NIGHT
TERRORS was another elaborate attempt at doing
something in film. A pilot to a TV show like
HBO's TALES FROM THE CRYPT, only I had the idea
many years before they did. It sucks to be
under-financed. If only I can find a few
intelligent investors to roll the dice I could
be a successful player in a larger arena.
Anyhow,
Gene Reynolds built the crypt for our host Grim
Reaper at his huge house in East Orange. He was
an artist and his work space was filled with art
supplies and various artistic projects in
various stages of completion.
The
Reaper was a full size puppet and worked good.
It was totally Gene's work.
The
opening sequence of each episode showed a Grim
Reaper walking through a foggy, weirdly lit
cemetery and entering a crypt and going to a
podium and opening a book to read that episode's
story which would be dissolved to and acted out
like Rod Serling's TWILIGHT ZONE and NIGHT
GALLERY.
We
shot ten openings for ten shows the same day,
long into the night. It was Kathy Monks, Tony
Annunziata, Gene and me. After we filmed Gene
took us on a tour of this very old manson-like
place he rented space in.
Kathy
got very upset at the foot of steps leading to
the upper floor. She froze, pointed with terror.
"Don't
you see the dead man?" she said.
We
all looked and didn't, but Gene confirmed that a
past owner had killed himself there. Like the
little boy in THE SIXTH SENSE, Kathy was
honestly psychic and could see things most
people couldn't. She insisted that she be driven
home instead of staying the night and I
arranged it.
Tony
and I were very tired. Shooting is hard work.
Gene showed us to a small room without beds to
sleep on the floor. The room had no windows, but
there was a distinct shaft of moon light hanging
in the air and casting the shape of a window on
one of the walls. It was freaky.
Gene:"Thats
just the ghosts fucking with you. Ignore
it".
I
was very tired and got ready to sleep as Tony
passed his fingers through the shaft of light. I
guess at some point Tony found a spot and fell
asleep too. It was in the middle of the night
when a blood curdling scream had me leaping to
my feet in alarm. It was Tony. Something had run
across his chest.
There
was nothing in the room. I believed him but
there was nothing that could be done. I went
back to sleep. Tony stayed up the rest of the
night.
That
was only one of my encounters with real
supernatural happenings, there would be others,
some scarier!
When
we shot in the cemetery we had rented
generators, purchased fog machines and had all 4
of our 1000 watt quartz lights blasting. The
lighting style was like George Romero's
CREEPSHOW but I shot this years before
Romero's movie was made. We had a crew of sorts
on that night. Makeup people, helpers, etc.
Suddenly the cops pull up, lights flashing. They
look at the huge camera, lights, crew and all
the rest of the stuff.
"What
are you doing here?" one cop asked.
I
wanted to say playing cards, but instead
explained we were shooting a movie. Instead of
throwing us out, which would have sucked, the
cops asked if they could be in the movie!
All
my life I've rolled the dice and put my own
money at risk. I always opted to try to
accomplish something, rather than do nothing.
I've gambled lots of my own, hard earned money
but as one person I frequently hit the wall
financially. The things I attempted to do
required investors putting up the proper
budgets. All of the things shut down for lack of
financial support could have produced product
that would have generated profits.
NIGHT
TERRORS could have worked, but like DEMON AT
LEEDSPOINT and RULERS OF THE APOCALYPSE, lack of
a good business partner to raise the needed
money killed it. There was nothing I could do. I
did all I could. I still have hopes of making
these projects some day.
Anybody
interested in investing out there? Anybody
interested in being my business partner? Sorry,
had to ask :o) .
