Famous monsters #289 | 2017 Annual - Sample Promo

t n e r e f f I D T A S A E B

Shinji Higuchi and Keiichi Sakurai Reflect on SHIN GODZILLA

Interview by Holly Interlandi with special thanks to Ed Holland and translators DeVonna Lauritzen and Chiye Green.

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KEIICHI SAKURAI

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Famous Monsters. Obviously, Godzilla is an inherently Japanese phenomenon — it’s one of Japan’s cultural trademarks. When you were growing up, do you remember your first Godzilla memory and how you reacted to seeing him on screen?

Keiichi Sakurai. Gojira was made so many years ago, but the first time I got to see it was when I was twelve. I remember watching the old GODZILLA VS KING KONG movie as well. There was quite a bit of time between the release of the movie and when I could actually see it, and when I finally did, I was blown away.

Shinji Higuchi. The first time I saw a Godzilla movie was when I was in kindergarten. It was GODZILLA VS HEDORAH, and being that age, it definitely left its mark on me.

FM. Having those memories of seeing Godzilla for the very first time, how did you react when you found out that you would be working on a brand new Godzilla?

SH. I was thrilled. I wasn’t working for Toho when they were making most of the Godzilla movies; I was doing mostly freelance work. So after joining the company to be able to get this opportunity… I was very, very happy! There are a lot of detailed and specific rules I had to follow when making a Godzilla movie, so that was stressful; but in the end, I broke a lot of them.

KS. I actually entered Toho studios in order to create Godzilla movies. It was the whole reason I joined the company! Back then we had a specialized

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SHINJI HIGUCHI

BACK IN MY DAY WHEN GODZILLA FIRST CAME OUT, IT WAS THOUGHT OF AS SCARY AND A LITTLE ODD. BUT THESE DAYS, I WOULD LOVE FOR KIDS TO GROW UP WITH THE FANDOM JUST AS WE DID!

effects cinematography team that worked just on this type of movie. At some point, the team just kind of fell apart.

I am the last special effects cinematographer for Toho studios now. It was thrilling and exciting to be asked to work on a new Godzilla movie with that title.

FM. Do either of you have a favorite scene that you worked on in the film?

KS. There’s a scene

where a lot of office buildings are being destroyed. Because the movie was done in CG, there wasn’t a whole lot of miniature work being done, so that one scene really stayed with me because we did all the miniatures for it. It was a lot of fun.

SH. Speaking to people who haven’t seen the movie yet… towards the end of the movie when we’re taking down Godzilla, there’s a scene with a bunch of students and office workers running around, and there are trains crashing everywhere. I wish we could have done that in miniature instead of CG, but it was still a fun scene!

FM. Destruction is always the best part. [all laugh] Higuchi-san, you’ve worked on anime storyboards a lot. What’s the major difference between working on anime and working on live action?

SH. There’s not a huge difference to me. I guess the main thing would be the weather. With an anime, if it rains, it doesn’t matter. We can still continue with production.

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FM. I’m curious now, since you mentioned HEDORAH being one of your first Godzilla movies, did the “stages” of Hedorah give you the idea for the stages of Shin Godzilla?

SH. It’s funny because I’ve had other people mention that, but I never really considered it while I was working on SHIN GODZILLA. But it is very similar in that way.

FM. Well, if you had to name one Godzilla movie in particular that influenced the feel of SHIN GODZILLA, which one would that be and why?

SH. The 1954 Gojira left such an impression on me that it really influenced the making of this movie.

KS. I also wanted to make a Godzilla movie very much like the 1954 version, but it was extremely different because so much of it was done in CG. Unlike the ’54 version, there was no one in a Godzilla suit to frame in the camera and take a picture of. There was nothing there!

FM. Solid or not, much has been made of the design and the “look” of this new Godzilla. How did the look come about? Was it multiple people giving ideas, or was it a single vision?

SH. It was a collaborative effort that was done over a long period of time. Since CG was being used, we didn’t have to pinpoint or narrow down the design from the very beginning [for a suit to be made]. So when we started to create it, we could say, “Well, we want this to be more like this, or we want this to shine more, we want his powers to look more like this,” after we saw each rough draft of the CG. KS. Another thing different from previous Godzilla movies when we had someone in a suit

WHOEVER WAS IN THE SUIT WOULD PROBABLY FALL OVER OR KNOCK THINGS DOWN. WE WERE ABLE TO MAKE THE TAIL VERY LONG IN CG.

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OPPOSITE PAGE TOP: SHIN GODZILLA display at the Yokohama exhibit. OPPOSITE BELOW: SHIN GODZILLA’s intense atomic breath.

was actually the length of the tail. In old movies it was shorter, because if it was made much longer, whoever was in the suit would probably fall over or knock things down. We were able to make the tail very long in CG. FM. Why do you think SHIN GODZILLA stand out from other Godzilla movies, and how do you think it will be perceived in history?

SH. That’s not something I’ve really thought about! [laughs] Something that keeps getting repeated is that “It’s gonna be on Blu-ray, it’s coming out on Blu-ray! It’ll be great!” [laughs] FM. I’d like to ask about how you guys first met and what made you decide to work together. I know you met early on in your career, but it took a while to decide to make multiple movies together — your short film [“Giant God Warrior Appears in Tokyo”], for example, both ATTACK ON TITAN films, and now SHIN GODZILLA. SH. We first met and started working together — I believe it was in a commercial, around the time that I was given my first big 22

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movie to work on. It was a space movie, so we were making the miniatures and the rockets that would blast off through space. It was actually the first time that Japan ever did a movie with outer space being black. In the past, space was always blue. But I guess the very first time we met and I learned of Sakurai-san was in high school.

FM. So you’ve known each other a long time, then. [laughs] KS. There weren’t very many people at Toho studios who were very passionate about special effects, and Higuchi-san was a special effects maniac, which made me really happy.

FM. Since you’ve worked on both ATTACK ON TITAN and SHIN GODZILLA, would you rather come into contact with Godzilla or the Colossal Titan, and why?

SH. I kind of want to meet Godzilla. He’s so cool! But I would not want to come across a Titan. They are scary, they’re grotesque, and I’d probably be eaten.

KS. Same here, I mean. [laughs] Instead of being eaten by a giant I’d rather be blasted by Godzilla’s atomic ray.

FM. That’s the way to go out, for sure! Well, I now have a different

Photos Courtesy Ed Holland

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HIGUCHI-SAN WAS A SPECIAL EFFECTS MANIAC, WHICH MADE ME REALLY HAPPY.

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question for each of you. First, Sakurai-san, if you could work on a new version of any tokusatsu film, be it Ultraman or Kikaida or anything like that, what would you choose, and why? And for Higuchi-san, you’ve been involved in making many live action films that are based on anime, such as CASSHERN, ATTACK ON TITAN, and so on. If you could take one anime and make a live action movie out of it, what would you pick and why?

KS. There was a movie made around 1957 that had a lot of great miniature work done in it —THE MYSTERIANS. I would work on that. There was a big robot in that movie.

SH. There are so many good anime and animators in Japan that I don’t think we even really need live action movies! The stories are already told so well in anime, we may not be able to do so well with live action.

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FM. Is there anything else you’d like to say to either American fans of Godzilla who have seen the film, or would like to see more from you in the Godzilla realm?

KS. Back in my day when GODZILLA first came out, it was thought of as scary and a little odd. But these days, I would love for kids to grow up with the fandom just as we did!

SH. What I’d like to ask of fans is that if you’ve seen the movie, please don’t tell anybody else about it! Show it to your friends and family, but we want fans when they see the movie to not know what’s coming next. We’re all familiar with Godzilla and his history, but in the movies I make, I want people to wonder what’s coming next. What kind of new monsters will be coming around the corner? So please don’t spoil the surprise!

Shinji Higuchi defends him self from Godzilla cosplayer Robert Pruitt at Famous Monsters Convention Dallas.

I KIND OF WANT TO MEET Godzilla. HE’S SO COOL! BUT I WOULD NOT WANT TO COME ACROSS A TITAN. THEY ARE SCARY, THEY’RE GROTESQUE, AND I’D PROBABLY BE EATEN.

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Fighting Japanese Monsters Since 1991!

3o YEARS OF HELLRAISER

30 REFLECTS ON DOUG BRADLEY

YEARS

AS A HORROR ICON Interviewed by Holly Interlandi

[Preserved in the Queen’s English, as spoken and written by Mr. Bradley.]

On his early theatre days with Clive Barker and the Dog Company:

T

ON NS

PI D

AN IL

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he 70s were an extraordinary journey for me. They started with me leaving school and going to University (Liverpool, to study English Literature, quickly becoming aware that I wanted to play Mephistopheles or Dr. Faustus, not write essays about them), dropping out after two terms, and plunging myself into the theatre work we were doing — myself and Clive and the group that had constellated around him at Quarry Bank. By the start of the 80s, I was in London, in the midst of The Dog Company, certain I wanted to pusue acting as a career (though yet to make a penny out of doing it).

Those early years of the decade I’ve described as my theatre school. We were creating new, original work, some written

by Clive, some genuinely collaborative efforts. One of these, ‘A Dream’, we literally spent a year creating and performed it once. I have such rich memories of that period; I often wish I could go back and look at what we were doing. Some of it would be embarrassingly dreadful, I have no doubt, but I’m equally sure some of it was like nothing else on view. The range was amazing. We did an English farce, a musical (!) about a visionary 13th century artist, science fiction and mime.

Everything was grist to the mill, and the influences were not just theatrical: cinema, art, philosophy, poetry, literature, mythology, and religion all went into the mix.

We had a drama studio at our disposal in Liverpool, and we would all gather there a few evenings every week and let the creative process roll. I recall one evening Clive suggested we create a mime (we had been on a cultural dash to London and discovered Lindsay Kemp’s ‘Flowers’ — a huge influence on us and, of course, the man who taught mime to David Bowie) around ideas from Poe, and by the end of the evening we had a complete short mime based around ‘Fall Of The House Of Usher’, ‘The Black Cat’, and ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’. In the middle of the decade we were a mime troupe, and back in an ocean of Clive’s wonderful words by the close.

Around this time, I also had my first brush with prosthetic make-up. We did a production of Oscar Wilde’s SALOME, and I played Jokanaan (John The Baptist), who is blind. So Clive applied pâpier-machè to my face to create eyeless

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3o YEARS OF HELLRAISER

sockets. This left me completely blind. I had a rope tied around my waist, measured out to the back of the stage to prevent me falling into the audience.

As to favorite roles, I would have to mention Louis Erasmus Sugarman, an extraordinary, patriarchal monster created by Clive. He was conceived as impossibly fat: I wore an enormous fat-suit under a white suit (I think we measured him as 60” around the waist) with an enormous fake beard and a perpetual cigar. He started out as the owner of an abbatoir in ‘A Clowns’ Sodom’, a commedia-style comedy mime, proceedeed to a more serious incarnation in a longer mime piece “The Day Of The Dog”, and then became a patrician dilletante in DOG, the written version, which was the first Dog Company production in London.

Playing The Devil in THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL was pivotal for me. This was the second major Dog Company production: we performed it between 1979 and 1981, including a successful trip to the Edinburgh Festival. It was a thumping big part for me in a wonderful play (for my money, Clive’s best). I was playing many different ‘faces’ of The Devil, a great challenge as an actor, and somewhere in the midst of that I realised this was what I was going to do. No big revelation, just a case of ‘OK, I guess this is it, then.’ In truth, I didn’t really have an equal talent for anything else, and I certainly knew that nothing else gave me so much satisfaction.

When The Dog Company was put to sleep in 1982, I thought about going back to square one and entering drama school somewhere, but I was arrogant enough to think that I

Clive Barker (left) and Doug Bradley (right) in “The Day Of The Dog”.

Nicholas Vince Writer.Director.Chatterer Famous Monsters. How does one audition to play a hell-demon?

Nicholas Vince. I was lucky and didn’t have to audition. I’d modeled for Clive Barker for a few years, and he asked me to play the role. I did have to get some more headshots done, as I looked too ‘boy next door’ in my usual ones. That meant greasing back my hair and growing stubble and persuading the photographer that the cold sore I had on my lip added to the look I was going for.

FM. So once you had the Cenobite role and realized you would be completely unrecognizable — not to mention unable to see — how did you characterize your movements?

NV. They did a body cast of me, from my elbows to my knees, and my costume was more or less sculpted. The only movements I could do were to walk, raise my arms, and chatter my teeth. I couldn’t turn my head. As I only had a pin prick-sized hole to see through for my left eye, it was a question of doing short takes, for which Clive gave me direction. Everything had to be very precise, and I remember concentrating very hard on my body memory to ensure I got it right.

FM. About how long did it take for the “Chatterer” moniker to take hold? Were you aware of what was happening in terms of your cult horror status?

Pinhead is not the ‘monster’ in HELLRAISER. That distinction belongs to Frank and Julia. could do this as well as most and better than a lot, and I didn’t want to go and have someone ‘deconstruct’ me as an actor and tell me how they thought I ought to be doing it. The ‘training’ I had already had was invaluable and unique; plus, I had absolutely been learning on the job. So I set off to begin auditioning in the ‘real’ world. I began working in provincial repertory theatre in 1983, with no assumption or ambition that whatever future I had as an actor would be genre-related, completely unaware that the role that would emphatically change all that was lurking in the wings, or at least in the corners of Clive’s mind.

There’s another part worth mentioning from the musical HUNTERS IN THE SNOW. Called The Dutchman, he was a strange, half-alive, half-dead witchfinder replete with lines like ‘My body aches the dull ache past all exhaustion.’ When it came time to read THE HELLBOUND HEART and HELLRAISER screenplay, I found distinct similarities between The Lead Cenobite and that earlier play. One of the great things about being part of Clive’s imaginative universe was these moments when disparate elements would meet and converge.

ON HIS ORIGINAL PERCEPTIONS OF THE LEAD CENOBITE ROLE:

NV. I’m credited as ‘Chattering Cenobite’ in the first movie and ‘Chatterer Cenobite’ in the second, so I guess some time between the two films. On one of the call sheets I’ve seen for the first movie, we’re listed as Cenobite 1, Cenobite 2, etc, though I think I was referred to by the crew as Chatterer. The first time I realized the popularity of Chatterer was when Simon Bamford and I were invited to join Doug Bradley at a 10th Anniversary celebration of HELLRAISER at a convention in Boston. In the last few years, the character is often referred to as Chatterbox, particularly by kids, which is cool.

FM. You’ve written a Chatterer short story for the new Hellraiser graphic anthology. Can you give us any hints or details about it?

NV. I hate spoilers, so I agreed with the editor, Ben Meares, that we wouldn’t reveal anything about it before it’s published in September. What I can say is that my story made Ben “profoundly uncomfortable,” to use his words.

FM. Following NIGHTBREED, what made you take a break from the film industry, and what made you ultimately come back as a writer/director?

NV. When NIGHTBREED premiered, I’d already started writing for Marvel’s Hellraiser comic, which led to writing for the Nightbreed comic, and then a series for Marvel UK. I decided to concentrate on the writing. In 2012 I returned to writing; publishing my first collection of short stories, ‘What Monsters Do’, later that year. A couple of years later I also started acting again, with parts in an indie feature film ‘Hollower’ (directed by MJ Dixon) and several short films.

FM. What do you enjoy about making short films as opposed to features?

NV. Short films are a good training ground for young filmmakers to learn their craft. There isn’t that much difference between the shorts and features on a daily basis, as the crew is a similar size and inevitably, there’s never enough time or money.

The first hint of HELLRAISER coming into my life was Clive mentioning, in the autumn of 1985, “I’m trying to put a low-budget British horror movie together, and there’s a part in there I think you’ll want,” or words to that effect. I was aware of some of those negotiations going forward into 1986. I believe there was British backing for the movie initially through Virgin Entertainment, which fell through. Clive and his producer, Chris Figg, then took themselves to LA, and I believe their first pitch was to New World, who bit.

At some point in all this, I know I read THE HELLBOUND HEART in manuscript before it was published so I would already be familiar with the story and the nature of the part. In the novella,

FM. What other projects do you have in the pipeline?

NV. I’m in post production on the second of two short films I wrote and directed in Ireland at the beginning of June. It’s called ‘Necessary Evils’ and will be part of a horror anthology, ‘For We Are Many’ due for release in Spring 2018. There’s a couple of films to be released soon in which I’m acting: THE BLACK GLOVES (directed

by Lawrie Brewster) and ‘The Offer’, a short in which Barbie Wilde and Simon Bamford also star, along with Hellraiser alumni Oliver Smith (Skinned Frank) and Ken Cranham (Dr. Channard).

In August I’ll be presenting the 100th edition of ‘Chattering with Nicholas Vince’, my YouTube show where I interview indie filmmakers, authors, and artists.

FM. What have these authors and creators taught you about your own creative process?

NV. Just keep going. Keep writing, and that most of what you write won’t be used, but that’s part of the process. Most screenwriters say they create a playlist when they’re working on a project. Personally, the only time I’ve done that is when I used to write for the Hellraiser comics, when I put Christopher Young’s score for HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II on the record player. I’m too easily distracted and prefer to work in silence. www.nicholasvince.com FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND • ANNUAL 2017

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of course, the anonymous Cenobite-who-would-become-Pinhead is a fairly peripheral figure: it’s the female who takes the lead. I know I had conversations with Clive about the character, which I think I place in Summer 1986. I recall Clive describing him as a cross between a monk and a butcher, telling me, ‘You’re a surgeon in a hospital with no wards, only operating theatres, and as well as being the guy who wields the knife, you’re also the guy responsible for the administration, for making sure everything runs right and on schedule.’ I was also treated to a few copies of Piercing Fans International Quarterly, a magazine devoted to people slicing and dicing every available piece — and I mean every available piece — of their anatomy.

Why did I decide to take it on? There was no decision to make.

I certainly saw HELLRAISER as a development from and a culmination of all the work that had gone before, so I would never have considered not doing it. I would have said yes to pretty much any project Clive brought to me. Beyond that, it was an opportunity to make a movie — a horror movie! —and get paid significantly more money than I’d ever been paid for an acting gig before.

3o YEARS OF HELLRAISER

On his reaction to seeing himself in full makeup for the first time:

On Pinhead’s sudden star status: I did no publicity for the first film, although I was aware that Pinhead had literally become the poster boy. I remained largely anonymous, though. Whether that was deliberate — you know, keep the monster mysterious — I don’t know. Pinhead was full face on the front cover of Time Out in London, but I wasn’t credited. I have it in my head that he got onto the poster by default because skinned Frank was considered too graphic, but I couldn’t swear to that. Friends kept telling me they were seeing the poster — in Australia, in New Orleans. Clive called to say, ‘I thought you might like to know you’re towering above Sunset on a billboard.’ Fans — especially in the US — have told me that when the film came out, they were seeing interviews with Clive, Ashley [Laurence], Claire [Higgins], Andy [Robinson], and that was fine, but that ‘every time they showed a clip, it was you and the other Cenobites, and we were all thinking, OK, who are these guys?’ It’s also true to say that Clive’s focus was not on Pinhead, but on Julia, who he wanted to be hailed as the first great female monster, so maybe that was an element.

I did a few interviews before the release of HELLBOUND, but honestly, I still had no idea what was brewing out there. It really hit me in Spring 1989, when we were filming NIGHTBREED. I got a call out of the blue from Tony Timpone to tell me I was being inducted into the Fangoria Hall Of Fame, and would I be interested in being a guest at Fango’s Weekend of Horrors. That left me in absolutely no doubt what was happening! So slow burn, really, and entirely fan-fuelled; and their support, love and loyalty has never waned in 30 years. Quite extraordinary, really — very gratifying and very humbling.

[It was a] crucial, crucial moment. At the end of the first application to screen-test the make-up, which took about 5 or 6 hours, I asked if everyone would leave the make-up room, and for some minutes I just sat and stared at the face in the mirror and let whatever responses were coming to me happen. The power, the control, the calm in spite of this piece of profound mutilation, no sign of any pain or discomfort. The implied threat: ‘Look what I did to myself, or what was done to me. Now think what I might do to you.’ Undercurrents of nastiness, but nothing The fans play lines back to me regularly. They often come up obvious. Also, a sadness and melancholy, even a sense of loss with lines I’ve long since forgotten. They can always give me — which I attached to the knowledge that he had once been human — though I didn’t know who or how (no ‘back-story’ had yet been discussed).

Reading the screenplay, I had already fastened on the obvious: Pinhead is not the ‘monster’ in HELLRAISER. That distinction belongs to Frank and Julia.

I had already begun to think of him as an impartial judge or umpire in the dark affairs of the soul, and I looked for that in the face in front of me.

Then I began to experiment. What happens if I raise an eyebrow, frown, sneer, sneer, smile? And if this face now says ‘Your suffering will be legendary, even in Hell’ or ‘I will tear your soul apart’? Most of my decisions about the character came in those few moments.

Plus, less seriously, let’s not forget that this was the ultimate game of ‘dressup’! I was ready to get down in the sand-pit and start playing.

Doug Bradley in in the makeup chair. Before and after.

On the wisdom of Pinhead:

precise details, too. Sometimes, they don’t have the wording quite right. I was just at a show in Canada and someone asked me to write ‘We have such wonderful things to show you.’ I couldn’t help laughing. I suggested it sounded like the Broadway musical version of HELLRAISER and burst into song!

So many great lines, I don’t think any one is a favourite. I have pointed out, though, that the first line that grabbed me in the screenplay was ‘No tears, please. It’s a waste of good suffering.’

Clive’s love of [Oscar] Wilde and [Noel] Coward coming out, there. I put an asterisk next to it and wrote ‘LAUGH!’ in the margin. Clearly, I thought, this guy is funny, and if I’m doing my job right here, I’m going to make people laugh and feel distinctly uncomfortable at the same time. He has an elegant and eloquent wit, and a love of the well-turned phrase, but all distinctly dark and sardonic.

On voice acting: A voice belongs to a character and is uniquely defined by that character. Pinhead’s voice is his. And it’s not entirely me, of course.

I always say: I’m good, but I’m not that good. It was fiddled with and enhanced by whatever magic the sound guys came up with.

That said, I only have one set of vocal chords, so inevitably I’ll wander into ‘Pinhead register’ sometimes.

I couldn’t say what the different thought process is [for voice acting] — theatre, camera, microphone: each require their own approach and discipline. Playing the Emperor in the Star Wars video game was a bit frustrating as I wasn’t allowed to see the script ahead of the recording session, and when I did get to see it, it was only my lines, so I literally had no idea what I was talking about. I was in a studio in London, and there was a guy in LA, I think, doing the directing. I’d had a quick look through the lines and had ‘heard’ a voice I wanted to go with, but they kept pushing

me away from it. It was quickly evident that they just wanted the Emperor to have Pinhead’s voice.

On his favorite HELLRAISER film to shoot: I always tend to go to HELL ON EARTH. I couldn’t say I had a bad time on any film. BLOODLINE was a strange and difficult shoot, but I still had a good time with it. INFERNO doesn’t really count; I only worked two days on it. By DEADER and HELLWORLD, I was starting to feel that I was being wheeled out to make guest appearances in someone else’s film. HELLRAISER remains emphatically my favourite film of the series.

Why the third film? A combination of things, I think. First time working in the States, which was very exciting to me. I felt the pace and energy of the US crew very different from working in England — not that I didn’t enjoy working in the UK; I did and I do. (He added hastily, before anyone back home takes offence!)

I think it was also the first time I really felt comfortable in my own skin doing this movie-making thing. [It was] only my fourth movie, remember. A greatly expanded role for me, plus the challenge of playing the dual parts. I seriously doubted [Director] Tony Hickox’s sanity, but I loved working with him. An odd set-up, too. We were billetted in the HoJo’s in High Point, North Carolina, and they had built a sound stage in the grounds of the hotel, so you’d get up in the morning, take the elevator, walk across the parking lot, and drop into the make-up chair. No North Circular Road in the pre-dawn hours. (That might need translation for a US audience, but every actor in London will know exactly what I mean.) And, of course, when wrap was called, it was a short stroll back across the parking lot to the hotel bar. Work hard, play hard — and I like the end result, too. It probably just beats out HELLBOUND as my second favourite movie of the series.

Clearly, I thought, this guy is funny, and if I’m doing my job right here, I’m going to make people laugh and feel distinctly uncomfortable at the same time.

One what a Doug Bradley Cenobite would look like

(Holly

the FM Editor Cenobite would undoubtedly have roller ball pens for fingers and laptop-screen eyes):

I assume we’re going down the HELL ON EARTH approach to Cenobitedom: being defined by the things that defined you in life. ‘If you have a quality, let it define you’, was Pinhead’s line, I think. I threw this over to Steph, my girlfriend, who said my spinal column would be made from the spines of many books, maybe overlapping like a lobster tail.

My life does not function without music, so I would suggest, just as a snapshot, that I would trail the music of Mozart, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams, The Beatles, Dylan, Pink Floyd (pre-Dark Side Of The Moon only), Bowie, Neil Young, Johnny Cash, Stevie Wonder, The Clash, et al., on up to Arcade Fire and Ghost — but all playing simultaneously in a dissonant cacophonous mess to torment me in eternity!

And a Liver Bird upon my chest.

3o YEARS OF HELLRAISER

On working with Cradle of Filth: I met Dani [Filth, the band’s vocalist] around the time he was doing the Cradle Of Fear movie — there was some talk of me doing a cameo in it, I think. I was also a friend of Ingrid Pitt’s, and I knew she had done spoken word for the band on their Cruelty And The Beast album. Late 90s, I think. I got on well with Dani, and wound up with a copy of Cruelty. While not a fan of the music, I like the fact of Cradle and liked Dani’s writing. We also worked together on my late friend and colleague Tony Luke’s animated movie DOMINATOR. A couple of years after that I got a call from Fay Woolven, the band’s manager.

She told me they were working on the new album, to be called Midian — inspired

by NIGHTBREED — and Dani wondered if I would be interested in doing some spoken word for it. They sent some examples of what Dani had in mind, explained

Barbie Wilde

Writer. Performer. Female Cenobite.

Famous Monsters. You’ve worn many hats, from performing in mime troupe Shock to being a TV personality, appearing in HELLRAISER II, and now as a writer… would you give yourself a particular identity as an artist, or are you more of a dilettante?

Barbie Wilde. If you’re a bit of a gypsy like me, when a door or window opens, you go through it. I studied to be a classically trained actor, then it was “oh wow, I’m in mime school, that’s cool; oh, I’ve been offered a position in this mime troupe, why not?” There was never any huge plan behind it. You could say I was fearless; others would say I can’t concentrate!

TV presenting was the thing I was most comfortable with because for the most part, I wrote my own scripts. That set

the tone for what I’m doing now, which is writing my own stories and creating my own mythologies. There’s a lot of power in that. You can explore all sorts of sick s--t. [laughs] Of course, I loved acting, but I would only do something now if I loved the script to death and felt I was really suited for it. The one great thing I managed to do was be part of Clive Barker’s HELLRAISER universe. I’ve done a fair amount of other bits and pieces, but I had no idea how successful the whole franchise would become. I remember seeing the first one and going whoa, I’ve never seen anything like this before!

FM. How did you early experiences in the mime troupe influence your portrayal of the Female Cenobite?

they didn’t have very much money, but it was an intriguing gig, so I drove down to their studio near Hastings in Sussex and spent an afternoon recording my contribution. I certainly emerged with an enhanced respect for the complexity of their stuff. I asked Dani, ‘If we do this again, can you write something in 4/4 time, so I can find something resembling and on or off beat?’

I did three more albums with them: Nymphetamine, Thornography, and Godspeed On The Devil’s Thunder, the Gilles De Rais album. I was joking by then that they should be re-named ‘Doug Bradley and the Cradle Of Filth’, since they were clearly becoming my regular backing band.

On conventions: I genuinely look forward to meeting fans. It’s very rare as an actor that you get to meet the people we do this for, and the people whose loyalty and interest keeps the whole crazy business afloat.

Then there’s meeting my fellow actors and legendary names. The thrill I get from meeting, say, Tippi Hedren, or having the chance to talk to Sara Karloff or Ron Chaney about Boris and Lon Sr. — among my horror heroes — is genuine. I get reduced to being a stammering fan boy along with everyone else!

You have to keep your energy and focus up all the time. Even if you’re answering the same question for the umpteenth time that day, for the fan who asked you, it’s the first time that question has ever been asked, and you must respect that. It’s like being in a run of a play in that regard. If you get caught in the moment when your energy or focus drops, you can appear to be disrespectful without meaning it. I think I get it right most of the time. Steph gives me a swift kick under the table if she thinks I’m flagging!

BW. I found out retroactively that Clive was fascinated by mime. I always wondered, why did they pick me for that audition?

Everybody else Clive had known before. I was a classically trained mime artist, and he must have put that kind of call out. It’s probably one reason I got the part. Certainly, when you’re playing characters like the Cenobites, you have to learn to have not only presence, but to achieve a kind of stillness.

Having had dance training, as well — both of disciplines really help you to control the nervous tics that all humans have.

FM. So the Female Cenobite is famously know as just that, “Female Cenobite”, while all the others have nicknames. Apparently the one that Clive came up with, “Deep Throat”, was considered unsavory…

BW. The nicknames — Pinhead, Chatterer, Butterball — were names the makeup crew coined. “Deep Throat” was, well… you just have to look at the character to see! Also, my death — Channard’s tentacle in my throat! What does it look like? I’m so glad my mother never saw that film. [laughs]

On his current projects: The ‘Pinhead Experience’ photo-op for conventions has been a fairly all-consuming project for more than the last year. Steph and I, supported by a lot of people, have put together an immersive HELLRAISER-style experience with me back in make-up and costume for the first time in 14 years. Having to generate both makeup and costume from scratch, and building a HELLRAISER set — we decided we didn’t want to use a back-drop or green screen — was a lot of work! We debuted it at Mad Monster Party in Phoenix, and it really couldn’t have gone any better. We will be taking it to other shows.

My Spinechillers Audiobook series I am, of course, very proud of. These are my recordings of classic horror stories (with a few guest readings from Robert Englund and Jeffrey Combs). It ran out to a 13-volume box set in the end, containing 62 stories and 11 poems spread across 38 CDs. Audible.com has called it ‘the world’s biggest and best classic horror collection’. Poe and Lovecraft are heavily featured, of course, along with Ambrose Bierce, M.R. James, Dickens, Conan Doyle, and more. I’m not quite done with it yet. We plan to continue to complete the author collections. There were a few Poe stories we didn’t get round to, quite a lot of Lovecraft and more, so we will be expanding the collection as time goes forward.

On potential non-monstrous roles: Being surprised by the unexpected is half the fun of this silly business. It is what it is, you know? It’s all acting, regardless of whether you’re buried under layers of monster make-up or sipping (probably fake) martinis in an Armani suit by a swimming pool.

I’ve never done the latter, by the way. It sounds rather dull by comparison, doesn’t it?

Clive’s nickname for her was Gash, which is, of course, also a euphemism. What’s funny is that if you go back to the novella THE HELLBOUND HEART, there are three female protagonists, which they might have thought was a bit too much. Of course, Doug’s performances are iconic, but I’m still hanging out for a female Cenobite movie!

FM. Now that writing is the main thing you’re doing, would you describe yourself as having any particular literary influences?

BW. I think having been involved in so many aspects of show business, it does give me a kind of bizarre back story that I can get into, as well as my own childhood. As far as writers that I would cite, of course Clive Barker. He writes like the Hemingway of horror – muscular and strong; his words are always carefully chosen, but he’s sexy and funny, too. It’s his sense of humor that I love. My other favorite writers are Patricia Highsmith, Shirley Jackson, Hemingway, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler… and Margaret Atwood, as well. They write with such meaning. So colorfully and

beautifully, and yet sparingly. No word is wasted.

FM. So VOICES OF THE DAMNED is your illustrated short story collection…

BW. My stories have been illustrated by Clive and Daniele Serra, whom I knew from 2012 because he illustrated the cover art for THE VENUS COMPLEX. I love his work.

I also got Nick Percival, Eric Gross, Steve McGinnis, Ben Baldwin, Tara Bush, and Vincent Sammy, who did the poster for a movie I’m writing called BLUE EYES. FM. What can you tease about that?

BW. It’s based on a short story of mine about a homeless guy who’s been battered down by bum luck and bad decisions and he’s given up, just living out in the forest.

One night he sees a glowing blue light in the woods and finds a beautiful woman in the bottom of a grave. He thinks she’s dead… but she’s not. Or at least, not for him. He falls in love with her. Bad choice on his part, I have to say. [laughs] www.barbiewilde.com

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DUG

BY HOLLY INTERLANDI

Sculptor Dug Stanat is a monster lover, monster maker, animator, and self-professed freak. In other words, we already love him.

His rogues gallery of sculpted monsters is colorful, humorous, and endlessly fascinating. We spoke to him recently about what gets his creative juices flowing.

Famous Monsters. Do you have any formal education in fine art?

Dug Stanat. I do not have a formal art education. While my parents exposed me to lots of great art when I was a child, it was always expected that I would pursue a more academic career, and I did not question this path until I was out of school.

FM. What spurred you on the creative path?

DS. After I left college, I was living very frugally and working part time, so I had a generous amount of time to call my own. It was really the first time that I was without significant external direction, and in that floating space I found that what I most wanted to do was create.

FM. What is it about sculpture in particular that speaks to you?

DS. If you don’t include time, we live in three dimensions. Three dimensions feels natural to me. It is where I am comfortable. It is more tangible, more real, more physical. This is not to disparage

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drawing and painting... to my mind, the act of removing one dimension is magic.

FM. What project or piece are you most proud of?

DS. I think the piece I am most proud of is “Meeting Master Jones”, which is a balancing act that mixes mystery, danger, humor, death, and things that eat people — all important elements of my work. Then again, I feel strange choosing that one, because it is just a man and some sharks, and perhaps what I most want to do is show people, including myself, things they have never seen before... and we’ve all seen men and sharks.

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FM. What’s your favorite DreamWorks film you worked on, and why?

DS. I am very fond of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. I was extremely fortunate to spend several years working closely with a wonderful group of animators to bring that film to life. It is a film that I enjoy watching and that was well received by the public. These are all rare blessings that make this my favorite.

FM. What would it take for you to go back to the film industry? Have you left it behind for good?

DS. Never say never! Currently there are several possibilities stewing on the distant horizon. I will always be interested in playing a creative role on a team of fun people working on an exciting project... preferably one with monsters — lots and lots of monsters!

FM. Do you have a favorite monster? Does he/she/it show up in your sculpture?

DS. I am going to champion the giant two-headed beast from WILLOW. Brilliant work done before computers took over. It is a magical man-eating melting pot of elephant seal, vulture, shark, and snake... times two!

50% dangerous, 50% humorous, and another 2000% WhatThe?!?!?. This was truly showing people something they’ve never seen before!

FM. I love the names of your original monsters — “Sir Serious Crystal Top”, ”Wee Bit Nippy on the Dead Bits”, “Satan’s Chicken”.

DS. Thank you! I really enjoy playing with the titles.

FM. Do you have a source for them, or is it just whatever comes to mind?

DS. I want them to hint at what I’m thinking about but not hem the viewer into a single interpretation. Usually the titles come to mind as I’m sculpting, but sometimes I will write what is essentially a one-line poem in my head that needs to be a sculpture. I also frequently draw inspiration from literature and lyrics. For example, “If Not

By Fair, Then By Fire” is a slight twisting of a line from STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. Shakespeare and Tom Waits are consistent gold mines, and not just for titles. Drawing visual inspiration from nonvisual sources is a very important part of my process.

FM. When envisioning a new monster, what comes first — the general shape or specific parts that you then piece together?

DS. I am most creative when I am creating, so often the vision appears as I’m sculpting. I guess it is fair to say that usually the general shape comes first. But it is not uncommon for me to imagine a single element and sculpt

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from there, figuring out what the rest of the specific parts are as I go along. So it goes both ways. In the case of a large, complex piece where I need the concept planned out, I will sketch and develop both at the same time.

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