‘70s Scream Greats Set in a Desolate New York City
‘70s Scream Greats Set in a Desolate New York City
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Share So you started to publish your own horror/genre/cult movie magazine—Videoscope— later. When did that happen and why did you do it? Describe what kind of stuff you publish in your magazine? Also, even though its 2009, do you view Videoscope as a fanzine or counter culture publication?
Even though I had multiple weekly columns in The Daily News, and my first related book The Phantom’s Ultimate Video Guide (Dell) led to some columns in other outlets, I began to feel there wasn’t much protection, especially when The News almost went under in 1991 before Robert Maxwell bought it (and a lot of staffers and freelancers were let go), so I thought about starting a Phantom newsletter (newsletters were pretty popular at the time).
I put a pitch in my flagship The News column for potential subscribers and enough readers signed up that I had the seed money to launch the newsletter, with the invaluable assistance of my wife (writer Nancy Naglin) and my writer friend Tim Ferrante, in early 1993. After 14 issues, we expanded to a magazine format. From that point on I didn’t feel entirely dependent on the vagaries of the publishing biz for survival.
Besides that, it’s just been a tremendous amount of fun. I realized The Monster Times had given me the training to assemble a magazine. I enjoy working on every aspect—assigning, editing, design—as much as writing most of it. It’s almost closer to putting a movie together every three months. I was also lucky enough to attract reviewers who are experts in their particular niches and can bring more to discussing anime or genre TV shows or art-house, say, than I can, allowing me to concentrate on the areas I know best—exploitation, horror, noir, et al.
Basically we cover all genres, the only rule being that the titles, whether contemporary or vintage, are new to DVD. We also run interviews with genre figures from Dario Argento and Clive Barker to Pam Grier and Rob Zombie, movie-going memoir pieces (like my long-running Screen Savers series), film fest coverage—basically, whatever’s fun and fits the general format.
At this point, I would categorize VideoScope as a “brandzine”, in that it carries the Phantom brand, a lineage/attitude that goes back to The Monster Times and The Daily News. The counter-culture designation probably doesn’t apply; nerds/geeks seem to be the new hipsters in our current “wild and crazy conformist” culture, but I think VideoScope magazine and our website, VideoScopeMag.com offer an alternative attitude that our readers like.
Are there any horror/exploitation/B movie blogs or online magazines out there that you like to read for fun? Do you see blogs and online magazines as the new fanzines or the new counter culture publications?
The sites I visit most are poster-driven—David Colton’s Classic Horror Film Board.com—which is a hardcore monster-kid posting board, and Ross Melnick’s Cinema Treasures.org Cinema Treasures.org, a site devoted to listing, describing and updating info on virtually every movie theater that ever existed anywhere in the world (it’s an ongoing quest).
Basically, I enjoy reading the back-and-forth exchanges, informational items, the sometimes strange controversies and petty bickering that pack those sites. And, of course, imdb.com is invaluable; it’s like the world’s biggest film library, only with a lot less depth and accuracy. So basically I like reading e-mails and getting research tips online.
I have less patience with reading articles on-line, though I will sometimes scope out sites like fangoria.com and bmonster.com. Have to admit I still prefer the print experience, for its portability and sense of completion. I’m very glad to have access to print and the Web. Blogs and online magazines are the new fanzines and generally favor increasingly narrow niches; I don’t think there’s a cultural point of view today that’s broad and collective enough to be seen as a “counter culture”—things are much more fractured.
Let’s play the word association game. I will name six movies and then you just write down a couple or a few sentences—the first things that pop into your mind—when you hear (or read) each movie title. (By the way, these are all movies that take place in—where else— a desolate NYC)
Taxi Driver
Dig that opening: Love the smell of steaming sewers in the morning. Saw Taxi Driver again recently on cable, and it’s more brilliant than ever—celluloid sprinkled with angel dust. De Niro created an icon in solipsistic psycho Travis Bickle. Scorsese is to be commended for capturing those soon-to-be-vanished locations, not just the obvious (Times Square ) ones, but Harvey Keitel’s pimpquarters on 13th Street between 2nd & 3rd Avenues.
I lived around the corner (2nd & 14th) just prior to that period (1973-74) and that was one block locals would go out of their way to avoid (ditto for East 3rd St ., home to the NYC Hell’s Angels chapter). Drew very divisive reactions when first released, but it really caught the rage of the era.
Maniac
Haven’t seen Bill Lustig’s slasher pioneer since it first played theaters, so I no longer recall its NYC aspects beyond some flavorful 42nd Street , subway and disco locales. The late, great idiosyncratic actor Joe Spinell (a cab dispatcher in Taxi Driver) remains unforgettable in the title role, though. It’s a flick I should revisit on DVD.
Two other films recommended for those suffering from Times Square sleaze nostalgia—Allan Moyle’s otherwise horrendous Times Square (1980) and Abel Ferrara’s Fear City (1985).
The Warriors
Another controversial (for supposedly instigating youth violence in a couple of theater incidents) and ahead-of-its-time romp, Walter Hill’s stylized comic-book gang-war odyssey more than stands the test of time while offering an extended tour of some of NYC’s seedier precincts, including that terrific Coney Island climax. James Remar gives a wonderful performance as the animalistic Ajax . The Special Edition DVD restores some touches (including comic-book panels coming to life) cut from the theatrical release.
Cruising
Didn’t catch up with Cruising until its VHS release, but I remember the protests surrounding William Friedkin’s thriller set in NYC’s gay demimonde, into which undercover cop Al Pacino descends to catch a killer. It wasn’t as exploitive as it might have been, I thought. A few years later, cop Al posed as a hetero swinger to nail a slayer in Sea of Love , another film with some vivid NYC scenery.
Escape From New York
The ultimate in Big Applephobia before the city became a combo yuppie playground and Disney theme park. John Carpenter’s dystopian pulp actioner, with its wild NYC-as-max-security prison production design, still works brilliantly today.
The concept didn’t quite translate in his sequel, Escape from L.A., though I enjoyed that one too. Like most of the films here, Escape from New York probably didn’t do much for NYC tourism at the time, though Ernest Borgnine presented a friendlier cabbie image than Travis Bickle had.
Wolfen
Haven’t seen Michael (Woodstock) Wadleigh’s fear fable since it first came out, but I recall being somewhat put off by its self-righteous tone, though the film also offered its share of cool locations, from a bombed-out Bronx to the isolated Mohawk Indian bar (even if it was a set). I appreciated the theme of shape-shifting Native American spirits striking back at the white man’s greed in Manhattan , but it all seemed a bit pretentious.
Withal, a strong lineup to kick off an NYC Wasteland film fest. And just so Staten Island shouldn’t feel ignored, we’ll add Buddy Giovinazzo’s 1985 nightmare, Combat Shock.
For me, the 1970s was an amazing and weird decade for film. Give me two top five lists—your favorite five horror films and favorite five character actors from the 1970s.
Five great horror films from and truly of the American ‘70s:
1. Dawn of the Dead (consumers turn cannibal)
2. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (youth road trip goes south)
3. Deathdream (aka Dead of Night) (the ultimate Vietnam nightmare)
4. God Told Me To (serial killers, aliens, transgender issues)
5. The Crazies (George Romero strikes again—with biochemical warfare)
Also a shout-out to these ‘70s scream greats: Alice, Sweet Alice, Alien, Don’t Look Now, Eraserhead, The Exorcist, The Hills Have Eyes, Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, Phantasm, Race with the Devil, The Tenant, The Wicker Man.
Best Quintessential Wonderfully Bad ‘70s Horror Flick: Blood Freak (beware the marijuana turkey monster).
Fave character thesp: Even though he began the decade as more of a lead, Robert Forster—always believable, any era, any part. Also right up there: Strother Martin, Dick Miller, Harry Dean Stanton, Richard Bakalyan.
