Following the successful North American theatrical release of Sam Raimi’s EVIL DEAD,  Grindhouse Releasing has partnered with director William Lustig and his company Blue Underground to put Mr. Lustig’s classic gorefest MANIAC back on the big screen.

MANIAC stars the late, great character actor Joe Spinell (ROCKY, TAXI DRIVER, THE GODFATHER) as psycho-killer Frank Zito, a creepy loner type who works through his Mommy issues by scalping and mutilating random women in New Y0rk City. The movie was hated by critics, picketed by feminist groups, and still ranks as the sickest of all the ‘slasher’ style movies that followed HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH.

As theatrical director for Grindhouse Releasing, I’m very proud to be a part of making this happen. Big thanks to Bill Lustig , Andy Garroni and the good folks at BU for teaming up with us to celebrate the 30th anniversary of this notorious film.

Here are the screening dates; although some have already passed, I’ve included them all for posterity, and more will be added soon. Keep watching this space for updated listings in your city.

Oct. 29-30:     Landmark Egyptian Theatre (Seattle, WA) (presented by The Stranger)

Nov. 5:            Landmark Nuart Theatre (Los Angeles, CA) – Director William Lustig in person (presented by Bloody-Disgusting.com)

Nov. 12-13:    Landmark Esquire Theatre (Denver, CO)

Nov. 12-13:    Landmark River Oaks Theatre (Houston, TX)

Nov. 12:         Toronto Underground Cinema (Toronto, ON)

Nov. 19-20:    Landmark Sunshine Cinema (New York, NY) – Director William Lustig in person

Nov. 19-20:    Landmark Inwood Theatre (Dallas, TX)

Nov. 26-27:    Hi-Pointe Theatre (St. Louis, MO)

Dec. 2 & 9:     The Nickelodeon (Portland, ME)

Dec. 3-4:        Landmark Uptown Theatre (Minneapolis, MN)

Dec. 3-4:        Landmark’s E Street Cinema (Washington, DC)

Dec. 10-11:  The Castro Theatre (San Francisco, CA) – Director William Lustig in person (print ad in SF Weekly)

Dec. 17-18:    The Oaks Theater (Pittsburgh, PA)

Jan. 15:          Hollywood Theater (Portland, OR)

Jan. 21 & 22: Studio 35 Cinema (Columbus, OH)

Jan. 22:           MADCAP Theatres (Tempe, AZ)

Jan. 28-29:    Loft Cinema (Tucson, AZ)

Jan. 28-29:    The Music Box Theatre (Chicago, IL) – Director William Lustig in person

Feb. 8: Alamo Drafthouse Ritz (Austin, TX) – Director William Lustig in person

Feb. 18, 19, 25, 26, Mar. 4, 5:   Coolidge Corner Theatre (Boston, MA) Director William Lustig in person Feb. 18 & 19

Mar. 5:            Cedar Lee Theatre (Cleveland, OH)

Mar. 11 & 12:   Dundee Theatre (Omaha, NE)

Mar. 25 & 26:     Screenland Crossroads (Kansas City, MO)

Apr. 16:  Byrd Theatre (Richmond, VA)

May 6: Colonial Theatre (Phoenixville, PA) – director William Lustig in person!

May 7:  Forum Theatre Arts Center (Metuchen, NJ) – director William Lustig in person!

May 12: Avon Theatre (Stamford, CT) – director William Lustig in person!

May 13 & 14: Guild Cinema (Albuquerque, NM)

Visit Grindhouse Releasing for more information.

Here at HARD FEELINGS headquarters, the house band is always SOLLUBI. This group of degenerates has amazed my ears with two stellar releases: their debut CD “At War With Decency,” and “The Struggle,” a 36+ minute dirge issued on a split with Aquilonian (ex-Bongzilla.) Both discs are available from Choking Hazard Records.

In Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs refers to the Sollubi as “an untouchable caste in Arabia noted for their abject vileness.” The band lives down to this description in all departments: instrumental, lyrical, and most of all, vocal - the hostile snarling of frontman Jesse Kling is a perfect match for the psychedelic bum-trip riffs and lyrics of guitarist Griff. Scott Stearns (bass) and Corey Bing (drums) provide the heavy rhythmic damage.

“Ours is the sound…the sound that defies all interest,” goes the refrain in “Underage Drinking Party,” and these guys sure know how to weed out the poseurs. Sing along with Kling: “There was a sexual assault…at the underage drinking party…and no one was surprised… and no one gave one fuck.” (Technically, at least one fuck must have been given if a sexual assault took place, but why argue with a nihilist?)

The title track of “At War With Decency” is 28 minutes of total negation. (It’s worth looking at the lyrics.) Throughout the disc, the band produces hateful, slow and horrible sounds with the kind of ugliness that only the truly sick-minded can achieve.

‘”The Struggle” really ups the ante not only in its grueling running time (a brutal endurance test best suited to the drugged and unemployed) but also in its chilling white-trash narrative. The song tells of a bound-and-cuffed motel-room scumfest in which subhumans become sordid “superstars” (presumably on Cops). The band builds a gigantic tower of instrumental doom, and when Kling starts to vocalize, the song just paralyzes. The grand finale, in which the mantra dissolves into a menacing wash of electronic noise (also courtesy of Kling) reminds me very much of what my cousin and bandmate Philip Markonish once said in a songwriting “strategy session” (cough, cough) for our doom band Blood Farmers: “We need to go for the slo-mo, gaseous ending.” In “The Struggle,” Sollubi takes this concept to its most radical extreme; the question is, what will these freaks do next?

In the meantime, Griff hosts a radio show called MY GHETTO in which he brings the ultra-heavy on a weekly basis to CHSR 97.9 FM in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Cana-duh. (Just to get the swinish graft right out in the open here, I’ll be guest-hosting an episode soon.)

Members of Sollubi also play (or have played) in Fistula, the Pennsylvania Connection, Rape-X, Cough Suppressant Alcoholics, and other insalubrious outfits. If you like Kil-Slug, Upside-Down Cross, Black Flag, Flipper, St. Vitus, Post Mortem,  or if you just hate everything, then you will dig on this noise.

Most people won’t give one fuck.

Grindhouse Releasing Presents Duke Mitchell’s GONE WITH THE POPE

World Premiere March 12 at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre

LOS ANGELES - Grindhouse Releasing and the American Cinematheque will present the late, great Duke Mitchell’s never-before-seen masterpiece GONE WITH THE POPE on Friday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m., at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

Duke Mitchell was an Italian Rudy Ray Moore, a popular nightclub performer, singer, actor, and self-proclaimed “Mr. Palm Springs” whose long-running Martin & Lewis-style comedy act with partner Sammy Petrillo was featured in BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA. Mitchell went on to use his talents and show business connections to produce two of the most entertaining films of the Seventies, which he wrote, directed, produced, scored and starred in.

GONE WITH THE POPE stars Duke Mitchell as Paul, a gangster with an unholy scheme: to kidnap the pope and charge “a dollar from every Catholic in the world” as the ransom. Shot in 1975 as KISS THE RING, GONE WITH THE POPE was unfinished at the time of Duke Mitchell’s death in 1981.

Sage Stallone and Bob Murawski of Grindhouse Releasing rediscovered GONE WITH THE POPE in 1995 and vowed to save it from obscurity. Academy Award-winning film editor Murawski (THE HURT LOCKER, SPIDER-MAN 1,2 & 3) spent 15 years completing GONE WITH THE POPE from the surviving film elements.

“Of all the films I have been involved with, the one that I am most proud of is GONE WITH THE POPE,” Murawski said. “Duke Mitchell didn’t live to see this masterpiece finished. I am honored to be the person to finish it for him. Completing this movie was a 15-year labor of love. No expense or effort was spared in rescuing this classic from cinematic oblivion and finishing it with the utmost quality. Our beautiful new 35mm print stands as a testament to Duke Mitchell’s unique and explosively entertaining vision.”

Duke Mitchell’s 1974 ultra-violent crime saga MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE will screen on the same program. Also known as LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON and THE EXECUTIONER, MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE is a homemade answer to THE GODFATHER promising “more guts, more action, more dynamite!”. Starting with Duke and his sidekick slaughtering an entire building full of enemies, the movie is nonstop, mind-blowing entertainment that has become a favorite among cult movie fans.

Grindhouse Releasing is known for its lavish restorations and roadshow-style theatrical exhibition of such notorious exploitation-horror films as CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, CANNIBAL FEROX (a.k.a. MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY), Lucio Fulci’s THE BEYOND and CAT IN THE BRAIN, PIECES, and I DRINK YOUR BLOOD. Grindhouse partnered with Quentin Tarantino’s Rolling Thunder to release THE BEYOND in theaters and in 2010 launched a nationwide re-release of Sam Raimi’s EVIL DEAD.

The address of the Egyptian Theatre is 6712 Hollywood Boulevard, between Las Palmas and McCadden, just east of Highland Avenue in Hollywood.

This exclusive screening will include an in-person Q& A with the cast and crew of GONE WITH THE POPE. The movie will move on to screenings in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Seattle, and other U.S. cities.

For more information, visit www.GrindhouseReleasing.com and www.GonewiththePope.com. For stills and press, e-mail David Szulkin at info@grindhousereleasing.com.

See the amazing GONE WITH THE POPE trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQqZKd_72C0

GONE WITH THE POPE Poster by Stephen Romano www.shockfestival.net

An amazing time capsule of rock history exploded onto the screen in October 2009 at the AFI Theater in Silver Spring, Md., as legendary D.C. music personality Barry Richards screened highlights from his long-lost TV show “Turn-On”. Remastered from the original 2-inch broadcast videotapes, the mind-blowing series is headed to DVD this year.

Barry has worked as a DJ, concert promoter, and music-biz mover all over the country, but he’s best-loved in his hometown of D.C., where he’s known as “The Boss with the Hot Sauce” and “The Heavy Head Leader”. An early champion of hard ‘n’ heavy rock, Barry was among the few underground radio jocks to play such proto-metal bands as Sir Lord Baltimore. He brought Black Sabbath and many other major acts to Md./D.C./Va.-area venues back in the 1970s.

“Turn-On” was a free-form, late-night television show that featured live rock bands, old Flash Gordon serials, stoned interview segments, a hippie comedian, celebrity guests (Richard Pryor, Cheech and Chong, Wolfman Jack, even actor Robert Mitchum), and the bearded Barry Richards hosting it all on low-budget Day-Glo sets. WDCA Channel 20 allowed “Hairy Barry” to roll “Turn-On” all night until it was time for the UHF station to play the National Anthem.

Barry presented rare, live in-studio performances by Alice Cooper (doing “Eighteen” and “Black Juju” from the brand-new “Love It to Death”), Humble Pie (with Steve Marriott and the very young Peter Frampton, “Rock-On” era), Richie Havens, Little Richard (jamming “Good Golly, Miss Molly” with the obscure ’70s band Jamul – who play a loud version of “Tobacco Road” in what looks like the TV station parking lot), Crow (“Evil Woman”), The Illusion, and many more.

One now-vanished episode featured Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band circa “Lick My Decals Off”. Surviving shows in the Barry Richards vault include footage of Fats Domino playing with the Byrds, Rory Gallagher in his early prime, Peter Kaukonen’s band Black Kangaroo, and the Bob Seger System blasting songs from their early LPs.

Along with the videotapes of his show, Barry has unearthed a radio interview he did with all four Beatles just prior to their historic Ed Sullivan appearance!

Fans can also look forward to previously unreleased footage of guitar hero Tommy Bolin (with his early band Zephyr), and clips from other Barry Richards TV shows: a ’60s precursor of “Turn On” called “Groove-In”, “Barry Richards Presents”, the “Rock and Soul” show, the disco-era “Studio 78″, and more.

Richards’ TV shows have not been seen since their original airings. But those who saw the show remember it fondly. Musician Joe Hasselvander (Pentagram, Death Row, Raven) raves about “Turn-On” and Barry Richards, as do Hasselvander’s erstwhile bandmate Bobby Liebling, Ian Mackaye of Minor Threat, and underground filmmaker Nick Zedd (They Eat Scum). Author Edward Lee prominently references Barry Richards in his twisted novella “The Pig” and its sequel, “The House”.

The DVD will offer interviews with Barry Richards, audio from his classic radio shows, and other surprises. The Beatles radio interview is among the special features.

Little Richard even wrote and performed a song about Barry, which can be heard in this YouTube trailer for the upcoming DVD collection. Watch out for the segment with the mighty Iron Jaw Samson!

For more information, visit the official site BarryRichardsShows.com and read Joe Hasselvander’s excellent, enthusiastic blog here.

Here’s the most up-to-date screening list for Sam Raimi’s THE EVIL DEAD, coming to theaters across North America from Grindhouse Releasing.

More dates and cities to be announced soon! Visit GrindhouseReleasing.com for more information.

January 8- 9 – Uptown Theater, Minneapolis

January 15-16 – Esquire Theater, Denver

January 29-30 – Sunshine Cinemas, New York

February 5-6 – Egyptian Theater, Seattle

February 12 – Bagdad Theater, Portland

February 19 – River Oaks, Houston

February 26 – Inwood, Dallas

March 5 – Nuart Theatre, Los Angeles

March 12 -13 – E Street Theatre, Washington, D.C.

March 12 -13 – MADCAP Theaters, Tempe, AZ

March 19 – Gateway 7, Columbus, OH

March 20 – Alamo Drafthouse West Oaks, Houston

March 26 – Alamo Lake Creek, Austin, TX, with EVIL DEAD 2 and ARMY OF DARKNESS

April 3 – Alamo Winchester, Winchester, VA

April 10 – Alamo Westlakes, San Antonio – with EVIL DEAD 2 and ARMY OF DARKNESS

April 16-17 – Cable Car Cinema, Providence, RI

April 23-24 – Guild Cinema, Albuquerque, NM

April 30 – May 1 – Music Box Theater, Chicago

May 2 – 5 – Alamo Ritz, Austin, TX

May 14 – 15 – Hi-Pointe Theater, St. Louis

May 21 – Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI

May 22 -Hudson Horrorshow, Poughkeepsie, NY with PIECES and ZOMBIE

May 28-29 – Oaks Theater, Oakmont, PA

June 5 – Cedar Lee Theater, Cleveland

June 12- 13 – Palace Theatre, Syracuse

June 12 – Ken Theatre, San Diego

June 19 – Ritz East, Philadelphia

June 25 – Art Theatre, Long Beach, CA

July 9-11 – Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA

July 24 – Circle Cinema, Tulsa, OK

July 31 – Cinema Arts Centre, Huntington, NY

August 6 -7 – Belcourt Theatre, Nashville, TN

August 21 – Oriental Theatre, Milwaukee, WI

August 27 – Oriental Theatre, Milwaukee, WI – HELD OVER!

August 28 – 29 – George Eastman House, Rochester, NY

September 4 – The Screen, Santa Fe, NM

September 10 – 11 – Loft Cinema, Tucson, AZ

September 10 – 11 – Outdoor screening at MIDWAY DRIVE-IN, Dixon, Ill., with Bruce Campbell in person, THE UNDERTAKER AND HIS PALS, PIECES, and more!

September 23 – Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland, ME

September 28, October 1, 2 & 3 – El Rey Theatre, Chico, CA

September 30 – Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland, ME – HELD OVER!

October 1, 2, & 7 – The Art Theater, Champaign, IL

October 2 & 9 – Buffalo International Film Festival, Buffalo, NY

October 9 – Little Art Theatre, Yellow Springs, OH

October 15 – Castro Theatre, San Francisco, CA

October 17 – Alamo Drafthouse, Austin, Tx., with EVIL DEAD 2 and ARMY OF DARKNESS

October 21 -23 – Holiday Drive-In, Hamilton, OH

October 22 – 5 Points Theatre, Jacksonville, FL, with THE BEYOND

October 22 & 23 – Kress Cinema, Greeley, CO

October 29 – The Beach Theatre, St. Pete Beach, FL

October 29 – 30 – Main Art Theatre, Detroit

October 30 – ZomBCon, Seattle, WA, with Bruce Campbell and the Ladies of the Evil Dead in person!

November 19 -  Art Theatre, Long Beach, CA

Happy Holidays. Here’s a vintage poster for the 1980 “Black & Blue” movie showcasing the heavy metal thunder of Black Sabbath (with Ronnie James Dio),  and Blue Oyster Clut. This concert flick played loud in local theaters when I was growing up and was reviewed (unfavorably) in the Boston Globe.

Shot at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, the live performance was captured on video and blown up to 35mm film for theatrical release. Sabbath was supporting the “Heaven & Hell” LP (with Vinnie Appice replacing Bill Ward on drums) while BOC was touring behind the Martin Birch-produced “Cultosaurus Erectus”.

Eric Bloom’s stoner monologue before “Godzilla” and Dio’s dramatic flamethrower flourish in the extended “Heaven and Hell” are classic moments. Al Bouchard wears a ‘Zilla mask during his strobe-lit drum solo, Bloom rides a motorcycle on stage, Buck Dharma rips the strings from his guitar, and Iommi and Geezer are heavy as a crushing lead weight (natch). Someone should release “Black and Blue” on DVD!

Hardboiled Wonderland has posted an interview with Scottish writer Allan Guthrie, author of TWO-WAY SPLIT, KISS HER GOODBYE, HARD MAN, SAVAGE NIGHT, and the recent SLAMMER. In the Q & A, Guthrie remarks, “I don’t identify that much with hardboiled character types. I’m much more into noir characteristics: fear, paranoia, anxiety, psychosis…”

Amen! Those unpleasant sensations run rampant throughout SLAMMER, a harsh prison story about a rookie guard bullied beyond endurance by hostile co-workers and blackmailing, drug-smuggling inmates.

Guthrie knows how to put the screws to his characters…and his books don’t shy away from violence. HARD MAN features one of the most memorably hideous, agonizing hallucinogenic trips put to paper, and SAVAGE NIGHT is a massacre of a novel about “blood phobia and blood lust”.

In SLAMMER, the author takes a daring plunge into the darkness of abuse and personality disintegration. The novel hits with the impact of its title, laden with the sort of suffocating doom that fans of David Goodis and Jim Thompson will embrace.

Mr. Guthrie has graciously consented to an original HARD FEELINGS interview in the near future. In the meantime, get the book here.

For more from Allan Guthrie, visit his terrific Noir Originals site at http://www.allanguthrie.co.uk/.

- David Szulkin

now playing: Wo Fat, “The Gathering Dark”

A few links/recommendations:

Tesco Vee of the Meatmen analyzes the blonde from ABBA and her solo career here. This article was originally published in Forced Exposure.

I saw the Meatmen twice this summer on their tour with Chapstik. They wrecked the place both times, and Tesco was hilarious as always. On the final night of the tour in Austin, Tx., they played “Centurions of Rome” with Leighton of Chapstik on second guitar as the whole band donned Ben Hur headgear.

The new album “Meatmen Cover the Earth” features Tesco and his new band storming through Blue Oyster Cult’s WWII Nazi warplane anthem “ME-262″, G.G. Allin’s “Highest Power”, FEAR’s “I Love Livin’ in the City” two Black Randy songs and many more. It’s worth it just for the tour through Tesco’s musical tastes, with his rendition of the Temptations’ “Psychedelic Shack” and even a Saxon tune among the standout cuts. And yes, ABBA is represented. Plus, you get the return of Shecky Shpilkis in “Sex Mart 2010″.

All the essential Meat CDs are now back in print, including the metallicized War of the Superbikes and Rock N Roll Juggernaut, along with the Tesco Vee’s Hate Police album and Vee’s noise project, Blight. I’m excited about his forthcoming Touch & Go book with the complete run of the essential punk ‘zine; I just ordered the Meatmen DVD (see cover above), which I’ve heard is amazing.

Chapstik proved a worthy opener for the Meatmen with a roaring, balls-to-the-wall three-guitar attack. Barnburner and the EP Fire! Die in It are both excellent. “Cream of Everything”, “Egregious Philbin”, “Twat’s it To Ya”, and “Mustache” are among my fave tracks, and each album ends with a choice Sabbath-style dirge metal epic.

I mentioned the Meatmen in my recent contribution to The Official Heavy Metal Book of Lists – specifically, Tesco’s lyrical reference to Captain Beyond in the War of the Superbikes classic “Pillar of Sodom”: “Drugged-out visions of the dead in crypts/That dust be bringin’ on a Mesmerization Eclipse.”

When I saw the mighty Meatmen in L.A., I asked Vee about Captain Beyond. Smiling, he enthusiastically pointed out that he swiped a riff from that ’70s rock band in the Tesco Vee’s Hate Police song “BGC” (“Big Giant C*ck”).

Allan MacDonell’s PRISONER OF X: 20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine is the best book yet written about the insanity of working in the X-rated entertainment business. MacDonell’s prose is bulletproof, and his story is incredible. He spares no one, including himself, in this amazing account of his career with Larry Flynt’s notorious publication. His recollections of the early L.A. punk scene here are great and deserve a book of their own. Mandatory purchase.

New Pulp Press has added three new titles to its upcoming slate, including the reissue of Gil Brewer’s Flight to Darkness. Check them out here.

Look for some big news on EVIL DEAD in the coming weeks. I’m setting up the U.S. theatrical tour for Sam Raimi’s classic unrated splatterfest anounced here and anticipation is high. This is going to be a major event in the horror world!

I’ve also received favorable early reactions to my noir novel-in-progress, THE CREEPS, which I hope to see published in the coming year.

- David Szulkin

now playing: Serpent Throne, “Ride Satan Ride”

Brazil’s legendary director Jose Mojica Marins has been the character Ze do Caixao (Coffin Joe) since the 1960s in such films as At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul and This Night I Will Enter Your Corpse. Marins’ latest Coffin Joe extravaganza Embodiment of Evil is a triumph of total dementia, a feast for horror fans around the world.

I saw Embodiment of Evil at the Los Angeles Film Festival. I was so knocked out by what I witnessed that I went back the next night to see it again. Shot on 35mm film, this is Coffin Joe’s most grandiose production to date. Marins proves himself a true master of cinema, conjuring visions of Hell in numerous horrific sequences.

If you haven’t seen the film, I won’t spoil it. To see the trailer, click here.

I also recommend Small Crimes, by Dave Zeltserman. I reviewed Zeltserman’s Pariah here; Small Crimes is a variation on the same theme, rife with corruption and brutal violence and told from the criminal point of view.

Released from prison after seven years for stabbing a D.A. in the face during an arson, crooked ex-cop and addict Joe Denton finds the disfigured attorney gunning for him. Pressure mounts from all sides in this merciless, straight-to-hell story. Great, dark stuff.

I’ll be posting more reviews and interviews as time permits, along with updates on S.F. Brownrigg’s Scum of the Earth and the theatrical release of Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead.

- David Szulkin

now playing: YOB – “Elaborations of Carbon”

Jeramie Rain starred in Wes Craven’s original LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT as Sadie, the killer sidekick to David Hess’ Krug. She later married Richard Dreyfuss, worked for NBC, and tried to help friend John Belushi get off drugs as documented in Bob Woodward’s Wired.

The actress told HARD FEELINGS that she was once picked up hitch-hiking by Tex Watson and Charles Manson. She stayed in the van after her friends were dropped off. The killers later showed up at her aunt’s house. And while making LAST HOUSE, Rain was playing Susan “Sadie” Atkins in an off-Broadway production.

In an even more bizarre Manson Family connection, Rain later lived in the Sharon Tate house on Cielo Drive. She learned from neighbors that the home was the site of the infamous August 9, 1969 murders only after moving in.

HARD FEELINGS also spoke to another Wes Craven star, Michael Berryman, who put the scary face and personality to Pluto in the original HILLS HAVE EYES. Berryman gave his opinion of the recent HILLS movies.

MB: I did see the remake of THE HILLS HAVE EYES, at a film festival. I went to a red carpet event and it was a lot of fun. You know, Wes and [producer] Peter Locke and I, we go way back, and it was so nice to be part of the premiere in L.A.

However, this film was made, and I don’t know why they made it. I do understand that remakes are popular, in some people’s assessments. For me personally, I actually liked the first fifteen to seventeen-and-a-half minutes. I was intrigued with the concept of a little town that was built by the Defense Department and where they had nuclear testing, because in the original, maybe we were mutants from that leftover radiation, et cetera.

But in the original, there wasn’t a lot of blood and gore. It was thrilling and compelling and frightening and threatening. And the families were pretty well-defined; each character was well-defined.

In the remakes, the characters were not well-defined. There was no back-story as to who they were, what they were, and why they did what they did. There was nothing to tell me even how they survived and how they managed to come up with these devices for dispatching people.

I just tell it like it is. Honestly, I felt that after the first 20 minutes, the movie turned into a gratuitous bloodbath; it was a video game. It was a push-the-button, shock-the-monkey splatter-fest, titillation for 14-year-olds. And I actually walked out of the film. It was terrible.

Then they did the sequel, and I was actually called to L.A. to meet the director [Alexandre Aja], who didn’t even bother to show up at the meeting. And I felt insulted; I felt depreciated. I paid my own expenses, and I’d sure like to have a check for $1,000 for those expenses.

I had a handshake deal with Peter Locke saying I’d be in Morocco. And the explanation I heard why I was not, when they were already in production in North Africa, was that Aja didn’t want anyone from the original. If that’s the case, then why did he bother to invite me to a meeting in the first place where he did not show up?

So, maybe I have a chip on my shoulder, maybe I’m getting grouchy in my old age, but you know, there’s something called respect, there’s something called courtesy, and something called professional behavior.

I’m glad the movie made some money, and I guess they made a part 3. More power to ya. Now that you’re fully funded, do something of quality and I‘ll go see it. And if it‘s good, I‘ll promote it.

But the remakes were terrible.

HF: Thank you. You don’t mind going on the record?

MB: HELL, NO!