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' www.imsnews.com/bizarre to start reading today QUOTING OFFER CODE G1 401 GZ Photography: Martin Perreault / martinperreaultcom 5 Reflections on a “Hell” ot a “Night" 6 As Bruno Mattel's co-conspirator, the Italian filmmaker wrangled the "Living Dead," “Rats" and more. 11 These documentarians assure that UK censorship of “video nasties" will not be forgotten. 1 5 You could school yourself on horror cinema at home with these books. 18 The Russian director’s transgressive cinema can be hard to see and even harder to watch. 22 He's determined to do it all on screen and behind the scenes in movies like “Cross Bearer." 28 The grown-up actors look back on their "Sleepaway Camp" days fondly. Plus: Packing for "Camp's" hi-def debut. 32 His 1981 creature feature assured that a day at the "Blood Beach" really sucked. 35 It took true brains to come up with a unique effect for "Day of the Dead." 38 Co-director Sean Donohue and some grisly pics get you psyched for the new psycho flick. 40 His very first film “The Lost Empire" has become his latest DVD resurrection. 42 Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein continues to make monstrous music for misfits everywhere. 44 The veteran visual FX artist recalls how his first film was anything but "Spook"-easy. 46 Luigi Cozzi's "Contamination" . Heck of t he Liuing Dneck saw Hell of the Living Dead (a.k.a. Zombie Creeping Flesh in Britain) via Vestron VHS under its U.S. theatrical title Night of the Zombies at one of our preteen Fri- day-night horror-movie-renting and pizza-devouring binges. The other two lads involved in our after-hours shocker soiree were keen on watching Halloween sequels and the latest '80s DTV slog, but I had my sights set on a more adventurous strain The Vestron label was an obsession of mine. House by the Cemetery, Pieces, Sole Survivor, Death Weekend... Vestron was ripe with strong, strange international genre films that were as artful as they were odd. Night of the Zombies was one of those flicks I knew little about, save for that it was Italian and that Mick Martin and Mar- sha Porter's Video Movie Guide gave it a “Turkey” rating, calling it “One big, long, disgusting cannibal fesL" That was enough for me. It was clear to me that in both this tome and Leonard Maltin's essential, pre-Intemet review resource, when a European horror film got the “Turkey" or the Maltin-dropped “BOMB” (his tome called out Lucio Fulci’s Zombie for being “repellent”...well, duhl), the picture would be dark, defiant, surreal and potentially dangerous. But in the case of Night of the Zombies, it wasn't just the dubbed, exotic otherworldliness that stuck with me, nor was it the ample cannibal-corpse slaughter. No, it was the music that really did me in. Well, that and the stock footage. Hell/Night is now infamous for being a deranged, cross-eyed cousin to both George A. Romero's Dead saga and Fulci's metaphysical Italian ghoul films, and only the most forgiving fan would call the movie “good.” It’s hilariously not good. I vividly recall being confused right from the credits sequence, wherein the music blasting out of the TV’s mono speaker was the Goblin score from Dawn of the Dead and, later, Luigi Cozzi's Contamination'. The Italian supergroup was, of course, listed as the composers, but. .this was the same stuff from those films (with select cues from the studio album Roller). Was this legal, I wondered? After that bit of befuddlement (and an admittedly bravura zombie-rat setpiece!) I , was astonished to see a slew of blue-uniformed SWAT cops marauding through an apartment building, again to the same rat-a-tat prog-rock action tracks from Dawn And then, suddenly, when the action was thrust into its primary jungle setting... stock footage! Grainy images of giant birds flapping in slow-mo, leaping marsupials, drum-beating natives and cavorting gazelles were inexplicably spliced into scenes of green-faced ghouls and black dudes in pale greasepaint eating entrails ad nauseum, while the cast spouted goofy/aur-tough-guy dialogue. I was in shock. What the hell (of the living dead) was this!? It was like I watched Dawn, chased it with a bathroom read of National Geographic, fell asleep and dreamed this movie! Needless to say, despite its ample gore, my friends hated it, and hated me for making them watch it. Truthfully, I myself wasn't sure what to think of it. That Vestron transfer was dark, muddy and cropped, and the dismal presentation didn’t really forgive its ample idiocy. Still, I was fascinated by the film—and again, it was just so weird, such an anomaly...I couldn't forget it. Years later, when Anchor Bay released it on DVD under the Hell title, this cheap Third World-set gut-muncher looked absolutely fantastic: bright, bloody and alive. That second viewing gripped me. Sure, the movie was still hackwork, filled with often unattractive actors, weird nudity and ludicrous padding, but it had—and maintains—that certain, difficult-to- pinpoint power, all the more appealing in anamorphic widescreen! We can credit Hell's hot-mess grease-stain to late lower-tier exploitation guru Bruno Mattei, the man who helmed both this film and its unofficial companion pic- ture, the equally tone-deaf Rats—Night of Terror. Both were written by and unoffi- cially co-directed by Claudio Fragasso, and in honor of Blue Underground's upcoming double-feature Blu-ray release of both pictures, Severin Films' David Gregory has given us a long, sweet and gleefully entertaining interview with Fragasso that will make you fall in confusing love with Hell all over again—or maybe, if you're unfamil- iar with it, inspire you to seek the movie out for a first watch. Strange, sickening, silly, hypnotic, horrible and occasionally kind of spooky... if there's any place Hell of the Living Dead belongs, it’s on the battered, bruised cover of GOREZONE! —Chris Alexander, Editor chris@fangoria. com GOREZONE *32 5 . A«eU0fAT6AM Claudio (“Troll 2 ”) Fragasso helped the latef notorious Bruno Mattei blend gorey guts and unintentional guffaws By DAVID GREGORY and FEDERICO CADDEO ately, Claudio Fragasso is best known as the director of the Zeit- L geist's cherished chunk of absurdity Troll 2—and if his appearance in Michael Stephenson’s documentary Best Worst Movie is to be believed, he doesn't have much of a sense of humor about his work. But the guy I met while shooting a retro- spective featurette about the films he co- directed sans credit with late Italian exploitation stalwart Bruno Mattei (the latter billed as “Vincent Dawn") was far from that He was good-natured, humor- ous, generous and under no illusions that their films were anything other than what they were supposed to be: over-the-top, low-budget genre quickies that hit all the required marks. Chiefly, a lot of splatter. These movies were the face-shredding, entrail-chewing, eye-popping zombie opus Hell of the Living Dead and the postapoca- lyptic/animals-attack hybrid Rats—Night of Terror—both enjoying hi-def upgrades as a Blu-ray double feature coming August It for- 26 from Blue Underground. was the It's truly unsafe to drink the water in these parts. mer title in particular for which I wanted to get the scoop from Fragasso. The film 1 George A. Romero's Daum ofthe Dead, but GOREZONE: How did you first meet Bru- knew as Zombie Creeping Flesh from see- as one of the slew of Italian gut-munchers no Mattei? ing the lurid British quad poster as a that emerged in the wake of the surprise CLAUDIO FRAGASSO: I met him when I youth outside my local fleapit, watching international success of Lucio Fulci's was an assistant editor You're not worthy wide-eyed on the news as it was con- awesome unofficial Dawn sequel, Zombie. of being a director if you haven’t had expe- demned as a “video nasty" and when I We met at the former De Paolis Stu- rience as an editor; the process gives you finally saw it—right before it was with- dios, where so many great Italian exploi- an idea of how a film is made. It is essen- drawn from video stores across the UK tation flicks (including Rats) had rolled tial. Bruno and I immediately got along, because of its tendency to deprave and over the years, and discussed a fruitful because we both liked genre films. Our corrupt—delivered every bloody thing the filmmaking partnership which may not meeting led to a long collaboration that sordid box promised. Also known as Virus have entranced many critics, but cer- lasted for about 15 years. and released theatrically in the U.S. as tainly pleased its producers and charmed Bruno had more experience—I was Night of the Zombies, it hit the market not fans of bargain-basement horror around much younger—and he took the director so much as an immediate follow-up to the globe.