Interview: Viscera Film Fest's Heidi Martinuzzi and Shannon Lark

Women in Horror month has officially wrapped for 2011, and although I like to think that everyone will keep celebrating the lovely women who contribute to the genre all throughout the year (regardless of it being February or not), I'd like to thank the fabulous females behind The Viscera Film Festival (an independent film festival held in Los Angeles every year that specifically focuses on horror shorts made by women) Shannon Lark and Heidi Martinuzzi.As a follow up to my Women in Horror month feature that I posted earlier in February, here are full interviews with Lark and Martinuzzi.

Interview: Jen and Syl Soska

James DePaolo sits down with the talented creators of Dead Hooker in a Trunk and the upcoming American Mary, Jen and Syl Soska.

Interview: Jovanka Vuckovic in Honour of Women in Horror Month

In honour of Women in Horror Month, one of the most respected women in the worlds of horror and fanzines took some time to answer a few questions for CHC. Boys & ghouls...Miss Jovanka Vuckovic. Writer, filmmaker, madam of the macabre and former editor-in-chief of Canada's number one source of horror culture news.

Lacey Paige: Who are you and what role do you play in the horror biz?

Juvonka Vuckovic: My name is Jovanka Vuckovic and I am a published author, director and editor. I edited Rue Morgue Magazine for six and a half years and have recently moved on to filmmaking. My first short film, The Captured Bird, goes into production this spring. My book, Zombies! An Illustrated History of the Undead, comes out next week from St. Martin’s Press.

LP: What drew you into the genre and at what age to you remember it first having an impact on you?

JV: I always attribute my exposure to horror as a result of my chronic childhood insomnia. My parents used to let me stay up late watching television because I would eventually fall asleep on the couch. It was during those late and lonely nights that I became aquainted with Vincent Price in the Roger Corman Poe adaptations – not to mention the Canadian children’s show he appeared in – The Hilarious House of Frightenstein. Canadian broadcasters weren’t censoring anything after 11pm so it wasn’t long before my little eyes were traumatized by all kinds of horror films including The Exorcist, which I saw for the first time when I was only 8 years old. It left a permanent wrinkle in my psyche and certainly didn’t help my sleep problems. But, like a junkie, I was hooked before I even knew it and I’ve been an addict ever since.

Interview: Roxy Vandiver, Nurse Hatchet and Marie Lynn

James DePaolo sits down and chats with three lovely ladies of horror :Roxy Vandiver ( Spirit Camp, Killer School Girls from Outer Space and Sweatshop)
Marie Lynn (Burlesque Massacre I and the upcoming part II) and
Nurse Hatchet(The Chainsaw Sally Show).

Marie-Thanks again James! You are the best!!!!! :D


Roxy-First of all, always a pleasure chatting with you James. Can't wait to see what kind of whacky fun questions you have in store for me!

Nurse-ok James here we go.... ;-D

Interview: Chainsaw Sally in Honour of Women in Horror Month

In honour of Women in Horror month, I took it upon myself to interview some of the most important women currently working in the business. April Monique Burril plays one of the feistiest and foxiest villainous' in modern horror. Conservative sexy librarian by day, scantily clad chainsaw-wielding freak by night...It's CHAINSAW SALLY!

Lacey Paige: Who are you and what role do you play in the horror biz?

April Burril: My name is April Monique Burril. I am primarily an actress, sometimes a prop mistress, sometimes a set dresser. Like many in the world of micro-budget filmmaking, I pitch in and help wherever is needed at the time. I guess if I'm "known" for anything right now, it would be for the character I portray more than any other—Chainsaw Sally.

Find April Burril on Amazon.com

Celebrating Females of Fright in February

It may have started when writer/producer Debra Hill joined forces with John Carpenter to pen what has, over 30 years, become one of the most recognized and appreciated horror films of all time—one that paved the bloody path for a generation of pseudo-copies—Halloween. Or maybe it was Jamie Lee Curtis’ break-out role as the mousy heroine, Laurie Strode. At some juncture on the road of horror pop-culture—one that for decades men were only thought to have trodden—women began to rise above the bare-breasted, axe-wound victim that they had always been portrayed as in cinematic tales of the macabre.

But the up-rise of women in the horror genre actually happened years before Halloween was released. In 1954, a very scary lady dressed in all black began broadcasting live, haunting airwaves throughout the Los Angeles area—her name, was Vampira. Based on the personalities of silent film actresses Gloria Swanson and Theda Bara, as well as the evil Queen from Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, with an image that was inspired by the drawings that Charles Addams had done during his employment with The New Yorker, the show was cancelled after a brief two-year run on television, and Vampira later became the inspiration for Morticia Addams of The Addams Family

In 1981, a new horror hostess took over the airwaves. Since, she has become an iconic female figure of all things frightening—Elvira. The real woman under all that black is a singer-performer-actress Cassandra Peterson. She made her big break on to Hollywood screens as the beloved mistress of the macabre, and is still to this very day as popular as ever. She has since produced and starred in two Elvira movies, as well as taking roles in a variety of other films, and transforming the Elvira character into a wo