Linnea Quigley Interview

                    

Linnea with director and friend David DeCoteau

In the 1980's, a new crop of screen queens, Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens, Michelle Bauer and Debra Lamb(to name a few) became the darlings of the burgeoning direct to video horror film market. Unlike their earlier counterparts like Fay Wray, Evelyn Ankers, Beverly Garland and Hazel Court, these ladies had no qualms about flaunting their bodies in various stages of undress much to the delight of the male horror fans. The films may not have approached high art on any level, but they entertained fans and made money for the video companies that released them.

Linnea has been acting continually in horror films( as well as some non horror movies) since her debut in Psycho from Texas in 1975. She also acted in Silent Night, Deadly Night; a film that garnered quite a bit of controversy because it depicted Santa Claus as a horror movie character. The movie went so far as to become a topic discussed on the Phil Donahue show  because of it's controversial theme.

Despite the usual, short career span of a typical screen queen, Linnea is still in the business as busy as ever as an actress and has even worn the hat of producer on several film projects. This woman has no intention of slowing down. And although in the new millennium the most current and hip term for horror film actresses is Horror Hotties, don't say that to Linnea. She still proudly considers herself to be a Scream Queen.

JV:  Linnea, let's start by talking about Celluloid Bloodbath: More Prevues from Hell. How did you get involved with the film?

LQ:  I got a call from Dan Kaminski, who I've known forever. He was getting a couple people to introduce some films and I tried to get people,too. I happened to know some people that had a video camera because I was in Florida, he was in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. So, I did a wrap around and was trying to get people to do some and a lot of them flaked. I talked about Psycho from Texas, which I did in the very beginning of my career. Dan's got, like, a million really cool names in it doing the wrap arounds and it's grown into something really big now.

JV: Out of all of the films you've done in your career, what would be the one you'd want to be most remembered for?

LQ:  I would say Return of The Living Dead. That has all the elements and it was just one of those perfect times when everything aligned; the cast, the crew, the music, just everything. It just worked.It's got all the elements of something kind of spooky happening and something that could happen.And the comedy of when something like that would happen how people might react, because there's not much difference between horror and comedy. You act pretty stupid when you're scared.

JV:  You did a non horror film at one point called Treasure of The Moon Goddess. Did you think it would be the big breakout hit for you?

LQ:  Yeah, I really did because it was like a Disney PG 13 film. We were filming in Mexico, we were filming in the Philippines and I thought it would really be good. It's a fun little film to watch. It just didn't get pushed.

JV: During this period in your career, I understand your agent was touting you as the low budget Meg Ryan. Did that give your acting career an upswing?

LQ: I think it did. I was doing cameo's in John Landis films and things like that. But I never got a solid part in an A movie, like a co-starring or leading part, unfortunately.

JV: Since you're now living in Florida, are you acting in local films?

LQ:  I've done some in Florida, but I've also done some in LA. I just got back from doing one in LA called The Trouble with Barry, which is a comedy horror film and Disciples which I co-produced.It's got Angus Scrim, Tony Todd, Bill Mosley, Brinke Stevens; a huge crew. I mean, cast and everything. It looks really super. We had some great locations in Florida and in LA. I talked to the director and he's got a couple on the shelf right now. He going to get them totally finished and out there. It was great seeing Debra again(Debra Lamb) because she disappeared for a while. She's back and she's back with a vengeance, I tell you.

JV:  Let me ask you a question I posed to her in a recent interview,how do you feel about doing nudity in movies?

LQ: Kind of like going to the doctor,you don't really want to but....(laughter) I really haven't been called to do that for a long,long time because I've had some pretty good parts and I've gone from the ingenue to the mother roles.It's really not needed so much. Now, I can look back and go," Oh God,somebody else can do it." Like, I just did Girls Gone Dead and I play a crazy Australian bartender. That was really fun. It's like a change going from the ingenue,I had to do those parts,to playing mothers,psychics,Gypsy's and stuff;which are more substantial parts. Like,I did Demonica, which is demons on skates.I played a gypsy in that.I did a short called Stella Buio.I played a psychic in that,a scam psychic. But I'm still a psychic.

JV:  I see that your latest film is called Crazy Fat Ethel.

LQ: Oh yeah. Now that hasn't started yet. They're still waiting for funds. So hopefully that will happen.

JV: You said you were a member of the Screen Actors Guild. If you're caught working on a non SAG film,are there any repercussions?

LQ:  I've been caught a couple of times. They fine you,like,a thousand dollars. The second time they fined me another thousand dollars and they made me go to a first members meeting which was horrible.(laughs) That was like torture.

JV: What is a first members meeting, if I can ask?

LQ: It's just all," Yay SAG. Don't ever do anything non SAG".(laughter) It's like a big pep rally for SAG who actually screwed me on Savage Streets. So I really don't feel an endearment to them, because they don't really protect you and they don't get you work.

JV: Talking about Savage Streets for a minute, that was the film with Linda Blair, right?

LQ: Yeah. I was just in Canada where they showed it on the big screen and they had The Scars there,the guys who played the bad asses. It was interesting 'cause I'd seen them briefly in LA about four months before and it was just so weird to see how people had changed and not changed. They sent a script to Tarantino(Quinton Tarantino) of a remake, or a continuation of Savage Streets,actually.Which we hope happens because we'd all be in it, but grown up. When I was doing the film,they had cast Cherie Curry(the singer for the Runaways)and on the very last day of rehearsals in walks Linda Blair and I nearly died because I thought she was this huge,big star. I'm like," I'm playing her sister.Oh my God,they're going to fire me."Because we were the same age,the same height. I had blonde hair and light eyes and she had the darker hair and they went through a firing spree,so I was terrified. But I made it, luckily.

JV: You told me before the interview that you had a problem on that film. Can you elaborate on that ?

LQ: Yeah, they stopped filming for money reasons about halfway through and when you wait,according to SAG, my manager called, I called and you let them know you're still working on the film. But you're on hold,which means you can't change your appearance,you can't take something that might conflict with the schedule,so they pay you a certain amount and I was owed  about five thousand. And the SAG representative, when we started in again,came on set and said," Okey,you guys are gonna get your five thousand." That was a lot back then. I was like,' Yay, oh good!" The guy just turned to me and said," Well,you're not gonna get it." I said," What? My manager called every day." " Well, we don't remember any of that." So after that, I did not have any respect for SAG. They said," Just be glad this movie's being made." I thought," What? Who's side are you on? "

JV:  We talked about your favorite film. Looking back, which film is your least favorite?

LQ:  Oh boy, I hate to hurt peoples feelings, but probably Animals. That was probably my least favorite film.

JV: When was that filmed?

LQ: That was before I moved to Florida. I was in LA flew to Florida to do it and it was the very first shot on video thing I'd done. I wasn't expecting it to be video and it was probably 1998, I would guess. That was probably my least favorite.

JV: You make a lot of appearances at horror film conventions. What is your favorite thing about doing conventions?

LQ: Meeting the really nice fans. Ones that really get into the movies. Like the last one in Canada,people were coming up that weren't even born when my movies were made. But they were just,very,very enthusiastic about these movies and that made me feel good. Most kids are into video and what's new out there. So it was really nice.

JV: When I interviewed Debra Lamb, she was talking about producing and directing some film projects. Have you ever produced any other films besides Disciples?

LQ: Yes, like on a lot of David De Coteau's films and as I mentioned before, Joe Hollows Disciples.

JV: What goes into producing a film?

LQ: Oh my gosh, you wear a lot of hats. From everything to helping get and secure locations, your friendships with different actors, getting them in the film, fixing problems that happen during filming so other people aren't aware of them and it can go smoothly. You wear a lot of hats when you do that.

JV: Is that a good thing?

LQ: Yeah, it makes it more interesting. And just reading actors and making decisions; that kind of thing. It keeps you busy. And you can see what goes on by being behind the scenes. Also getting PR going. When I was in LA I could easily do that. I got TV Guide Channel to do something on  The Trouble with  Barry and that's going to air pretty soon. It's an interesting job to do.

JV: Are there any future projects that you'd like to talk about?

LQ: Well, Celluloid Bloodbath is coming out Oct 9. That's the one we talked about where I do a wrap around. That's going to be really fun to watch and bring back a lot of memories for people. I just did a YouTube thing if anybody wants to watch it. It's Girls Gone Dead movie website. They're doing a give a way of winning my hat and a DVD. Girls Gone Dead is a really good film. It's reminiscent of the 80's films. Cougar Cult:1313 is a fun little David De Coteau film. A little different than his other films that I did with him, but it did bring Brinke, Michelle and I together. Demonica, which is demons on skates is gonna be out soon and I play a gypsy in that. That'll be fun. So I 've been really active. Which is good.

JV: These days, it's seems that the term Scream Queen has been replaced by Horror Hotties. Which title do you prefer?

LQ: I think Scream Queens. I think there's a difference between the two. I think Scream Queens have a long past, really love what they do and the people love them for what they do. The Horror Hotties are just girls that  kind of show a lot of skin and  run around. You've gotta have a good reputation and get in there and really blast them with your scream.

Meet The Men Behind Celluloid Bloodbath: More Prevues From Hell

From left to right: Fred Pomerleau, Dan Kaminski, Jim Murray,Happy The Zombie,April Burril,Jim Monaco,Chris Monaco





Ever wonder what it takes to make a video from conception to the finished product? Well, just talk to the creative nucleus behind such a project and you'll discover the nuts and bolts of  film production. Which is exactly what I, your intrepid reporter, did recently on a Saturday afternoon at a diner in Springfield, Pa.

I sat down with Jim Murray, Dan Kaminski, Fred  Pomerleau, Anthony Bruno and ventriloquist Nick Pawlow at the Springfield Diner for lunch and to gain some insight into the making of Celluloid Bath: More Prevues From Hell. Because I've known both Jim and Dan for more than a few years ,the meeting was more of a spirited conversation ranging from their latest video endeavor to our favorite films than an actual interview. At one point during our lunch, a total stranger came up to us(obviously a regular at the diner) to regale us with a joke. Such was the jovial atmosphere on that Saturday afternoon.

Since the interview, Celluloid Bloodbath has garnered both critical and commercial success. The audience response had been nothing short of tremendous. The blood, sweat and tears these guys shed to bring their idea to life  has proven to be well worth the effort. Kudos to them for a job well done. And if you haven't seen Celluloid Bloodbath yet, what in the hell are you waiting for?




JV: Let me start by asking you what was the inspiration for Celluloid Bloodbath?

Jim Murray:  The inspiration for this was money.(laughter) No, we just wanted to do a sequel and initially we were going to do one that was going to be twenty years later and the zombies were still in the theatre. The fact that they're renovating the theater(The Lansdowne) now, the theater is basically in the same condition it was when we shot the film in 1987. So we were still going to have the zombies still in there ,but we were going to have the makeup crew and guys making up zombies again. We weren't going to get the good deal that Jordu Schell( whose most recent credits include working as a designer on movies like Avatar and Cowboys and Aliens, among many other projects.) gave us in 1987,which was $400.00 to do a theatre full of zombies plus the effects. So Nick(ventriloquist/ comedian Nick Pawlow) one day came up with the idea ,"Let's get John Zacherle in the film." Then me and Danny were talking and it was like the light bulb went off in our heads," Let's get actors and people we know from conventions to introduce the trailers." And the idea was born. We put together an idea of who we were trying to get between conventions and Face book and we just started knocking them out. As soon as I got in touch with people, most of the people said they would do it. A lot of them did it for nothing, some of them did it for a ridiculously low amount of money; going up to Caroline Munro and asking her if she'll introduce Psycho's. She wanted fifty bucks.

JV:  Did this film cost more to make than Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell?

Jim Murray: Prevues from Hell cost me $13,000, this cost me $8,600. I was calling in a lot of favors. We got lucky. A lot of people did their bits for nothing and I just squeezed every dime out of the money I had to use. And we got it done. I had a lot of help, a lot of these guys helped out. Anthony  (film editor Anthony Bruno) came in and took over with the editing and then did the close captioning which we would have had to pay for if he didn't do it. So a lot of people chipped in and we were able to bring it in for a really low amount.

JV: If I may ask, how many units of the DVDs did Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell sell?

Jim Murray: I don't know. We're trying to get that info from Virgil Films, so I can't give you that info right now. The video tapes we made were a thousand. There's only a half a dozen left. So figure there's a thousand VHS's out there.

Dan Kaminski: How many bootlegs?

Jim Murray: Bootlegs I don't know. We ran into a lot of those at conventions. And it was cool because I got to the point where I was bringing my copyright papers with me to show them, with my drivers license and say," Hey you're selling my film" and I loved doing that. I'd go up to the table, I'd show the guy the paper work and they'd hand me all the disks. It's like," I feel so official".(laughter)

JV : Like George Lucas, right?

Jim Murray:( laughs)Yeah, right. Or more like Frank Sinatra. You remember the stories about him? Going to conventions and just grabbing posters off of peoples tables saying," That's my film." Because all those films he did he owned. He figured he owned the paper material, too. He didn't want anyone making money and him not getting a cut of it, I guess.

JV: Nick, tell me about the origins of your creation Happy The Zombie.

Nick Pawlow: I started doing stand up comedy about 1985 and I was doing an act where I was doing impressions, working with props; it was pretty much of a scatter brain act. It had no beginning, it had no end and I wanted to stand out from the other comics in the crowd,so I decided, "Well, wouldn't it be fun to  just have a ventriloquist act?" So I had an old rubber zombie head that I made years ago, made a body for it, went to the library, got a couple books on ventriloquism, a couple of weeks later there I am on stage with a zombie puppet. It was kind of crude; a really, really bad act actually. One of the effects I had was one of the eyes would pop out and the act scored big. The owner of the club said," Get rid of your regular act with the props, focus on this because it's unique and original" and that's how Happy The Zombie got started. What happened, I did that act for about a year and a half or so when Jim contacted me about working on Prevues from Hell. Jim and I both agreed that the Happy puppet I that had was kind of  tacky looking, not really scary, so we decided if we're going to do this video to maybe get Happy redone for more like a polished look, more of a scary look, more of a professional look. When we started putting everything together luckily we found Jodu Schell and he's the one who designed the puppet. The one that you see in both Prevues from Hell and Celluloid Bloodbath is what a call The Green Happy. The character's remained the same, the voice has remained the same; it's just that the puppet has a different look to it. When I do my regular stand up act it's the old style puppet. The green puppet didn't really score well with audiences. It was too scary actually.

JV: How does one go about finding trailers, especially the trailer to a film like Alabama's Ghost, which is a pretty obscure movie?

Jim Murray: Trailers were difficult. We started out with Fred's collection( associate producer Fred Pomerleau) and his collection was basically TV spots which would have been 60 second and 30 second spots. What did that run ,like about thirty five minutes?

Fred Pomerleau: Yeah, like a half hour; around there.

Jim Murray: A little bit better than a half an hour and it wasn't enough. We could've padded out a lot of interviews, but there wouldn't have been enough trailers. So I was wracking my brain trying to figure out who still had trailers left; all the collectors I've known over the years. And apparently there was nobody. The only guy I know that physically had the trailers was Mad Ron and since he's not part of this project, it wasn't an option. I had to use my brain a little bit and decided to contact George Stover to see if he still had the film from the trailers I knew he was selling on VHS and he said no he had sold them all. But, he still had the three quarter inch master tapes. So I'm like," It'll probably work with those." He sent me a few and we tried it. He sent us the mini DV tapes made off of a quarter inch and they looked like shit.

Dan Kaminski: Actually, they weren't bad, but it was the digital part. They were so digitized that you could see all the lines and things like that. But it I guess everyone that buys it from him doesn't care,they just want the trailers. We wanted something maybe a little bit better. We just didn't want to use 'em. That's when you went to get the three quarter inch tapes.

Jim Murray: So,we ended up getting the whole collection of tapes which was twenty five. Anthony and I went through them all, pulled out the ones I wanted to use and got 'em transferred. And then in the editing process, Anthony, do you want to take over as far as the color correction?

Anthony Bruno: After Jim chose which ones we were going to use, I was using Avid and Danny was using Final Cut. I used Avid to color correct all the trailers. Actually most of the film was color corrected through Avid Media Composer. We tried our best to get a lot of the scratches out of it and tried to clean them up a little bit. I mean, it was quite a tedious process ,but I think we did a pretty good job of cleaning the trailers up. I mean, we're happy with it.

JV: If someone else wanted to do a similar trailer compilation tape would you recommend it as a money maker?

Jim Murray: That's a touchy question. There are a lot of compilations out there like 42nd Street Forever and of course our original film. It's just a matter of whether or not you can come up a decent enough selection of trailers that might not have been used before. That's why we were going through stuff in ours that anybody else has like Psycho from Texas, which is Linea Quigley's first film,  Alabama's Ghost which virtually nobody's ever heard of and things along that line. So actually coming up with enough trailers to do a third one would be difficult.

Dan Kaminsky: But you know on top of that, it's coming up with the stuff in between. That's the key. It's the storyline in between that makes it. Because without that it's just some trailers.

Jim Murray: A lot of these, like 42 Street Forever, that's all they are, are trailers and in no sequential order; they're just thrown together. The only thing that those guys got going for them is good box art.

Dan Kaminsky: We've got great box art, too.

JV: You said great. Okey, I'll quote you one that one. (laughter) Now let's talk to Associate Producer Fred Pomerleau. What was your job on Celluloid Bloodbath?

Fred Pomerleau: Anything they asked me to do. I took pictures. When Nick wasn't around I watched Happy, took care of Happy and operated Happy once or twice. If Nick had to work Happy and we were going to use another puppet, I'd do that. Whatever they asked me to do.

JV: Is this your first movie?

Fred Pomerleau: I'm in Prevues from Hell. I get my throat cut in Prevues. I just hang out with these guys. I haven't worked on anything else much.

JV: Now Dan, what did you do on this film?

Dan Kaminski: Nothing. (laughter) No, I'm producing it. The pre- production, the shooting, the sound, the set up, editing, getting some of the celebrities and just basically doing all the stuff producers do. Getting it all together.

JV:  One question I have to ask you guys is, what was the toughest interview that you did?

Jim Murray: Without question Conrad Brooks. We only wanted to pay him a hundred dollars to do the bit. He introduces the section called Really Bad Movie Prevues. I figured Conrad introducing that was perfect. So he's like," No ,I want two hundred dollars." Danny was the one talking to him and Danny was like," No Conrad, we have a hundred dollars for you and that's all you're going to get." He says, "Alright, well, one seventy five." Danny's like," No, no, a hundred dollars." He comes down to one fifty, so that's when I cut in and I said, 'Dan, let's just go middle ground between one hundred and one fifty and give him a hundred and a quarter. I said, "Conrad, we can give you one and a quarter." And he said," No, no, I want one fifty." So we pulled the money out.

Dan Kaminsky: And I said no again. (laughs)

Jim Murray: And Danny's still saying no 'cause he didn't want to have to give him the one and a quarter and I'm telling him," Yeah ,give him the one and a quarter."  Conrad plucks the money out of Danny's hand and puts it in his pocket. And I immediately thought," If he doesn't give us this interview, I gonna leap across that table and get that money out of his pocket."

Dan Kaminsky: I thought he did it for one twenty five.

Jim Murray: Yeah, he did end up taking the one twenty five. I had cue cards made. The camera was here, the cue card was here and he's sitting where Fred is, so all he had to do was look at the cue card and the camera was right there. He's looking all around and wouldn't get the line right. When he reads the title his moniker in this thing is," I'm Conrad Brooks, I starred in Ed Wood's sci-fi classic Plan Nine(pause)From Outer Space.", like he's got to read the title. He doesn't know the title after fifty years?

Dan Kaminsky: A lot of that was dramatic pause. (laughter)

JV: Dramatic pause. I'll put that in the interview.

Jim Murray: No, he was a pain in the butt.

Dan Kaminsky: I was taking video behind the scenes and it was funny, because there was a lot of it,all the tension between Jim getting frustrated and Conrad just saying," I'm trying my best."

JV: Are we ever going to see the behind the scenes stuff?

Dan Kaminsky: It's on the DVD.

Jim Murray: There's a bit where I'm yelling at Conrad. I'm telling Conrad, "All you gotta do is read the cue card." I'm off camera and you see my hand. I'm like, "Read the cue card, 'cause the camera's right here." He go's," Oh, okay." and you hear Jim Monaco in the background," Take four."

Dan Kaminsky: Tell him about William Forsythe.

Jim Murray: Getting William Forsythe was really cool. He was at Cinema Wasteland and I didn't know what we were going to have him say. I went up and told him what we were doing, this thing about horror movie prevues and he said," Yeah I'll do it. Just come back when my table isn't crowded.", because he had people and was signing autographs. So we came back and went up to him and said," Okay, we'll do it." He just started talking. Fortunately the guys had the camera and the mike on him. He didn't give us a chance to set up or anything. So he just started talking saying how much he doesn't like horror films. Which I had no idea how I was going to use that. But anyway, at the end of the interview I said, "  Mr. Forsythe, can I compensate you for your time?" And he just paused and looked at me, and I was like, "Oh, here it comes." He had the release, ready to sign  it and I figured he probably wasn't going to sign it. So he goes," You guys couldn't afford me." He signs it and hands it to me and says," Here". That was very, very cool. The other thing was, I didn't know how I was going to use the bit because everybody else's bit introduces either a section or a trailer. In his, he talks about he doesn't like horror movies. Well, when we interviewed Kyra Schon, she did the same thing only she talks about how much she loves horror movies. So in the the film it's a great contrast. William Forsythe, he's facing this way talking about how he doesn't like horror films and we cut right to her facing this way; it's like they're talking to each other and she's saying how she loves horror films. So in the film it worked great. It's right near the end, so I'm curious to know what you think of it.

JV: Any last thoughts, Jim?

Jim Murray: What was the coolest thing for me putting  this film together was making friends with some of the people I made friends with because of the film like Johnny Legend who calls me occasionally. He's a really super guy. And other people like Debra Lamb, who became a close, personal friend of mine and I'm ecstatic about that. Other people that I talked to who I thought were just awesome like April Burril, Chainsaw Sally, she was just so cool. I mean, she let us come into her house and shoot her whole bit in her bedroom while the husband, her daughter and her father were out in the living room watching cartoons. And then going to all the conventions was a lot of fun. It was work for all of us, but it was cool kind of work.