Part 1/ Part 2/ Part 3
By Serena Whitney
Today,
I sat on the bus excited as hell to get to “Rue Morgue’s 2nd annual
Festival of Fear” at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. I was eagerly
awaiting the return to the festival as if it were a sequel to my all-time favourite movie. But, just like a sequel, my night started out as an inferior
experience to the past year’s events due to my very incompetent bus driver which
made me an hour late to the festival.
I ran to the convention as fast as I could, pushing
tourists out of my way who were standing around with their eyes glued to the CN
Tower. (It’s not the EIFFEL tower, people!!) I entered the Convention, and
realized I had just missed the panel of the (original) Dawn of the Dead’s Ken
Foree (ARGHH!) This was a disappointment, yet I tried to make the most of the
day by visiting many horror booths. I am so glad to be covering this for the
Joblo/Arrow in the Head family and I hope y’all enjoy the read!
TONY
TODD (CANDYMAN)
Hanging out with Mr.Todd
My first panel belonged to a man who gave me such vivid
nightmares when I was a child. Many people were probably spooked by Freddy,
Jason and Michael Myers, but it was Candyman, the hook-wielding vengeful ghost
that scared the living daylights out of me. Even though Tony Todd is best known
for his role as “Candyman” ( and also for his deep distinctive voice) he has
also displayed his amazing acting abilities and versatility in movies such as
Oliver Stone’s Platoon, Lean on Me, The Crow, the remake of Night of
the living Dead, and Final Destination. I was pleased to see how humble,
mellow and down to earth this man is, and also very thankful because now he has
made it a lot easier for me to watch his most frightening performances. Here is
what I got out of his panel:
-Tony Todd’s big screen break was in 1986’s Sleepwalk,
which also co-starred cult favourite, Steve Buscemi
-He was approached to do Candyman after Bernard
Rose( the director of Candyman) had seen him in a movie called The
Last Elephant, which also co-starred James Earl Jones. Rose had thought
Todd was visually right for the role as the infamous killer. The studio for the
film actually had many objections, and were looking for a bigger name, but
Bernard had fought for Tony to be Candyman.
-He loves doing his background stories for his characters,
and went so far as taking dance lessons and horseback riding lessons for six
weeks with Virginia Madsen (better known as “Helen” to horror fans) to establish
a romantic relationship between the two characters on-screen. (Yeah…that seems
like such HARD work…lol)
-Tony had taken some time to talk about his upcoming
projects including the highly anticipated The Strange Case of Dr. Jeykll and
Mr.Hyde, a contemporary retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson’s tale. He plays
both Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde and said it took four hours of makeup to do the
transformations.
He also said the movie is slated for theatrical release on
January 13, 2006. Tony also talked about his latest horror film coming out on
DVD entitled, Shadow-Dead Riot. This movie takes place in a woman’s
prison and Todd plays a vampire who comes back from the dead after being
electrocuted. (seems different enough!) He also mentioned he will be featured in
another horror film this year called House of Grimm.
Todd yapping it up at his panel
–When asked if he will be appearing in Final
Destination 3, the actor disappointed his fans by saying he will not be in
the movie due to scheduling problems, but has been approached by director James
Wong about a pitch for Final Destination 4.(This is when the audience
including Tony rolled their eyes and laughed.) Needless to say, he did not
seemed all that hyped about the idea of yet another sequel to the tired series.
-He hates working on television shows. He has worked on
many including three Star Trek series, Angel, and Stargate. He talked about how
he’d rather work on a film, because he’s heard too many horror stories of jaded
actors who are doomed to play insignificant regulars on television shows.
-His dream role would be to play legendary soul singer, Sam
Cooke.(who was believed to have sold his soul to the devil)
-His Favourite films include Sunset.Blvd and Rosemary’s
Baby.
-He’s also in the works to star in a show called
Midnight Hits, a show he compared to Kolchak:Night Stalker.
LIGHTNING BUG
Since I only had one panel today, I thought I would go to
the Screaming Rooms, and check out a screening. I decided to check out
Lightning Bug, a film written and directed by famous make up and special
effects artist Robert Hall. This film is based on his life, and considering the
subject matter, I thought it was a very brave and bold choice for his freshman
effort as a filmmaker.
Lightning Bug is a coming of age story about an
adolescent boy named Green (Bret Harrison) with aspirations of becoming a
Hollywood make up artist. While dreaming of making monsters in Hollywood, he
must also overcome the real monsters in his life that are keeping him from
accomplishing his life dream or he will be doomed to lead a poor and average
life in Alabama. The real monsters include a drunken and abusive stepfather,
an alcoholic mother (Hellraiser’s Ashley Laurence) and religious fanatics
trying to make his life miserable who are lead by his girlfriend’s (Laura Prepon)
bible-thumping mother.
It took me a good half hour to realize that this movie
wasn’t a horror film! I had absolutely no idea that this was just a drama. This
film had many strong performances, but near the end it just lost me, because
instead of going with the dark and bleak tone the rest of the movie had, it
immediately gets cheesy and sappy, and by that point it just feels like a made
for TV movie. I still commend Robert Hall (who attended the screening) though
for putting out his personal conflicts on screen. (That takes major balls, my
friend!) I recommend this indie to anyone who enjoys passionate character-driven
dramas, but don’t watch this if you’re looking for blood and gore….it’s not that
kind of movie!
NOTE:
(You can read The Arrow’s take on the film here)
STAY TUNED FOR PART 2 OF THIS REPORT!