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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 5, No. 11 |
 in BLOOD-- THE DVD" |
 The DVD from Image Entertainment |
John Stanley's cult classic
finally gets a DVD release
of TheColumnists.com
John Stanley has so many accomplishments in his long career--columnist, author, editor, novelist, film expert, TV host, teacher, lecturer--that one sometimes forgets he once wrote, produced and directed the 1976 feature film "Nightmare in Blood."
And I suppose there are times when John is extremely grateful that people keep forgetting that.
"Nightmare in Blood" was a hand-made, low-budget first effort at filmmaking--and often looks like it. Stanley and his partner Kenn Davis, who co-authored and co-produced the film, along with doing the cinematography, both concede that it's not exactly a great movie. On the other hand, I'm sure John would agree that it's no worse and probably considerably better than a lot of the studio horror movies he used to show on his "Creature Features" TV show.
As most readers of this website must know, John Stanley was one of the four original founders of TheColumnists.com and still does an occasional column for us. I consider him a friend, so my opinion is likely to be a bit biased. Still, I think I'd have the same opinion of "Nightmare in Blood" if I'd never known John Stanley: It's a very effective "insider's" version of a horror movie, loaded with clever bits. As Leonard Maltin's "2004 Movie Guide" puts it, the film "will appeal particularly to horror buffs for its many in-jokes." As it turns out, there are so many horror movie buffs out there that "Nightmare in Blood" has built up a "cult classic" rep over the past 30 years.
Now I'll go a big step farther: The new DVD version of "Nightmare in Blood" is a hoot, especially if you turn on the "audio commentary" and listen to Stanley and Davis tell you all the behind-the-scenes stories of their movie. Take my word for it, it then becomes a incredibly engaging 90 minutes because Stanley and Davis, in effect, are describing exactly what it was like to try making a full-length, widescreen and color feature film for $150,000--an impossibility today and a task of Mt. Everest proportions even back in the 1970s.
First I need to tell you what the film is about: A horror movie fan convention is being put on at an old movie theatre in San Francisco. The guest of honor is Malachi (Jerry Walter), last of the great horror actors and a specialist in vampire roles. What nobody realizes, though, is that Malachi is a real vampire, who goes about his business in 1970s San Francisco with the aid of the original Burke and Hare, who have been kept alive more than 100 years by supernatural means, just so they can function as Malachi's sidekicks.
Stanley and Davis, who were then both working for the San Francisco Chronicle, wanted to make a professional-looking modern horror movie that would have that dark, creepy EC Comics look and, perhaps, also the tongue-in-cheek humor stressed in those comics and in the San Francisco Bay Area's most popular local program, KTVU-TV's "Creature Features," then hosted by a cigar-smoking, deadpan character called Bob Wilkins.
(Wilkins, by the way, can be glimpsed in a mob scene of fans and protesters outside the convention theater near the opening of the film. He's smoking a cigar, of course.)
The two would-be filmmakers put up about $50,000 of their own money and what they could borrow from friends and family members to get started on "Nightmare in Blood." They rented film gear, including the moviola they set up in John's home to edit the footage. Friends and family continued to help in a variety of ways. John's wife, for instance, can be seen in photos as one of Malachi's on-screen victims--and in footage where Malachi carries an unconscious victim through a graveyard. (She also provided all the meals for the cast and crew during shooting.)
They also filmed almost entirely on actual locations. The opulent old movie theater is actually the Fox Theater in Oakland, which was destroyed by a fire shortly after they finished filming. The scenes where a TV horror movie host incurs the wrath of Malachi were filmed on Bob Wilkins' actual "Creature Features" set at KTVU in Oakland, where John Stanley eventually took over as the movie host.
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co-wrote and co-produced "Nightmare in Blood," can be glimpsed in the film, trying to make a purchase at a comic book store. |
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There wasn't any money for elaborate special effects or set construction. Part of the fun of the audio commentary is learning how they achieved what they did put on the screen. For example, both men crack up at the memory of doing the scene where a metal symbol burns a hole in Malachi's forehead. They managed that by mixing vinegar with baking soda and having several smokers puff smoke into the actor's face from off camera.
All the leading players were Screen Actors Guild union members, but the two filmmakers also managed to round up a number of well-known Bay Area personalities to play smaller roles, among them the beloved Ray K. Goman of the f;amous "Goman's Gay 90s" club. Kerwin Mathews, the star of many Hollywood films including "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad," does a cameo role and the leading lady, making her screen debut, was Barrie Youngfellow, who later went on to do "Fernwood 2Night" and co-starred in ABC's "It's A Living" with our own Ann Jillian.
Though she does appear briefly in "Nightmare in Blood," then unknown Kathleen Quinlan's footage mostly was cut from the film--which gave John an embarrassing moment a few years later when he had to do an interview with Quinlan, who had become a well-known leading lady in films and television.
Jerry Walter, who plays Malachi, was a very satisfying villain--and might well have become a legitimate horror movie star if someone had seen his potential. Dan Caldwell, the film's "hero" (Prof. Seabrook) and John Cochran ("Scotty"), who plays another vampire foe, both are quite effective.
In their audio commentary, Davis and Stanley tell how they were turned down by every studio in Hollywood, including American-International, which was schlock-central in the 1970s, but finally found a small outfit named WorldWide to distribute "Nightmare in Blood." The company put up the $100,000 needed to complete the post-production and make prints. The film finally went out to theaters in 1978 and was in wide release for four years. They don't tell us if they ever got their money back, but somebody should make something out of the DVD, which is very entertaining.
Today John believes they should have eliminated several characters and reduced the amount of dialogue in the film, but he's still proud of many sequences. As Davis points out, for all its possible shortcomings, "Nightmare in Blood" is still a feature film that actually was distributed everywhere and is now on DVD. How many people do you know who can say they accomplished something like that?
If you want to see "Nightmare
in Blood," ask your local video store to order it for you
to rent. If you want a copy, it's available from most of the
online video/DVD companies at a reasonable price, usually under
$20.
©2004 by Ron Miller.
The Ron Miller caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. The DVD
cover reproduction is ©MMIV Image Entertainment, Inc.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He currently
teaches classes in mystery and related topics at Whatcom Community
College and Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.
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