Friday the 13th (1980)
TOM SAVINI TURNS 72 TODAY!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM!!!
Thomas Vincent Savini was born on November 3, 1946. He is known for his amazing talent as an actor in such films like From Dusk Till Dawn, Planet Terror Creepshow 2 and many many others. In 1990 he directed Night of The living Dead which was a remake of the 1968 classic that was directed by the late, great George A Romero. Tom recently directed a new episode of Flicker, which is a new web series created by Robert Tinnell, telling bite sized horror tales paying homage to silent horror films from the 1920’s.
‘Most of all, Tom Savini is known for his creativity in over the top special make up effects for such films like Friday The 13th, The Prowler, The Burning, Martin, Dawn of The Dead, Creepshow and many many others.
The Godfather of Gore was inspired by the 1957 film, a Thousand Faces. He became fascinated with the magic and illusion of film . While Tom was a combat photographer in Vietnam, he got his first taste of real carnage, which ended up being in his films later on.
Tom Savini has a special makeup effects program located in Monessen, Pa at Douglas Education Center.
In 2013, I had the pleasure of meeting this man at Douglas Education center and even though I knew he was busy at the open house, I was just in awe. Here is the guy that I looked up to my entire life. When I was a kid, I spent majority of my time watching horror films and his name often appeared in the credits under special make up effects.
As a lover of the 70’s and 80’s horror films, I was in shock at just how well the makeup was done, it looked real, it looked disgusting and it looked painful. If Tom’s name was on a film, you knew you were in for a treat of carnage.
One year as a Christmas Gift, I was given VHS tapes of Tom’s work. Scream Greats and Horror Effects and I would watch those back to back all the time. I was overly obsessed with film making and enjoyed seeing how all this magic comes to life on screen.
Say what you want about Tom Savini, but to me he is a legend, a mentor, a filmmaker and a friend.
SMOKE AND MIRRORS, which is a documentary on the life of Tom Savini, is in post production and will hopefully see the light of day very soon. The film was written and directed by Jason Baker.
LET’S ALL WISH TOM A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TODAY!!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOM!!!
HELLABRATION DELUXE! Thirty-One Days of SHOCKTOBER: Day Six – 10/06/18
10/06 – 1992: CANDYMAN
“It was always you, Helen…”
All you have to do is say that to someone, and then watch as they shudder as if a big spider just moonwalked across the back of their neck. If that’s the reaction they give you, then you know they’re probably a fan of CANDYMAN. Besides Stephen King, Ira Levin and Dean Koontz, not many writers have had the indelible, undeniable impact on the horror genre that CLIVE BARKER has, and if HELLRAISER had been his only contribution, his legacy would have been set. But the man wrote such compelling, irresistibly addictive stories that begged to be adapted for the screen (though the success of doing so is another thing entirely,) that other filmmakers took the plunge to try and replicate what he did with his touchstone of a film.
For my money, the only person who’s been about as successful as Barker has in translating his own tales is British director BERNARD ROSE (PAPERHOUSE), a stunning visual fantasist in his own right, on par with the likes of MARY LAMBERT and GUILLERMO DEL TORO. No one could’ve been a better fit for CANDYMAN than Rose, and it shows in every frame. Based on Barker’s tale, “The Forbidden”, there hadn’t been a story like this before, that encapsulated the themes of racism, classism, misogyny, poverty, mythology and the supernatural quite like this.
Helen Lyle (the radiant VIRGINIA MADSEN of such cult hits as DUNE and ELECTRIC DREAMS) is a grad student working on her dissertation, about how urban myths affect the landscape and people in impoverished areas, and vice versa. The main target of her research is Chicago’s notorious Cabrini Green projects, where she comes to learn about the ultimate horror story: the gruesome and tragic tale of Daniel Robitaille, a.k.a. “The Candyman.”
An artistically-talented black man who dared to fall in love with a white woman, Daniel payed the ultimate price, losing a hand and having honeycombs filled with live bees shoved into his chest cavity, as a gruesomely fatal form of torture. And now, he has become legend: say his name three times in front of a mirror, and his vengeance-hungry ghost will appear, to deliver a demise you wouldn’t want to imagine.
Ever the cynical academic, Helen believes less than nothing about the things she actually writes about, so she decides to try and conjure him up. Imagine her shock, terror and dread fascination…when she succeeds.
Now Candyman is laying waste to people in her life (some way more deserving of a brutal death than others), and letting her take the fall for it, trying to break her down physically and psychologically, so that soon she will have no choice but to join him and “be his victim” forever…and become ‘legend’ as he has.
Director Rose’s surrealist sensibilities were the perfect platform with which to elevate Barker’s tale to a whole new level as a film, thanks in no small part to DP ANTHONY B. RICHMOND (DON’T LOOK NOW, RAVENOUS, AUTOPSY). And the actors were more than happy to tackle and own their roles in this endeavor: Madsen has never been a more beautiful combination of strength and vulnerability – even in DUNE, which hardly gave her as much to do as she has here – and CANDYMAN is the role that finally made genre actor TONY TODD a household name, and with good reason. He slips into the skin and psyche of Daniel Robitaille like it was the role he was born to play, which isn’t far from the truth.
Plus a great supporting cast that includes KASI LEMMONS (THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS) as Helen’s best friend; XANDER BERKELEY (GATTACA, AIR FORCE ONE, TAPEHEADS and way too many other credits to list here) as Helen’s faithless other half; VANESSA WILLIAMS, (a.k.a. VANESSA L. WILLIAMS), TED RAIMI, and STANLEY DESANTIS in an unforgettable cameo as Helen’s condescending headshrinker.
And just when you think it couldn’t get any better, iconoclastic composer PHILIP GLASS contributed what has to be his best and most beloved score after KOYAANISQATSI, a sumptuous, reverent and almost religious musical landscape that intensifies in majesty to match the onscreen horror, (a style of composition that would later be replicated by other composers as diverse as ELIOTT GOLDENTHAL and MICHAEL NYMAN & DAMON ALBARN.)
CANDYMAN isn’t just a piece of horror mastery as worthy and as iconic as A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET or FRIDAY THE 13TH, but a necessary item in every dyed-in-the-wool horror lover’s library.
MOVIE REVIEW: Mandy (2018)
You came, I saw, and I love you
In Mandy, Nic Cage takes revenge on a crazy religious cult in the woods with a homemade battle ax. STOP DRILLING YOU HIT OIL! That’s pretty much what sold me on the plot for Mandy, the second film by director Panos Cosmatos whose first film was Beyond The Black Rainbow (2010). Set in 1983, Red Miller (Nicholas Cage) goes after a religious cult that brutally murdered his wife Mandy (Andrea Riseborough). If you have seen his first film, you know what to expect in this; if not, then fair warning — watch the movie with an open mind. Although the film plays out like an 80s-themed slasher movie, it’s almost far from it. Let’s examine this movie further.
Although set in the 80s, it doesn’t have an 80s soundtrack with well-known music. There is a synthesizer, though, along with a Friday the 13th reference to Crystal Lake from Mandy (Andrea Riseborough of such works as Hidden (2015), Waco (2018) (TV mini-series), and Black Mirror (2017) (TV series)). Admittedly there is a real Crystal Lake, Nic Cage himself said that he drew inspiration for his character from Jason Voorhees, so perhaps he wants to give that nod since his character evolved in the woods.
As may be obvious, Mandy is not like any other Nicholas Cage film. From the picture of Cage all bloody and glimpses in the trailer, one would expect a cheesy B horror movie with over the top gore and one-liners. Not at all! The film plays out like a heavy metal live action movie, and at times, it just feels like a dream as Red goes through moments of despair, guilt, and regret. Cage is complemented by a host of character actors, from Richard Brake (31, Halloween II (2009)) to Linus Roache (Batman Begins) to Bill Duke (Payback, Predator), who definitely deliver. The scenes with the cult aren’t over the top, which is good because not once do the characters trail off and leave the idea of the movie on its own. The bikers, though, don’t dress or sound like bikers. Think something out of Mad Max with a distorted voice that almost sounds animalistic. This raises some interesting questions on the cult’s story because there’s really no back story – for anyone on anything.
I saw the movie at night, and it stuck with me — not in a bad way but almost as if I were dreaming too. This, by the way, got me thinking about the end when Nicholas Cage is driving away, caked in blood caked and looking out of his mind. This is not Hollywood Nic Cage but a genuinely insane Nicholas Cage.
Final thoughts: Watch the movie, and watch it at night with an open mind because this is without a doubt an interesting movie, and I sincerely hope we don’t have to wait another eight years for Panos Cosmatos’ third film.
COMING 2019: A Violent Swamp Thing is Headed to the Small Screen
It’s been reported that Derek Mears will be playing the character Swamp thing for the exclusive DC comics TV series. The character Dr. Alec Holland hasn’t been cast yet, but other reported cast members are Crystal Reed (Gotham TV series, Teen Wolf TV series) as Abby Arcane and Maria Sten (Channel Zero TV series, Persuasion TV series) as Liz Tremayne. Derek is no stranger to horror films being in such films as Hatchet 3 (2013), Friday the 13th (2009), Predator (2018), plus James Wan is the executive producer and has said the film will be rated R for graphic violence. Just exactly how brutal will this be? Hard to tell but the production has a great cast behind it. Len Wiseman (Underworld, Lucifer) will direct the pilot episode. Filming begins this fall. Co-written by Gary Dauberman (IT chapters 1 and 2 and the upcoming third Annabelle film) as well as Mark Verheiden (Ash vs Evil Dead) Perhaps that answers the question on how brutal this will be.
This is a huge deal for not only comic fans of Swamp Thing, Constantine, The Walking Dead, and Locke and Key. This gives hope that the horror comics have a lot of stories to tell. There also giving a platform for the streaming services where not are they affordable but producing great shows that people binge in one day, one weekend developing a huge fan base with no restrictions towards violence, nudity, and language. Swamp Thing will premiere on a streaming service for DC slated for some time in 2019 another benefit is you can read the comics from their library. I would recommend reading Swamp Thing by Alan Moore, Jeff Lemire, and Scott Snyder because at this rate if we’re getting Swamp Thing, we might be seeing other horror comics grace the small screen.
Swamp Thing the TV series is being produced by Atomic Monster and DC Universe.
THIS JUST IN: Texas Chainsaw Massacre TV Series and Film News
Breaking news! The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise may have a new home! Legendary Pictures/Legendary Entertainment is in TALKS to get the rights of the franchise. If this goes through, there are rumors of a Texas Chainsaw Massacre TV series AND film series.
Legendary also works with Warner Bros, the parent company of New Line Cinema – who owns A Nightmare on Elm Street. If all goes well, Friday the 13th could go back to New Line Cinema. This means that if everything goes well, we might finally see all three in a huge movie.
House of Tortured Souls will keep you up to date as more news comes available.
HoTS Review: To Hell & Back: The Kane Hodder Story
Horror fans know the name Kane Hodder. Many also know the story of his burning accident. This past Friday, the highly anticipated film on Hodder’s life was released. To Hell And Back tells the story of Hodder’s life.
The horror icon and author Michael Aloisi released Unmasked, an autobiography of Kane Hodder in 2011. It was in that book that readers discovered how events unfolded on that fateful July 13th in 1977. For years, Hodder told those who asked several versions of the incident. The book and documentary reveal in detail the actual event and photos. It’s no coincidence that director Derek Dennis Herbert chose July 13, 2018, as the release date this year. A Friday The 13th on the anniversary of the accident that nearly took Kane Hodder’s life seemed appropriate.
On to the film itself, which is fantastic by the way. The film has interviews which include: Robert Englund, Bruce Campbell, Cassandra Peterson, Adam Green, Felissa Rose, Harrison Smith, Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Michael Aloisi and Kane’s family, just to name a few.
Kane then describes growing up and talks about the bullying he experienced as a child. He then speaks on how that incident led him to not believe in his own self-worth. Kane and close friend Steve Nappe discuss their 40 plus year friendship that began on the island known as Kwaj. Kane visits the hospital and doctor that he credits for saving his life after his accident. For the first time, fans see Kane Hodder become emotional when discussing aspects of his life. Viewers also hear friends in the industry speak at lengths how Kane Hodder became the ambassador for the horror movie with his appearances and sense of humor.
The movie is a perfect compliment to those who have read the book, however, it explores deeper into the psyche of the man credited with more on-screen kills than anyone in history. Those who have met Kane will be reminded of their encounters. For those who still consider meeting the icon a bucket list item, the movie fuels that fire.
Overall Grade: A+
Horror Remakes: Why They Are Not Bad
INTERVIEW: Death House (2018) Director Harrison Smith
“The Only Way Out… Is Down”
I had the great privilege of interviewing the superb director Harrison Smith on his newest film Death House. Before I get into that, let me tell you a little bit about the film.
There is a Fed-Max subterranean government prison that holds humanities worst criminals known as the Death House. It serves as a medical, psychological, and parapsychological research center aimed at eradicating evil. Two federal agents are granted a tour of the center. While on the tour, the unthinkable happens. There is a power outage that releases all of the prisoners, and the agents must fight their way through all of the horror and violence to try to survive. They soon discover that they are being herded down to the lowest depths of the facility. In those depths are a group of supernatural evil beings known as The Five Evils and they may be the agents’ only chance at salvation.
The movie sounds and looks amazing but before I go on I just wanted to say that the media and many articles have labeled the movie, “The Horror Movie genre of The Expendables“. I have to disagree with that. If it were The Expendables we would have a movie with Freddy vs Jason vs Michael vs et. al. Which, to some, may sound interesting but it would lack any substance. The stars in this movie are so much more than their individual roles that they have portrayed, they are true actors who excel at their craft. Let me tell you some of them:
Adrienne Barbeau: Escape From N.Y., Creepshow, Swamp Thing, The Fog
Kane Hodder: Jason Voorhees in some of the Friday the 13th films and Victor Crowley from The Hatchet films
Dee Wallace: The Howling, Cujo, The Frighteners
Michael Berryman: The Hills Have Eyes, The Devils Rejects
Barbara Crampton: Re-Animator, From Beyond, You’re Next
Sid Haig: The Devils Rejects, House of 1000 Corpses, Kill Bill
Tony Todd: Candyman, Hatchet, Final Destination
Bill Moseley: The Devils Rejects, Rob Zombie’s Halloween
Vernon Wells: The Road Warrior, Weird Science
Lindsay Hartley: Nightmare Nurse
Cody Longo: Piranha 3D, Nashville
Cortney Palm: The Dark Tapes
Felissa Rose: Sleepaway Camp
Vincent Ward: The Walking Dead
Whew, that is a LOT of talent in one film!

Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia, PA. The place had a built-in horror film setting, full of dark history and eerie vibes. It really acts as a functioning character in the film.
IMDb provided a great quote:
And like Harrison told me, he was writing in a local bar when the ad for Jurassic World came on and it hit him that this movie was “Assault on Precinct 13 meets Jurassic World without the dinosaurs”. So… great actors along with an exciting script and skilled direction. Then throw in stupefying makeup and effects by the Roy Knyrim (Sinister 2) and SOTA FX, and a soundtrack by John Avarese that sets the perfect ambiance. We will finally get what we paid for at the box office!
House of Tortured Souls: My first question for Harrison was why the horror genre?
Harrison Smith: My first film, The Fields, was based on what really happened to me when I lived and grew up with my grandparents on their farm. The farm came under attack for a short period of time by an unseen presence. We never understood what caused it and we never understood what ended it, so I had personal experience. But also my grandmother and I used to watch horror movies and the old horror TV show Dr. Shock who hosted Saturday morning shows like Scream-In, Horror Theater, and Mad Theater. The movies were captivating. I loved finding out there was a sequel to Frankenstein and that he didn’t die in the burning windmill. There were more like Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man that continued on the story of Lon Chaney. Like when they killed Lon Chaney in the original Wolfman I was like, “Why? He was a nice man, he didn’t want to be The Wolf Man“. I loved it. They were like Saturday morning soap operas. I loved them as a kid, but that time is gone. That is why I like Tom Holland’s Fright Night. I was watching in the summer of ’85 and knew it was a Valentine to an era that was quickly fading and disappearing. At that time, the threat was coming from cable television and the home video revolution, so Peter Vincent was this aging icon of an era long gone trying to stay relevant. Tom Holland got it, and Fright Night works on many levels. So horror movies, for me, were a real escape from the actually really scary shit that happened to me.
HoTS: Then I asked him about the abundance of horror movies and shows seem to be throwing back to the ’80s. Movies like It Follows and The House of the Devil and shows like Stranger Things all reflect that age in horror, and Death House has many actors from that era. Why do you think it is a niche we all still enjoy?
HS: Director and actor Eli Roth said that the have-sex-and-die concept behind many of the ’80s slasher films was not as relevant today because millennials look at it and don’t get it. There was a study reported by the L.A. Times in an article by Melissa Batchelor Warnke saying that the millennial generation is the least sexually active, so that concept does not translate well. But at the time when Friday the 13th came around, it was a perfect storm of both liberal and conservative values. We had a very conservative administration with Reagan and yet, at the same time, we were known as the party generation. It was a weird flux of things coming together. So Friday the 13th had fun and parties with lots of boobs and tons of gore but with a moral lesson. See what happens when you fuck in the woods? Jason was like a walking STD. So the ’80s made us nostalgic for the ’50s, and now we look back to the ’80s. We are nostalgic for when we grew up. That is why, when making Death House, we always remembered that we were handling peoples memories and that is very important. The new generation gets to fall in love with it like we did. And with regards to the actors in Death House, they were all smart enough to choose great directors and projects that were just starting out, and their careers flourished from those collaborations so they are all still relevant today.

Kane Hodder arriving on the Death House set pictured with Harrison (dressed as an extra for the ward scene). The guy over his shoulder is producer Rick Finkelstein.
HoTS: I did some research on Holmesburg Prison, where you decided to film the movie. Some extremely monstrous things went on there. Any ghosts try to break into acting for the film?
HS: No, I did not experience anything myself. There were a few reports of the cameras acting wonky, but it was really cold there which probably contributed to that. The place itself was perfect for the mood though. There is a great book called Acres of Skin: Human Experiments At Holmesberg Prison 1998 by Allen Hornblum that tells all about the medical experiments and tortures that went on inside the prison. It really lent itself to what we were shooting. I remember when they gave us a tour and brought us into the warden’s office where he had his throat slit. Nothing paranormal happened but everyone was in tune with what had happened there. Dee Wallace said that it was sometimes overwhelming knowing that you were walking by cells where so much abject misery and torture had taken place. It is a building built on misery.
Harrison also wanted to make sure and give a shout out to the administration and the City of Philadelphia and especially the Philadelphia Police Department, who were more than gracious and just all-around wonderful people.
HoTS: My next question for Harrison was, as a director, what directors influence his work?
HS: Growing up, John Carpenter: Halloween, The Thing, They Live and Tommy Lee Wallace: IT, Halloween III, Fright Night II were major influences on me because they were accessible to me. I used to read Fangoria Magazine all the time and got a subscription to it. I used to read and devour the interviews and not just because of the pictures and oh! there making a sequel to Halloween and I want to see the blood and gore. They did an interview with John Carpenter and he talked about how he made movies and about finding a good crew and sticking with them. And I noticed for the first decade of John’s career he used a lot of the same people in front and behind the camera and that really made an impact on me because Carpenter was very much the founder of the guerilla film movement — that you get a camera, you go out there, and you shoot. That’s what you do, and that really inspired me as a filmmaker. I had a Super 8 silent Kodak camera, and I was learning. I was learning from those interviews in Fangoria and got a really strong base of knowledge. So if you look at my catalog of work so far, you will see many of the same faces. And if you read the credits, you will see a lot of the same names return time and time again. I bring them back because it is like putting the band back together, so to speak, which works for me because it becomes like production shorthand. I would also say Tom Holland of Fright Night and Psycho II fame was another influence because Psycho II made a big impact on me because of the script. I think it is one of the greatest sequels ever made and is very underrated. I wanted to hate it, but 30 minutes into the film I just fell in love with it. When it was over I walked out, called my family to let them know I would be late and went in to see it again. My film Camp Dread is a tip of the hat to Tom Holland. It was more like Psycho II than Friday the 13th.
HoTS: What is the theme for Death House?
HS: The whole pretext of Death House is evil is evil and good is good, but do they need each other? Because when you try to eradicate evil you are, at most, canceling out good as well. There is no need for good if there’s no need for evil. Bill Mosely has a great line in the film, “True evil is nothingness”. That is true hell. If we were to remove the Holocaust from history we would need a litmus test. Dee Wallace’s and Barbara Crampton’s characters think what they are doing is good. Look at the Nazis during the Holocaust. They didn’t think what they were doing was evil. Dee is like Nurse Ratched. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest as a social horror film was a snake pit. Louise Fletcher played it so well because there are real nurses like that. That is the banality of evil. How a modicum of power gives rise to abuse of said power. Are The Five Evils in Death House really evil compared to Dee’s character or Nurse Ratched? They aren’t Cenobites they are regular people like you run into in everyday life. How many times in your own life might you have come into contact with real killers? The Five Evils are normal looking people.

Death House – The Five Evils: Vincent Ward, Vernon Wells, Bill Moseley, Lindsay Hartley, Michael Berryman.
The original script for Death House was penned by the incredible Gunnar Hansen, who is best known for playing the mentally-impaired cannibal Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Gunnar left us on November 7th, 2015, from pancreatic cancer. His agent, Michael Eisenstadt, brought producers Rick Finkelstein and Steven Chase of Entertainment Factory to the screening of Zombie Killers: Elephant’s Graveyard to meet Harrison. Another writer had taken a stab at rewriting the script, but it turned into Texas Chainsaw meets Friday the 13th meets Saw, but that was not what Gunnar wanted. He did not want torture porn but a high concept horror film. Gunnar liked what Harrison did with it, so Harrison finished writing and then directed it. The actors were all there for their friend Gunnar and with Harrison collaborating with Gunnar before his death, I like to think of this as a love letter to an amazing man and actor that we lost too soon.
I was extremely honored to speak with Harrison Smith and pick his brain. To read more on Death House, I have included some links that come straight from the horse’s mouth. Harrison Smith’s Road To Death House articles.
I cannot even begin to express how excited I am to see this film. It has already won the audience choice award along with best feature film from the Central Florida Film Festival (CENFLO). MPAA said it was gritty, claustrophobic and a hell of a lot of fun. Harrison said it is like a roller coaster ride through a funhouse, and Kane Hodder said it was his favorite film he has worked on. So horror fans get ready for the ride of your life!
I have also included a link to a petition if you want Death House to come to a Regal Cinema near you. It is going to major theaters but I would like to see it in all of them.
So, from myself and the family at House of Tortured Souls, thank you again to the great Harrison Smith and everyone involved with Death House! And just remember readers… “Hell isn’t a word…it’s a sentence.”
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House of Tortured Souls Live HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

House of Tortured Souls Halloween episode
