TALES FROM THE MONSTER SHOP: FREAKY MONSTERS MAGAZINE'S RAY FERRY AND CONNIE BEAN By The MonsterGrrls

The Grrls

Hello, everybody!  This is Frankie Franken and the MonsterGrrls reporting for Tales From The Monster Shop, and today we have something really cool--an interview with Ray Ferry and Connie Bean, the people behind the fabulous fright-mag Freaky Monsters Magazine!

Back in 1990, Ray Ferry was behind the rebirth of the much-loved Famous Monsters Of Filmland, but since then he's moved on to publish his own classic-horror magazine, Freaky Monsters, a tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood Horror.  With fun-to-read articles and stunningly beautiful black-and white photographs of the old masters of horror, Freaky Monsters is shaping up to be a classic in its own right.  We all sat down to chat with Mr. Ferry and his lovely fiend Miss Connie Bean, who manages the ongoing workings of Freaky Monsters.

Frankie: Hello there, and thanks for letting us interview you!  Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves and your magazine?

The Master Of Freaky Castle

 Ray Ferry: Hi, MonsterGrrls!  Sorry it took so long to get this finished but you know, we are so busy here at the Freaky Castle all the time, it takes a while to get things together to do something fun like, an interview!

Freaky After Midnight: Their first issue

I'm the editor and publisher of Freaky Monsters Magazine, which I started in 2010 after having been the editor, publisher and trademark owner of Famous Monsters Of Filmland for 18 years, from 1990 when I revived the title until 2008 when circumstances beyond my control forced a change in title ownership.

The Beautiful Queen Of Fiends

Connie Bean:  I guess I am the Freaky Queen!  I am the general manager of Filmland Classics.  I was formerly in entertainment, real estate and marketing, but not all at the same time.  I came into this classic horror business about 11 years ago now when I first met Ray... wow, what a long time it seems!

Bethany Ruthven: Speaking as monsters ourselves, we find your magazine to be the best of its kind.  (Other Grrls nod in agreement)  But it must be said: there's a lot of information available on classic horror, both in print and on the Web.  What does Freaky Monsters hope to bring to the table?

Ray Ferry: I've been a fan of classic horror films since 1958.  My interests were spawned both from a fascination with film and the amazing clarity and depth of the publicity photographs that were released by the studios in the 1930s and '40s to promote the films.  My love and appreciation of that art still looms large and I edit Freaky Monsters to share those fangtastic images with our readers.  Certainly there is no shortage of "coverage" of the old films out there but often what I read from other sources is inaccurate and the images one sees in most magazines and especially on the internet are poor quality low resolution JPEGs that hardly do justice to the subject.  At the same time, I see a strange yet wondrous parallel universe in the classic films and they are a lot of fun.  Freaky Monsters is a world where its okay to be an outcast.  It's more than a magazine... it's a philosophy.  Many readers tell me they read and re-read each issue several times and never tire of it.  With each reading they discover something new. We welcome true-grue fans of all ages.  There's a seat at our table for everyone who appreciates the classics or wants to learn about them.

Connie Bean:  I think Freaky Monsters brings good factual information to the readers.  I help as much as I can with research.  If I can't verify it to be true, then we keep looking to find out what the truth is.  I love to search for new information and am pretty proud of the things we have been able to accomplish.  We bring the Fun back to Classic Horror, Sci-Fi and Fantasy!  That's what we are all about, FREAKY FUN!  We want our readers to show the magazines to their kids and grand kids and then watch the old films and TV shows with them.  We are all about family!  Ray and I both believe that what this world needs right now is a focus on the simpler times.  The times when families talked at the dinner table and focused on each other, not the Internet and their I phones!  We hope that Freaky Monsters opens a new world to some youngsters and takes their parents and grandparents back in time when they had no mortgage and no drama!

Bethany: So a more journalistic approach, backed up with true facts and the best photographs available.  Very commendable.  Full marks to you!

Punkin Nightshade:  Our Mad Doctor's always watchin a lot of horror pictures back at the Monster Shop, so I want to ask this next'un.  What's you folks' opinion of classic horror upside modern horror?  Do you think modern horror pictures is takin themselves too seriously?

Any resemblance to movie investors is just coincidence

Ray Ferry:  I don't know that they take themselves too seriously.  Rather, I think they are made for the express purpose of feeding their investors.  Let me explain:  In its heyday, cinema was an extension of the theater.  Films were the poor man's Broadway.  A single performance could be crafted and mass marketed to much greater profit than live performances.  The studios had to be creative to compete for the audiences' dollar and there was a built-in code that dictated how far the envelope could be pushed before a film was "unacceptable" as entertainment.  Certainly the studios that put out "horror" films were trying to "shock" their audience but with few exceptions the films are "boogeyman" stories... they are probably better described as "thrillers" or "chillers".  The movies they make today are little more than vehicles for merchandising.  If you take a close look at the film industry today you'll see that they don't make movies anymore.  They make thrill rides.  They get the audience in, take them on a wild ride, assault their senses, sell them some popcorn and soda and get them out in 2 hours so they can get the next herd in.  The films don't need to make a profit.  The real money is in the merchandising tie-ins and overseas run.   Because our society has shrugged off nearly every trace of moral consciousness and little is "taboo", today's "horror" films focus on depicting as much violence, gore and visual shock value as they can dream up.  The content is a reflection of our need for bigger and bigger "fixes" to get us to notice or react. 

Connie Bean:  I personally haven't found many of the modern films interesting or fun and really don't care to talk about them or study them.  They just aren't worth the effort to me.  They are too dramatic and edgy and I don't think they are good for our young people.  They also focus too much on the CGI effects they can get and not on the story lines and moral issues that the old films had.   I really just don't like them.  I want to be entertained, not feel trapped in my own skin!

Harriet Von Lupin:  So what's you guys' favorite horror film?

Beautiful monstress

Ray Ferry:  I have several but James Whale's Bride Of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man and Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein are my favorites in the horror genre. There's an atmos-fear in each of them that is evocative.

Connie Bean: I guess my favorite would be Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein.  I love the little bit of comedy thrown in with the horror.  I really don't get into the super-serious side of anything.

Frankie:  How did you two become fans of horror movies?  What's your earliest experiences with them?

Ray Ferry:  I started watching them on TV when the Shock package was first aired back in 1958.  I recall that a few years later Castle Films released a few titles in 50 foot 8mm home movie versions and I managed to get a copy of Bride Of Frankenstein.  I ran that film over and over again and studied the lighting, the staging, the makeup because I found it fascinating.  I learned at a very young age how to splice film because one evening I was watching BOF and I put the old Bell and Howell projector in "frame hold" mode then walked up to the screen to study a particular frame.  Imagine my shock when after about a minute the heat from the projector lamp burned up the film and I watched in horror as the frame bubbled, browned and burned up!  Later I was able to record part of the sound from a TV airing of BOF on my father's Wollansack reel-to-reel tape recorder and jury-rigged a belt system to synchronize the sound to the scenes that were in the Castle Film copy I had.  Unfortunately I wrecked both the projector and the recorder in the process.  There was a definite sense of wonder and appreciation of cinema in those days before the VCR and today's digital technology.   It may seem great to have favorite films at your fingertips but with that comes a loss of anticipation and uniqueness.  Too much of anything devalues its worth.

Whole lotta woman

Connie Bean:  I guess the first one I remember would have been when I was about 5 or so.  My parents wouldn't let me see horror films but I had an aunt and uncle that I used to spend the night with, often on the weekends, and we would stay up and watch movies.  I  remember watching Attack of the 50 Foot Woman and spending the next few hours looking out the window to make sure she wasn't coming down the street when I wasn't paying attention!  I loved that movie!  I was also afraid to go to the drive-in one night a few weeks later with my aunt and uncle because I was afraid that woman would come and grab the car!  Those were the days!

Harriet:  Wish we had a drive-in.  There's nothing like food out in the open air.  (slurps)

Frankie:  In your opinions, what can be done to make horror films better these days?

Ray Ferry:  Probably nothing.  The public has "progressed" to the point that's its highly unlikely a modern audience, especially kids, wouldn't be bored with a "horror" film of the old school.  The whole movie-going experience has changed.  The grandious movie palaces of old are gone, the "play bill" of an A film, a B film, a newsreel, cartoons and 2-reeler comedy that would fill an afternoon at the local "Bijou" have been replaced by sterile boxes in multiplexes where you sit through 15 or 20 minutes of commercials followed by a 2-hour feature and then get shuffled off to the food court or parking lot.  People today have the attention span of a fly.  There's just too much thrown at them.  That's why the films are such an assault on the senses.  They have to be.  Granted, there have been a few films that attempt to tell intelligent stories and emulate what cinema used to be but they are few and far between and usually not in the "horror" vein.  For all that technology has advanced, I'd prefer to see the classics restored, digitally clean up the soundtracks and re-release them as they were meant to be seen.

Connie Bean: Go back to basics and tell a story instead of worrying so much about the special effects.  It's just too much and it's gone too far.  Stop remaking the things that are classics because they are "classy"... yes, some of the old stuff is a little hokey, but better hokey than absurd and horrifying.  You don't need to "kill" the audience to make a point, just make the point without all the excess!  Horror doesn't have to be horrific.  We have enough horrific in our everyday lives and our children watch too much of that on the news, Internet and TV.  Let's get back to fun horror; that kind that scares you with what is not seen!

Bethany:  I'm more of a reader than a movie viewer, so I want to ask this: how do you feel about the Twilight series and other types of horror books written for young people?

Ray Ferry: I don't follow them so I can't comment.  But I feel a certain alarm that vampirism is often the focus of these series.  The need to associate one's self with cults that embrace death is disturbing especially since it's young people that are the main followers.  In the case of a story like the original Dracula, the vampire is a lost soul.  Its need to consume human blood is a curse, not a delicacy.  It is a foul thing that destroys life and is defiant of God.  But contemporary depictions have elevated it to "rock star" status as being powerful, invulnerable and indominable.  It is more a reflection of today's obsession with material wealth and power than good vs. evil.  The vampire has become the new "gangster."

"How To Join A Death Cult Without Really Trying"

Connie Bean: To be fair, I haven't read or seen them.  I don't have time to read much of anything but Freaky Monsters and the projects we work on.  I will occasionally take the time to read about them, and I am just not impressed enough to bother with it.  I just really stick with the classic horror.  I don't want to feel bludgeoned by a book, TV show or movie--I want to be scared but not mentally exhausted!

Bethany: Well, for my own part, I am a vampire, but I'm strictly on the bottle--AB-negative, for preference.  And I'm not a death cult member.  I was asked to be Blood Queen of the Vengeful Temple Of Magog once, but I refused on moral grounds.

Punkin: What you mean?

Bethany: I wasn't joining any cult that would have me as a member.
 

Frankie:  Freaky Monsters is (as of now) on its eleventh issue.  What are your plans for the future of Freaky Monsters?

For classic horror fans, a sanctuary

Ray Ferry:  We'll keep publishing it as long as our readers and fans want it.  For as much material as is available on the internet, I still have a lot of stills from classic films that are quite rare and that even some diehard fans probably haven't seen.  But even with the most popular photos, Freaky Monsters is aimed at casual fans and especially kids who are not familiar with the films.  My main focus is in producing the highest quality photo magazine on the market.  I'm often criticized by the horror "know-it-alls" for not filling the magazine with in-depth investigative articles but they don't get it -- I don't publish Freaky Monsters for them.  I publish it for the youngsters and the young at heart.  If someone wants to dig down into the muck and learn all the "secrets" about a particular actor or film, there are countless books out there to read.  We often hear from readers who write to say a photo or article they saw in Freaky Monsters made them go out and get a copy of the film to watch it.  You'd be amazed at how many fans haven't seen many popular old films.

Something for every fiend

But the biggest compliment I get is from older fans when they write to say "I pick up a copy of Freaky Monsters and lose myself in it.  For a few hours, I'm 10 years old again.  I'm back in a time when life was simple.  No mortgage, no job, no kids, no worries.  And for that, I thank you."  We also provide a bonding experience for parents and grandparents to share a spooky old movie with their kids and generally the kids, especially the really young ones, enjoy the magazine and the films as much as we did way back when.  Parents don't have to worry about leaving a copy of Freaky Monsters on the table because it's 100% kid-friendly.  Maybe I'm stuck in the old days but I think we provide a much-needed refuge from the high tech world.  Like all great art, if film isn't appreciated in its original form it will become lost.  Today we have the technology to sculpt a better and more accurate David, we could create an enhanced and spectacular digital projection on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel that would shame Michelangelo's time-worn effort. We could restock the Louvre with digitally magnificent remakes of every painting that hangs there.  But because we can, should we?

Films are no less an art form than painting or sculpture or literature or architecture yet they are constantly being remade.  Leave the classics alone.  Part of their charm is that they are a reflection of when they were made.  They reflect who we were, what we felt, what was important, how we laughed and they should be celebrated and studied in that vein as much as any other art form.  Unfortunately there is little profit for today's investors in re releasing or preserving classic films.  But, at least in the domain of classic monsters, they are safe from extinction and are celebrated for just what they are in the pages of Freaky Monsters.  As we say in Transylvania: "There's no ghoul like an old ghoul!"

Connie Bean:  We will keep going and going and going... I hear the drumming of that little Beaster Bunny now!  As long as someone has an interest in reading our magazines, we will keep publishing.  We love our Freaky Monsters! 

Ray Ferry & Connie Bean: Monster fans united

And that's our interview!  Freaky Monsters is available wherever fine classic horror mags are sold, or simply go to their website and buy direct!  (And tell 'em the MonsterGrrls sent you!)  We really appreciate their taking the time to talk to us, and if you're looking for a cool horror mag to read, pick up an issue of Freaky Monsters today!

We'll be back soon with more cool Tales From The Monster Shop!

Sincerely,
Francesca "Frankie" Franken,
Bethany Ruthven,
Petronella "Punkin" Nightshade
and Harriet Von Lupin,

The MONSTERGRRLS!!
 

TALES FROM THE MONSTER SHOP: RESURRECTING HAMMER FILMS By John Rose

So it's Halloween, and may I wish everyone who joins us this evening a most happy, happy Halloween.  Usually at this point in the Thir13en For Halloween, I talk about a really cool horror film that some of the horror fans out there may have ignored, overlooked or simply are not aware of.  Well, this Halloween I'm bringing along a whole studio.  The legendary Hammer Film Productions has returned to the public eye with plans to make horror films for a new generation of Hammerheads, and with the release of the successful Wake Wood, their loving remake of Tomas Alfredson's Let The Right One In (titled Let Me In) and the upcoming The Woman In Black, it looks like they're in it to win it, folks.

The Public Life Of Henry The Ninth

Hammer Films has actually been around since 1934, when it was begun by William Hinds, a comedian and entrepeneur who named the company from his own stage name, Will Hammer.  The first Hammer release was the successful comedy The Public Life Of Henry The Ninth, playfully titled after Britain's Academy-Award-nominated The Private Life Of Henry VIII.  Hammer put out a further four films (among them The Mystery Of The Marie Celeste, starring Bela Lugosi) before being forced into bankruptcy in 1937.  In 1946, Hammer was revived by James Carreras, and the company went into shooting various adaptations of radio serials and original mysteries.

Professor Quatermass

1955 saw Hammer's first real entry into the horror realm with an unexpected success: an adaptation of a sci-fi serial shown on BBC Television, The Quatermass Xperiment.  The popularity of this film led to a sequel, Quatermass 2, and Hammer began to investigate American distribution for its product.  Hooking up with Associated Artists Productions (AAP), AAP's head, Eliot Hyman, sent a script for an adaptation of Frankenstein to his contact at Hammer.  Due to concerns that the script followed Universal's film Son Of Frankenstein a tad too closely, the script was eventually rewritten by Jimmy Sangster as The Curse Of Frankenstein.  Directed by Terence Fisher, Curse Of Frankenstein brought together the soon-to-be-infamous team of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, who would appear separately and together in many more of Hammer's most famous horror productions.

The Curse Of Frankenstein

The Not-So-Good Doctor

The Very Evil Count

The raging international success of COF brought forth a sequel, The Revenge Of Frankenstein, in which Cushing reprised his performance of Dr. Frankenstein.  Around this time, Hammer began to consider other horror icons, and in 1958, Horror Of Dracula exploded into theatres with Cushing and Lee doing another tag-team effort as Van Helsing and Dracula.  The technicolor radicality of the production and Christopher Lee's hissing, spitting, animalized performance as the Count broke international box-office records and secured Hammer the rights to remake the entire Universal library.

Queen Of The Hammers

Lovely Miss Caroline

Ingrid gets frisky

The success of The Curse Of Frankenstein and Horror Of Dracula led to entire cycles of films based on these iconic monsters, with Cushing and Lee cavorting as Van Helsing and Dracula for most of the Dracula cycle and Cushing gnawing the scenery as the ever-deranged and viciously sarcastic Dr. Frankenstein through several Frankenstein sequels.  Both of these cycles, and Hammer's other pictures, also gave rise (in more ways than one) to the entity known as Hammer Glamour, as a bevy of beautiful actresses were certain to appear in each new picture.  Among the notable Hammer Glamourites were Ingrid Pitt (who appeared as Countess Karnstein in The Vampire Lovers), Barbara Shelley (who appeared in Dracula, Prince Of Darkness and The Gorgon, and would soon become Hammer's top female star), Martine Beswick (who had the title role in Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde), and the legendary Caroline Munro (famed for Hammer's somewhat offbeat Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter).  Apart from the Frankenstein and Dracula cycles, Hammer did four notable films based on the Mummy (The Mummy, Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Shroud, and Blood From The Mummy's Tomb) and would also create other famous (and notorious) films such as Plague Of The Zombies (which would precede Night Of The Living Dead by about two years), Curse of The Werewolf (with the much-loved Oliver Reed as the Werewolf), and adaptations of both The Phantom Of The Opera (with Herbert Lom) and H. Rider Haggard's novel She (featuring Ursula Andress as, well, She).  Hammer wound down in the 1970's with a disastrous production of Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, which all but bankrupted the studio.  However, the Hammer films would not be forgotten, as scads of horror hosts in local markets and such shows as Creature Features and Chiller Theatre would include most of Hammer's output in their offerings, ensuring their place--and much love--in the minds and hearts of horror fans.

Wake Wood

Let Me In

In 2007, Hammer resurfaced in the news, as Dutch producer John De Mol purchased the Hammer films rights and planned to restart the studio.  Their first production was a Myspace-exclusive contemporary vampire story called Beyond The Rave.  In 2008, work began on Wake Wood, shooting in Donegal, Ireland with backing by the Irish Film Board, and led to Wake Wood seeing a limited UK/Ireland release in March of 2011.  Bolstered by good reviews and success, Hammer soon partnered with Overture Films and Relativity Media to introduce a 2010 remake of the acclaimed Swedish vampire film Let The Right One In, titled Let Me In.

In 2012, Hammer will return to the Gothic sensibilities with which it made its mark, via a new supernatural thriller titled The Woman In Black.  Based on the Susan Hill novel of the same name, the film stars Daniel Radcliffe (of Harry Potter fame) and is the story of a Victorian-era London lawyer who journeys to a remote English village for the settlement of the recently deceased Alice Drablow, and finds a terrible supernatural mystery that endangers his own child.  Set to hit theaters in February of 2012, The Woman In Black has all the Gothic horrors and mystery that made Hammer great, and in the current mire of remakes, sequels and half-baked genre films, it's no doubt going to be one of the better horror releases of 2012.  Watch for it.  We'll be there.

In closing, the MonsterGrrls and I, as always, have taken great delight in bringing you fun, laughs, and frights for Halloween, and we hope you stick around for what we do next.  May all of you reading this have a prosperous, safe, and happy Halloween for 2011, and please join us again for the party in 2012.  This time, maybe we'll see if we can't blow up the lab...

Happy Halloween to all,
John Rose (the Mad Doctor) and the MonsterGrrls: Frankie, Bethany, Harriet and Punkin 

SPECIAL THANKS TO: John Dimes, Rebecca Bishop, Mod Ghoul, Diane Irby, Sinister Minister and the Altargirls, Uncle Fright, Marlena Midnite, Nicolette Lewis and Sasha Trasha, Bobby Gammonster, Joe Flynn, The Bone Jangler, The Pumpkin Man, The Movie Gravedigger, Jebediah Buzzard and the great Count Gore De Vol.  We couldn't have done any of this without you, and keep up all your good work.  Happy Halloween to you all from all of us here at the Monster Shop!! --J.R. and the Grrls

TALES FROM THE MONSTER SHOP: A VERY SPECIAL INTERVIEW WITH MR. LOBO OF CINEMA INSOMNIA By Harriet Von Lupin

OWW-WOOOOO!! Hi there, culture gang! Didn't expect me back so soon, did ya? This is your favorite wolf-Grrl Harriet Von Lupin reporting for Tales From The Monster Shop, and today we're going to do a special interview with the host of the renowned late-night cult-movie show Cinema Insomnia, Mr. Lobo! This dude is like the guy to know in cult-movie and horror circles, and next year he'll be doing his tenth year of hosting Cinema Insomnia, which began on an ABC station in Sacramento, California and is now a nationally-syndicated phenomenon for fans of horror and classic B-movies.
Mr. Lobo, who is also from Sacramento and is of indeterminate age, is an enigma, wrapped in a mystery, stuck in a conundrum, tied up with sudoku and... and... well, let's just say he's a really mysterious dude. (Sort of like that Rod Serling guy on that old TV show The Twilight Zone, but with these cool funky glasses.) He oversees Cinema Insomnia from a formless void that's got its own rocking chair, showing not only classic B-movies but also doing comedy skits, monster movie trailers, vintage commercials, short films from independent filmmakers, and all sorts of bizarreness! (Plus, when I heard he used to be a werewolf, I just had to talk to this guy!) So read on for all the skinny... and also to find out how you (yes, you, and you, and you, and that guy over there) can help make this the grooviest year in Cinema Insomnia's history!

Dude, thanks for giving me an audience with Mr. Lobo! Tell us a little bit about yourself, and what made you decide to be a horror host?

Harriet, it’s a personal pleasure to be interviewed by my favorite MonsterGrrl! Mr. Lobo has dated and married a few monsters, so I have a feeling that this is going to be a very stimulating conversation!
As you said, Mr. Lobo is a horror movie host and I have a nationally syndicated TV show called Cinema Insomnia which I tape here in Sacramento, California, and at monster film fests, conventions, and horror happenings across the country. It’s hard to pin down a moment where I actually really decided to be a horror host—I “decided” to be “Chewbacca” when I was 7 years old but I never got the opportunity to try it.
When I was your age, I always used to “play host” in the mirror and later I did skits with my friends who ran 16mm films as a hobby. I got a lot of encouragement and pushes from friends and heroes. Meeting my childhood host Bob Wilkins of Creature Features as an adult changed my life. He suggested that I take a stab at horror hosting. I also had a friend at a local ABC-TV station here in Sacramento, Mike, who also pushed me to do my own show. The station ran a movie at 3 a.m. that ran 20 minutes short every week. With the courage given to me by my friend Mike, Bob and others, I offered to fill the extra time and started producing Cinema Insomnia episodes… once I started, I couldn’t stop and I found I really loved it. You have to love the job and love the movies… you have to open your mind to the possibility that they are not bad movies, just misunderstood…

That is so cool! But you say that the movies you show are not "bad" but "misunderstood." Can you please explain or provide evidence?
Harriet, you are as smart as you are attractive! You know how to put your horror host in the hot seat. With films like Superwheels and Invasion Of The Neptune Men in our pen, it’s sometimes hard to stand up for Misunderstood Movies. This motto has become a guiding principle of the show. We do kid the movies—but more gently than other shows. Mr. Lobo has grown to love all the films we’ve done on the show because I now have a positive association with them.
I really hate classifying films like they’re quantifiable commodities or sports statistics. Movies are subjective; what we see in them is based on your mood and life experience. I have a theory that every movie is someone’s least favorite movie and every film is somebody’s most favorite movie. Making fun of the films, which used to be counter culture, had become the popular wisdom by the time Mr. Lobo got started with Cinema Insomnia and I like to challenge the status quo. On Mystery Science Theater 3000, their attitude toward the movies seemed like “Let’s take the ugliest girl to the dance and make fun of her.” On Cinema Insomnia, it’s more like “You know if you put a nice dress on the gal, maybe wax the uni-brow a bit, she’s probably a great date…and has some good stories to tell.” When I said “They’re not bad movies—Just Misunderstood” for the first time on the show it was a breath of fresh air for a lot of movie fans who were used to hearing their favorite films being ruthlessly bagged on for decades.

I am like so impressed with you right now--with your intelligence, your nerve, your compassion, and your willingness to stick up for the uni-brow, since that's my most charming feature! But when did Cinema Insomnia get started?
When Mr. Lobo was your age, I was doing comedy skits on home video and audio recorders and I always desired some kind of vehicle for my artwork and comedy. In my mind, several years before the real opportunity presented itself, I had been wishing and hoping for a show of some kind as I had a friend at the local ABC-TV station who noticed my talents. I wasn’t sure if I would be reviewing movies, showing trailers or even if they would be horror films. I had been drawing the hypnotic eye and toying with the title “Insomniac Theater.”
Finally in 2001, when I also had a job at the same TV station, they had that 3 a.m. movie that I told you about. We had to change the name to Cinema Insomnia because there was an overnight movie in another town called Insomniac Theater, and also we didn’t want to be confused with Dave Attel’s new show Insomniac in the TV guide. Our first show aired July 28th, 2001 and we have been showing broken down Sci-Fi, Cult and Horror Movies ever since.

Well, Cinema Insomnia sounds cooler, in my opinion. But let's talk movies for a minute. What's your favorite horror film, Mr. L?
Oh, Harriet—that’s like picking a favorite child! There are so many subgenres and my tastes change depending on my mood. I really love Plan 9 From Outer Space. When you watch it, it always feels like it's three in the morning and Mr. Lobo likes that feeling.

As far as films that normal folks would consider of “quality,” I enjoy Son Of Frankenstein and the original Invisible Man. Return Of The Living Dead is my favorite zombie movie and An American Werewolf In London is my favorite werewolf movie. (I figured that you would want to know that, Harriet.)

I like that one too! Cinema Insomnia is celebrating its 10th anniversary next year. What are you going to do to celebrate?

I’m so glad you asked, Harriet. Mr. Lobo is celebrating the 10 year anniversary of my late night movie show that is syndicated on broadcast TV stations across the nation by producing a full season of 26 all new shows!

Groovy! But I'm sure all our readers know that it takes a lot of money to do a TV show, and word is that you have a project on Kickstarter to raise money for your show. Can you provide info and tell my readers how they (and them, and them, and that guy over there--HEY! Come back here or I'll punch you in the arm!) can help out?

We are hoping to boost the budget for this special 26 episode season with a Kickstarter campaign. There are many levels of donations, all with great thank-you goodies. You can get a CINEMA INSOMNIA 10th ANNIVERSARY button, T-shirt, signed 8X10, one of my neckties, or props from the show, you can get your name in the credits of the shows or said by Mr. Lobo on the air, you can have a framed photo of you on the set, even be a co-host for an episode! To be a part of this celebration, go to: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cinemainsomnia/cinema-insomnia-10-year-anniversary. (or just click the banner below)



And all you guys who are reading this have to do is click on that link up there to make your donations now! But I've got one more question for you, and it's confession time. My sources (well, the Mad Doctor, anyway) tell me that you are actually a reformed werewolf. What's that about?

I prefer the term “Recovering Werewolf.” You stop changing on the outside--you never change anything on the inside... except for your mind and your heart.
I was in the grips of lycanthropy where all that was important for me was the next prey. It wasn’t until he found himself reeking of urine and chewing a thigh bone alone beneath the staircase of a project in a Portugese ghetto that Mr. Lobo thought he might have hit rock bottom. I had lost a lot: lost relationships, lost family, lost shoes, and was losing my home.

I decided to tell my parents everything. Not my wolf pack family--my real parents. A friend of the family, Reverend Steve, asked me to go with him to The Church Of Ed Wood, a place where people had gone for help with problems similar to mine. They had a Werewolves Anonymous meeting and weenie roast on Tuesdays. I recognized a Wolf Man I knew from the neighborhood by the awful marks on his arm, and he told his story of how he beat lycanthropy and hadn’t changed in four moon cycles. I was like, ‘How can he be smiling and crying at the same time?’ I didn’t understand, and then it hit me that he was experiencing something that I wanted.

Reverend Steve is my sponsor to this day and on some full moon nights I call him if I feel I might slip. I have a 25 year WA chip in my pocket and I haven’t bitten anyone in years. I know how it feels to be a young werewolf and have the townsfolk call you “dog boy” “fang-puss” or “hairy butt” or laugh at your ripped clothes—but I’m here to say, Harriet… it gets better.

And that's our interview! So if you wanna show some love to a worthy cause and do something really good for everybody, go to Mr. Lobo's Kickstarter project and post a donation! You'll pick up cool swag and help one of the greatest TV spookshows ever! And you can also click our title link on this post to go straight to Cinema Insomnia's website to get more info, find out about show times and listings and get T-shirts, DVDs and other neat stuff!

See you guys later, 'cause I'm gonna pop some corn and check out some of these cool B-movies! OOWWW-WOOOOOOO!!!!

Love to all,
Harriet Von Lupin

POST-MORTEM: Hey gang, tomorrow (November 27) is Mr. Lobo's birthday! Make it a happy birthday for him and donate to the cause!

Also, if you're already a fan and wanna show your love to others, November Fire has a cool Cinema Insomnia T-shirt for sale. Click here to check it out and purchase! --H.V.L.

TALES FROM THE MONSTER SHOP: GHOUL FRIDAY By Bethany Ruthven

Good evening, darlings, and thank you for reading. Welcome once again to another round of Tales From The Monster Shop, our cracking new feature on The MonsterGrrls' Thir13en For Halloween. This season the other Grrls and I have interviewed various personalities who are connected with this Ghost Wonderful Time Of The Year, and as we approach the Day, I must say it's been a lovely party.

Our final interview for this year's Thir13en For Halloween is a rather interesting young lady from Toronto, Ontario, Canada who calls herself Ghoul Friday: an artist, writer and blogger who has been featured at several art shows and horror conventions in and around Canada, including the Bazaar Of The Bizarre, the Dia De Los Muertos Festival Of The Arts, and a spot at Rue Morgue's Festival Of Fear. In addition to maintaining a blog containing personal ruminations, spooky recipes, and DIY Halloween tutorials for eager young haunters, Ghoul works in a variety of mediums to create Halloween-themed art. While "Halloween art" to some people may just mean several different ways to carve a jack-o-lantern, Ghoul Friday's artworks are not only sufficiently seasonal but also deliciously dark, combining elements of both the sinister and the warm-hearted, and I think you'll agree when I say that we saved the best for last. Below is my account of this Friday with Ghoul.

Darling, thank you so much for participating in our little Halloween soiree. Please tell our gentle readers about yourself and what you do.

My name is Ghoul Friday. I've been an avid Halloween enthusiast since a young age, ever since my mother allowed me to spray paint a tombstone on our basement wall when I was little girl for my 4th grade Halloween party. As an adult, I share my passion for the holiday and share tutorials with the public on www.ghoulfriday.com so they can create their own monstrosities for the season.
A most delightful diversion, indeed! But you term yourself a "Halloween artist." Please explain.

Two years ago I made the move from large scale decorations for my yearly Halloween parties to making smaller, more artistic items. My main focus is Halloween-themed pieces, but I've begun branching out and exploring other darker creatures - from little minion creatures to Plague Doctors.

What mediums do you work in to create your artwork, and what things inspire you the most?

I dabble in polymer clay, but the mediums I favor are paper clays and papier-mache. Many of my pieces incorporate fabrics as well. As for inspiration, I think stumbling upon the unexpected gives me the best creative boost. Ideas for creations often come from the most unexpected sources, even the most mundane scenarios. But something triggers a thought, which triggers an image, which often leads to a story about a creature. And then they are born.

That definitely sounds like something my friend and colleague Frankie Franken could appreciate. But you are also a writer, and have written a book, Brains Vs. Coffee. Share a bit about that with us, please, and what inspired you to write it?

One dreary morning in February of 2009, I slowly shuffled over to the computer. Still groggy, I signed into my Twitter account online and typed the following statement:

"Coffee...*stumble*...coooffee...*stumble*...braiiins...hm? *shakes head* COFFEE…"

I found myself starting the day addressing the same question: Brains or Coffee? What's a ghoul to do? Can coffee really help me resist the urge for brains as I wake in a zombified state? I began posting the pros and cons of each side, examining subjects such as ease of use, storage, and disposal. At first, it was simply for my own entertainment. Slowly, others showed interest in the subject, providing feedback and even their own points for each side. Before I knew it, I'd written 100 entries. That's what you'll find in the book.
Hmm. Your predilection for brains seems to indicate an interest in zombies. What dealings have you had with these creatures, and do you have a favorite zombie horror movie?

I think I'll save my personal zombie encounters for my memoirs (to be published once I'm dead...or undead, as the case may be). As for a favorite zombie movie, that's a tough one. I'd have to say Shaun of the Dead.

An excellent choice. So let's talk about the Day that is upon us. Describe your fondest memory of Halloween.
My fondest memory was a caterpillar costume my mother made for me when I was 7. Everyone thought I was an alien or a monster. I thought they were crazy. And how I loved that costume.

Well, not so much to worry about on my end as far as costuming, since vampires are perpetually in costume. What are your plans for celebrating the Ghost Wonderful Time Of The Year this Halloween?
This is the first time in... I don't know how many years, that I'm not throwing a Halloween party. Many things have led me to taking a year off, which was a difficult decision but the best one to make. So it's the first time where I've been free for the celebratory weekend and I have had the worst time trying to figure out how to celebrate it. So far, it looks like a party at someone else's house on the Saturday, and then I plan to carve pumpkins on Halloween Sunday, followed by a tour of local haunts, an evening in a small lounge consuming martinis, and then finishing the night by watching the premiere of The Walking Dead on TV.

And I'm sure we can all agree that Ghoul should have a much-deserved (and possibly long-overdue) rest. Do visit Ghoul's lovely blogsite (merely click our title link above) and share in her ongoing celebration of the wonderful and weird, and obtain a copy of her book and perhaps even buy some of her artwork, which is on sale at Etsy from time to time.

In closing, the other Grrls and I are delighted to have been able to celebrate Halloween with you this season, and we are very grateful for your patronage. We wish that all of our readers (and the new fiends we made this season) have the most wonderful Halloween ever.

The Mad Doctor will be in soon with our last post for The MonsterGrrls' Thir13en For Halloween, so do stop in on the 31st. Happy Halloween to all!

Warmest regards,Bethany Ruthven

POST-MORTEM: Ghoul Friday was kind enough to review the Mad Doctor's first chronicle of The MonsterGrrls, in addition to a fun and fanciful product from Write On Riot. View her review here. --B. R.

TALES FROM THE MONSTER SHOP: WOLFMAN MAC AND THE CHILLER DRIVE-IN By Harriet Von Lupin

Hi there, children of the candy corn! This is Harriet Von Lupin with The MonsterGrrls' Thir13en For Halloween, and I'm back with another Tale From The Monster Shop! This is the week before that big, Big Day, you know it, you love it, c'mon, dudes, give it up for Halloween! OWW-WOOOOOO!!
All this week we've been talking to all kinds of Horror Hosts, those funky, funny, creepy, crazy dudes and dudettes who host late-night horror shows on TV, seeing you through all sorts of horror films and making them fun to watch! (Literally, in some cases!) And I'm super-psyched about the horror host I'm talking to today, 'cause he's an actual werewolf just like me! That's right, gang, I'm conversing with Wolfman Mac from the great state of Michigan, where he hosts Wolfman Mac's Chiller Drive-In, a cool, hip and happenin' retro-horror show full of classic scares interspersed with the crazy adventures of W. M. and his gang of monster misfits! Let's grab some popcorn and sodas and see what's playing at the Drive-In!

Dude, it's so cool to interview you for The MonsterGrrls' Thir13en For Halloween! Tell our readers a little bit about yourself and what you do!

Thanks! I am a late night B-movie horror host. Our TV show is called Wolfman Mac's Chiller Drive-In. It's about a werewolf that owns a drive-in, in the town of Hauntington Heights. We show all the classic public-domain monster and sci-fi flicks like The Screaming Skull, The Crawling Eye, The Brain That Wouldn't Die, House On Haunted Hill, etc, etc. Our show actually has a story line each week--think of it as Seinfeld meets The Munsters.

Dude, animated body parts and haunted houses--you can't get much more classic than that! But tell us a little bit about Chiller Drive-In. Where can non-Michiganers view your stuff?

You can watch us every week on the Retro Television Network. Soon we'll be expanding to Dish, Uverse, and we'll also have all of our former episodes available to watch online.


Cool! But since you show all those classic horror films, let me ask you this: what's your take on modern horror versus classic horror?

There's something for everyone. For me, I'm not into the rape and mutilation flicks at all. That isn't scary. When I go see a movie, I wanna be scared. I tell ya, those Paranormal Activity flicks provide a pretty decent scare! I'm more into a good haunting, alien or creature flick. As far as the classic stuff goes, I love it because I feel that all those great monster flicks like Wolfman, Dracula, Creature From the Black Lagoon, are how we see Halloween and that 100 years from now, people will still watch those.

So speaking as a Wolfman, what werewolf movie is truest to the werewolf legend?

Lon Chaney, Jr. in The Wolf Man.

Totally cool answer! Since we're almost to Halloween, what's your favorite Halloween tradition?

Cider mills, haunted houses, checking out yard haunts, decorating my loft like crazy. Actually, I keep some Halloween stuff up all year. I wanna get back to having a house party again; I miss doing those.

What's happening at the Chiller Drive-In for Halloween this year?

The biggest event I have is my Devils' Night Bash at the Dearborn Marriott on October 30th. Only $5 to get in. 'Bout 1,000 people. And I'm the DJ for it!! Ha! Then, the next day, on Halloween, I'm gonna marry a bunch of people as the Wolfman at the Erebus Haunted Attraction right here in Pontiac, MI.

That sounds great, and what a cool Halloween memory for all those folks! Thank you so much for talking to us!

Thanks very much for talking to me! Hope everyone has an awesome Halloween. And as we say here in Hauntington Heights, "Stay Creepy!"

Wow! Wolfman Mac is gonna have a fantastically awesome time this year, and if you wanna see some of his cool stuff, contact him, and join his Facebook page, check out his Chiller Drive-In website by clicking our post title link at the top of this post. He was totally groovy to talk to, and here's hoping you have an absolutely groovy-ghouly Halloween this year!

See you soon on The MonsterGrrls' Thir13en For Halloween, and dudes, the Day is almost here! OWW-WOOOOOO!!!

Love to all our Fang Club,
Harriet Von Lupin