Zombies!

Here is Rob Merickel and I all made up for the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD play at the Majestic Theater. Rob was the head make-up dude and we both worked, along with several other volunteers, on making up 20 or more zombies for each of 7 performances. It was a lot of work, but the results were way cool.

Fishhead!

What a cute fish-headed toddler! I cultivated his love of Halloween early on...

Behind the Eyeball

Behind the scenes on with The Eyeball of Fear on the set of WE NEED EARTH WOMEN. Eric Singer is inside the Eyeball outfit, one that he actually made himself after my original was destroyed during the making of The Eyeball of Fear segment on VAMPIRISA'S VELVET VAULT OF HORROR! Photo by Rick Campbell.

Someday...The Eyeball will return...

Gooey Pumpkin Guts

Mmmmm.....

Nerd Day

OK, so it wasn't actually ON Halloween, but I'm counting it because I was dressing up. This is me on "Nerd Day" during my senior year of high school. Note the snazzy shirt with wide collar and pocket protector filled with pens. Not only did I wear thick-rimmed glasses with a band-aid repair on the bridge, they were SAFETY glasses. Now, THAT'S nerdy!

Here's a list of the participating Countdown to Halloween blogs this year:

All Eyes and Ears

Art by Bubba Shelby

Azathoth's Abode on the Plateau of Leng

Azathoth's Abode on the Plateau of Leng: The Dungeon

Branded in the 80's

Cool-Mo-Dee

Creepy Los Angeles

Dave Lowe Design!

Distinctly Jamaican Sounds

Diversions of the Groovy Kind

Dr. K's 100-Page Super Spectacular

Dr. Squid's Smorgasbord of Terror!

The Drunken Secered Head

Frankensteinia: The Frankenstein Blog

Franklin Mint Blog

Geektarded

Halloween Addict

Harvey's Midnight Hour

Holiday Queen

Horror Host Graveyard

The Horrors of It All

House of Wax

John Rozum.com

Mark Harvey's World

Monster Crazy

Monster Memories!

Monster Rally

Monsters and More

Music From the Monster Movies 1950-69

Neato Coolville

Negative Pleasure

Nostalgia Factory

A Nostalgic Halloween

Oh The Horror

Orange and Black

Para Abnormal

Plaid Stallions

Pumpkin Hollow

Pumpkinrot

Random Acts of Geekery

Sailormoms

The Sexy Armpit

Sweet Skulls

13 Visions

Tikiranch Hallows

Universal Horror Sounds

Valhella

Vinnie Rattolie's Records

Weird Hollow

Wonderful Wonderblog

Melty Movie Make-Up

For HOUSEBOUND, I used a combination of butterscotch pudding, pinkish lotion from the dollar store and fake blood (corn syrup, red food coloring and a little chocolate syrup to darken it up) to make mushy gushy melting FX for several characters who get bitten by an little monster. If not for the lotion, it would've smelled delicious and probably tasted pretty good. Simple stuff, but it's grossed out more than a few folks.

Above, we see Shannon - what a trooper!!!

By the way, there's going to be a screening of HOUSEBOUND and THE SEEKERS on Friday, October 17, 9 p.m. at the Northern Lights Theater Pub in Salem, Oregon. If you are in the area, come on down, drink some beer and watch some horror flicks!

Mad Scientist!

Here I am as a mad scientist for my 2001 Halloween party.



I kind of look diabolical making my secret formula punch!

Let's Do The Timewarp

Here I am with my wife at our 1990 Halloween party. She's Magenta from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and I'm some sort of random scary bloody hooded mutant guy.

Halloween 1970

I love this picture. Look at that clock! Look at that lamp! Look at that table! And there is a lava lamp on top of the piano! I was almost 3 and a half. 1970 New Jersey goodness.

And I still have that mask today....

Make-Up Monsters

I have had this book by Marcia Lynn Cox since I was in elementary school in the 70s - I think I got it through the scholastic book club. Love this book. I have to admit, I have only tried the skull face make-up on myself (on my last trick or treat - more on that in a later post). It's great because it is very kid-friendly, has lots of step by step photos of young kids getting made up, and very easy to understand instructions. One of these days I want to try doing the bug-eyed frog guy one...

Evil Clown

Here I am at my Halloween party in 1989 - I'm Alice Cooper and Rob is the devil. But what is really scary is the evil clown with the mustache sitting in the corner....

Polonia Day 2008

Today is Polonia Day, named after the prolific indie twins from Pennsylvania, the men behind such video b-movie efforts as FEEDERS and BLOOD RED PLANET. Sadly, John passed away suddenly back in February. Mark continues on at www.cinegraphicprod.com. In the past Polonia Days, my son and I have watched a Polonia Brothers movie or drawn some FEEDERS-inspired artwork. Stay tuned for what we did this year....

It Haunts Casting News!

Look who is in IT HAUNTS! It's Ariauna Albright!

You may have seen Ariauna in a bunch of movies like POLYMORPH, BLOODLETTING, WITCHOUSE 2, and you can check her out in next year's PLATOON OF THE DEAD!

Eric Spudic shot some footage of Ariauna playing Rachel, Kelsey's best friend. Big thanks to Ariauna's boyfriend for all of his help!

I'm working on capturing the footage right now. I also picked up the ghosthunting footage that Darla Doom and her husband shot. Hope to get all of this new footage cut in over the weekend.

Shot some more footage for EATER over the weekend and hope to get a few more pick-ups this week.

Wordle

Hey this is cool! I went to http://wordle.net/ and put in the address of this blog and it spit out this snazzy "wordle" based on the popularity of words on my blog.

Happy Birthday Tom Stedham!

Hey all you movie makers out there: hire this guy! He'll do topless scenes!

Eater Shots

Good times!

Welcome Twisted Haunted Eater's Sister

Waiting for the used miniDV cam to arrive...

IT HAUNTS scenes were shot in California over the weekend. Anxiously awaiting the footage!

Still working on getting the ghost hunting footage for IT HAUNTS...

Made a last-minute cast change due to scheduling conflicts and shot some great (and bloody) EATER footage on Saturday with Rob Merickel and Michelle "Ame" Mahoney. Hope to post some screen caps soon. When getting everything ready that morning, I discovered that the hooded sweatshirt my son wears as part of the alien outfit was in his locker at school! We ran out and managed to buy a replacement and make it back to the house to meet everyone.

I made the mistake of NOT waiting until the last shot for Michelle to scream, so shortly thereafter an alarmed woman on her bicycle came down the trail. She was stunned and relieved to see my son standing there in his full alien outfit and me holding a camera.

Much better than when we shot in an el cheapo hotel several years back for HOUSEBOUND. Kylene screamed at the top of her lungs and we fully expected the cops or at least the manager to come see what was going on. No one ever came. The hotel has since been torn down.

Plan to shoot a couple more EATER scenes this coming Saturday morning...

Met up with Mike Hegg and got a couple of DVD-Rs of DEADLY PREMONITIONS to check the filmlook on. Working to get up there first weekend of October and finish it all up!

Managed to get some 4-track recordings of my son and his friends into GarageBand to add some tracks and tweak some levels. Cool!

E-mailed Bob Olin about the WELCOME SISTER segment of TWISTED FATES - hoping he can shoot it in the next few weeks before the weather turns really bad...

Checking out the groovy 1970's pop culture stuff at the Plaid Stallions blog (at http://www.plaidstallions.blogspot.com) recently lead me to Jon's Random Acts of Geekery (at http://waffyjon.blogspot.com), where I discovered Halloween Countdown 2008 - basically a thing where you agree to do at least one blog post a day from October 1-31st. And I thought it would be cool to do it! So I am. So here is the snazzy banner. So keep watching every dang day in October for some Dr. Squid Halloween weirdness!

Moving Ahead...

Ordered a used MiniDV camera from Amazon - price was not much more than trying to get mine repaired and it's the same make and model so at least I'll know what I am doing. Should be here in a week or two...

IT HAUNTS package sent off to California....

Hoping to get the ghosthunting footage for IT HAUNTS soon....

Had to push the EATER shoot out a bit due to conflicting schedules - just concerned about the leaves turning colors and not matching the other summer footage....

Have been scanning a bunch of old photos for a project for October. More news on that at the end of September...

Step by step

Have confirmed the actress to play the final small part in the IT HAUNTS segment of TWISTED FATES. Have a cameraman lined up as well. Sending a package off to them this week. Will post some screen caps when I get the footage back.

Have been on vacation for a bit. Getting back to the grind at work this week and planning to get the TRULY DREADFUL TALES package mailed off to the director for the BEETLE MANIAC short.

Meeting with Mike Hegg on next Thursday to get a DVD-r proof of the latest pass at DEADLY PREMONITIONS.

Hope to finish shooting EATER this weekend. We'll see...

Sasquatch Dumpling Gang

I stumbled across this movie a while back, when it was still making the rounds at film festivals. It was shot here in Oregon so there was some local press for it.

It was written and directed by Tim Skousen, who was the first assistant director on Napoleon Dynamite, and the movie shares some similarity in tone to that movie.

imdb's synopsis sums it up well: "Young, fantasy/sci-fi aficionado Gavin Gore and his friends stumble onto some huge footprints in the woods. A local cop, reporter and a renowned Sasquatch authority investigate, while two of Gavin's dim-witted neighbors hatch a scheme to profit from the situation."

I laughed and laughed at this thing and have seen it 4 times already, laughing each time.

In fact, one viewing inspired the Morning Dumplings song.

Dr. Squid sez: Check it out!

Quark on DVD!

Awesome! I loved this show when I was a kid! Geez louise - it was on 30 years ago! Here are a few tidbits from the press release:

"All 8 Episodes Available on DVD October 14, 2008 - The crazy plot deals with the adventures of Adam Quark (Benjamin), captain of a United Galactic Sanitation Patrol ship. His cohorts include Gene/Jean, a "transmute" with male and female characteristics; a Vegeton (a highly-evolved plant-man) named Ficus; plus Andy the Android and Betty and Betty (who always argue over who's the clone of the other). Based at Space Station Perma One are Otto Palindrome and The Head. Though Quark is supposed to stick to his sanitization patrols, he and his crew often find adventure with such colorful space denizens as the evil High Gorgon (head of the villainous Gorgons), Zoltar the Magnificent, and Zargon the Malevolent."

Unfortunately, there are no special features related to Quark itself. I'm sure the powers that be would tell me, "Just shut up and be happy we even bothered to put this forgotten one-season show out on DVD," but dang it all - creator Buck Henry, stars Richard Benjamin, Tim Thomerson and Conrad Janis are all still alive and working in Hollywood. Bobby Porter is a stuntman and Patricia and Cyb Barnstable are still around, too - albeit in Kentucky. I would LOVE to have seen a featurette of interviews or commentary or something. Heck, Andy Magels has done a great job of puling together special features for the filmation releases like Jason of Star Command, and it's got the same target audience: me!

Well in any case, it's still great that it's coming out and I'll be buying my copy to replace the long lost blurry 7th-generation bootleg tape I bought at a comic convention years ago.

By the way, there is a great fansite for the show at http://quark.name

Here I am with Tim Thomerson at the 2007 Fangoria Convention in Burbank.

Heather Storm at No Bad Days Premiere

Heather Storm played a small role in my flick UNDERBELLY back when she was a student at Oregon State University. She's since gone on to Hollywood and her latest movie, NO BAD DAYS had it's premiere back in July. Here's a entertainment magazine style video of the event - https://youtu.be/bEcsFl0AMiw?t=5m14s
You can pick up UNDERBELLY on DVD from me at THE STORE or WATCH IT RIGHT NOW VIA VIDEO ON DEMAND.

UPDATE: Heather Storm is also the new co-host of GARAGE SQUAD on the VELOCITY channel!

Underbelly from Joe Sherlock on Vimeo.

Trying To Crank Things Up Again...

Locked in an actress about playing a small part in the IT HAUNTS segment of TWISTED FATES. She's in California, so lining up a camera guy to shoot the scenes for me...

Borrowed a camera over the weekend so was able to have the Blood Red Pants short show on a TV screen - videotaped it and imported that footage into the iMac. Dropped it into IT HAUNTS along with some shots of the beach from a vacation a few years back - that goes in where Michelle's character is looking out over the ocean.

Hoping to hook up with Mike Hegg soon for dinner and a hand-off of proof DVD-Rs of DEADLY PREMONITIONS....

Asked someone about coming to town to play a part in the remaining footage needed for the EATER movie. Waiting to hear back...

Gotta keep on plugging away...

Posters for Sale

Movie posters for sale: www.drsquid.net/postersforsale.html

Baby Lemur

Good times at the County Fair.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Crap.

Stuff going on. Need to be away from the ol' blog for a while. Sorry...

Dreamwalkers - 10 Years Ago

It was 10 years ago this month that a bunch of friends started getting together about one weekend a month to shoot John Bowker's DREAMWALKERS. Over many months, I shot this fantasy tale of a man trapped in a world of dreams and nightmares. We used three different cameras. We shot at homes, offices, the library, a cafeteria, fields and woods. We shot scenes of under-the-bed monsters, zombies and UFOs. I shot lying on the floor and up on a ladder. We dealt with changing weather, construction noises, changing haircuts and tweens hopped up on caffine. I also played the role of MIG (Man in Green) as seen above. Then, after it was all shot, John and I worked for months editing it together on an ancient 3/4" U-Matic linear editing system.

In the end, I paid to have a handful of tapes duplicated and they went to cast, family and friends. It was never released to the public. I have to laugh every time I get a letter at my PO box addressed to the old Shannon Fan Club that I ran for years. The person always says the same thing - that they are big fans of Shannon's and "loved her work in (insert one of my old movie titles here) and Dreamwalkers," and could they please have a free autographed photo? Amazing how people all over the country and many in jail have somehow seen this old shot-on-video movie that was never released.



All these years and all these movie projects later, John and I and some of the gang are still making movies together. Thank you, John, for asking me to be a part of your crazy fantasy movie a decade ago.

Good times.

Hannibal 8

I'd like my next car to be a plug-in hybrid, but in the meantime, it would be cool to drive Professor Fate's Hannibal 8 car from The Great Race to work!

Well crap.

My camera is broken.

Not sure if I want to spend the travel time and money to try and get it repaired or get a new one.

Problem is the new one I really want is a couple grand, which I don't really have to spare for a camera right now.

Did I mention I promised to videotape a friend's wedding in about 12 days?

Crap.

Puss in Boots

Here is a colored pencil illustration I did several years ago for a play of the same name. Cooler still, two of the Applebee's restaurants in the area have these and other posters I've done up on the walls!

Escape from Ape World

Many years back when Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake was out I read about the Polonia Brothers making something called Gorilla Warfare: Battle of the Apes. It was obviously a shot-on-video quickie designed to capitalize on the big budget remake. I thought to myself, "Well, heck, I could bang out a shot-on-video quickie to capitalize on the big budget remake" myself! With that in mind, I threw together this box cover mock-up:



I went as far as to come up with kind of a rough outline - a ship goes through some weird space wormhole thing and they crash on a forested planet (as I knew I could shoot out in the woods of local parks). After wandering, they get captured by some ape cops. My plan was to just buy a bunch of ape masks and shoot around town, basically having it really be like earth, just with apes instead of people. So they'd be driving cars and walking the streets and all. In the county jail, the crew would befriend an alien who'd also gotten sucked through the wormhole and they'd break out, make it back to the alien's spaceship and escape from the ape world.

After a while, it just became another half-started idea and I'd moved on to other stuff. But cool cover, eh?

In the ensuing years, I haven't been able to see the Polonia Brothers movie as it's only been released outside the U.S. But maybe some day.

I Love Clocks

Mike Hegg expresses his true love in beautiful Roseburg, Oregon during the shoot for HOUSEBOUND.

Morning Dumplings!

Hey check out this wacky song and video I made with my son and his friends!

Dinosaur Planet at Sunset

Here's a few pictures that Tom Shaffer let me borrow to scan and share with y'all of the shoot for his PREHISTORICUS movie.

Happy Birthday George Stover!

George Stover will always, to me, be the somewhat awkward but well-meaning Steven Price, a role he played in both THE ALIEN FACTOR and NIGHTBEAST. In fact, Steven was in every single one of Don Dohler's movies. Lucky guy. Above, he fights with the Zagatyle in THE ALIEN FACTOR. Happy birthday, George!



It's also Amanda Bounds' birthday today (seen above in the It Haunts segment of TWISTED FATES) and while she was never smashed to death under a fat lady's buttocks like George was in John Water's Desperate Living but to that I say: there's always the next movie....

Meanwhile I spent last night squeezed into an orange jumpsuit once more reprising my role as Frank the Astronaut in Tom Shaffer's Prehistorics. Tom recently got some new stop-motion animated dinosaur footage and wanted to get a few more shots to go with it. So there we were, on the top of a giant hill overlooking the valley at sunset and I had to pretend to see a T-Rex and hit the dirt. Magic...simply magic. Tom promises pictures soon...

Mike Hegg promises a DVD proof of his filmlooking work on DEADLY PREMONITIONS sometime next week. Can't wait to check it out!

Got a DVD of COLD AS SOUL this week from Laura Giglio. The Luc Bernier-written horror project features several scenes I shot locally with actress Toni Draggon.