Gather a gaggle of horror film actors in a room and you’re bound to discuss classics like “The Shining” and “The Exorcist.”
It’s still a blast to hear industry veterans at this year’s StarFest convention in Denver tell tales of what scares them silly.
And, yes, all those stories about actors sitting for hours on end while makeup techs administer fangs/fins/blood/etc … it’s all true, they swear.
The panel? - actors Ethan Phillips (”The Island,” “Star Trek: Voyager,” the upcoming “Dahmer vs. Gacy”), Jed Rowen (”Driller,” “Zombie Farm”), Robert Picardo (”Star Trek: Voyager,” “The Howling”), Pal Tallman (1990’s “Night of the Living Dead” and “Army of Darkness”) and director Jaume Collet-Serra (”House of Wax,” the upcoming “Orphan”).
Phillips recalled seeing his favorite horror film, “The Exorcist,” for the first time, an event which made him a die-hard genre junkie.
“I was stoned out of my mind,” the actor said. and the film’s transgressive shocks shook him to the core.
“I’ve been chasing that one experience ever since,” Phillips said.
Horror films, Phillips says, “take me out of my everyday life.”
“It’s like being awake during a nightmare, but safe,” he added.
Tallman said “The Haunting” with Julie Harris, a black and white chiller, still gives her the creeps oh, so many years later. Picardo cited “Alien’s” chest bursting sequence - “the biggest mind blowing experience I’ve had in a theater.”
Collet-Serra summed up why he thinks the horror genre exists in the first place.
“It’s human nature. You stop when you see an accident. Some of that [urge] needs to be satisfied,” he said.
(Photos: Top, right - Pat Tallman (”Army of Darkness”). Bottom left, Ethan Phillips of “Star Trek: Voyager”)
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I'm an award-winning journalist and film critic with more than a decade of experience in newspapers, magazines and the Web. I'm a member of both the Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association and the Denver Film Critics Society.
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Love Pat Tallman. That must have been fun. But she was great as the resilient Barbra in the remake of ‘Night of the Living Dead’. Plus that movie also has the always underrated Tony Todd as well as an unrecognizable Bill Moseley. Not a bad remake from Tom Savini, which for me is a horror classic. Sorry, I drifted a little off topic.
I agree with the above; great to see Pat Tallman again. She looks great! and yes, Grofe, the NOTLD remake was a worthy remake.