WAMG Interview: Charles Band

Courtesy of HackSlashDead.com —

While attending the St. Louis, Missouri stop on Charles Band’s 3rd Annual Full Moon Horror Road Show tour, we had a chance to stick around after the show and talk with the hardest working man in indie cult horror. Charles Band is a producer, director and writer of more than 230 films, most of which fall somewhere within the science-fiction and/or horror genres. The live show was awesome, featuring a wide array of hilarious and titillating fare from fascinating stories of working with Gary Busey on Gingerdead Man to live auctions of movie props to mock-casting a scene from a horror movie with members of the audience. One thing I will say for sure is you NEED to try and get to one of these shows! So, here’s what Charles Band had to say …

HSD: First of all, let me just say … personally, I grew up watching a lot of your early movies and now I’ve just picked up the 18 DVD Archive Set at this show for my personal collection … so, that’s really cool. We came out to this show not exactly knowing what this was all about … I know this is your third year putting on your live horror show. I guess the first question I have is what gave you the idea to do this?

CHARLES: Well, part of it was because you have in the world today is not really set up or conducive to people who make lower-budget horror films or any kind of lower-budget independent film because you know, you have either big huge releases where there are $100 million movies and there’s $30-50 million to kick them out over a weekend … we can’t compete. And I figured, you now, let me go out there much like a rock and roll band goes out and promotes its music, let me go out … I have a body of work that dates back a couple of years, so I thought I’d go out and meet the fans and sort of spread the word and promote the movies. I really didn’t know where this would take me. It was sort of without a plan, you know, it just sort of evolved. As I’ve done these shows now over a few years I know more now what the fans want and that’s what I think I delivered tonight, I hope. We’ll see what they have to say, but it seems everyone enjoyed themselves.

HSD: Its really unique and a lot of fun. I’m sure you plan on doing this for a few more years, at least?

CHARLES: I have no idea, you know. [laughs] The irony of course, is … its fun, its expensive and you know, there’s no money to be made here. This is all about just going out there and promoting the movies and hopefully good will come of all of this. But, its great to meet people who, you know, have watched my movies for years and that’s great how word spreads and its a real grass roots way of letting people know about the movies. You get new fans who have maybe seen a few of the films and realize there’s kind of a common denominator … I’ve been doing this more years than all you guys combined have been alive. [laughs] It pisses me off, you know. It pisses me off. [laughs]

HSD: So, exactly how long is that … if you don’t mind me asking?

CHARLES: Well, I won’t tell you the number of years, but … the first movie was called Mansion of the Doomed and it starred Richard Basehart and it was Lance Henriksen’s first film and it was back in the 70’s … I will admit this. My effects guy was an unknown Stan Winston, my editor was John Carpenter, my director of photography was Andrew Davis, who went on to do a few films like The Fugitive. So, it was quite an assembly of young dudes making a movie back in the mid-70’s.

HSD: Wow! That’s amazing. So, lets go back in time a bit and ask what got you started making movies? What was the thing that made you say I want to do this?

CHARLES: I love horror movies and science-fiction films … I love digging back, of course, I wasn’t alive back then, but I love the old revival theaters. I grew up in Italy, so I was sort of like able to see classic Universal horror films … I love Boris Karloff films, but I love the old Universal films and as a kid, I remember seeing the pictures of the 50’s and 60’s … like Ray Harryhausen, you know, there just classic movies that I enjoy. I love the genre so I figured why not? I grew up on a film set … my father made movies, so I sort of had that background. But I love this genre, so … I sort of make sci-fi and horror movies like Laserblast and End of the World … so, some of the first movies were more sci-fi than horror. And then little by little I began heading more towards horror with films like Ghoulies and Troll and some of the films like Re-Animator of the 80’s and then Puppet Master. Its just sort of a combination of the love of the genre and the fact that I kind of grew up on the movie set.

HSD: So, you mentioned sci-fi and the big one that comes to my mind is Trancers. Some of the actors that are a little more well-known, like Tim Thomerson, for example … what was it like working with him?

CHARLES: Tim was amazing. I mean, sadly … Tim Thomerson was actually scheduled to be here tonight and we had his plane ticket ready to go and you never know, at the last minute, what the actor … they usually have a gig and at the last minute they can’t show up. I happens all the time. I’ve got Bill Mosely coming tomorrow at Chicago, and I’ve had William Shatner show up at a couple of my stops. Working with Tim was great because, actually it was the most fun because he’s not only a great actor but he’s a very funny guy. His whole background was in stand-up comedy. So, yeah … it was kind of the best of both worlds. He’s sort of the macho handsome hero dude with a great sense of humor. And so, it really transferred well with Helen Hunt and Megan Ward …

HSD: You gave a lot of pretty well-known actors their start including Demi Moore, Kelly Preston and Bill Mosely, just to name a few. So, are you still in touch with any of them?

CHARLES: You know, I still do from time to time. I felt that Megan Ward was going to be a superstar. I think she’s had a great career and she’s done a lot of television. A young girl that’s doing great right now is named Robin Sydney. My first movie with her was The Gingerdead Man … she was also in a show called Masters of Horror: Right to Die.

HSD: If you just had to pick one movie you’d say is your favorite, what would it be?

CHARLES: Wow, that’s so … you know, that’s the worst question of all. There’s four or five … I mean, Trancers I love because it was just a cool movie that came together. More recently, Dangerous Worry Dolls … I’m proud of that movie. From Beyond … I’m real proud of it as a film. There are so many more. I would say … this is a weird one, but one of my favorites is Head of the Family … its a good, solid movie. I’m preparing to make a sequel called Bride of the Head of the Family.

HSD: So, to talk about the future just for a moment, is that your next project you have lined up … is the sequel to Head of the Family ?

CHARLES: No, I wish … but, its a tricky one to make. I’m not sure what the next one will be. I have eight of them lined up. Let’s see … I have a sequel to the Puppet Master called Puppet Master: Axis of Evil … there’s Killjoy 3 … there’s Gingerdead Man 3 … Roller Boogieman, I talked about that tonight. There’s several others, a bunch that I hope to make in the next year.

HSD: Well, you are, I think, the hardest working man in independent film. I challenge anyone to dispute that. Is there anything else, anything in the future, anything in the works, any crazy ideas going on up there that you want to share with us?

CHARLES: You know, I think one thing that’s going to be very cool is … because we’re all living more on the Internet, is the fact that back in the day when theatrical was it and then video became a good deal and there was a time when there were thousands of video stores and we actually had back in the early to mid-80’s when there were about 2,000 video stores that actually had Full Moon sections. So, that kind of came and went because now they’re all going out of business or are out of business and now you just have the big chains. And now we’re heading into this digital download world. What I like about it, I mean … its fun to see that big cover on the VHS box, then smaller on DVD, but now its more of a title driven business, but I like the fact that one day, real soon, all these movies will be available on-line, certainly on iTunes and other sites so that if someone digs … any of the movies I’ve made, you know, once they figure out there’s sort of common denominator and they go to the site and see all the movies and go “Wow, there’s like 280 of these things” or by then over 300, because the biggest complaint I get while driving around the country is that people can’t find my movies anymore. I can see them finding some new releases, but no one carries the libraries anymore. Those days are gone. So, I’m excited about all the movies coming together where people have easy access, and inexpensive access, so … for a few bucks people can download it or rent it, I like that. I mean, its fun to make the movies, but its more fun to see their reactions. Its such a bizarre thing, I love it. This thing about going around on stage, I’m not sure how much longer I can do it. I’ve kind of become the Barnum & Bailey of horror. [laughs]

HSD: This has been a great experience. I loved it. I want to thank you again for taking the time to talk with us and we look forward to seeing even more movies from you in coming years.