The Evil Clergyman

Now that the introductions are out of the way, let’s get down to the good stuff. Hopefully the first real blog doesn't contain all of the thunder, and then the rest suck donkey balls. As I mentioned previously, this blog is loosely centered on Charles Band movies. Not every blog will necessarily be about a Charles Band movie, or experience. This one will be though. Really it’s going to be more about Flashback Weekend this past August, but I watched a Charles Band movie there. The way I see it, that counts for something.

For a long time I have wanted to attend a horror movie convention. They are like a Comic-Con, except instead of Batman and Superman running around its Jason, Freddy and Michael. Plus, the Scream Queens. I almost forgot about them.

Originally a long time buddy of mine, and fellow horror fan, and I were going to attend a HorrorHound Weekend in the spring of last year. We ended up not being able to make it to that convention. HorrorHound hosts multiple conventions each year. Since the spring one fell through my wife was going to send me to the one in the fall. While I was looking into the upcoming HorrorHound Weekend I happened to stumble across the Flashback Weekend. As it turned out, that one was happening sooner, it was a couple hours closer to home, about $100 cheaper and there were more people from the genre attending that I wanted to see. It was destiny that I attend Flashback Weekend.

Now I am a huge Friday The 13^th fan. When I found out that Adrienne King, Amy Steel, Dana Kimmell, Kimberly Beck, Erin Gray, Richard Brooker, Ted White and Kane Hodder, all from various Friday the 13^th movies, were going to be doing Q&A sessions I knew that I was in for a treat that weekend. It was entertaining listening to all of those middle aged women recall their experiences making low budget horror movies that nobody thought would amount to anything. Yet, 30 years later people travel far and wide just to listen to them talk and have a chance to shake their hand. The Jasons were just as entertaining. Kane Hodder in particular. He has been my favorite Jason since Friday 7 was released. Plus, he played Jason four times. I did have the opportunity to meet him. We spent the majority of our conversation talking about why my mother would only have one N in my name, Shanon, rather than two like a normal person. He especially found it amusing that I receive mail for Sharon frequently.

I know, you are getting sick of reading this shit already. I promise that I will get to the Charles Band part…eventually.

The highlight of that weekend was Danielle Harris. Sorry honey, but it was. I typically don’t get star struck. But, as I mentioned previously I am a horror movie fan. One of my favorite movies is Halloween IV. It came out when I was 12. It starred Danielle Harris who was 11. She was a cutie back then, and still is today. That movie scared the shit out of me. Almost 25 years later it is still one of my favorites. Anyway, Danielle has appeared in several movies since that I enjoy. I still consider her my favorite actress. I got to talk to her a couple of times that weekend. The first time was at her autograph booth, and then again after a couple of her movies that were being shown that weekend. That was one of the few times in my life I was really excited to meet a celebrity for the first time. This blog isn't about Danielle, so I will move on. 

Another highlight of the weekend was getting to hang out with Sean Clark and talk with him about his movie The Black Waters Of Echo’s Pond. It was a pretty cool experience sitting around while drinking an Oktoberfest with the guy that made the movie you just watched on the big screen in a packed theater.

A couple other highlights from the weekend were sitting in on a Q&A with John Carpenter, meeting some of the cast from Rob Zombie’s Halloween, catching a glimpse of Svengoolie and seeing a real zombie in person. Although, later I found out the zombie was in fact Linda Blair.

Finally, let’s get to the Charles Band stuff. This is actually pretty cool. I still think I should have waited until later to post about this, but I think it is a cool story.

 One of the screenings during Flashback Weekend was of The Evil Clergyman starring Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton. Both have starred in other Charles Band films. Originally The Evil Clergyman was supposed to be part of Pulse Pounders. Pulse Pounders was an anthology containing sequels to The Dungeonmaster and Trancers, plus an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Evil Clergyman. The way that Charles told the story was really fascinating. Pulse Pounders was filmed while Empire Entertainment was still up and running. They had finished filming, and sent the film off for processing. During that process Empire Entertainment went under. At the same time so did the company processing the movie. Jump ahead almost 25 years later and a VHS of the rough film surfaced. Charles decided that they would premiere one part of the anthology a year for three years at Flashback Weekend. The first was The Evil Clergyman. It was little weird after watching HD television for several years to be watching this rough VHS quality video on a big screen. But, how cool is it to see a 25 year old movie during its world premiere?