I figured that out. -
Please explain to the readers your initial reason to starting "Horrorshow" and then expanding it to "Cult Classics" as well as an alternative to the non-horror crowd.
- I pitched the idea of Horrorshow to the owners of the Hollywood 3 Cinema after I had worked there for a few months as the projectionist, back when being a projectionist was still a job and the theater hadn't switched to full digital projection and automation systems like they run now. I asked if they would be interested in me promoting and hosting a late night horror feature. I would provide the films, promote and run the events. All they needed to do was allow me access to the space. They had just opened and were trying to get their name out there, it was basically free promotion for the theater, it ran after their usual operations hours so they didn't lose any business and they could gain an extra profit from the concession, so they decided to let me do it. I sold out that first showing, and really impressed them and they've been letting me do my thing for going on 6 years now. -
About 3 or 4 years into my shows, I decided to switch things up and start alternating between Horror films and Cult Classic films. The reason for this was mainly because I loved films so much in all there forms, that I wanted to be able to share other films that were very important to me, but didn't quite fit into the "horror" genre. I did my first cult night and people absolutely loved it. I was able to share classic films that I never thought I would be able to see on the big screen & I effectively doubled my viewing audience, as Horror obviously isn't for everybody. -
You have shown many classic tales of horror and cult oddities , does it surprise after 6 years there is still an audience for your events?
- Not at all, in fact I'm always humbled when I see new faces walking in to the theater that late at night to come see a movie that means so much to me. I get to chat with the people and we get to share our love for these films. To me film is one of the most important forms of art that are available. It takes everything, photography, videography, lighting, composure, writing, acting, music, composition, set design, costumes, every creative "Arts" outlet that there is all have to work together to create the beauty that is film. I never think that this will die. People will always connect to film, and hopefully they'll keep coming out to watch these classics from years past, as long as I keep showing them. -
Your first event was your personal horror film The Evil Dead and this 6 year Anniverscary is The Mist being shown in Black & White, explain the reasoning for this one?
- Yes, Evil Dead was my very first Horrorshow event. My original goal when I started this was to be able to seen all of the Evil Dead trilogy on the big screen. Once I accomplished this I just kept going, ha ha. It's no secret that I usually select films to screen based on my personal taste, and sometimes when I can't decide I will let the fans vote for the next film on our facebook page. For this month's feature, I decided to play on of my favourite modern films, which is Frank Darabont's loving adaptation of Stephen King's short story "THE MIST". This film has everything I look for in a great horror film. It pits man against man and shows the archetypal break down of society and humanity when you take away modern comforts that society provides, it shows the true animal nature that humans try so hard to pretend that we are above. Add to that amazing creature design by horror comic icon Bernie Wrightson & overtones of Lovecraft and a ending that is so shocking that I can't believe a large film studio let is happen on screen and you've got an instant classic in my eyes. The reason why I decided to screen it in black & white is simple. Originally, Frank Darabont requested 2 things from the studio when he pitched this film. One was that they couldn't change the ending, and the other was that he could shoot it in black & white. No studio would touch the project, except for Dimension films, the agreed to all of Darabonts requests, but they wouldn't budge on the film being in black & white. He could direct it how he wanted, have full control over final edit and they wouldn't touch the ending, but it had to be in colour. He figured that was a fair compromise and decided to make the film. On the special collectors edition of the film, it includes the black & white edition, so I decided to play that version of the film, to let people see the film the way the director originally wanted his work to be seen on the big screen. -
What future plans do you have for the current events you host?
- For Horrorshow, I plan to keep sharing my favourite films on the silver screen for as long as the cinema that I host at allows me to keep going, so far its been 6 years and we've never had an issues, so I see it going for as long as long as I still have the energy to watch movies at midnight! Beyond that I always keep myself busy with my various other projects. As you & some of your readers may know, I'm an active member in the local music scene, and perform and tour regularly with my two bands: The Bone Daddies & The Still Spirits, respectively. I also own and operate a silkscreen business, Skeletone Printing, which I do on the side to print my own band, as well as many others, T-shirts, patches, hoodies and various other items for their merch tables. I host a weekly ska/punk/rockabilly radio show Thursday nights on CJSF, 90.1fm, we air from 10pm-midnight, and I focus on the local music scene as well as punk rock from abroad. If you ever want to know what's happening in the lower mainland for music, I'm the guy you should be listening to. I also do acting whenever I can, and have currently been touring with the Evil Dead: The Musical crew for the past 5 years. We'll be touring this October and will be performing in Portland, Seattle, Vancouver & Victoria. Check out Last Chance Productions for show times, tickets and show dates!
WEBLINKS:
HORRORSHOW
www.facebook.com/Hollywood3Horrorshow
BONE DADDIES
www.faceboook.com/BoneDaddies
www.BoneDaddies.Bandcamp.com
STIL SPIRITS
www.facebook.com/TheStillSpirits
www.StillSpirits.Bandcamp.com
RAD RADIO
www.facebook.com/RadRadio
SKELETONE PRINTING
www.facebook.com/SkeletonePrinting
EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL
www.EvilDeadTour.com
Thanks Jon
Thank you for reading this
Sincerely
Anthony Nadeau
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