Hi
gang, the whole experience wasn't all gloom
and doom.
Warren
was the main person responsible for the whole
film so he really had all the pressure hanging
over his head and had to tow the line, while
Shawn T. Reich and I were eighteen year old
kids right out of high school that were
getting to live the dream. Shawn and I were A+
students in "TV production" with a
great teacher "Mr. Geller" so we at
least had a working background with video
shoots (Shawn might even have the first horror
movie we made in class still). And we had made
a dumpload of commericals in class. And I
had a basic F/X background from working at
"The Costume Shop in Keyport N.J."
I can't
thank Warren enough for the huge chance and
break he gave me. My uncle "Robert
Gutowsky" had acted for Warren in
"The Bloody Dead" and told him about
me. Warren had given him his card to give to
me and a week later I was at Warren's door (My
dad drove me) with a plastic skull made to
look rotted (Right out of Dick Smith's
"Makeup Monsters" book), a rubber
hand I made with worms coming out of it and a
big (Wow I'm going to be in movies!) grin.
Warren was beyond cool and told me straight
out that if I was going to work with him I
would have to be serious about it and
dedicated to seeing the project
through. I was F'n in and a week
later I brought my friend Shawn T. Reich.
I
think the main reason Warren had taken us in
was he had seen his love of horror, scifi and
fantasy movies in us and that we had the
talent and at least a working background with
F/X and video production. So he had allot to
work with and taught us how to focus our
abilities and to do other projects we never
thought we could. After a few weeks we had
reached a point where he could give us
projects unsupervised which freed him up
to continue with the main things that needed
to be constantly done.
The
first project I was handed was the
construction of the "Peach Paper
Cave" Warren Sr., Warren, Tony, Gene, and
myself had made the chicken wire frame
then began the long task of stapling the (Meat
wraping paper to it). The cave was built
right in Warren's back yard and it was
huge! The only down side was after any rain it
would have to be repaired in area's which led
to Warren naming me "The Cave
Dweller" every other week I was
handed the staple gun and a step ladder. Along
with Warren (Using a Tarzan type voice and
pointing in the direction of the cave)
"Cave Dweller... Fix Cave..." Then I
would plod down in daylight and come out at
night time while Shawn helped Warren build
props in the F/X lab. Then it was time for frozen
burgers on the grill (This is the same grill
we used to make F/X gel on). Yeah life was
good.
Then
there was my tour of duty in Sid "The
Space Monster" Tony Annunziata and I
would trade off being in it and boy did we
have some adventures...
Like
when I had to do a "Monster rising from
the water" scene and I couldn't go under.
The head of the suit floated like a cork so
Tony had to cut holes in it (While I was
wearing it!) we have pictures of it too. Or
when Warren popped JAWS into the VCR the next
day before I had to go into the water
again. Did I mention that this was when the
beaches were closed due to high bacteria?
And
Tony and I had a blast being in the "John
Belushi" sceen, and "Desiree Russo/Sendelbach"
had made these really bad bangs for me with
the front half of a wig to make me look
more the part of the halfwit to drive the gag
home. It's funny because when I turned my
head sideways you can see where the wig ended.
Then
there were the times where I was able to write
scenes with Warren it was really cool how
he could make my crazed babbling into a
workable scene. And would shoot it later.
Then
there were the times (which was allot) where
Shawn and me survived on nothing but "WAWA"
hot dogs and iced tea for weeks. God
bless the creators of that stuff. :0) "And
big old Thank You to "June" Who pretty
much lived behind the counter. And
"Anthony" the keeper of the 50,000
mile (Shawn name) WAWA hot
dogs". And who can forget the
"Big Top Frozen Hamburgers"? Add in
some day old rolls and you had lunch for the
week. I felt bad for Tony because he didn't
have the goat stomach like Warren, Shawn
and me because the poor guy would be
puking his guts up in the bushes moments after
eating them. Maybe it was stress from
filmmaking or maybe because we used that
grill to heat up F/X chemicals too...
And
there were more than a few times where we
laughed so hard our sides hurt while filming. "Like
when Greg Scott was supposed to bring two
friends from the gym to play henchmen".
They didn't show so Shawn and me found two
bouncers from "The Polo Club" to
fill in last minute. They looked great, but
didn't know how to stage fight so when they
were hitting Greg they were pulling back, but
you can still hear him getting the wind
knocked out of him on the DVD. And the floor
they slamed him down on was cement. Even
though Warren was under crazed pressure and
had to teach us allot as we went along he
always kept it enjoyable and kept you wanting
to see it through. I have to say working on
the two movies were one of the best times in
my life.
But
there were also times where I was like
"Why am I doing this again?" ;0)
Like when "Cory Geryak" had
done a chest cast on me with plaster and the
vasaline underneath evaporated. So Warren and
Tony had to lift up the casting while
Cory cut my imbedded chest hair with a "Exacto Knife"
While Warren said "Remember you're making
film history!". Then on the ride
home we were pulled over and all the cop saw
was two long hair guys (Warren was sleeping on
the back seat) with a big bag of white powder
(Alganate) and four huge syringes with rubber
tubing (For spirting blood F/X) between
us in a beat to hell "69 Caprice". He
told us (Tony and me) to get out (Even
though I explained why we had the stuff) so he
says "I'm going to search your
vehicle." I had nothing to hide so I said
"Go ahead." I'll never forget the
look on the cop's face when Warren sat up
(With a bad case of bed head) and said
"You know what you're doing is illegal
right?" The cop just walked
over handed us our ID's and told us to get
moving.
And
another time when we had Tim Ferrante (From
the early days of "Fangoria
Magazine") in the movie. I was
really excited because I love the
magazine and Tim knows almost everyone in
the business. Well Cory Geryak had
made a full head cast of Tim and then made
a full foam latex head (Which Warren still
has) to use in a head crushing effect. Warren
needed a live shot of Tim to match the effect
shot so Tim had to stand in front of his
cement chimney while Cory (Wearing part of the
monster costume) had to slowly push his head
back (It would be sped up later). Warren said
"Action" and Cory didn't realize how
close Tim was to the cement and all you
could hear was *THUNK!* We were all dead
quiet, then Cory started to tell Tim he was
sorry. But Tim took it really well and started
making light of it by saying "I'm never
doing horror movie's again DISBROW!" And
when we were finished shooting Tim was
cool enough to give me a "Fangoria
Magazine" out of his own collection and
autographed it on one of his interviews with
"Robert Englund" (Freddy Kruger) and
if that wasn't enough he gave me a "Tranzor
Z" otherwise known as "Mazinga" poster
after we talked about favorite cartoons and
movies. And I still have both to this day.
Or
after writing Gary Hoffman's (Penile
Displacement) scene with Warren and resclupting
the member from Warren's "Kiss of
Medusa" then coming to Warren's house
the next day. And seeing Desire'e Russo
sitting on Warren's porch painting the
star of the scene muttering "This is
soooo f**king wrong..."
Did
I mention all the make out scenes I got to do? :0)
Good times!
I
can still remember him editing the movies and
me keeping his spirts up with
"Chicken-Fil-A" while he was cutting
it (Me and Shawn were usualy behind him
watching some B&W drive in horror movie.)
Or taking him for trips to the mall or auction when
the editing machines were in the repair
shop just to keep him a little sane.
Those times really sucked because it was such
a drawn out process and any setback was rough
and it wasn't like cutting film. Any change
took forever to make and you were at the mercy
of the machines so if they wanted to screw
something up bad all you could do was watch
and curse. But Warren got through it and the
movie made it to your hands (You bought a copy
right?)
Then
I had to leave for a few years to chase down
some projects of my own, But I'm now back
with Warren to repay my entertainment life
debt and take over the world with his movies.
;0)
Stephen Mezo "Tattooed
Steve"
