My Skull Can Beat Up Your Skull: An Interview with Bleeding Skull Richard: I was very excited to listen to you guys' audio commentary for House of Death (available for download right here). Then I found out about your contribution to the Sledgehammer (1983) DVD. How did that come about? What is so special about that film? What are other commentaries you guys are interested in doing or have coming up on your plates? Joe: Thanks! We were originally asked to contribute an interview featurette for the Sledgehammer DVD. By the time it came together, there were already a couple of those in the can. We wanted to do something different. Because we're assholes? No. We just felt that a commentary was more suited for what we wanted to say. So we asked the imminently cool Evan Husney at Intervision if a commentary would be a suitable replacement. It was. So we recorded it. And we loved the whole process. There was also a failed attempt at interviewing Ted Prior in my living room, but that didn't pan out because Ted walked into my living room and it exploded. Regardless, we're very grateful to be a part of that disc. The specialness of Sledgehammer fluctuates. It's not like Black Devil Doll From Hell or Tales From The Quadead Zone or Death Nurse, all SOV films that I would gladly watch any time, all of the time. But it is notable for obvious reasons. And since we watched it in preparation at least five times before I felt like I needed to puke, I'd say there's something in that notability. Plus, you know, Ted Prior. Beating the shit out of a door. What was the question? Dan: We were contacted by Larry Gold Jr's rep in the US and asked to do the commentary. I'm guessing because we're big SOV fans and Joe had written about it previously. Sledgehammer itself is special because it is (as far as we know) the first SOV number that was made directly for video. Historically, it's important. It turns out that that "importance" meant that many reviewers of the DVD treated it with a strange (if bemused) sense of respect. That was cool and mighty unexpected. I would love to do a commentary for Blood Lake or The Last Slumber Party. There may be more commentaries soon but nothing Larry's brother will let us talk about. Richard: I want to know the super secret origins of Bleeding Skull. How did you guys meet? Where did the name come from? Joe: The name "Bleeding Skull" is from a 1960s mail order comic book ad. It was for a skull-shaped candle, which bled when you lit it. I had originally planned to use the name for a design company, but I'm no businessman and that idea didn't make it beyond my sketchbook. When I started writing reviews in 2004 and decided to launch a site, the choice for a name was obvious. I've never owned a Bleeding Skull candle, though. Dan and I met face-to-face when my band was touring through the Los Angeles area. This was 2006. But he'd been contributing to the site for a few months before that. We developed our friendship via email. The first email that Dan sent me started with this: "I really like the site. We have similar tastes in movies." From there, we discovered a mutual appreciation for Chris from The Last Slumber Party, SCTV, and people at work who say things like, "This day makes my ass itch." Our friendship is something that makes life good. Dan: Joe is the Man with the Secret Origin! I am the man who emailed Joe! After some random chat about movies, he asked (or I asked, I forget) about me writing some stuff for the site and I did an article that was OK. Somewhere along the way we just began galloping along and writing and writing and writing... Book in the future! Richard: What I love about Bleeding Skull is that the reviews go way outside the realm of the typical movie review. Obviously, the reader finds out about the plot and whether or not the film is worth checking out but Bleeding Skull reviews have a great personal touch to them. Many of your reviews are a window into how the film affects the reviewer. What can you tell me about you guys' individual styles when reviewing a film and/or the influences that inspired your unique approaches? Joe: Thanks, that's nice to hear. I just let the film take me where it's going to take me and communicate that experience. Working on Bleeding Skull doesn't feel like strict writing to me. I'm not trained in that way. It's more of a personal creative outlet that manifests itself as writing about film. My reviews go through what I'm going through. The films bring it all out. In a sense, I take the writing seriously, but I don't take myself seriously. Unless I'm writing about, you know, Hell Squad or Santa And The Ice Cream Bunny. Cuz that shit is serious all over. Up to this point, a few influences have directly altered my writing, not counting the obvious inspiration that comes from working with Dan. First, there was Steven Puchalski and "Shock Cinema" magazine, as well as his anthologized book, "Slimetime". I got into his stuff right before launching BS. It was informal, hilarious and crass, but never at the expense of intelligence. I connected. Next, and probably most affecting, was Pauline Kael. Dan gave me a paperback copy of "Reeling" and that changed everything. It was like hearing "Pet Sounds" for the first time, but in the form of film discussion. Her work is almost inhuman. I can't fathom how someone could have been so…good. Then, there's Kurt Vonnegut. He never wrote about movies. But he wrote about a lot of other things, which continually destroy me, year after year. Dan: I was trying to properly describe how I write these things. This might work: I treat each review as if it were a short story. I try to find the angle I want to write about and then I start typing. Usually, they're written quickly to keep spontaneity to them. I do tend to make the whole world of Bleeding Skull a rather subjective journey. I think that's the kind of stuff I have the most fun reading so that's what I write. This kind of reviewing is easy to do with films you know that few people have seen. Blank canvas, as it were. It's tougher when you review something like Dr. Butcher, MD, which everyone and their momma has reviewed. You want to try to find a new angle in there. At the same time, if the review is for something rare, you don't want to goof around too much if you're trying to recommend it honestly to someone. I'm a big fan of Pauline Kael's work. Although, technically, my writing is not really like hers. Richard: What types of films do you seek out? Do you limit your selections by genre, year, etc.? Joe: I constantly seek out all sorts of films. My tastes keep me hovering, roughly, around 1966-1990. But, I'm always excited by recommendations from close friends, no matter the genre or year. For instance, Dan reacquainted me with the beauty of Laurel & Hardy last year and I blew through that UK box set of their entire filmography. It was pure joy. And this year, my friend Doug gave me the recent Serge Gainsbourg biopic, Gainsbourg, which was shockingly great. Same goes for my current fascination with 1970s Japanese exploitation, which I never would have sought out if it wasn't for the enthusiasm of someone who is awesome. So yeah. Cinema is a big, beautiful world. If I could somehow forge a living out of this love, I would. Brings me a lot of happiness. Dan: For the site, we stop around 1990. Personally, I'll go after anything. Sometimes I seek out certain names, like a certain Mr. Bryan. Sometimes it's a genre like Heavy Metal! Werewolves! Woods! There are all sorts of things out there that I enjoy. We just look around, always finding one more. Right now, I'm watching the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes films. Good fun. Richard: why are there more VHS reviews that DVD reviews on your site? Is this the result of a relentless search for rare titles or do you prefer the VHS format? Is it both? Is it neither? Joe: Yeah, it's mostly about the obscurity. I'm pretty much indifferent to formats. VHS is the only way to see The Weird World Of LSD and .357 Magnum. So there you go. Plus, I'm a purist. I started reviewing the original tapes because it felt right and I liked it that way. It's fun. Dan: For me, if everything were on DVD, that would be awesome. But, much of what we're after & what we're enjoying is, sadly, nowhere near DVD. So, we watch it as we can. What happened there with DVDs, by the way? For about 10 years, everything wonderful seemed to be flying out on DVD. Now, it's all retreating. Will it come back? Will the films that missed this format ever see the light of day again? It all seems a bit bleaker now because the internet keeps me updated constantly so I know when something appears and then goes OOP. Being in the dark over VHS releases back in the day and not knowing what precisely was out there was joyous ignorance. Richard: Obsessive genre cinema lovin' doesn't just happen. What are some of you guys' childhood horror movie or cult flick traumas? What turned you into the well groomed and gallant monsters you are today? Joe: I owe it all to repression. Its been a very gradual process. My parents wouldn't let me watch anything with sex or gore as a kid, sometimes obsessively so. As is typically the case, anything that was forbidden grows more exotic as the years go by. I was fascinated and also repelled, mostly by the iconography of horror and sex in film. Naturally, when we're old enough to make our own decisions, we go crazy and indulge. So that's what I did, throughout college and my early twenties. The trash-horror I was writing about five years ago serves as a foundation for where my tastes in obscure cinema continue to lead me. That said, my filmic traumas were mostly a result of sleepovers and covert viewings at friends' houses. Typical stuff. Jaws scared me. Faces Of Death made me sick. I watched The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults with my Dad in 1986, which gave me nightmares for years. That's not a film, but you know what I mean. The memorably disturbing viewings, stuff like I Spit On Your Grave and The Last House On Dead End Street, would come years later. Dan: I've been a monster/horror fan since I was a kid. I grew up when slashers hit everywhere and I had a network of people that would tell me everything that happened because I was too scared to watch them. Hello, Uncle Mike! Hello, Pam Adamski! One night, long ago, everyone in the house was upstairs asleep. We had just got cable. I, a curious 10-year-old, put on HBO and Halloween II started. Ten minutes in, I was so scared that I couldn't move. I was afraid to get up to turn the TV off so every minute was a little more terror. (Eventually, I did turn the TV off.) But, that experience meant that I was only going to vicariously experience "modern" horror until about 5 years later. Another thing: Getting a copy of The Encyclopedia of Horror Movies in late '86 through the Movie & Entertainment Book Club was such a wonderful moment. I read that book over & over. I absorbed everything in it. So many films I didn't think I'd ever see. Eventually, the movies (titles & write-ups) became just entries in a book, like characters in a novel. Not real things but strong in my imagination. Then... I started to find the films, one by one. And, I began to cultivate a love for The Weirder, The Better. Something I noticed: It's kind of odd. Most normal people will walk a long mile away from a slasher film or a regular horror film but show them something truly odd and you can pique their curiosity. The good times I've had with Burial Ground, A Night to Dismember, For Your Height Only and The Last Slumber Party are not to be believed. Richard: Can you each give me a short list (say, 5 titles) that every horror or cult movie fan needs to see that one could find reviews of on Bleeding Skull? Joe: This sort of thing is all relative. I'd never make a broad recommendation to a "horror fan", as they would most likely hate me after watching the films. But as of today, this very moment, I'd go with Ogroff, A Night To Dismember, The Last Of The American Hoboes, The Zodiac Killer, and Dracula, The Dirty Old Man. Plus, most anything directed by Jean Rollin from 1968-1980. Those are the films that I'd watch right now. Like if you were to show up at my apartment and demand that we watch Dracula, The Dirty Old Man, we would. And it would be awesome.
Dan: The Last Slumber Party Now, these are all films that I love and that I would show to other folks. Whether or not you like them... well, that I can't say. I think these represent a sampling of The Heart of Bleeding Skull, as it were. Richard: What are some rare titles that continue to elude you? How about some films that you feel deserve to be rescued from purgatory? Joe: I'm not a big proponent of rescuing films. I don't have the energy. For me, it's about the joy of discovery, the thrill of stumbling upon something that makes you feel ecstatic for a minute or two, something that makes life rich. I write about a film because it moves me to write, not because I want everyone in the world to agree and celebrate and slap it on a DVD or Blu-Ray. Sometimes that happens. And it's cool. But that's as far as it goes. There are always rare titles that elude me. That's part of the fun. We were able to track down most of the initial batch of obscurities (that is, films I'd been searching for during the past decade) for the BS book. Now that we're done with those, it's like a whole new world. These days, most of the exciting unfindables don't fall under the umbrella of horror, like Titus Moede's Outlaw Motorcycles or Stanton Kaye's Georg. But, a lot of them still do, like Nick Millard's Cemetery Sisters or Paul Kener's Wendigo. The list is always growing. Dan: Wendigo eludes me. Ummm... I can't think of what else at the moment. What's happened lately is that I go about my business and then hear about a film I should probably see (like The Corpse Eaters) and then someone hands me a copy. That's nicer than hunting around because I get surprised more. Someone rescue Mutilations from purgatory. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Richard: Let's talk extracurricular activities. I am interested in the hidden talents beyond the reviews of the Bleeding Skullers. What are you guys up to when you're not saving the world? Joseph, please talk about Beaujolais, your musical outlet. Dan, I need to know about your Green Acres and My Three Sons episode guides as well as your obsession with You Can't Do That On Television. Joe: I've been writing and recording music since I was 14. I was in a band called Wolfie from 1996-2001. Four teenagers, releasing records and touring during breaks from school. Good times. Next was The Like Young, from 2002-2006. That was an attempt to "make it". I quit my job to tour full time. I think we did fairly well, but it fell apart towards the end. Beaujolais started in 2007 and that's just me on my own. I released two back-to-back albums in 2008 ("Love At Thirty") and 2009 ("Admirations"). I finished a third last year, "Moeurs", but its been in limbo due to to a variety of record label issues. It may stay there. There's a fourth Beaujolais album that's nearly complete, but it's on hold right now. Because I'm in a new band. And that band is the most fun I've had with music in many years. Dan: I've also got the Cracked Magazine Review site and Turbot Town Stories. I've written all sorts of things, including novels, short stories & scripts. I've got boxes full of narrative. Please, enjoy my narrative. One day. I hope to have it all out there for the world to luxuriate in. I'm keeping the boxes in a trunk and hoping to go the Emily Dickinson route. Green Acres = Awesome. My Three Sons = I stalled. The work with BS has kind of stopped me on these sites but I plan on returning to them soon. YCDTOT is a fantastically fun good time. I'll throw on some episodes when I'm feeling down. Ruddy Rules! Richard: And while you're at it, can you give me a complete or partial bio of Cyril P. Drathmoor, columnist of the Turbot Tribune? Dan: My Mentor, Cyril P! Cyril was born in [deleted]. He spent much of his [deleted] in [deleted]. After 10 years in [deleted], he began [deleted]. His work extends across a [deleted]. He enjoys the company of a Big, Phat [deleted]. I believe that he is a [deleted]. Twice. Richard: I am burning with jealousy for anyone who attended the A Night To Dismember event you gentlemen hosted. Tell me about how that went down so I can live vicariously through your words. Are there more events coming up that folks can expect to see from you guys in the future? Joe: Simply put, it was a very memorable evening. We were so happy and grateful that people actually showed up and enjoyed. I'll never forget it. Mostly because: 1. Everyone had a great time, including us, and 2. A Night To Dismember was projected from Doris Wishman's personal Beta master tape, which is the only existing element. I rarely geek out about stuff like that, but Doris is Doris. I love her work. Holding that tape was a thrill. As for future events, who knows? We're up for it. We've talked about touring around for screenings/readings when the book is released. But that's a long way off. Dan: It was a great evening. Everything went off without a hitch. We sat in the second row and, about five minutes before it started, I turned and saw maybe 20 people. I thought "Well, we'll get a few people. That'll be nice." When we were told that we were starting, I turned for one last gander and saw that the place was about 80% full. I was very surprised. People seemed very excited and, as far as I can tell, had a great time. They were all very nice, too. I'm not sure on more events. Maybe something else around Halloween 2011? This time, with Chris? No. This time, with Chris! Richard: Thank you guys so much for taking the time to answer my ques- Wait! What? Am I to understand there is going to be a Bleeding Skull book!?!? Please tell me everything you care to disclose on this subject. Dan: Books are nice. Wouldn't it be nice if we wrote one? That's all we can say right now. We should have some vaguer information for you later.
|