Scream Queen Linnea Quigley
Director David De Coteau
During those long ago days of the VHS revolution, filmmakers(and I use that word loosely) made horror and sci-fi films for pennies, which ended up populating the shelves of the local video stores. Filmmakers like Fred Olen Ray, Jim Wynorski Ken Dixon and Dave De Coteau churned out a stream of penny ante movies while the audiences who rented them were reasonably entertained despite their threadbare charms. It was the cinematic equivalent of fast food.
With titles like Creepozoids, Biohazard and Slave Girls From Beyond Infinity, audiences were treated to comic book dialog, nudity, bad acting, dime store special-effects and a "hurry up and let gets this in the can" style of filmmaking. Still, and almost unbelievably, these home groan efforts(and I meant to say home groan) grossed a lot of money for their distributors.
Cut to1989. Bill George for many years harbored dreams of having one of his script ideas being put on film. This was George's idea of immortality. For reasons that escape me, Dave De Coteau became really interested in an idea Bill pitched to him called Tantalizer. The story was about a sun tan lotion that developed a life of it's own and took control of the user. As for the how's and the why's-well- you'd have to ask Bill George about that and he's dead. Of course, George was hot on the idea that popular Scream Queen Linnea Quigley be the female star. I can just see the advertising:
Tantalizer! A horror film from that triumvirate of terror:
Director David De Coteau!
Scream Queen Linnea Quigley!
Writer Bill George!
During the planning stages, De Coteau announced in a fanzine that Bill Georges script was the most intelligent he ever read. Of course, since most of his films had all the intelligence of a low level comic book, Georges script must have seemed like pure gold in comparison.
It was at a Fanex(a film convention held in Baltimore) that Quigley and De Coteau appeared. I had interviewed Linnea a few years before for a book that was never published called Drive-In Madness. At one point, De Coteau, Quigley Bill and myself were chatting when they decided to go to dinner. Bill says to me," We're going to dinner now. Meet up with us later." I was kind of pissed. So while they're hanging out together I'm eating dinner by myself? I went home.
I later asked Bill why I wasn't included. He said that Dave had paid for everybody's meal and thought it was unfair for him to pay for mine. I told him I would have paid for my own dinner and wouldn't have expected De Coteau to foot the bill for me. Being the total mealy mouthed prick Bill replied that De Coteau would have felt obligated to pay for my dinner anyway.
But knowing Bill the way I did the real reason why: he wanted Linnea and Dave all to himself. Bill didn't want to share the limelight and wanted to bask in the attention of a B film director and a popular Scream Queen. His version of the Hollywood Aristocracy.
As for the eventual outcome of Tantalizer, if you've already guessed that Mr. George's Opus was never ever committed to film, give yourself a gold star. You've earned it.
