It's Nice To Have Friends - INCIDENT review in from HC

Johnny Butane over at Horror Channel has officially made my Christmas list. And not just the list for boxed cards or fruit cake. He's hereby on the Omaha Steaks list. Johnny has posted his review of MASTERS OF HORROR:INCIDENT ON AND OFF A MOUNTAIN ROAD, Don "Phantasm" Coscarelli's entry. Apparently the WORKING WITH A MASTER series of featurettes is holding up. Hopefully the honeymoon will last.

From The Annals of Johnny Butane

Regarding the conspicuous lack of a certain BC... well, BC was offered RC's slot when RC withdrew. BC was very excited and started extensive prep. Sadly (and stupidly) the VPs over at HQ decided to offer the slot to a certain LM (a very nice and talented guy and totally removed from the situation) and unceremoniously dumped BC after all of his hard work. BC vowed not to have anything to do with the show and, hence, his absence. On the bright side, wounds have been mended with time.

There... those fans who can decipher that will now know the truth. If certain VPs can figure it out, too, well... you know you screwed up.

IT Happens

Sometimes a DVD producer gets no respect. It's hard enough to get credit. Many studios, like Disney, want consumers to think DVD extras spring out of from some anonymous conglom, as if the company has no individual minds at all. I guess that's just how corporations were raised. Or it could just be credit hogs in power suits.

Other times our work goes unnoticed or gets mentioned in a cast off kind of manner. Take Movie Poopshoot's summation of my featurette, BLOOD ON THE PINES, found on the lamentable IT WAITS DVD (due out May 23): "There's an enjoyable commentary track by director Munroe and star Vincent, an informative "Making Of" documentary, and the theatrical trailer."

That's it. Not even a comment about whether the thing is any good. Maybe I'm getting spoiled by all the attention MASTERS OF HORROR has been getting. Either way, here are two more reviews of IT WAITS. They're not that much more verbose, but they at least have an opinion.

My friends over at HORROR CHANNEL

Some site called COLLIDER

Now, I am in no way recommending IT WAITS to you horror fans out there. Don't let the name Stephen J. Cannell fool you. This is a turkey of the 10lb Butterball variety. The kind of film where a demon centuries old wakes up after a small eternity and somehow acquires the trap setting skills of MacGyver. Director Stephen Monroe did his best and it's for his intrepid spirit in the face of utter nonsense that I tried to make a serious "making of" piece.

That piece, by the way... fantastic!

First Reviews Of The New Batch

It seems the WORKING WITH A MASTER features I've been producing for the MASTERS OF HORROR DVDs continue to please the fans out there. Here are a couple of reviews for Mick Garris' disc, CHOCOLATE. It hits the stores on May 9 along with Don Coscarelli's INCIDENT ON AND OFF A MOUNTAIN ROAD. Check 'em out!

DVD REVIEW
HORROR CHANNEL

I'm very pleased with the outcome of this mini-DVD series. I could never have done it without a good many talented folks (some pictured below). Since a good cast deserves repeating, I'd like to thank... Jim Myers, Ira Speir, Joe Campana, David Batts, Amber Griffin, RJ Gallentine, Paul Buscemi, Perry Martin, Mike DeFusco, George Bours and Bo Altherr. WORKING WITH A MASTER could never have been done without these souls.


(from LtoR, Amber Griffin - Make up & Hair, Myself, Jim Myers - Production Manager (seated), Paul Buscemi - Sound, Ira Speir - Director of Photography)

HAPPY BUNNY DAY!!!

Horror Channel Undenied

As I indicated in my last entry, Johnny "Josh" Butane over at The Horror Channel was very complimentary about my "WORKING WITH A MASTER: STUART GORDON" featurette. He was also kind enough to interview me about the making of these featurettes for the MASTERS OF HORROR DVD series. Just starting out in this field, I can use all the press I can get and it is much appreciated.

In the course of the interview I mentioned how I was to produce the EVIL DEAD retrospective for the 25th Anniversary edition. Indeed this is what I was working on when Bo Altherr at Anchor Bay and producer Perry Martin assigned me to the "WORKING WITH A MASTERS" series. Here's a brief news piece that Horror Channel put up to a) confirm the ED 25th Anniversary DVD and b) give readers the heads up about my upcoming review.

Little did I know that such a simple interview about the making of a "making of" featurette would cause such a stink. Anchor Bay, due to mysterious political jitters, almost put the kibosh on the whole deal. My interview... the news piece... everything. Thankfully, Bo and Mark Ward over at Anchor Bay spoke with Johnny / Josh and the interview will be allowed up in time with the second release of MoH DVDs (albeit after it is approved).

You can read the EVIL DEAD article HERE.


I'll never get the full story on why Anchor Bay was so nervous that their mother company IDT Entertainment (producers of MASTERS OF HORROR) would find out I was being interviewed about the work that I did. When someone is interested enough in your DVD to interview one of its writer / producers, I would think that's the kind of publicity you would want. As of the moment, Anchor Bay and I seem to be in agreement.