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Back in 1990, you directed your first film, Scarlet Fry's
Horrorama, which has only just become available on DVD. What can you
tell us about this film ?
At the time I was renting about 5 Horror/ B-movies a day & I
started seeing all these shot on video sorta really bad B/horror films,
but they were really gorey. So everytime I rented something & put it
in the VCR, & it looked like it was shot on video I knew I was gonna
love it. They were so bad they were good & I realized I could easily
do something like this so I got out mom's old video camera & started
filming stuff. I never did anything with it untill I had moved to Los Angeles
& got a part starring in Satan's Storybook (starring Ginger Lynn
Allen) which was the first movie Scarlet Fry was credited in. I was
so excited to see my name on the credits of a real movie I could actually
rent that I decided to re-shoot all those old shorts I did on mom's camera
& host them under the name Scarlet Fry ... & that's how this film
came about. It's a very entertaining shot on video gore fest that you can't
help but to love no matter how bad it may be. What were your influences on Scarlet
Fry's Horrorama ? Alice Cooper was a big influence on
how I developed the name Scarlet Fry. I used to read all these articles on
Alice & he always spoke of certain filmakers like Herschell Gordon
Lewis [Herschell Gordon
Lewis bio - click here],
& so I went & rented all of his movies - like Blood
Feast, 2000 Maniacs,
Wizard of Gore etc.
I would say my biggest influence even today would be Herschell Gordon Lewis,
& guys like Ted V.Mikels & Ray Dennis Steckler.
on the set of
Scarlet Fry's Horrorama |
What do you find so appealing
about anthology movies that you seem to always come back to that format ? Well
when you're doing a horror film with a low budget you have to be carefully
not to bore people with a long drawn out story. That isn't going to scare
anybody only bore them. I like doing anthologies because every 10 mins
somebody gets killed & the viewer isn't going to sit there wondering
when something's gonna happen, they know that the short is almost over
& somebody is gonna die a gruesome death, & then a new story will
start so they can never get bored. What
made you decide to pick up directing in the first place ? I
was the only one willing to take my projects seriously in the early days
so I had to direct them. Sometimes it would just be me the camera &
the actors, I wanted to direct so I could get my vision out there without
interference. Where
did the Scarlet Fry character as such originate from ? Originally
i wanted to go into music & do theatrics & be the next Alice Cooper
... but I couldn't sing, so I decided How cool would it be if Scarlet Fry
Hosted horror films like in the old days when you had Zachery, Elvira
& all that ? It's a lost part of the genre that is lacking these
days, so I developed Scarlet Fry to be a ghoulish host that can always
change faces & bring terror to all.
Scarlet Fry, circa 1989 |
Scarlet
Fry later also popped up in Scarlet
Fry's Junkfood Horrorfest and in your upcoming Nightmare Alley.
How did the character evolve over the course of these three films ?
Scrarlet Fry, circa 2005 |
Basically
I always change the face of Scarlet Fry in each film to keep it intresting.
Bands like Kiss always had the same make-up but every year they used to
change their costumes. I thought how cool would it be if in each movie Scarlet
Fry was the same guy but had a new look every time.
Speaking
of Nightmare Alley: How is that one getting along, and when is it
supposed to be released ? Nightmare
Alley is going
along great, we recently won a local film fest, & it will be
released theatrically starting in Az sometime around Oct-Nov. There's no
set date yet, but this movie will be by far the best thing I've ever done
& already has distributors' interest.
Do you plan to come back to
the Scarlet Fry character for future films, and are you planning to ever
use him as anything other than a horror host ?
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Yes, besides
starring in my own films as Scarlet Fry I'm also an actor & would love
to be in more horror films & I would just use Scarlet Fry on the
credits of course. So if there's any directors out there that need actors
I'm available. Also we are planning on doing 2 more anthologies before I
set out & do my first full length feature. My next anthology will be
called Scarlet Fry's Scream Machine & Scarlet will be a fortune
teller at a fair who will tell your future ... a gruesome death of course.
We are currently in the writing stages. How do
you see your own evolution as a director from Scarlet Fry's Horrorama
to Nightmare Alley ? I've grown in several ways
& have become a lot more willing to break rules, I think the great
directors were the rule breakers & the ones that take their time &
dont settle for second best. I always used to settle, buto more settling these
days. I'm on top of things & make sure it looks great before I put it
out there. In the past I'd just go "Whatever works" haha. Any future projects worth
mentioning ? Yes Scarlet Fry's Scream Machine which
I mentioned above, & my full length feature Slum Goddess from the Lower
East Side. Anything else I've forgotten to ask but you
are just dying to tell us ?
Check out this
link & order your copy of Horrorama today.
Thanks for the interview !
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