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WHAT ARE OUR FAVE HORROR ICONS SCARING UP? |
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FEATURE
WHAT ARE OUR FAVE HORROR ICONS SCARING UP?
by Ernie Thomas
“Everyday is Halloween...” once sang the Chicago industrial band, Ministry.
For people who make their living on the dark side of the entertainment world, be it in music, on stage or in film and television, this is often the case.
Horror fans worship their icons and are among the loyalist fans in the world, but they are also the most possessive, refusing to let their idols escape from a world of make-up and the macabre.
Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. are long gone from this earth, but the public still has a need to be scared, so there are plenty of modern pop culture horror icons willing to do the job.
For our Halloween issue, we tracked down a few of our favorite modern horror icons to see what devilish things have been keeping them busy lately... BRINKE STEVENSB-Movie Scream Queen
Though Carlene Brinke Stevens has a degree in Marine Biology, she has spent a quarter century doing slice and dice cinema, appearing in more than 125 horror films like –– “Corpses Are Forever,” “Mark Of The Astro-Zombies” and “Delta Delta Die”.
“I never aspired to be an actress,” said Stevens. “My career chose me. I was in San Diego with a Masters Degree from Scripts Institute of Oceanography, working for national marine fisheries.”
She married her college sweetheart Dave Stevens, the artist behind “The Rocketeer” comic book. When Dave was hired by Steven Spielberg to do storyboards for “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the couple moved to Los Angeles.
While looking for a science job, Stevens was “discovered” in 1981 after walking past a casting office and stopping to look at film posters on display. As a lark, she took a role in Roger Corman’s “Slumber Party Massacre.”
“They were always looking for pretty girls to die horribly, so I became professional ‘victim’,” she said. “It was in ‘Slumber Party...’ I did my first shower scene and my first screen scream,” she laughed. “It set the template for the next 25 years.”
Stevens done cameos in major motion pictures as well, including “This Is Spinal Tap,” “Body Double”, Private School” and “Three Amigos.”
Stevens stays with budget films, because she cites a strong demand at the video rental level for “turn ‘em out fast horror movies with crazy titles and lurid box covers.” Becoming “a cult celebrity in horror”, has enabled Stevens to move into directing, producing and writing.
The latest batch of direct-to-video bloodfests starring Stevens include –– “Vampires & Zombies,” “Heads Are Gonna Roll”, “One Bloody Night” “Slaughter Party” and “Skeleton Key” –– which are just some of the of the 8-10 films she averages a year.
Stevens was also recently immortalized in the rock ‘n’ roll song, “Scream Queen,” by the Texas horror-goth band, Freak 13.
“I shot the music video with them,” she cooed. “There’s even a line in there that says –– ‘I’m a scream queen, delta delta die!’ –– that I get a kick out of because I know that’s for me.”
DEE SNIDER Rocker & Filmmaker
The hulking figure of Dee Snider is intimidating – whether wearing his garish Twisted Sister make-up; done up as his psychotic “Strangeland” film alter-ego Captain Howdy; or as the ominous cloaked narrator of his latest multi-media project, Van Helsing’s Curse.
Twisted Sister is mostly behind Snider, now focusing on becoming a Halloween staple with Van Helsing’s Curse, an adventurous conceptual music production written by Snider, for an 18-piece costumed ensemble that includes haunting string players and an eerie choir of hooded Druids.
Van Helsing’s Curse has a spooky CD – Oculus Infernum – via Koch International Records currently in record stores and seasonal Halloween shops.
Oculus Infernum finds Snider’s group gives their own take on Michael Oldfield’s Excorist theme song, “Tubular Bells”, along with several famous classical pieces –– Carl Orff’s haunting “O Fortuna”, Mussorgsky’s “Night On Bald Mountain”, Chopin’s “Funeral March” and Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.” There is even a chilling cover of Black Sabbath’s “Black Sabbath.”
“This product is not design to be just a one time thing. It’s designed to be a perennial Halloween item,” said Snider. “Van Helsing’s Curse is truly a different kind of animal than everything else out there,” said Snider, of live tour now on the road. “It owes as much to the Blue Man Group and Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It’s a show and a musical entity as well.”
Snider said his fans can count on seeing him back in Capt. Howdy attire soon, in the sequel to his cult classic, aptly titled, “Strangeland II” . www.vanhelsingscurse.com or www.deesnider.com
CASSANDRA PETERSON Elvira Mistress Of The Dark
Once a 17-year-old Las Vegas showgirl, Cassandra Peterson heeded personal advice given to her from Elvis Presley one late night at the MGM Grand Hotel and left to pursue a rock ‘n’ roll singing career in Europe.
The music gig flopped, but being in Europe got her discovered by legendary filmmaker, Federico Fellini and cast in his classic film, “Fellini’s Roma.”
Though she landed a few parts upon relocating to New York and later Los Angeles, auditioning for a horror hostess role for a local television show, proved to be Peterson’s ticket to fame.
She poured her 34-21-34 figure into her clinging black Elvira dress for the first time in 1981. She has never looked back, as national television syndication and movie offers eventually came her way.
Now a 55-year-old business woman with her own merchandise line and film franchise, Peterson is still curvaceous and beautiful both in and out of costume.
“There’s coming a time when I will not be Elvira anymore, but I want to make sure that Elvira will remain a Halloween icon. I want Elvira to be for Halloween, what Santa Claus for Christmas,” she said. A new line of merchandise including an authorized Elvira Halloween costume is part of that plan, along with the creation of an animated Elvira cartoon.
Elvira most recently has been hawking a Time/Life DVD collections –– “Elvira’s Box of Horror” –– three disc sets featuring her hosting B-Movie classics.
ALICE COOPER Pioneering Shock Rocker
After three decades of cavorting with snakes, frying in electric chairs, hanging from gallows and having his head whacked off by guillotines, Alice Cooper is nowhere near ready to sit back in a front porch rocking chair.
Born the son of a preacher –– Vincent Furnier –– became Alice Cooper in the late 1960s and went on to write the book on shock rock. A book studied by every artist from The Tubes, to Motley Crue to Marilyn Manson who followed in his wake.
Cooper is still on the road and kicking out some of his best music in years via titles like last year’s The Eyes Of Alice Cooper and this summer’s Dirty Diamonds.
Both albums are a throw back to the rocker’s early career – raw and garage sounding – rather than slickly produced latter day concept albums such as Dragontown, Brutal Planet and The Last Temptation of Alice.
“The last three albums I did before The Eyes of Alice Cooper all had real heavy apocalyptic story lines,” he noted. “After that, I wanted to go back to the kind of Alice Cooper rock that we did in the early ‘70s on albums like Killers, Love It To Death and and School’s Out.
His latest slab o’ songs indeed harkens back to those days once again with songs like “Woman Of Mass Distraction”, “You Make Me Wanna” and lead off single, “Sunset Babies (All Have Rabies).”
The Coop and his youthful band (still including Eric Singer on drums for road shows) rock October 4th at The Morris Civic House in South Bend and this writer will be there with bells on to see the new stage show that has been designed.
“We’ve changed things around again,” noted Cooper, who always wants to keep things fresh for his loyal fan base.
“As long as people keep coming to see us perform, I’ll keep coming back and doing my best to keep them entertained,” he promised.
And entertain he does. The master of the macbre has lost nothing over the years as he continues to set the bar high for all pretenders to his throne.
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