Cameron McCasland moved to Nashville, Tn from his home state of Texas in hopes of becoming a musician. When that didn’t pan out he turned to another love, film production. He later met Larry Underwood, AKA Dr Gangrene, and was asked to join the crew of his horror host show. Cameron’s lastest indie film The Lashman stars Monsters From The Basement’s favorite actress Stacey Dixon along with Kaylee Williams. It will be released soon and promises to be a throw back to the 80′s slasher films that we all love. I visited with Cameron a couple weeks ago and we talked about The Lashman and the three Emmy Nominations that the Dr Gangrene show recivied a few weeks ago. Listen in as I talk to Cameron McCasland.
Click here to listen to my interview with Cameron McCasland
After watching Ann Margert in the Elvis movie “Viva Las Vegas” Cassandra Peterson knew she wanted to be in show business. In the early 1980′s she applied for a job as a horror hostess in California. She got the job and since then her character of Elvira Mistress Of The Dark has became a world wide icon in horror. Other than the TV show, Elvira has starred in two movies, a comic book series, dvds, action figures, model kits and countless other products. I had a wonderful talk with Cassandra last week over the phone and we talked about her start in show business, her favorite horror actor, he new model kit and her up coming appearence at the Scarefest coming up September 23 – 25 in Lexington, Kentucky. Join me and listen in as I interview Cassandra Peterson!!
Click here to listen to my interview with Cassandra Peterson
Last year Mobius Models announced that they would be releasing a brand new model of the one and only Mistress Of The Dark, Elvira. Well the wait is over and the kit is here. It features Elvira lying on her couch as she does on her tv show Movie Macabre.
The kit features a full color picture of Elvira on the front of the box
And the back of the box shows a picture of the built and painted model
The kit includes over 60 parts to build and paint and even includes Elvira’s punk rock dog Gonk on the sofa beside her
Here are a few pictures of my Elvira kit
You can find the Elvira model at your favorite local hobby shop!!!
Another Fright Night Film Fest has come and gone and I have to say I had a better time this year than I did last year. There were two different buildings at the convention and each one was packed with horror and pop culture icons and venders that were selling everything from horror movies, posters, pictures, tee shirts and just about everything else in between. I will say there were some issues with heat. But I did not let that stand in the way of having an awesome weekend.
We got to Louisville on Thursday night and ran into Ken and Myra Daniels who were running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to get everything ready for the opening of the fest the next day. We also ran into one of Monsters From The Basements favorite actresses, Tiffany Shepis. I have featured interviews with Tiffany and her husband Sean Tretta on this website two times and they are such great people. It is always great being a show they are going to be at.
Tiffany Shepis and Sean Tretta at the VIP Party
After getting settled into the room I headed down to the bar to hang out and get some refreshments. On the way to the elevator I ran into one of the stars of American Graffiti, Paul LeMat. We headed down to the bar and hung out for a while and talked about everything to do with movies. While in the bar I met a fan of Monsters From The Basement, Randy Bottorff. He had seen me at other conventions and he joined us and added to the conversation. We hung out a lot over the weekend and he even helped out with making pictures while I did some interviews over the weekend.
Paul Le Mat
After a fun night at the bar I made my way back up to the room and got some much needed sleep. I have to be at work very early and I am usually in bed before 10pm so I was very tired after a day at work and the drive to Louisville.
After getting up on Friday and having breakfast, I was down stairs roaming around and saw Melissa Majors who I believe is Ken and Myra’s neice. She asked me if I wanted to go ahead and get my passes so I could avoid standing in line later. She had helped Ken and Myra promote the show over the past months by going to other conventions and just getting the word out about the show. I hooked up with another friend, Kevin Johnson, who I had met at the Full Moon Fest in Nashville a few months ago. Kevin is a huge fan of horror movies and loves to collect stuff just like I do. I like talking to him because he is very knowledgeable about movies.
The hour soon approached for the convention to begin. My favorite part of a show is the first time you walk thru the convention and seeing who is all there and running into vendors and celebs that you have met before. Now, I had never met this lady before but my first stop was the table of Candy Clark. Candy had starred in American Graffitti with Paul and also with David Bowie in The Man Who Fell To Earth. I talked to Candy and asked if she would do an interview with me and she said yes. It will be posted in the next few weeks.
With Candy Clark
I have always loved Linda Blair so I went to her table on Friday as well to avoid the long lines on Saturday. I have attended three conventions in the past year that Linda has been at and each time I have visited her and I always enjoy getting to talk with her. She will always be one of my favorite actresses.
With Linda Blair
Now, I usually don’t go watch movies at conventions unless it is something I really want to see. I would rather spend my time at conventions meeting the stars or talking and hanging out with friends. I can get the dvd and watch a movie at home. But this weekend I really wanted to see the film Psycho Street from Muscle Wolf Productions. The film stars Tiffany Shepis, Raine Brown and Susan Adriensen. These three actress really shine in this film. The film features four different stories with Tiffany’s segment joining the four stories together. I had featured Susie on this website a few weeks ago and we talked about her two different parts in this movie. It really showed what an awesome actress she really is.
Psycho Street Poster
I will be featuring an interview with Marv Blauvelt who heads up Muscle Wolf Productions and we talk about this film, the stars and what is coming up for this new film company.
Muscle Wolf Productions
I had been kicking around the idea of writing an article on Midnite Mausoleum for Scary Monsters Magazine. I contacted the show producer Blake Powell about this a while back and asked him if we could get together at Fright Night and talk about the show and he said they would be glad to. We agreed to sit down and talk after the show shut down Saturday night and did a longer than usual interview with him, Marlena Midnite and Robyn Graves.
Interviewing Marlena Midnite, Robyn Graves and Blake Powell
With Midnite Mausoleum
As the night begin to wind down Randy and I attended the VIP party which was very nice because at this point food and liquids were really needed. Tifffany and Sean attended and Linda Blair even made an appearance as did Sal Lizard who lead the group in a sing along of Christmas Carols.
Actor Sal Lizard
The cake for the VIP was pretty awesome. Check out these pictures.
Michael Myers cake
J Larose from the Saw films and Repo also showed up at the VIP party and posed for pictures with Randy and I. He is such a super nice guy.
With J Larose
Friend Randy with J Larose
I remember seeing the film Dark Night Of The Scarecrow when it aired on CBS back in the early 80′s. I was really excited when they announced that Tonya Crow who was 10 years old when she made the movie was a guest at Fright Night. She also appeared on the CBS series Knotts Landing who I watched with my late wife each and every week. She agreed to do an interview with me and suggested that I interview Larry Drake who also starred in the film as Bubba, and the writer of the film JD Feigelson as well. I will combine these three interviews for one special podcast as a tribute to this awesome movie.
Tonya Crowe, Larry Drake and JD Feigleson with The Scarecrow (photo courtesy of Dave Fuentes)
Michael Bien and Jennifer Blanc were there promoting their new film The Victim. Michael starring in Aliens, the first two Terminator films and The Abyss among others. Jennifer has appeared in countless TV shows and films as well. I talked with them about their careers and the new film as well.
Interview with Jennifer and Michael coming soon to Monsters From The Basement.
I also had the pleasure of interview two of the zombies from The Walking Dead as well. Addy Miller and Keisha Tillis. My good friend Melissa Cowan was another zombie from the show that was present at the show.
Addy Miller
Keisha Tillis
Margot Kidder who starred as Lois Lane in the Christopher Reeves Superman movies was a guest as well.
With Margot Kidder
I also interview Julie Montgomery from Revenge Of The Nerds movies. She was really sweet.
Julie Montgomery
The Guest Of Honor was film director John Carpenter. I had a budget for this show and the price of the photo-op with Mr Carpenter didn’t fit into that budget but I did have him sign a poster from his film The Thing Nathan Milliner had for sale.
The Thing poster signed by John Carpenter
I interviewed Patricia Albrecht who was the voice of Pizzaz in the cartoon Jem And The Holograms from The 80′s.
Anyone that was growing up in the 70′s has to remember David Naughton and his Dr Pepper commericals. He also had a hit record with the song Making It and went on to star in An American Werewolf In London among other films. I am alwasys looking for old advertising and cold drink memorabilia to decorate my kitchen with. A few weeks ago I was looking in an antique store and found an empty Dr Pepper can for 2 bucks. I thought it would be cool to bring it to the show and get David to sign it for me. I think he got a big kick out of it.
Being a Pepper with David Naughton at Fright Night
A horror convention does not see complete to me without Thomas Berdinski and the crew from The Italian Zombie Movie and The Giant Rubber Monster Movie.
And of course there was your usual costumed characters roaming the halls. Enjoy the following pictures of fans and vendors alike who decided to dress up for the show.
Where does Superman change now that there are no more phone booths?
Also attending the show were my Nashville friends Ben and Stacey Dixon as well as Andie Noir and Goldie Fatale. Did not get a chance to get a picture with them but I did hang out and talk to them during the course of the weekend.
I think our hotel neighbors had a bit of a zombie problem during the weekend.
I have to rate this as one of my favorite conventions for 2011. I had a lot of friends attending and it was great getting to see them again and catch up with what was going on with them. James and Abby from Kentucky are always a fun couple to talk to. I also made some new friends and hopefully some new fans for Monsters From The Basement.
I really loved a addition of the pop culture guests such as Henry Winkler, Revenge Of The Nerds and others. There were alot more guests at the show that are not mentioned in this post such as Edward Furlong, Kane Hodder and Robert Caradine just to name a few, but once again I had a budget to stay within and I met the guests that I was big fans of. But I know all the guest had hordes of fans turning out to meet them and get pictures and autographs.
I know for a fact that Ken and Myra Daniels, along with Melissa Majors have worked very hard organizing and promoting this show. They were at just about every convention that I attended over the past 8 months. I have to say the hard work paid off. Last year Ken promised that this years show would be awesome and he said in the program that next years show would top this one. I for one can not what to see what Fright Night offers the fans next year!!!
We will see you next year in Louisville for Fright Night 2012.
I would like to thank my son Julian Downing for the pictures of people in costume, Randy Bottorff for making the interview pictures with Muscle Wolf Productions and Midnite Mausoleum and Dave Fuentes for the Dark Night Of The Scarecrow picture. And to Kevin Johnson for hanging out during the course of the weekend.
