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Interview:
So Richard, how long have you
been a fan of horror films?
I’ve been a fan of horror films for as long as I can
remember and the horror film that really changed my life was
John Carpenter’s The Thing. I saw it when I was eight years
old in 1982 at the drive in with my parents in Fort Scott,
Kansas. The movie completely blew my mind and the special
effects are still the best of any movie ever as far as I’m
concerned.
What are some of the first films
you remember seeing as a child?
I remember watching the old Godzilla and King Kong movies
when I was really little and then between the ages of 8 and
12 I became a huge John Carpenter fan. I saw The Fog, The
Thing, Christine, Halloween 1, 2, and Halloween 3: Season of
the Witch (Which I’m not ashamed to say that I love, Tom
Atkins is great in the movie and the music by John Carpenter
and Alan Howarth is incredible). My parents were so cool,
they took me to see every horror movie I ever wanted to see.
I remember driving through the biggest rain storm ever in
Ft. Scott, Kansas in 1986 to go to the theater to see David
Cronenberg’s The Fly! I also remember my mom waking me up
before school at 3a.m. to see Lucio Fulci’s Gates of Hell on
cable!
Richard as a Vampire for Howard TV 2007
Halloween special, makeup by Mike Marino
I know from listening to you on
the radio that you’re pretty passionate about the genre.
What do you think specifically does it for you? Is it the
scary monsters, maybe the naked titties? How about those
torture sequences in recent years? What exactly rocks your
world about horror?
For me it’s all about monsters and the supernatural. The
thought of dying terrifies me so I love movies about ghosts
and anything to do with life after death. I also love huge
monster movies like Godzilla and King Kong. I grew up in
Kansas around Tornadoes and to me Tornadoes are the real
life version of Godzilla, something that destroys cities and
can’t be stopped. I think it’s that fear that drives my love
for giant monster type movies. I thought Cloverfield was
amazing and the creature was so cool looking, it definitely
lived up to all of my expectations.
I like the serial killer movies too but I like when it’s
a supernatural type killer like Freddy Krueger. There’s
something about the mystery of life after death that
fascinates me. To me the most perfect movie ever is John
Carpenter’s Halloween, because through the whole movie he’s
a regular serial killer and at the very end when Donald
Pleasance looks over the edge of the balcony after shooting
Michael Myers and he’s gone, you realize that he’s something
beyond human, and to me that is the coolest twist in any
movie ever.
What’s your favorite genre of
horror flicks, meaning, ghosts, zombies, torture?
I love it all. I love George Romero’s zombie movies,
especially Day of the Dead. I love ghost stories like John
Carpenter’s The Fog. I also love when they mix different
genres like John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness which is a
perfect mix of ghost story, religious horror, and zombie
movie, and Evil Dead which is also a great mix of a ghost
story and zombie film. I love torture films like Hostel too
but not as much as supernatural style horror films.
Richard with friends at the lighthouse from
The Fog
I know Halloween is your
favorite holiday. What are some of the traditions you have
for this yearly event? You don’t sacrifice kittens do you?
No I love animals, I grew up on a farm! Every Halloween
on the day of Halloween I get a pizza and watch John
Carpenter’s Halloween. I watch The Crow the night before
Halloween. I watch every movie dealing with Halloween during
the months of October and September like all of the Night of
the Demons and Halloween movies. I also watch Trick or Treat
and Monster Squad every Halloween. I watch horror movies all
year round but it’s ALL I watch after the month of August. I
try to average a horror movie a day during September and
October. I also travel to walk through haunted houses all
around the country during September and October. Halloween
Horror Nights at Universal Orlando is my favorite. This year
they had a theme involving Freddy, Jason, and Leatherface
and had haunted houses for each of their movies, it was
amazing!
What did you think of Rob
Zombie's version of Halloween? I ask this because I know you
hold Carpenter’s version as the holy grail of horror films.
And do you have any comments as far as people saying it was
the worst movie ever made? Are they just hanging on to the
original a little too much?
I really admire Rob Zombie because like him I’m a
musician and I’ve made a transition from being a drummer to
what I do now which is comedy on The Howard Stern Show. I
think it’s so cool that he went from being a heavy metal
singer to a horror director. Heavy Metal and Horror Movies
are the two biggest passions in my life also. That being
said, I wasn’t much into his version of Halloween. I totally
admire what he did, it takes a lot of drive and a lot of
work to make a movie and be successful at it, but I just
love the original so much that I couldn’t get into the
remake.
I like the original so much because at the end Michael
Myers becomes a supernatural figure but in the remake they
make Michael Myers a human serial killer and take the
supernatural element out of him. I love movies where they
don’t explain too much and leave things up to the
imagination. I loved in Cloverfield how they don’t say where
the monster comes from and why it’s there, it leaves so much
up to the imagination which is fun. I think the Halloween
remake tried to explain a little too much.
If you could be slain by any
horror icon, monster or villain who or what would it be and
why? Gary’s teeth don’t count either.
I would be stomped on by Godzilla, that would be the
quickest death, or maybe killed by Freddy Krueger in my
dreams because even though you’re being killed, you’re still
asleep so maybe it isn’t as traumatic.
Richard as a Zombie for a friend's 2007
Halloween party, makeup by Brian and Pete from G & S Effects
One of my favorite horror
sequences is the opening death scene in THE OMEN. What are
some of your all fine favorite sequences? Give me three if
you don’t mind.
My all time favorite is Donald Pleasance looking over the
balcony to see that Michael Myers is gone at the end of the
original Halloween. My second favorite is the scene in John
Carpenter’s The Thing where Charles Hallahan’s character’s
stomach opens up, The Thing comes out of his stomach and his
head also sprouts legs and crawls away. The best line of the
movie is from that scene where Palmer sees the head creature
and says “You gotta be Fu**ing Kidding!” My third favorite
scene is when Satan’s arm comes out of the mirror at the end
of John Carpenter’s Prince Of Darkness. Even though they
only show the arm, it’s so frightening to think about what’s
on the other side of that mirror.
So what horror soundtracks are
you into? You gotta love AMITYVILLE HORROR, right? What
would you recommend our readers checkout?
Yes I love the Amityville soundtrack, but my all time
favorite composer is John Carpenter, who’s also my favorite
writer and director. I have every soundtrack that he’s ever
done and the original Halloween theme is probably my
favorite song ever. I love the synthesizer scores from the
70’s and 80’s. The Near Dark soundtrack by Tangerine Dream
is amazing as well. I would highly recommend the Halloween 3
soundtrack, it’s incredibly creepy and haunting. The Fog
soundtrack is awesome. I love the Creepshow and Day of The
Dead soundtracks. I also highly recommend the Christine
soundtrack and Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula soundtrack.
OK, time to stop screwing
around. You have Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Freddy
Krueger and you have to marry one, kill one and screw one.
Who are you going to go with and why?
Wow, that’s tough. I would kill Jason because he’s the
biggest and scariest looking. I would marry Freddy because
he has a good sense of humor and I guess F Michael Myers
because you don’t have to look at his face!
How much do you keep up with
horror today? Have you seen recent flicks like 30 DAYS OF
NIGHT, THE DESCENT and HOSTEL?
I see every horror movie that comes out in the theaters
and on DVD. I love the Hostel movies, I especially loved
Grindhouse, Eli Roth’s trailer for Thanksgiving was
hilarious! I loved Hatchet which came out in limited release
last year. 30 Days of Night was a cool twist on a vampire
movie and I love that it was set in a secluded, snow covered
location similar to The Thing. I’m really looking forward to
George Romero’s Diary of the Dead. I refuse to go see any
horror movie with Jessica Alba or Sarah Michelle Gellar and
I also try to avoid PG-13 rated horror movies because I love
extreme horror that’s aimed at adults, not kids and teeny
boppers. I really loved Shaun of the Dead, it’s one of the
best horror movies in the last few years. I also loved
Slither, it was so fun and had some cool effects and
characters, plus I’ve met the writer/director James Gunn and
he’s a super cool guy and he’s extremely talented.
Richard as a Zombie for Howard TV 2006
Halloween Special, makeup by Mike Marino
A lot of people I talk to think
the horror films of today suck ass and will never be like
they were in the eighties. What are your thoughts on this?
For me movies will never be like they were in the
eighties because I was a little kid in the eighties and
there’s something magical about having the crap scared out
of you by a horror movie when you’re very young. I think
horror movies could have another heyday if Hollywood starts
releasing more original horror films, not remakes. I can
only think of two remakes that were ever better than the
originals, and that’s John Carpenter’s The Thing and David
Cronenberg’s The Fly. I do like a few of the new remakes
like Dawn of the Dead and The Hills Have Eyes but what was
so great about the 80’s were all the creativity and
originality in horror movies. I also think CGI has really
hurt horror movies recently. I just saw I Am Legend and it
started out good but as soon as they showed the monsters it
totally ruined it for me because it’s some of the crappiest
looking CGI creature effects that I’ve ever seen. You can’t
beat old style, classic special effects like the masters Tom
Savini , Rob Bottin, and KNB Effects.
Are there any horror films being
released in 2008 that you are really looking forward to?
Definitely George Romero’s Diary of the Dead, and I
absolutely can’t wait for the film Trick R’ Treat! It’s
Halloween themed which I love and the trailer looks really
cool. It was supposed to come out last year and I was bummed
when they bumped it to 2008. My most anticipated horror film
for 2008 though is Albino Farm, because I was lucky enough
to have a role in it! It’s gonna be scary as hell and true
horror fans are going to love it! I had special effects
makeup applied to me for my character which was a lot of
fun. I’ve always dreamed of being in a horror movie so this
was a dream come true for me!
What was the last awesome horror
movie that you watched?
I’ve seen Cloverfield twice in the theaters and I love
it. I saw Hatchet last year and I thought it was a lot of
fun too, it has some brutal killing scenes, the dialogue and
writing are really good and funny, and the creature is
really cool looking too.
I know you’re busy Richard so I
want to thank you for your time. Do you have any final
thoughts of comments?
Thank you very much for being interested in my thoughts
on horror! Horror has always been a huge passion of mine and
someday I would love to have a career making and acting in
horror films. I’ve been lucky enough to have a career in my
other two passions, music and comedy, so my next goal is
definitely horror. I’ve spent the last 8 years of my life
writing a horror movie, I just finished the script last year
so hopefully I’ll be able to do something with it. To me
horror fans are the best because just like heavy metal fans,
once you’re a horror fan you’re ALWAYS a horror fan, it’s
not just a phase somebody goes through. True horror fans
will always love the genre.
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