Every February, we're inviting you to come along with us to bleed for Women in Horror. It's an incredibly good cause and something that many of us find off putting and terrifying. Time to face our fears and help out those who need us. Time to be fearless like the badass bitches we've come to love and idolize. For more information, please visit the official page for Women In Horror Month.
Great job to everyone who made their own Blood Drives PSAs, got a group together to donate, and hosted their own bloodletting. The only way to replenish our blood banks is through donors and it's really cool of everyone who went out to make a donation!
Every year, to celebrate Women In Horror month, we Twisted Twins encourage the world to donate blood. Why? Cuz you can't think horror without thinking blood, and what better way to celebrate than giving back in a way that honors the fearless horror heroines we all adore.
So, time to be brave and bleed.
Blood.
It's in you to give.
Cast:
Tristan Risk John Emmet Tracy Paul Anthony Sylvia Soska Jen Soska
Crew: Cliff Hokanson Randy Jablonka Todd Masters Amelia Smart Jason Ward Andrea Dulmage Ana-Cristina Byrne Jarret Read Joe Klymkiw Justin Drake Rod Matheson Chris Cullen Pete McBeth www.twistedtwinsproductions.net/ www.womeninhorrormonth.com/
The Soska sisters have created a gory fucking blasty blast of a film.
Film Deviant is a very wicked cool horror review site that we came to know by one of their sweet writers, Bryan Martinez. These folks love horror - there is a shit ton of reviews on their site for every horror flick you love and many independents that you might have never even heard of. Looking for a new site to get you gore load on? Well, Film Deviant just might be what the doctor ordered - you can check their glossary of horror flicks here and interviews here.
So, Bryan took DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK home to watch with a group of friends the other night. What was the verdict? Did our dead girl manage to handle a large group without disappointing? She is dead after all.
"The Soska Sisters (aka Twisted Twins...because, well, they're twins and they film twisted things) are a fresh breed of filmmakers. In the tradition of Jason Eisner and his Hobo With A Shotgun and Tom Six with his Human Centipede films, Dead Hooker In A Trunk is another great example of filmmaking with the sole intention of letting all the sick and twisted visions out of one's head.
Now, I mentioned the Human Centipede films and Hobo With A Shotgun because that's the kind of thing that Dead Hooker In A Trunk evokes. Films that don't really exist in the scope of a safe society...but, goddamn, they're so much fun to the rest of us. Aren't they? I remember watching Hobo With A Shotgun in a packed midnight theater and that proved to be my favorite movie-going experience of 2011. Well, I recently sat down with a small group of film lovers to watch my new copy of Dead Hooker.
I think that it's important to point out how much I love these kinds of films. I live for dead hookers in trunks and hobos with shotguns and 12-person human centipedes. That's the kind of stuff that flows through my blood. So, while I will rate this film on a technical scale, my final blood score might seem a little biased."
Fucking rights! Yay! You can read the whole lovely review here. Spread it around. Get your HOOKER on, heck, check the review, call in your buddies and make it a Canuxploitation night! Thank you to Bryan for watching our film and getting the word out.
The biggest, most large, stupid happy, thank you to everyone who has been supporting this film and making this release the success that it has been. You guys have been phenomenal in giving us the ability to continue making films like this.
There are women working in horror that are so talented it blows my mind. Tonjia Atomic is one of those women.
It is difficult to be master (or mistress if you prefer) of even one trade. Tonjia Atomic is a filmmaker, actress, musician, jeweler, and freelance writer. Yeah, seriously. And this grrl has some major artistic edge.
Her films include the horror shorts AWESOME OUIJA BOARD and COMPANION.
They're fucking rad. Here they are for your viewing pleasure.
AWESOME OUIJA BOARD...
COMPANION...
She has directed two features, DANCING IN ISOLATION and WALKING TO LINAS. DANCING IN ISOLATION tells the story of Ariel, a transgendered individual who meets Trevor and attempts to work out the inherent difficulties in dating a curious, yet traditionally straight male. It is completed and awaits release. I look very forward to this piece and to see Tonjia tackle a very difficult, but very real and very right now story.
If you perv her IMDB page (and you get bet your sweet bippy I have) you will be blown away by how much this woman in fact does. Director. Producer. Editor. Writer. Actress. Sound Department. Special Effects. Composer. Make up Department. Costume Department. Set Decorator. It takes a lot of strength to be able to wear so many hats on set and never neglect any of your duties. It is a shining example of this woman's strength.
Her writing has been featured in several online and print magazines. She's in the bands Duet To-It, Huh-Uh, and Filthy Issue.
She also plays Stasha in the web series The Prosaic Life of Stasha and Ada.
Tonjia is also a martial artist. Yeah, so add total ninja badass to her already ridiculous list of talents. She has spent several years training in Jeet Kune Do with Taky and Andy Kimura at the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute of Seattle.
"I started out making earrings from toys and miniatures. From there my jewelry-making passion and skills have grown to include resin and semi-precious materials in the form of necklaces, earrings, rings, brooches, bracelets, and hairpins. Through filmmaking I have met so many amazing women working in horror and I was inspired to make a Women in Horror line of jewelry named after them. The inspired pieces are dark and romantic or a fun nod to gore using dark colors and themes. Each piece is named after a filmmaker or woman who has been a proponent in the horror genre. This is a limited edition line that I will continue as long as I can. There are only so many of each piece and when they sell out they will no longer be offered. Visit my online store for handmade resin, toy, and semi-precious jewelry at www.hotchickphysics.com."
Her jewelry is nothing short of beautiful, creating unique pieces, many horror inspired. And special this year in celebration of Women In Horror month? A Women In Horror line of jewelry! That's right! Breath taking pieces with gore~geous detail inspired by some of your favorite Women In Horror. It was a great honor to have pieces made for us Twisted Twins (seen below).
Tonjia is so fucking cool that she even made a Blood Drive PSA this year to celebrate the Women In Horror Massive Blood Drive, a world wide event encouraging people to donate blood. Why? Because donating blood and saving live is awesome and so is Tonjia. Here it is~!
Thank you, Tonjia, for kicking so much ass it shouldn't be legal.
An independent film can only have as much weight as the support of the horror community that checks it out, tells a friend, writes a review, pimps it the fuck out. We have been incredibly fortunate with our first film, DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK, not only because it has been released, had a television premiere, is available on VOD and DVD, and travelled the world in film festivals, but also because it is still doing that. The word is getting out, people are taking the time to stand by this crass indie, and more people are hearing about the film and checking it out.
"Today we head away from your big budgeted hollywood stinkers and move to the true independent cinema. Today we take a look at the movie with a title you can't go wrong with 'Dead Hooker in a Trunk'."
Huge thank you to Special Mark for taking the time to check out the independents and getting the word out about ours. Very happy that you enjoyed the film, sir. And a very humble thank you to everyone who has been picking up the DVD, renting the flick, getting it on VOD and letting us know what you think.
It's beyond rad to hear from you all and looking very forward to introducing you to the new flick - AMERICAN MARY.
"When I was really young I’d take the black soot from around our fireplace and put it around my eyes. I can’t tell you why. It was an urge from within. I remember seeing punks for the first time at the end of the ’70s. It was the first time I’d seen coloured hair and Mohawks. I was compelled and intrigued. I would make eye contact with anyone who looked shocking and it would freak my parents out."
When I was a little girl, I saw POLTERGEIST. Sylv and I kept our cool until bedtime came along. Monsters in closets and under beds, evil clowns, alternate dimensions in TVs, secret Indian burial grounds... there was a lot to be scared shitless about. Our mom, being the very cool lady that she is, told us that there is a team of people behind the scares that designed everything from the story to the creatures. We couldn't believe that someone had actually MADE the monsters! How cool is that? Scaring people as a job? Wow. That's when our unbridled love for prosthetics and the artists behind them.
My mom was talking about people like Celine Godeau. Celine is one of the most talented and humble artists I've ever had the pleasure of meeting and working with. She's one of the insanely talented people that live in my fair city of Vancouver, but I didn't meet for years. So, what did I do in the mean time? What any sane individual would do. I cyber stalked her and drooled over her amazing work. Just give this ridiculously gifted girl's name a google or snoop her IMDB page and see that's she worked on WATCHMEN, X-MEN, FANTASTIC FOUR, FREDDY VS JASON, ELEKTRA, SLITHER, UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION, SMALLVILLE, RED RIDING HOOD, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE, SUCKER PUNCH, SNAKES ON A (mother fucking) PLANE, MAN OF STEEL, and our upcoming AMERICAN MARY. Celine is also an instructor for the very impressive make up school Blanche Macdonald. Oh, and she's won a Gemini.
"At Blanche Macdonald it was like a window opened. I was able to see the career options open to me that had never been discussed before. I realized that all my interests linked up and ma de perfect sense here, even my interest in medicine, archaeology, and true crime scenes."
FACE CHARTS by Marian Mina, facebook.com/marianm.mua & www.marianmina.com
FACE CHARTS by Marian Mina, facebook.com/marianm.mua & www.marianmina.com
A true innovator and mistress of her craft, Celine has even gone on to design her own line of film make up products named The Lab of Godeau.
"As a Vancouver based makeup artist sometimes we don’t have the option of purchasing things available in other established film areas. Out of necessity as much as passion I started creating products that were really useful. Everything from sealers to mouth stains that looked and tasted good. It’s all natural. When you work on a lot of different faces and different skin you have to be conscious of allergies and different requirements people have. Sometimes it’s personal choice – a lot of products contain animal products and some people don’t want any of that. When I started looking at what it took to formulate them I realized that there were options that involved no chemicals or animal products. I didn’t need to be a chemist to formulate them.
It took me back to my time growing up in the country and exploring nature – pulling flowers apart and seeing where the nectar comes from. Later on, I had this opportunity to reverse engineer products. I took products from the States that worked well but didn’t show the ingredients. I could break them down and recreate them."
My working experience with Celine can only be described as creative intercourse. From the moment she walked in I became a total fan girl and even admitted my online obsession with her and her work. She did make up, prosthetics, and even hand doubling on AMERICAN MARY with her precise and flawless work. I wish I could share some shots of her from set and her work, but I'm afraid our wicked lips must remain sealed at the moment. I can say that Celine absolutely puts her everything into her work. She is a true artist and even speaking with the woman is inspirational. She conducts herself and her work with true professionalism, class, and an obvious love for her work. < style="font-style: italic;">"As soon as I got into prosthetics and saw that it involved sculpting, life casting, mold-making and air-brushing my mind went crazy. I was instantly drawn to that direction. I realized that with a lot of wonderful character makeup, you wouldn’t even realize it was makeup. You don’t see the makeup, you see the character. It’s a paradigm shift realizing that with good makeup – you don’t even see it right away."
If I could ever have a career other than my own, it would certainly be make up and prosthetics. To be able to dream something up or have a nightmare and then be able to bring those creations to life is astounding. Maybe one day Celine will let me clean brushes for her. Until that fine day, I look forward to bringing new beasts and beauties to life with her and am so grateful to know her in more than an online stalker kind of way. Celine is truly an inspirational woman and if you're interested in make up and prosthetics, do yourself a favor and go study at Blanche Macdonald with one one the coolest women to ever lift a brush.
There are artists who absolutely blow me away with their ability. From the moment I met Jayne Mabbott of Enigma Arcana, we were floored. I have no ability to do anything with fabrics. It's nothing short of a miracle that I can do laundry. To see the breath taking works of art this woman is capable of creating leaves me in awe.
We met her through another ridiculously talented artist, production designer extraordinaire (and a fellow Hungarian so you know he's absolutely the best of the best) Tony Devenyi. As we hunted for the ultimate designer and wardrober for AMERICAN MARY we had the pleasure of meeting Jayne. Now the greatest sadness of this article is that I cannot show you the pieces she put together or designed for the film, but let me tell you not only are they beautiful, but they're dripping with stylistic cool.
Jayne hails from Wellington, Telford And Wrekin, United Kingdom. She has a killer sense of humor that rivals her incredible sense of style.
She's designed for the Red Carpet of the Emmy's...
She designed Chris Issak's INFAMOUSmirror suit...
See it in action right here...
Her creations vary vastly. There is nothing she can't design and breath life into. Her designs stretch from the seductive and provocative...
... to creations that evoke terror...
... erotic horror...
... pure class and sophistication...
... and embody the bizarre.
Jayne has even designed for Snoop Dogg (oh, snap).
She created the beautiful duds sported by BloodRayne. The outfit was simply gore~geous.
It was nothing short of a privilege to work with her on AMERICAN MARY and her designs are inspirational, breath taking, and bring a life to the people and characters that wear them. I simply cannot wait to share her AMERICAN MARY design with you all. She is truly an incredible woman in horror. Please check out her full collection of work here on Flickr.
The daughter of legendary actors Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis got her film debut in the 1978 horror film HALLOWEEN. She played the role of Laurie Strode. The film kicked some major box office ass and was considered the highest grossing independent film of its time, earning accolades as a classic horror film. Jamie Lee was subsequently cast in several horror films, garnering her the title, "scream queen".
"For me, I just show up and do what I do. And for me it has to be real -- anything I do, I don't care what it is. On "Halloween," I can remember, John Carpenter's first and only real direction to me was, 'I want people to believe this is a real person.' All I care about is trying to make anything real -- and then because I'm brave I'll try anything."
Her next film was the horror film, THE FOG, which was helmed by HALLOWEEN director John Carpenter. The film opened in February 1980 to mixed reviews but strong box office, further cementing Jamie Lee as a horror film starlet. Her next film, PROM NIGHT, was a low-budget Canadian slasher film released in July 1980. The film, for which she earned a Genie Award nomination for Best Performance by a Foreign Actress, was similar in style to HALLOWEEN, yet received negative reviews which marked it as a disposable entry in the then-popular "slasher film" genre. That year, she also starred in TERROR TRAIN, which opened in October and met with a negative reviews akin to PROM NIGHT. Jamie Lee had a similar function in both films - the main character whose friends are murdered, and is practically the only protagonist to survive. The final girl.
Famed film critic Roger Ebert, who had given negative reviews to all three of Curtis' 1980 films, said that Jamie Lee "is to the current horror film glut what Christopher Lee was to the last one-or Boris Karloff was in the 1930s". She later appeared in HALLOWEEN II, HALLOWEEN H20: 20 Years Later and HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION, as well as giving an uncredited voice role in HALLOWEEN III: Season of the Witch.
Here she is with fellow femme fatale and a woman I simply adore, Sigourney Weaver.
Jamie Lee has always been a fox, from the moment she first stepped out onto the scene to right now. She has been called "The Scream Queen" and "The Body". Her trademarks are her deep, sultry voice, her lovely legs, and her voluptuous body. In fact, her legs are insured for 2 million dollars. Here is a personal favorite exert from her performance in TRUE LIES where Jamie Lee is married to secret spy husband Arnold Schwarzenegger and unknowingly has to seduce him in a vain attempt of his to put a little excitement back into their marriage. Oh, Arnie.
"I believe people are entitled to a private life. I'm not sure where it's written that because you're in the public eye you are required to expose your private business, with anybody. It is nobody's business, and it's interesting because obviously in today's marketplace people don't abide by that. There are no boundaries that people won't cross...We're in a bit of a "Wild West" thing with media, and, I think, it's just kind of like no holds barred - the Internet. You know, there are no criteria on the Internet...I've chosen a public life to express myself, not to tell what I do with my husband in bed, not to do, to talk about my parents and my family life. And I just think it's wrong, and obviously it's an insatiable appetite that people have for gossip and innuendo and things that are nobody's business. And there's a term that they use in this called "legitimate public concern." What is legitimate public concern? If an elected official has an illness, that's legitimate public concern because they're our president or elected official. We, we, we need to know that they're healthy because we want them to live a long life and protect, you know, the Constitution...but in the marketplace, in the world, I don't believe it's anybody's concern. And that's what I think."
It's not easy growing up in the public eye and when your parents are super stars, it's even more difficult. Especially when things in your life aren't "happily ever after". Jamie Lee and her father, Tony Curtis, didn't have a relationship. Having to grow up not having him there for her at all in front of the world was difficult and emotionally upsetting to say the least. Jamie Lee handled the situation with great maturity and honesty.
"He was not a father; he was not interested in being a father - and this is not a slam against him - he did what he had to do from a financial standpoint, which was honorable of him to do, but he wasn't an involved father. Therefore, I look at him much more from the perspective of being a fan of him. I was more of a fan of his work, of his spirit, of his joie de vivre (joy of living)... My mother was never a diva, my father was bigger than life, who lived in Vegas! There was no bond, not at all. Except for the fact that I inherited genetically a part of him."
Jamie Lee is also an accomplished writer. She has written books, mostly for children. She has written "I'm Gonna Like Me: Letting Off a Little Self-Esteem", "It's Hard to Be Five: Learning How to Work My Control Panel", "Is There Really a Human Race?", and "Big Words For Little People".
She is a strong believer in charity work. Jamie Lee feels that it's her duty given the power she has by her celebrity status. She takes time to support various philanthropic groups. Curtis was Guest of Honor at the 11th annual Gala and Fundraiser in 2003 for Women in Recovery, Inc., a Venice, California-based non-profit organization offering a live-in, twelve-step program of rehabilitation for women in need. Past honorees of this organization include Sir Anthony Hopkins and Angela Lansbury. Jamie Lee is also involved in the work of the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation, serving as the annual host for the organization's "Dream Halloween" event in Los Angeles, launched every year in October. "I'm not sure what fame is for if it isn't to focus on charitable work."
"At the premiere of King Kong I wasn't too impressed. I thought there was too much screaming . . . I didn't realize then that King Kong and I were going to be together for the rest of our lives, and longer . . ."
The Queen of Scream.
The Queen of the Bs.
She drove a car into her nineties.
Saved RKO from bankruptcy with the movie King Kong.
Described Kong as her "little man".
She is regarded as Hollywood's first "scream queen".
And a fellow Canadian? Yup, this girl's got it all.
The legend was born Vina Fay Wray near Cardston, Alberta, Canada, on September 15, 1907. She came from a large family that included five siblings. She moved to Arizona when she was still small in order for her father to find better work than what was offered in Alberta. After moving again to California, her parents divorced, which put the rest of the family in hard times. Being in entertainment-rich Los Angeles, there was ample opportunity to take advantage of the chances that might come her way in the entertainment industry. At the age of 16, Fay played her first role in a motion picture, albeit a small one. GASOLINE LOVE.
Fay Wray first graced the silver screen during the silent movie era, but it was the talkies that truly made her famous.
"Those horror pictures were the parts I was being offered at the time, and the scream came into play in almost all of them. People today call them classics; that amuses me a little, because I had so many reservations about them when I made them. I thought they were much too gruesome."
As the gorgeous blond whose feminine wiles captured the heart of a massive gorilla, Fay belted out screams earning her a place in horror movie history as the very first Scream Queen. Fay was a natural brunette and sported a blond wig for the role.
And although she spent most of the film as a helpless victim, more apt to use her vocal cords than her wits or physical strength, she braved the open sea unsure of her destination, for a chance to be famous –and that takes guts. At the time, she had no idea that the role would be her most famous of all time.
Up against an ape that could scale the empire state building, Fay only screamed until help arrived, but she paved the way for future leading ladies and luckily women have since gone on to kick ass in horror movies giving the moniker of Scream Queen a more modern, updated definition.
KING KONG was the only big horror movie Fay was ever in though she did star in a few lesser known early entries into the genre, including DOCTOR X, THE VAMPIRE BAT, MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM, and THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME.
"I was known as the queen of the Bs. If only I'd been a little more selective."
Fay’s career never again reached the heights she attained while on top of the Empire State Building with Kong, but she will always be remembered for her contributions to horror movie history.
"Every time I'm in New York I say a little prayer when passing the Empire State Building. A good friend of mine died up there." Fay passed away at 96 in 2004, on August 8th.
On August 10, 2004, two days after her death, the lights on the Empire State Building in New York City (scene of the climax from her most popular film, "King Kong") were dimmed for 15 minutes in her memory.
