The History of Metal and Horror (2022) Movie Script

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Welcome to the history
of proctology.
What is the history
of metal and horror?
Let's find out.
Throughout this film,
we will examine the origins
of both heavy metal and horror,
and how the two ultimately
became intertwined.
Have you ever noticed
how fans of metal,
more often than not,
are also fans of horror,
and vice versa.
With the help of some friends,
we will dig deep
into these genres
and uncover their roots
and evolution.
In order to understand
how this all began,
let us step into the darkness
and explore
the history of horror.
All cultures value storytelling.
Storytelling is one of our,
our major impulses
as human beings.
There are also the dark side,
the tales,
the warnings
that we need to share,
the verboten,
"We must not go there."
Even in the pictographs,
as far back as we could go,
were horror stories.
As long as
there has been storytelling,
people have used monsters to
explain things they don't understand
and to express things they
don't know how to articulate.
If the Bible is a base text for
most of European civilization,
we've wanted the same kind of
mix of, like, horror and gore,
as well as morally
uplifting stuff ever since.
The dark side
of we, what we have,
that's an internal part of us,
started to externalize it.
And characters became
the dark side.
It all stems
from Greek classical tragedy,
and splits off
into Roman melodrama,
then up through
Medieval morality plays
into Elizabethan
revenge tragedy,
then into Edwardian times
where they write melodramas.
One of the ways in which you can
talk about very real things
or very controversial things
is to dress them up as monsters.
So, you get
to Frankenstein, 1818,
And in one sense,
it's a very literal story
about a guy
who stitches together
another being
out of corpse parts,
and runs a huge jolt of electricity
through him, and creates a monster.
The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde is published in 1886,
which is five years after the
Ripper murders had terrorized
not just London
but the whole world.
Jack the Ripper is the archetype
of all subsequent slashers.
Name me a slasher movie
that doesn't draw
on some aspect of,
of Jack the Ripper.
And, of course, Bram Stoker was the
theater impresario who put that on stage.
Bram Stoker'sDracula,
not the first vampire story
by any means.
You've had things
like Varney the Vampire,
which was part of a
penny-dreadful story that came out.
But Bram Stoker broke
really new ground,
uh, by using old tropes.
Film then was the natural place
to take over.
In silent films,
and then in talkies.
That structure
of how is the good guy
gonna defeat the externalization
of what the dark side in him
in a character
has been realized?
We can hate that person,
who is really ourselves
externalized.
That's the structure
of melodrama and horror.
So much of it to me is the art direction,
and that's what those films were.
You know, because for me, in
those films, that's what determines
what makes them classic
and what doesn't.
Well, of course, uh, my
great-grandfather being Lon Chaney Sr.
Was very well renowned
in the horror genre.
You can look at him,
and you see his influence
all over Hollywood
even to this day.
And he was the founding father
of the entire genre.
In early 1930s, you have the very famous
versions of Draculaand Frankenstein,
which set the look of the
monsters for generations to come.
The character Dracula described
by Bram Stoker in his book
was a, a horrific,
ugly kind of a being.
Whereas my father brought
his own interpretation.
He did his own makeup,
his mode of dress,
his form of speech, his eyes.
My dad's portrayal really
inspired a whole movement.
The Goth movement has got even
carried over into the music world
with, for example, Bauhaus.
It was, uh, you know,
a dark, sinister,
evil personification
that crossed both worlds
from the films to music.
And the same with Frankenstein
and Boris Karloff.
You have the square head,
you have the bolts in the neck,
the ragged coat that comes down
because his arms are clearly taken
from somebody with very long arms.
It was so different
from anything the audiences
had ever seen before.
It was startling.
Pushed so many envelopes.
It was mesmerizing
because, you know,
that film has
no music whatsoever.
Only in the beginning
and in the end.
And so when you really,
really think about it,
it's a very, like,
empty-sounding film, you know,
and I was intrigued by that.
It just sucked me in, and I,
I've just been in,
in this world ever since.
I like the scene where the
little girl gives him the flower,
and then he picks her up and
fucking hums her. I love that.
I like the moment that he
realizes that he's a fucking monster,
and that he's been reanimated
and forced to live.
That's how we feel,
forced to live.
And then, of course,
Chaney Jr. did The Wolf Man.
And so, it was this wonderful
chain of horror films
that captured the imagination
of film fans around the world.
When Gramps would talk
about The Wolf Man,
or roles that he would play, I
always thought they were so cool
because he was
such a wonderful storyteller.
People asked him,
"What was your favorite role?"
And of course,
I think The Wolf Man
has to come first
for me personally,
It was a role meant
for my grandfather to make.
My favorites by far, if anybody
knows me, it's the Universal Monsters.
That's my whole life.
Dracula, Frankenstein,
Invisible Man,
The Mummy, Creature, Wolf Man.
I love those series.
But I loved all the classic, uh,
Universal Monster movies that I saw.
I love the Creature
from the Black Lagoon.
Love the giant monster movies.
They're awesome.
Tarantula, that kind of thing.
I, at first, really didn't know
what to make of horror movies.
I was very frightened.
But in later years,
I've got to really enjoy
the '50s creature movies.
My favorite of that time
was probably Them!
You know, about giant ants.
So I first started
getting interested in horror
because I really was engaged
in those kind of creature movies
and those kind of Atomic Age
fear movies.
Are Japanese monster movies
considered horror films?
'Cause that's, that's, that's
where my heart, true heart lies.
It's like Godzilla
Vs. King Kongand stuff.
- Yeah.
- -Just all the, like, model type of scenes
and guys in lizard suits,
I love that stuff.
With the evolution
of teen culture in the 1950s,
you had, for the first time,
forms of entertainment
that were unique
to young people.
And I don't think it was for almost
20 years or a generation after that,
the people really realized
the amount of room they had
to spread out
and express themselves.
One of the things that also
develops in the 1950s in the UK
is the Hammer House of Horror.
Nobody has quite mastered
branding like Hammer did.
Like, if you see
Hammer House of Horror
on a movie,
you know what you're getting.
Curse Of Frankenstein,
and Teenage Frankenstein,
and I would watch them,
of course, covering my face,
but I had to see what
Frankenstein looked like, you know.
My introduction to horror
came through Hammer.
So that was my introduction,
really, to Dracula and Frankenstein,
and then kind of
worked backwards
discovering the, the classic Universal
movies, um, subsequent to that.
You can't really talk
about horror
without talking about
Hitchcock and Psycho.
It helps set the paradigm
for our subsequent obsession
with serial killers in film.
I always loved Hitchcock.
I thought that
his stuff was amazing
because, you know,
there was, uh, attention
to the, uh, just the whole
story line that, you know...
Like, the Bates Motel,
you know, it was a creepy hotel.
Dude's mom's dead, and, you know,
he cross-dresses and kills people.
That's really cool when you can
have a story that's that simple.
They did such a good job
in the early days of, mm,
you know, "Don't come if you
have a problem with your heart,"
and these great gimmicks
about that, you know,
"There will be a nurse
in attendance, and..."
Of course, that sucked us in.
You know,
we wanted to go see that.
They're coming
to get you, Barbara.
Towards the tail end of the '60s,
you have Night Of The Living Dead,
and it's a terrifying movie.
Not only because it introduces
a new type of monster,
but because it suggests
that we as human beings,
at some point,
we'll lose agency,
we'll lose sentience.
Jesus Christ. It's, like,
right in your face, like...
Which is not typical
of a black and white movie.
You just sort of, "Oh, it's black and
white. It's probably going to be slow.
I've heard it's great,
but we'll see."
And then it just explodes.
You know,
like, "Holy fuck." You know,
and it's just, it's on.
Zombies weren't very frightening
until we made
Night Of The Living Dead.
You've lost a loved one,
but now that loved one's out
to get you, actually devour you.
And if you get bitten by one,
you can turn into one.
In a way, it combines the
vampire myth and the zombie myth.
We saw a lot of horror stories,
like, during the,
the war in Nam.
It was a big time
for horror films,
and that all came out of that Nam
period and our return from Nam.
Blood and destruction on television
had become so commonplace
that it couldn't help
but make it into the films.
And I think
that had a profound effect
on why horror gets so gory
in the 1970s.
Because people have seen it
in the real world.
My two favorite movies are
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
I and II.
I just remember this scene
in Texas Chainsaw
when, when, uh,
what I believe is Kurt or
whatever is going into the house,
and he just whacks him
in the head as...
And he just falls. You see
his legs kicking. Hits him again.
And this, the slamming
of that door was just like,
"What the fuck was that?"
Leatherface and his situation
are kind of emblematic
of extreme elements in life,
and that may be part
of his appeal.
In a way, Chainsaw Massacre
is about the end of the world,
and I think that might be
part of Leatherface
and Chainsaw Massacre'sappeal
in heavy metal.
That it really is apocalyptic,
and Leatherface
is an apocalyptic character,
and I think there,
you begin to see an overlap
in the interests
of a lot of heavy metal music.
The Exorcist.
I was both kind of
terrified by it
and shocked by it,
and, and, uh, moved, uh,
disturbed, and compelled.
Totally wanted to see more.
Just the, the tone of it
and the denigration
of the priest by Regan
and all of that.
Just the way she looked, man.
It was just fucked up.
You know what I mean? And
her voice, it was just, it was scary.
I don't know.
I think it scared everybody.
My mom took me to see the
original Jaws when I was really young,
and it scarred me for life.
It traumatized me. I mean, I
was f... I was fucked because I...
Even in a pool, at that... and when I
was younger, I was, like, freaking out.
"It's like a fucking pool.
Like, what's gonna happen?"
But I don't know. It's just weird
the way it just did that to me.
Like, that first scene when she
goes out swimming in the night,
yeah, that never left me.
So that was a...
That's one fear
that I still have.
The first VHS tape
I ever had to have
was Dawn Of The Dead,
and I used to let it play
over and over all day long.
I must have watched it
thousands of times.
It was always on,
and I don't know why
that gave me such comfort,
just having Dawn Of The Dead
playing constantly, but it did.
Dawn Of The Deadwas, you know, like, one of
the big first splatter fest involving zombies.
I mean, now, I mean,
everything is zombies.
This is...
Now we're in the zombie decade.
Uh, a lot of it has to do with the
number one show on television,
Walking Dead,
with my protg, Greg Nicotero.
So that, obviously,
is an influence of my stuff.
Phantasm. The first one really
left an impression on me.
But the part
that scared me the most,
'cause I didn't, um, understand,
and when it was explained
to me, it, like, kind of hit home.
The ball goes
in the guy's forehead,
and it drills in,
and he falls down.
I mean, he's obviously dead.
But they show him that he pees.
And then I asked,
like, "Why is he peeing?"
He said, "Well, you release
your bowels after you die."
I was like, "Well, I'm gonna
shit my pants when, when I die."
That's terrifying. That scared
the bejesus out of me.
That was just more evidence
of actual death.
The Omen. The first, um...
Both of them were really good,
but I like the one with
Gregory Peck and Lee Remick.
I thought that the story
was really well written
and very, very scary
and very evil and creepy.
The Omen, that was the only one
that really made me
have some, uh, nightmares
as, uh, as far as
I can remember.
The, uh, connection
with horror and myself
really does start
with Halloween, you know,
in terms of any active interest
in the genre.
I don't think they had any idea
how big Myers himself would be.
That character
has become pretty big.
It's a hell of a franchise, and
I'm proud to be a part of it.
Michael Myers, uh,
became a famous creature
because he wore a mask, and
because he was completely evil.
He's really a simple character.
He doesn't have
much of a backstory
to land the movies that I did.
He is just a force of evil
out to get you.
The idea of an expressionless,
blank, uh, human being
is really pretty devastating.
It is almost like,
"What is he thinking?
What's going on
in that strange person's brain
that we can't decipher,
'cause we can't look inside."
Alien, when it came out,
you didn't see
much of the monster.
But it was all
the build up to it.
And then landing on that planet,
and then the Facehugger,
that, that scared
the shit out of me.
The movie
that affected me the most,
that I actually jumped out
of my chair was Salem's Lot.
And I'm watching it, and they
keep talking about Mr. Barlow.
Three quarters through the
movie, you don't see Mr. Barlow,
and then all of a sudden,
the entire scream is Barlow.
And it's the most evil-looking
vampire of all time.
The '80s has to be possibly
the greatest era of horror,
because you have a lot of great
minds working within the genre.
You have amazing advances in special
effects, which mean that you could...
Literally, something like
The Thing, which is '82,
shows stuff that people
had never even imagined.
Rob Bottin's effects were just
so ahead of their time,
and still to this day, probably
the best practical makeup
ever done in a movie.
One scene I remember
from my childhood was
um, in The Thing, the thing
is eating, um, the dogs,
and to me, I, I saw that,
and it was so horrifying
as a child to see
that kind of, you know, carnage.
The Shining, man.
My God, that film
is a lesson in isolation
and how maddening
your, your, your mind can go
when you're just completely cut
off from outside stimuli, you know,
and you're left
to your own devices
in this fucking monstrous,
basically just a fucking castle,
you know.
Anyone would go fucking mad.
When they first realize,
you know, that he's losing...
You first see it in the film.
You know, he's, he's going,
his mind is gone.
You know, and it's like
he's sitting there.
- And then she starts thumbing...
- That's too much like real life.
Thumbing through the shit,
you know.
"All work and no play," like, you
know, the big stack, and you're like,
"Oh, it's on now, man,"
you know.
'Cause that is... it has to be
one of the greatest movies
ever made from every aspect.
You know, the actors,
and the casting,
and the photo and everything.
- Yeah.
- But still I meet people,
when people don't dig it,
I find it hard to trust them.
Yeah.
The Shininghas
this cult following,
which is great.
I feel fortunate
to have been in it.
And, uh, I guess,
my guess would be that
it was probably playing on cable
when all those guys were kids.
And so, they were probably
frightened by it like many other people.
The third Omenmovie,
when he's in the, in the room
with the statue of Jesus.
"Show man instead the raptures
of Thy kingdom." Oh, it's so...
Ooh, when he puts his hands
on the thing, and it bleeds,
and they make the, the blood, you
know, symbolize Jesus crying, whatever.
Oh, I would have just let him
wi... the anti-Christ win.
Halloween III,
Season Of The Witch.
And people
either love it or hate it
because it doesn't have
Michael Myers.
But that didn't bother me at all
when I was a kid,
I was so young,
I wasn't kind of expecting
to see Michael Myers.
And I look at it
as a separate movie.
As a movie, a standalone movie.
Halloween Illis incredible.
And I always liked it
as a standalone movie.
Not because I was the assassin
ripping people's heads off
mind you, but, anyway...
Evil Dead Part I, Sam Raimi.
Atmosphere,
attitude,
gore, soundtrack,
hands down, got to be...
the The Black Rainbow of horror.
To me, the real,
the real classics,
the ones that came out,
like that Basket Case,
my friends and I still talk
about Belial to this day.
And when it was cool, then you
could show the girls to get them scared.
And then plus, still, you went
through the classics, you know,
all the Friday the 13th
and that sort of thing.
People wanted to see
violence and blood,
and the people that were bad,
that were having premarital sex,
and drinking,
and smoking pot or whatever die.
As soon as they say, "Jason,"
everybody knows the hockey mask.
I don't think that was expected, uh, when
part one came out, part two, part three,
but when the first person, which was
Richard, that donned the hockey mask,
I think it was just one
of those things that took off.
This is a character
that had six movies
uh, before I ever got involved,
and so everybody knew the
character's name around the world.
It was almost like
each successive movie
had to do honor
to the previous ones
by coming up with inventive,
crazy, over-the-top kills.
People are still looking back
saying, "Well, that's Leatherface.
That's Jason, Michael Myers,
and Freddie, of course."
One of my favorite movies is the
Nightmare On Elm Street, the first one.
I still get scared of that fucking
movie. It's, that was so awesome.
The first one was actually
the most interesting for me.
Just the dynamics of the film,
of this whole town
keeping a secret, this guilt.
That kind of was like a
representation of humanity, uh,
keeping secrets and not letting
certain things out.
I think there's a big reputation
of that and how it can come back
to have these repercussions
on, on them.
You're a vampire, Michael.
My own brother.
A goddamn shit-sucking vampire.
Lost Boysis one of my
all-time favorites movies ever.
And the connection
between rock and roll,
long-haired dudes,
leather dudes,
hot chicks, great music,
and killing people
because you have to
'cause you're a vampire
in beautiful California.
That was, like, one of the first ones
that really made it cool and young,
uh, with, with the,
with vampires.
I'm really fond of a movie
called Prince Of Darkness.
This is, like, tremendous.
That ending has to be
one of my most
favorite endings in the world.
I recommend that movie highly.
It scared me, and I thought
about it for a while.
John Carpenter and I
were good friends.
And I said, "I wanna come down
and watch you do some of the filming."
And he says, "Okay, yeah,
just come on down."
I put Alice
in Prince Of Darkness
basically because he showed up.
I said, "Oh, here. Get in here."
He says, "You know that thing
you do with the mic stand,
where you stick it through the guy on
stage and it comes out the other end?
"Could we do that with a bicycle
through this guy?"
And I went, "Sure."
Next thing I know,
now, I'm in the movie.
It was a lot of fun to work
with him. He's a great guy.
Hellraiseris another
massive great film,
and I remember watching that
for the first time
and being totally blown away
with it.
And it had this kind
of pornography to it.
Especially the second one
as well. They took it
a little stage further
in the second one.
And I think it was,
uh, sort of S-M, bondage,
demonic, dark fantasy, I guess.
There is nothing like it,
I don't think, anywhere else
in horror movies.
It's human. It's not human.
And then there's
this little matter
of having a whole bunch of nails
banged into your head,
which sounds like,
sounds like a crazy idea.
Pet Sematary. Big film.
I remember very, very clearly
when, you know, it sort of came out
and, and how it was spoken about
amongst the, the friends that I had
that were allowed to sort of watch.
I mean, we were eight years old
at that point,
So it was like,
"Have you seen Pet Sematary?
"It's like the, the most
frightening film ever."
That scene in Pet Sematary
with the, the sister
who's got spinal meningitis,
that's a real thing.
And you watch that and, you know,
you get, like, goose... I get goosebumps
even thinking about it, 'cause
that's this classic scene of that movie.
Terrifying, you know.
Stephen King is a Ramones fan,
and, uh, we did the video,
"Pet Sematary,"
where me, Joey,
and the rest of the band
are, uh, going down
into the grave.
Dee Dee decided
to write the song,
and then it ended up
in the movies.
So did
"Sheena Is a Punk Rocker."
In the truck
while the guy's driving,
and then the baby comes out
on the highway and...
No!
Once White Zombie got... started
going, it was starting to get from records,
and there was money to be had,
I started directing
the music videos,
and I, "Okay, okay.
This will be my sort of in."
So, when the opportunity
came up to make a film,
which was House Of 1000 Corpses,
it was like...
That's why that movie,
of all my movies,
has the most elements
of, like, music video.
He had this little movie called
House Of 1000 Corpses
that had been green-lit
by Universal Studios.
And he asked me if I wanted to
play, uh, this character, Otis Driftwood.
And I said, "Yeah."
And then, of course,
that then, you know,
got refined and amplified
in Devil's Rejects.
Devil's Rejects,
still such a killer movie.
And so glad Sid Haig was
introduced to the world again
as Captain Spaulding character.
Maybe...
Probably the coolest character
to come out
and I really, like,
since the old guys.
I see how people
have been affected
by what it is that I do,
and it's, it's,
it's very flattering.
Captain Spaulding triggered
the rebellious nature of people
because he just, Spaulding
just does not give a shit, okay?
And that is kind of
the attitude that goes along
with metal and horror,
is like, "You know,
I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do.
If you don't like it,
tough shit, okay?"
I think what makes
effective horror is that
it registers the anxiety of the
humans that are watching them.
That's what horror does best.
It makes meaning in the same way
melodrama and great opera
makes meaning.
It thrives on humans' anxiety.
Horror films,
politically, philosophically,
emotionally,
psychologically, spiritually,
depending on the film
and the person,
there is a horror film
that has affected them
and never, ever
left their psyche.
And no other field does that.
And there you have a little
history of the art of horror.
We've heard
from many heavy metal artists
as they shared with us
their favorite horror films.
Let's take a step back
and find out
when their obsession
with the genre first began.
On Saturday, you and your
buddies would go to the east town,
and Mom would drop you off
in the morning,
and it would be
It Came From Outer Space
and The Brain That Wouldn't Die.
And that was
the rite of passage.
That's how you, that,
we grew up on those movies.
The first, uh, monster movie
that I saw was
7th Voyage Of Sinbad,
uh, with the cyclops.
Every time I'd wake up, I think
he'd be, uh, out my window
ready to just, you know,
put his head through it.
It was movies like that
that really, uh,
left an impression in, in me
as a young boy.
When you are a 10-year-old,
you have an 11-year-old friend
who has a 12-year-old friend that
has a 13-year-old, so, so on and so on,
from that 18-year-old that had
Cannibal Holocaust, you know, so...
The first... Uh, no, I didn't see
that. I didn't want to,
but you know
the, the whole principle.
I got introduced
to weird shit too early.
They used to have big, giant, like, kind
of coffee table books about horror movies,
and I, I would always ask for
those for Christmas, you know.
And I subscribed to Famous
Monstersmagazine, Forrest Ackerman.
Before I knew anything else, I was always
really, really, really into horror movies.
I think as a kid, we all get
excited about Halloween
and, and the different types
of monsters
and watching cartoons and stuff.
We kind of graduated
into stuff like, you know,
watching Dracula,
the Wolf Man, Frankenstein,
The Mummy,
the Creature Of Black Lagoon.
You know,
all these classic flicks.
Strangely enough, when I was in,
like, second grade or something,
they brought in a,
the big reels and showed us
Phantom Of The Opera, the silent
version, which seems like an odd thing.
It was very exciting,
but it seemed like,
seems like an odd movie
for a bunch of second graders.
My dad used to call it
the Super Saturday,
and I was like, "Well, how many
days of Super Saturday?"
He's like, "Two more days,"
and I'm like, "Yes."
It was just all this, just
almost like overload of cartoons
and the Groovie Goolies were
on. I was obsessed with that show.
It didn't seem that different to me, the
Bugs Bunny or the Frankenstein. Like,
it really was a natural
kind of thing, you know.
So, uh, that's really was
the monsters in Addams Family.
Like, that's really kind
of where, where it started.
I was raised
in foster homes as a kid.
There was a little TV
in the living room,
and on Saturday nights,
there was this show,
and the show was called
Jeepers Creepers.
And it showed all these,
the really bad, you know,
Plan 9 From Outer Space,
you know.
It's a good way
to dump the foster kids.
We just watched
monster movies all day.
I remember from a very early age
watching Chiller Theatre
and Creature Features,
which were, like, on Channel 5
and/or Channel 11
on Saturday mornings.
So, of course, like most kids, I
was watching cartoons on Saturdays,
but I was also watching
horror movies,
uh, because my mom did.
My mom loved horror movies
since she was little.
Uh, when I was small,
I mean, probably four or five,
I was, uh, we would
watch Creature Features
and, um, Chiller Theatre
with the fucking, the hand.
I think it had six fingers.
We always tried to count it.
Sometimes even The 4:30 Movie.
Remember that?
Then they would have,
like, Dracula
on The 4:30 Movie,
or Frankenstein.
We build
all those Aurora models.
Like crazy. I must have built
five of each of them, you know.
That's... just loved that shit.
They had this TV show
called Ghost Host Theatre.
I believe it came on somewhere
10:00-ish to, like, 4:00-ish,
and it would play, like,
two to three horror movies.
I remember a few times they
played, like, Godzilla, you know,
then The Blob,
and we used to just watch them.
And that made me
wanna watch more movies.
They had this thing called
the Sunday Morning Movie,
that mixed with Twilight Zone
mixed with Outer Limits
mixed with Night Gallery.
That was a lot of ammo
to throw at a child,
and, and, uh, uh,
I, I adored it, I loved it.
I know that it must have been
when I was around three,
because I remember
it was our in our old apartment.
I know that we saw Funhouse.
I was so afraid.
I mean, there's this,
like, robotic clown
that comes through a tunnel
with, like, a corpse.
That, that's, that is still,
like, stuck with me forever.
I, I think I took chances in
horror when I was really young.
I started watching
Faces Of Death,
and the reality ones
that you see
people getting chopped up,
shit like that.
I don't know how the fuck I got a
hold of them, but it kind of warped me.
But that's what
I liked watching.
My dad took us
to see Poltergeist.
I was, like, maybe six or
something when that movie came out,
and, uh, he took us to see it
'cause we just asked him to.
And he was like, "Okay."
He wasn't like,
"This is inappropriate
for a six-year-old at all."
I would stay up late
in my, um, in my bedroom,
and I had a tiny black and white
television, you know,
that you had to, that I'd get the
reception and to stay up late and watch.
They would show trailers
for Friday The 13th I and II.
And the fact that it was,
the TV was in black and white,
and, and, and gritty and grainy
just made it even more scary.
To me, this was actually more,
it seemed more of a documentary,
'cause I didn't know
that movies didn't happen.
You know, I just figured
people had cameras,
and they just happened
to be around
when all this bad stuff
was happening.
There were these orange books,
and they were the monster books,
like, you know,
Frankenstein, Dracula,
Invisible man,
uh, Wolf Man, King Kong,
and, and it was made by
this company called Crestwood.
And I loved these books. I would
check them out every single day.
Check them out
every day, every day.
And I, I just worshipped
these books.
So my mom got me the whole set.
And, um, that's what really got
me into it at such a young age.
I was around, uh, eight years
old, and I saw, um,
one of the first Draculafilms
in a walk-in theater.
We went shopping
with my mom or something.
She dropped us off
at the theater.
We walked in there,
and Christopher Lee comes
rising out of the carpet,
and we went, "Aah!"
It just was, just, just that opening
scene where I was, like, horrified.
It must have been
about 1981 or 1982.
We went to my Aunt Donna's house
to watch American Werewolf In London.
My dad was like, "You're gonna
love this movie. I read about it.
It's supposed to be
this cool werewolf movie."
And, of course,
the transformation scene
just blew my mind.
It was the greatest thing ever.
The recurring dream sequences
were, were literally truly terrifying.
Especially with the Nazi werewolves
that burst into the living room
and, like, you know, just totally
gunned down the entire family.
Really, really freaked me out.
You know, that's what began
my love affair with horror was that.
I think that was the defining
moment. It was like riding, you know,
a dangerous switchback railway.
It was like,
"Wow, I wanna go again."
Started watching Dark Shadows
when I was probably about three.
It was a serial,
like a soap opera,
like General Hospital.
It ran from '66 to '71,
and it was about a vampire
named Barnabas Collins.
So I started watching horror,
and my mother watched it,
and so probably, yeah,
about three or four years old.
I was probably about, uh,
I'm gonna say five or six,
and my mom took me
to see Buck Rogers.
Like, you know the movie with,
uh, with Gil Gerard, right?
Like the,
the disco sci-fi flick.
My mom was like, "Well,
you know, he liked Star Wars.
Maybe he'll like this,
you know."
The trailer
for the original Halloween
was attached to the movie,
and I was so transfixed.
That was it for me.
Whether it is literature,
painting, or film,
there is always
a dark side to art.
Let us take a look
at the darker side of music.
Let us explore
the history of metal.
Music, right? I mean,
music was around forever.
But the origins of metal
are from the blues.
Robert Johnson could get
credited for inventing rock and roll.
When you see
in the '60s and '70s,
the emergence of progressive
rock and heavy metal.
Things were louder,
things were more dangerous.
Metal is under
the rock umbrella,
but metal, metal, metal started
with Black Sabbath.
Black Sabbath
when they first started
was a band called Earth,
and they were a blues band,
and they kind of took that,
even Led Zeppelin as well,
they kind of took those themes
and that style of music,
and put it into this different
kind of musical genre.
The song "Black Sabbath,"
the album Black Sabbath.
There was stuff that was
heavy music before that,
but to me, that's the official
birth of heavy metal.
They fused horror
and, and heavy music together.
You know, Black Sabbath
was a Boris Karloff film, right?
You know, that's where they got
the name, from the film,
and they combined it with heavy music,
and that's how heavy metal was born.
Black Sabbathwas playing
in a movie theater.
There was a line
around the block,
and they were all looking like,
"People wanna be scared.
Look at that line."
Let's change it. And they got
the name from the movie.
You know, that's when they made
a turn from Earth to Black Sabbath.
Anybody who says that
Black Sabbath didn't fucking
invent heavy metal
is a fucking idiot.
You shut your mouth, dick bags.
I'll give credit where credit is
due to bands who have helped,
but Black Sabbath
set the template.
After Black Sabbath, I mean,
there was bands
like Judas Priest.
You know,
little later, Iron Maiden.
I mean, these bands took
what Sabbath started doing
and made it faster.
I mean, you can say
metal to somebody,
and it could mean anything
from Poison and Bon Jovi
to Carcass to Slayer
to Metallica to Guns N' Roses.
You had the birth of thrash.
You had the influence, I think,
of punk and hardcore
on it as well.
That sort of meshed in
a little bit.
And now you have probably
20 sub-genres of it,
that it means something different
to so many different people.
So, I think it's just,
it's just had
so many bastard children
along the way.
Isn't history fascinating?
Now that you've learned a
little history of metal and horror,
let us see how horror
influenced the musicians.
Let the convergence begin.
In the '50s and early '60,
there were actually, uh,
there were all kind of, like,
minor hits, like novelty rock things,
but they were actually
quite a bit of them.
Started then. It's where
the horror rock started.
I guess the first one
that really got me was
was Screamin' Jay Hawkins, who
had wrote "I Put A Spell On You."
Bryan Ferry's done it.
Marilyn Manson's done it.
It will be done
a hundred more times.
Screaming Lord Sutch,
I knew him as the guy
who appeared in photographs
with the toilet seat around his neck.
I met him on the top
of a double-decker bus,
and he impressed me
as a very intelligent man
who knew exactly
how to market himself.
I guess, as a music fan,
a lot of the time,
you kind of proceed in, in
"What the fuck" moments when
something new suddenly comes along,
and I have
a very fixed memory of that.
Watching Top Of The Pops
and on comes this
creature with his head on fire,
and I was absolutely mesmerized,
and that was The Crazy World
Of Arthur Brown.
Although this shock that we were
actually putting out there
was to get beneath
the daily level of the mind
that every, you know,
that numbs everybody.
The education gives you that,
that, uh, daily existence demands
of what is there beneath that,
so that that was what,
what it was about.
So I made characters. One of the
characters was the God of Hellfire.
It was very shocking
at that time.
It isn't now.
We did some shows together.
It was kind of great.
He had one of the best voices
of anybody.
He had the greatest range.
You know,
he could sing way up here
and way down here
like an operatic voice.
So, I always really liked
Arthur Brown.
Arthur, Arthur Brown was,
was great.
Alice, yeah, you know,
I could see that.
And I could see that also,
he took it in his own direction
and made something great
out of it.
I think Alice can take you
to another place
because of all the creepy,
macabre kind of stuff.
He had everything that I wanted 'cause
I really wanted it to be horror influence.
There was a darkness
to the other bands,
and it's kind of
get the elements,
but the Alice Cooper stuff,
it's just, like, right there.
You know, "Ballad of Dwight
Fry," it's so right there.
Alice Cooper, you know, is
an iconic example of, of horror.
His stage show is
and always will be amazing.
It's a, you know,
a real-life horror show.
Where everybody was Peter Pan,
Alice needed to be Captain Hook.
You know, you had
so many rock heroes out there,
and I kept going,
"Where's the rock villains?"
There really aren't
any villains.
So a rock audience,
seeing a Broadway play,
fully blown up,
but it's a horror show.
And it's really well done
with lights,
and characters, and, and music.
It shocked everybody.
It was very shocking.
But he is a little bit
spooky on stage.
He's got that
monster thing going,
and it's macabre, and
the chopping up of the heads,
and hanging himself, and cutting
his own head off, and all that stuff.
I could see even way back
when in the '70s,
they started bringing in
these monsters with music.
I remember, like,
when I was six years old,
my dad... opened this magazine,
he's like,
"This is the fucking shit, man."
It was a, it was
a big picture of Kiss.
He showed me videos, and I was
like, "Oh, it's amazing."
When I first
got into Kiss in '75,
you know, I was already
into horror movies,
and I was well into comic books
and music, and I was into rock,
so Kiss was kind of,
like, the whole package.
Off the brown aisle
scoop the Kiss.
To me, that was the epitome
of horror, originality.
The beginnings.
I respect that
because they did it first.
My best friend in the business
is Rob Zombie.
Rob and I are good friends,
and he's a director now.
I mean, he directs horror. And he has
the same attitude towards horror that I do.
That it's comedy.
Well, just the way
Rob Zombie looks
and the way his band looks
and the way his stages
and these robots and these
things that he's doing.
He really, I think,
embodies everything
that it is to merge
metal and horror.
When I was in White Zombie,
I mean,
just the name itself was...
from a great Lugosi film, and
I thought the name is so classic.
It's like, "Oh, it's so obvious.
This is like Black Sabbath.
It's like White Zombie.
It's the perfect name for band."
Even before there was a band, I
was like, "If there's ever a band,
this is what I wanna call it."
I knew that forever.
And then once I was on my own,
and I could do whatever I wanted,
that's when like, "Oh, I'm
gonna have giant robots on stage.
I'm gonna have all kinds of creatures.
I'm gonna have giant screens."
Whatever I thought of
was what I did.
Lyrically, horror definitely
has had a big influence,
uh, on what I've done in
my life, that's, that's for sure.
The song "Among The Living,"
the title track of the album,
is about,
based off of The Stand.
And it's about Randall Flagg in,
um, the Stephen King character.
The song "Lone Justice,"
off of Spreading the Disease,
influenced by
The Dark Towerseries.
I wrote about things I knew,
and that was
King books and comics and,
uh, that was it.
We had a song, "I Don't Wanna
Go Down To The Basement,"
Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
So, we were influenced
by those movies,
to be able to write about them.
Lizzie Borden?
Who's this girl, you know?
What does she want,
you know? Even though
it was the O.J. Simpson trial
of that time,
a lot of kids never heard of it.
And now, of course,
they're doing movies and stuff
of the real Lizzie Borden.
I saw The Omen. And when
Thorn wipes the kid's cheek
with the fox blood, 'cause
he killed his first hound,
I just love that, you know.
And so, I brought that
into my show.
And I do that
all over the world,
and every kid wants blood
on their faces.
When we did
our "Sandpaper" video,
we thought we should do
a homage to Evil Dead.
You know, what if our band
was possessed by demons,
people who know Evil Dead
will go,
"That's a homage
to Evil Dead. We like this."
There was always that vibe too.
If it was cheaply done,
well done, made it even scarier.
Everything about what we do
is completely influenced
by horror movies or comics.
There's a character in Redneck
Zombies called the Tobacco Man,
and he wears a hood, and I think
you're supposed to think
that he's got, like, cancer
or something.
He's, like, rotting, and that was
where we got the idea for that.
Over the years,
I've got various requests
to work, um, with metal bands,
usually through my agent.
The only one of those that ever
came to fruition was Cradle of Filth.
Well, we did an album
called Midian,
which is based
on Clive Barker's book Cabal,
which then was obviously
the Nightbreedmovie.
So we thought that if we're
gonna have a narrative in it,
it would be good to have someone
from the Clyde Barker world of horror.
It was great
to have dug himself,
and, and we immediately, like,
affected his voice to sound like Pinhead...
So I did four albums
with Cradle.
I was suggesting that
they should change their name
to Doug Bradley
and Cradle of Filth.
When I discovered metal, I was
just a few years into my sort of
being very much into horror,
as soon as I discovered metal,
I totally embraced it and totally
understood how one embraced the other.
Everything we've done has
that vampiric element to it as well.
Not so much for Korn,
but I did, uh,
I had a alter ego J Devil
when I was doing DJing.
And I did a song
called "Lick Me,"
and it takes samples
from The Exorcist.
When the little girl was banging
herself. She's goes "Lick me!"
So, I mean, uh, shit like that,
using samples like that
and stuff like that
are really intense.
I used the music,
a lot of metal music,
for listening to
in between violent scenes.
It just helps my energy.
I used one song
in particular a lot,
and that was "Enter Sandman,"
my favorite
Metallica song still.
For years and years,
I've been a fan of Metallica.
I just think they're awesome.
And, uh, love their, uh, album,
uh, "Enter Sandman."
That one is unbelievable.
I've had my guitar, you know,
I clicked my guitar in,
you know,
and I noodle sometimes
when I'm watching movies.
Sometimes I find myself
kind of, like, playing
to the flow of the film,
and I kind of... trying to anticipate
what's gonna happen next.
I'll write a riff,
and I go, "Oh, goddamn.
That sounds like Godzilla
walking through Tokyo, you know?"
If you're writing heavy metal
and you have a riff
that sounds like Godzilla
is walking through Tokyo,
that's yum.
You're on the right track.
Wendy O. Williams, you know, who
we're named after,
the band is an ode to Wendy O.
You know, it's like
just blowing up the cars
and chainsawing things in half
and making it a real horror
show, um, and real shocking.
And I think that that, uh, obviously
has been a huge influence.
We were very influenced
by horror and a lot of the songs
that we wrote were about,
you know, serial killers
and real-life experiences
that would scare you.
And I think that horror
and the things that scare us are still
a running theme in all of our songs.
The fact that we do metal
of a darker and heavier sort
make us slightly close
to horror movie
and then maybe them
to Teletubbies, I don't know.
Sometimes we try
to scare people,
make people uncomfortable
in the stuff
we are trying to tell.
And lots of that imagery
comes from horror movie,
then obviously.
Well, Skinny Puppy
started as, uh,
an electronic band that didn't
wanna just stand up on stage
and do a little dance because
electronic music can be quite sterile.
So our weekends were composed of
taking a lot of hallucinogenics
and watching horror film,
after horror film, after horror film
until they actually
blended together.
Fulci really hit me hard
because there is
an abstract nature to his films
that I didn't understand, but in
the altered state that we were in,
it was incredibly effective of
inducing inspiration for stage effects.
I think if you grow up enough with listening
to horror themes and stuff like that,
within your music,
let you be writing
darker material.
It's gonna come out of you. It's
gonna come out of you, you know?
Uh, Necrophagia,
the stuff I wrote for them.
The Christ Inversion.
Bands like that,
I've always, you know...
Not to mention...
the name of the second band's
uh, record is
Vulgar Display of Power.
And I ripped that off...
from The Exorcist.
That's much too vulgar
display of power, Karras.
My band,
Charred Walls of the Damned,
we've made a couple of videos,
and they were both horror theme.
One was called "Ghost Town"
and one was called "Zerospan."
These music videos
offer a chance to make a,
you know, three or
four-minute short horror film.
When we did, um...
an album based
on Dante Alighieri's,
uh, The Divine Comedy.
It was about the story
of Dante traveling from,
you know, hell
through purgatory to paradise.
We had a video
"Convicted in Life,"
and it was using a lot
of imagery from that actual book
that translated
into this imagery.
That was really incredible
in what he was writing,
and he used that in the imagery
of the actual video.
I love all the dark side
of things, I actually have
another thrash band
with my sons, Hatriot.
And we did a song
about the Countess Bthory,
called "And Your Children
to Be Damned," and we were
completely drenched in blood
through the whole video.
And people didn't like it. But
I liked it because I was like,
"Well, I never got to be in a
horror movie, so I wanted to be
drenched in blood
and something."
So I made the director drench us
all in blood and it was cool.
So it's, it's,
it's always been a part of it.
I write... my stuff is usually
about that, that, that,
that darker side of things,
you know?
We had a band a long time ago
that existed for, like, a minute
called Haunted Garage.
The lead singer's name is
Dukey Flyswatter.
He ended up being in Jim Rose
Circus Sideshow thing for a while.
So they're still doing it
out there, and he's still, like,
he's done a bunch of acting, a
bunch of, like, low-grade horror movies
and stuff, so they're still out
there doing stuff. So it's funny.
They're kind of
on the same wavelength as GWAR,
but they were
a little more psychological.
It was like they would perform
autopsies on stage.
Like, I mean,
it was dark, dark shit.
But I can remember seeing that,
and just being
like, "Whoa!" You know?
"What the hell is this?"
We, like, dove right into the
whole concept that we were, like, uh,
a B horror movie on steroids,
Ghost is just like Papa.
The singer's got his face
painted up like a skull,
and he's dressed
like the priest.
That's awesome, you know,
that's like horror rock
or shock rock,
or what everyone call it.
We tend to go
retrospectively back
in order to recreate a lot of visual
elements that we just find pleasing.
As much as we were influenced
by horror films,
it was also a fascination
with, uh, musicals, actually.
Simple example is obviously
The Phantom of the Opera.
You don't know who's underneath,
and it could be
whatever you like.
Marilyn and I jousted in the
press when he first came out
because he was
the, uh, Priest in the satanic,
you know, Anton LaVey's thing,
all that whole thing.
And I'm Christian.
And, you know,
I, I kind of, uh,
our theology
didn't match up at all.
And then we toured together.
And had a great time.
I think the scariest thing
about Marilyn was the videos.
The girl that did the videos
was really good.
Really cemented
what Marilyn was about there.
I have been kissed
by Marilyn Manson.
You don't get over that
in a hurry.
I recently met Jeordie White,
who actually is
in the Marilyn Manson's group.
He was influenced
by the horror genre.
As was, I guess, Marilyn.
We're more...
interested in, like,
the chaos, and the shock,
and the sexuality,
and confusion,
which is always somewhere
between Texas Chainsaw Massacre
and the Pink Flamingos
and John Waters' movie.
You know, those are the movies
that we would watch to get inspired by.
I really loved the whole,
the dark, outrageous,
cool look, great songs.
So I was really, um,
into the band
before I got into the band,
and luckily, you know,
it just, everything just
came together.
I don't wanna look like
a regular dude.
And I, I love,
you know, the makeup, like Jack
Pierce would do, all the Universal stuff,
and I really, really was so
influenced by him and his genius.
And luckily, being with Zombie,
it's just exactly what I grew up
loving and wanting to be,
and it's like a monster
with a guitar.
Wednesday 13
is really good at it.
He's fantastic.
Nobody turns a pun like he does
when it comes to horror,
you know?
And his music is great.
He's passionate about it.
And I think that's one
of the things you have to be.
You have to be passionate
about it.
The first Murderdolls single
that we did, uh,
was a song called "Dead In
Hollywood," which originally was,
was on Frankenstein Drag Queens'
third album.
And it was originally called
"Hooray for Horrorwood,"
which I got from famous monsters
or creepy magazine
because there's a line
where it says,
"You can knock on Ed Wood,
but it won't do you no good.
Hey, Leatherface,
remove my face."
And we had a part in the video
where Joe's a woman.
And he rips the face off,
and he's screaming,
You know? So we did
a little homage to that.
As far as horror goes
with what Wednesday 13
is it's just like,
"I'm just getting started."
And I'm really
just getting started with it.
I have ideas and things that
I've never seen anybody do before
that I want to, to try.
Slayer, obviously
one of my favorite bands.
Extremely horror influence
throughout the year.
Many, many songs written
about horrible things,
serial killers.
And if a band could be
a horror movie, it would...
For me, it would be Slayer.
Jack the Ripper.
There's a lot of people
that have stories
based on that particular killer.
When you think about Iron Maiden Killers,
same thing. Eddie, with his hatchet.
There's, uh, several songs that
they have about that whole period,
roaming the streets, "Murders
In the Rue Morgue," stuff like that.
A band that's doing really
interesting work right now is Behemoth.
It's kind of half artsy
and half horror movie.
You know, they're working
with this company named
and they're just doing
an amazing graphic work.
And we talked to Nergal.
He's obviously a massive,
massive fan of horror stuff.
So they're kind of incorporating
with... the lyrics with these crazy images.
That imagery has
always been there, you know?
The, the demons and the, uh,
all of that shit, you know?
It kind of goes hand in hand.
Type O Negative,
'cause they're just rule.
I would say
they were horror influenced.
- Totally.
- Yeah.
Dudes like Frankenstein, man.
Another band that has been
influential in many ways,
um, that I also strongly, like,
connect with, with, you know,
horror metal is definitely
The Misfits.
It might not be
super apparent in our music,
but it, it's melodically
and attitude-wise, it's...
I've always been
very influenced by Misfits.
It was the best combination of
punk and horror that I'd ever heard.
I mean, it doesn't get
much better than "Vampira."
It doesn't get much better
than "Skulls."
It doesn't get much better
than "Horror Business."
"Psycho '78,"
unless you saw the movie,
how the hell are you gonna
put that together, you know?
That's the stuff
that I love, man.
- It's that, that wry little...
- you know?
When I first heard
the Misfits, I heard
the music first, I...
Pretty cool. But then when I saw
what they looked like,
I was like,
"Okay, I totally get it.
I totally get
where they are coming from."
I saw the album, you know,
their Mars, you know?
And the background
is a bat-rat-spider-crab
from Angry Red Planet.
I just thought
it was the most coolest thing,
'cause that's what
I wanted to do, you know?
It's just imagery. It's art.
It's, you know,
I can't write about puppies,
flowers, and rainbows.
Nobody's going to buy it.
And you want
that 15-year-old kid
to read the lyrics, and be like,
"Sick. These guys are fucked-up.
This is nuts." You know? And...
It's all just imagery, man.
It's, it's art.
I remember when I was
probably like 19 or 20,
my friend was telling me, "You
gotta go see this bang GWAR."
I just heard they dress up of these
costumes, and it's a crazy show.
And then, When they still had
the girl in the band,
she wound up giving birth
on stage to a baby,
and they put it
through the wood chipper.
I thought that was
the greatest thing ever.
- And then...
- Did you take a date?
Huh? No, I didn't have a date.
Yeah. No girl wanted
to go see that.
GWAR for somebody
who is so over the top
and so silly
that it just worked.
It's pretty obvious
that it has...
comic books, horror films,
bloodlust,
Dungeons and Dragons,
Soupy Sales.
The horror expression
on someone's face
when, when we murder them
and they're bleeding and dying,
and, and it's just
a really happy moment.
But horror is, uh, you know,
it's a great genre. We love it.
It's a great way
to make meaning, and we're lucky
to be a part of... I don't know
what the fuck I'm saying.
There's a band that I really
love called Cannibal Corpse,
and they do a lot of horror,
kind of, like,
lyrics about chopping up people
and all that kind of stuff.
Every one of their words
in their songs
are like mini horror stories.
Mini killing stories,
murder stories.
Real sick, twisted,
bloody, gory tales
told in three-minute
blast beats.
And with these lyrics that are
like, "Oh, my God, a comic book."
We'd look at our stuff
as just like...
um, brutal...
metal soundtrack over horror
stories, you know? Horror movies.
Some of them being graphic,
some of them being psychological,
and some of them, you know,
some of our songs are just
fucking Fulci.
You know what I mean?
Some of them are,
you know, dead alive.
Just, you know,
just blood and gore.
And some of them are
more psychological.
You know, where it's just,
you know, it's the, the, the f...
The horror and the fear,
certain things and,
and them happening.
King Diamond is probably very
underrated when it comes to that stuff,
But look at his albums,
his albums or movies.
And he will paint that all day.
King is probably
the heir apparent to Alice.
But I do believe that Alice
heavily influenced him.
Portal, hands down.
They to me, sound like
the chaotic, swaying...
off kilter world
that Lovecraft invented
and their lyrics are fucking...
genius.
I'm sorry. Hands down, Portal.
Death is one of the bands. All the
old Death songs and, and, and, um,
you know, "Scream Bloody Gore"
is reanimated, you know.
Um, and then they have the song "Evil
Dead," you know? So extremely gore.
Definitely you can see
throughout that whole album.
We're at Knotfest, idiot. Of course,
Slipknot stands out as a horror band.
They've been around for a long
fucking time paying their dues.
I mean, it's fucking good shit.
Yeah, they're badass musicians.
And they're fucking, their masks are
pretty sick. They're pretty scary, right?
I mean, they're not as scary
as us, but they're pretty scary.
I think Slipknot's probably the
best example of a modern-day band
that's kind of adapted
that Kiss imagery.
It also gives them
a uniform look, which I liked.
There was that thing about Kiss. I mean,
even though they had these garish costumes,
they were a gang.
You could see this.
I think,
because I was a horror fan,
and all the guys in the band
were horror fans,
we knew how to set that tone.
We knew how to set that mood
of foreboding, you know,
and just closing people in.
You know, the masks, there's
always been this byproduct
where people have always assumed
that we started wearing them
for shock value.
But it was always
so much more artistic than that.
It was about letting
that other person out,
which I think is very much in line
with why Michael Myers wore it.
He put it on
so he could let that beast out.
This music is coming
from a person inside me
that I may not be able to show
the world around me.
So I put this mask on.
And then all of a sudden, boom.
There he is.
Metal and horror work so well
together, don't they?
Don't they, Christopher?
Oh, yes, I can see you.
How are you doing this?
Let's just say
I'm not a prerecorded video.
I am a messenger.
Have a seat, so we may continue
your lesson.
You are the lone survivor
of the apocalypse, Christopher.
The last one to acquire the
knowledge that I have to share.
I'm the only survivor?
Yes.
You're the lone survivor
of an empty, desolate world.
The last remaining human...
to absorb this knowledge.
Hasn't there been enough horror
in the world?
This is hell.
We all need an escape
from time to time.
It's entertainment, Christopher.
Let us move forward.
We will now cover
a few segments,
starting with the use of
horror artwork on album covers.
And the creation
of horror film soundtracks.
Then, we will take a look
at the meeting grounds
for the fans of metal and horror
in the form of conventions.
Here we go.
What I liked was
the horror movie imagery
on the stage,
on the album covers.
I mean, Iron Maiden, still one
of my all-time favorite bands.
One of my
top three favorite bands,
with thebest marketing idea
ever. Of Eddie.
You see the imagery of Eddie,
you know what it is.
Every album,
Eddie's got a new, uh, look.
They go to space,
Somewhere in Time.
They go to Egypt, Powerslave,
he's the mummy Eddie.
You go to Canada,
He's a Mountie.
You go to Russia,
he's a Bolshevik.
Anywhere you go
around the world,
Eddie can be something
from that culture
that comes directly
from horror movies.
We've seen Eddie so much,
but he's a zombie with long hair.
But he's Eddie.
He's become so classic.
Well, I remember
the first Iron Maiden record.
As little kids, we took our,
well, me and my friends,
uh, went on our bikes
to this record store, um,
and I saw the first Iron Maiden.
I'm like, "This has to be good.
Look at this cover."
And it was like $7.99.
I'm gonna take a chance on it.
Like, I get back home and listen
to it and it was amazing so...
Th... It'll definitely, a cover
would definitely do it for me.
I bought that record without knowing it
at, at all what Iron Maiden sounded like.
But I see a zombie on the cover.
And this really cool font
for a logo.
And it was in the metal section
in the store. This was in 1980.
So, I, I... "All right,
all right, it's a metal band.
And look at that guy
on the cover.
Holy shit! Look at that dude."
Eddie trans... He, he, like,
transformed Iron Maiden.
It's like, obviously,
he became that icon.
Just like Megadeth has their
icon. Everyone was looking for, like,
"Who are we going to have for our
'symbol' of the band?" You know?
The inspiration for our mascot,
Vic Rattlehead, is really simple.
I think a lot of people
have looked at it and missed it.
It's so in your face. It's, "See no
evil, speak no evil, hear no evil."
That's it. I drew the guy,
then we...
put the bones behind it
for being kind of like a pirate.
And then we changed
his head to it.
So that, you know,
you're stuck to this lifestyle
because, you know,
as troubadours,
we really are marauders
going from town to town.
I think an album cover artwork,
its purpose is to say,
"You can't hear me,
but look at me.
I'm cool enough,
you wanna hear me."
It wouldn't be much different
from how movie theaters
would drag people in, you know?
Um, or billboards or, you know,
film posters,
especially the '80s...
Well, late '70s, early '80s,
always dripping with blood,
and people love that kind of thing.
There's been a band
called Ghost,
which I'd... I took a liking to,
and then I saw the cover,
their first album.
I saw and I'm like,
"Wow, this is Salem's Lot."
I just loved
the whole aesthetic of that,
of that group, you know? It
just has everything that I love.
I remember walking through
Sears department store
and seeing Kiss Love Gun.
It just came out.
I remember it was like
this music group of monsters.
And so I bought it just on the
cover, and it interchanged my life.
The Brain Drainalbum cover of
the Ramones is art work of a ghost.
It would attract the buyer
to the album
that obviously was a horror or sci-fi
fan, or metal, or punk. Whatever it is.
Well, Cannibal Corpse definitely
has the most grotesque
horror album covers ever.
You know, people being
disemboweled and all kinds of crazy stuff.
They, they probably take
the cake as far
as gory album covers.
When I recently got Cannibal
Corpse Tomb of the Mutilatedon vinyl,
it's one of the most horrific and
shocking album covers that you'll ever see,
and I love it
because it's shocking as hell.
Yeah, I think about the covers
we have, some of them are just...
Butchered at Birth, I mean, come
on. And, and that pisses people off
like to no end, you know?
You start messing
with babies and stuff.
Ozzy Osbourne, Blizzard of Ozz
is one that sticks in my mind
as far as just being
an amazing album.
Uh, Bark at the Moonis like,
obviously him as a werewolf
was pretty fucking cool.
Diary of a Madmancover had the
upside-down cross at the background.
Ozzy's bloody. He's got
a little kid over there.
So that was
a little, a little frightening.
Album covers are
just like posters, you know?
They're like movie posters.
They're like,
"Hey, if there is,
if it's a good album cover,
it's gonna give you a flavor of
what you're gonna be listening to."
I think the late '70s
and right through the '80s
became such a fertile time.
You had people on one hand
doing horror music,
and you had people on the
other hand doing horror film.
And then somewhere in the middle,
where these two circles crossed,
you had a hybrid.
The one that kicked it off
for me was
Phantom of the Paradise.
That was heavy metal,
rock and roll, horror.
And that, to me, was
the piece that said it
that everybody had to go to.
Then you had things like Kiss
Meets the Phantom of the Park.
That was 1978.
So it wasn't really metal,
but it was Kiss
and it was a lot of their stuff,
so that kind of kicked it off.
But they have a film,
the first metal exploitation
horror film.
1980, Terror on Tour.
Then 1984, Alice Cooper,
Monster Dog.
Hard Rock Zombies, 1985.
Also, about 1986,
Maximum Overdrive,
Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare,
Black Roses,
Shock 'Em Dead,
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3.
I tend to like um, you know, that,
the whole Freddy Krueger thing.
I thought it was really
a great series.
And I remember
being so jealous at George Lynch
and, and Dokken for having
a song in that series.
They'd already titled the movie.
A lot of people think we came up
with the song "Dream Warriors,"
but we didn't.
And that was the first time
somebody ever come to me and say,
"You write a song, but it has
to be called 'Dream Warriors, '
and the title 'Dream Warriors'
must be in the chorus."
Dokken's "Dream Warriors,"
they actually incorporated,
there's footage
in the video for that song
- of Freddy Krueger...
- Right.
And that was actually, that was
really something that was paired up,
I think, pretty, uh, directly,
as opposed
to where the other films
may have just licensed songs
or whatever.
Yeah, "The Man Behind the Mask"
from Alice Cooper,
and the Friday the 13thmovie.
When you had
your new horror characters,
your Jasons
and your Michael Myers,
the new slasher films
sort of happened the same time
as metal did.
So there was a connection there.
If you saw
an action scene with Jason
and Freddy Krueger fighting, well, it
certainly wasn't gonna be violin music.
It was going to be...
aggressive kind of, uh, music.
That, and it worked together.
It just works together.
The bands are influenced
by horror movies
also because many horror movies,
they use the heavy metal.
Uh, included Dario, Dario Argento
use a lot of heavy metal for his film.
Dario Argento used it
really well and early.
And if you see his movie called
Phenomena,
he used heavy metal in that
really to a great effect.
If you listen to the soundtracks, or
if you go through the soundtracks
of The Return
of the Living Dead,
it was basically
a compilation of rock
and... punk songs.
When I watch
The Return of the Living Dead,
I still get goose bumps
when the skeleton comes up
and starts saying,
"Do you want a party?"
It was like, "Okay,
now chaos is gonna ensue."
Soundtracks for films
of the singles
were selling as well,
if not better than soundtracks
that were the composed score
to the, to the film.
Music is like the,
the unsung hero
of horror movies.
Especially you look at Psycho,
you look at Jaws,
you look at Halloween,
you look at Friday the 13th,
they really kind of
push the boundaries,
and I think that's one of the
reasons why horror is always
so at the forefront of,
musically,
just being able to kind of
get away with murder.
Every week of the year,
you can go
to a horror convention.
Can't go
to a romance convention,
can't go
to a Western convention,
can't even go
to a Star Warsconvention
every week of the year.
But every week of the year
in the United States, someplace,
there's a horror convention.
How and when
did horror conventions begin?
Well, I mean, I can tell you
when they began for me.
They began for me in the '80s,
uh, when magazines
like Fangoria,
Chiller Convention
and all of those
East Coast entities
started putting on a show
so everybody could be together.
But before that,
with Famous Monsters of Filmland
with James Warren
and Forrest J Ackerman,
they began in the 1970s,
when they held their
very first-ever convention,
I think in 1974
in New York City.
As they started to come up,
you're like,
"Wow, we have a history
of horror." You know?
And that's why I think, you
know, things like Monsterpalooza
are thriving now
because they're showing you,
like, these are the people
who have done the makeup.
These are people
who are in the films.
And then here are
the films themselves.
So you have
a full-rounded presentation,
and that's something
for everyone.
My partner, Eben, is
the one that is
the brain trust of Mad Monster,
and his vision was to make
an old-school convention
because what we are selling
and what we're buying
is not stuff, it's memories.
I put to the rock and roll and
the horror movies thing together.
Sure, I am.
A friend of mine, Kevin Barbary,
who was
already attending conventions
way before... I ever did.
He brought the idea to us
to have a convention
up here where we added
a music festival
to the horror convention
as well.
This convention, I liked it
'cause we got to play
and, um, all great friends of
mine, and it was great to see 'em.
And it's cool
to have the show too.
I never had any interest
in throwing a festival before.
I just enjoyed showing
my friends horror films.
We're not like
the biggest festival,
but I think
we are a unique festival.
I think we show
killer fucking movies.
I know we have
killer fucking bands
year in and year out.
That's Housecore.
We're about to bring up
some badasses to the stage.
Who are...
dudes highly respected
in the worlds
of rock and roll and horror.
This will be
my second year in a row
hosting Kirk Hammett's
Fear FestEvil.
It's an honor, man. It's like my
community service to get to do that
because I'm able to get up
on stage and talk
about how much
these two worlds mean to me.
The Kirk Hammett's show, um,
yes, I was on stage
with those guys, so...
A lot of the metal guys,
you know, have been inspired
by some of the movies I do.
Fear FestEvil was great.
Um, I got to go up
with my buddy Joel Harlow,
the fucking genius
makeup affects guy.
He's Johnny Depp's guy.
He did a live application
on stage in front of an audience
and turned me
into Jack the Ripper.
I would just sit in a chair
just so I could get made up,
look at myself in the mirror,
and then take a picture of it
and go, "Wow,
look what I did today."
Like it's the coolest
thing in the world.
I think like in Kirk's case,
when I first met him,
he gave me a signed copy
of his book
Too Much Horror Business,
and I right away read that book,
and I learned that Kirk
as a child, you know,
grew up with an intense interest
in horror films.
I was invited to his show,
uh, several years ago
in San Francisco
and had an absolutely
wonderful time there.
And then, I had the opportunity
to see a large portion
of his magnificent collection.
I don't know if I ever realized
what kind of
a collection he has,
and I think I've still only seen
just a portion of it.
I was privileged to attend
the convention.
And a concert that he put on
where he performed on stage.
And, and it was really
quite an experience.
I know there, there are people
out there who love horror.
I know there are people
who love heavy metal.
And I know there are people
who love both.
And basically,
I'm reaching out to those people
and saying, "Hey, man, I'm into
it too. And I got a lot of cool stuff.
You can just come over and
check it out. And you know what?
I got a great guild
that I have assembled
of some really great cool bands
filled with guys
who love horror movies as well.
And, you know,
these are my buds.
And at the end,
we're gonna have a big old jam
because we just all love
the same stuff."
And what it really is,
Fear FestEvil's
just a celebration
of both things,
horror and heavy metal.
I go to several conventions
a year.
And there really does seem to be a real
strong link between heavy metal and horror.
Lots of, uh,
what we would call metal heads
come to my table.
I see them everywhere, though.
Yeah, I see it
all over the world.
Every person that is not wearing
a horror T-shirt
is wearing a heavy metal
T-shirt, that's for sure.
It is the same kind of people,
I think the same clientele
that, that goes
to both of these things.
Horror movies
and heavy metal concerts.
They are quite, quite wonderful,
uh, and, uh, I love them all.
From the bottom of my heart...
thank you.
Thoughts?
Why does this matter now?
Horror conventions?
There are no more people around
to go to horror conventions.
But what great experiences
they were.
Men, women and children
from all over the world
came together
to share their mutual love
for such brilliant art forms.
But it's all gone now.
It's all gone,
and this is all pointless.
I, I'm done with this bullshit.
No need for hostility,
Christopher.
I am merely trying to share
my knowledge with you.
As it stands,
I am the only friend you have.
So please take a seat.
We have arrived at the
conclusion of your lesson.
The most crucial chapter.
Now is the time to find out
exactly why metal and horror
work so well together.
What is it that makes
these two genres
so compatible with one another?
It has all been
leading up to this.
Horror has become very visible.
And this is
where it gets interesting
in terms of sort of censors
trying to come in.
We had the, um, big videotape
censorship scandal in the, in the UK
with the, uh, the whole concept
of video nasties.
The efforts in the UK
were to look at extreme movies,
and put a lot
of these same boundaries
around these films
as you would
around pornography titles.
So all of a sudden, you have the
Evil Dead being treated the same way
as a woman blowing a donkey.
This fear that, that people
were watching stuff like
Driller Killeron video
in their homes
and they couldn't be trusted
with this material.
And it was opening up
their dark side,
and it would lead
to copycat killings.
Horror and, and, and metal
really became co-defendants
in the Satanic Panic scandal
of the late 1980s, early '90s,
People use that phrase
"Satanic Panic."
They always focus
on the "Satanic" part.
But this was extreme
or too extreme.
They never focus
on the "Panic" part,
which is what it really was.
People overreacting,
misdirected...
and spending
all their energy freaking out
and not actually
fixing a problem.
There was a real sense
that if you watched
these things or were exposed
to these things,
it was dangerous, and it twisted
you and it made you into a monster.
Sometime around late 1984,
early 1985,
a group of wives
in Washington DC,
wives of
very influential people,
business people,
senators, congress people
were kind of having casual
conversations about the concerns
about the content of music.
They thought the lyrics were,
uh, too extreme.
They thought videos
that were recorded for songs
were often too graphic to
sexualize these type of things.
And their solution for this
was to create a group called the
Parents Music Resource Center.
They came up with this list,
called "The Filthy Fifteen,"
Half of that list
is heavy metal artists.
So you had Black Sabbath.
You had Judas Priest.
You had Motley Crue,
W.A.S.P., Venom,
AC/DC, Twisted Sister,
Def Leppard, Mercyful Fate.
It culminated
in September of 1985,
with hearings before the U. S.
Senate Commerce Committee
to decide what should be done
about this.
People went to jail
over this stuff.
People were sued, people had
incredible legal bills
because of this artwork
they decided to put
on the inside sleeve
of an album.
I mean, it destroyed people.
And it was all over nothing.
- You cannot legislate morality.
- Mr. Carter.
- Or music, or people's minds.
- There is no...
- But we'll bring you down, man.
- I have a teenage
- daughter.
- We're here. We'll bring you down.
In 1986, I was in a film
called Trick or Treat,
with Ozzy Osbourne
and Gene Simmons.
Two of the biggest names in heavy
metal music brought a lot to the movie.
I think that's, you know, a big
reason why people went the first place.
I don't think it was Skippy from
Family Ties who was the big draw.
It was right at the height
of that whole Tipper Gore,
anti-heavy metal music
warning labels
on the album's
trying to turn the tide of,
I don't know what she expected,
Pat Boone to come back
into style or something.
I don't know.
But, um, people forget
what a big deal that was
at the time.
And so this movie tapped
into that a little bit.
Eddie Ragman Weinbauer,
he's not the cool kid.
He's the heavy metal nerd.
You know, he decked out the
room and all the heavy metal posters,
and he had all the T-shirts
and everything.
You know, the girls don't care
about him and the guys
hate him, and everybody's
picking on him,
and he's kind of feeling
all alone.
And thenhishero comes back
to life in his bedroom,
through the backward masking
of the records and offers to help.
And how cool is that? Imagine that.
Who doesn't want someone to help them
get back at their bullies?
I think people, uh,
related to the Eddie character
'cause, uh, they were going
through the same thing, you know?
They were the outsiders
and the outcasts.
This movie gave them someone
that was like them.
The impulse to express yourself
and to explore pain,
suffering, transgression,
immorality, these are things
that are in our essential makeup.
We are interested
in our dark side
because without understanding
our dark side, we can't control it.
Heavy metal music
and horror films,
the people who are attracted to
them, attracted to them because
what is mainstream and normal
and popular doesn't work for them.
It doesn't frame the world
that they feel.
It doesn't frame the world
that they see.
It's a taboo thing that I think
connects with young people
because they think
it's a conduit to something
that they don't understand.
Or that they want to understand
and something they wanna see
that they've been forbidden to see.
The, um, heavy metal music
and the horror genre in films
have an interesting relationship
because they both pressed the evil side
of man.
The heavy metal artists are
pushing the frontier
and pushing the envelope
of their craft and their gift,
and their creativity.
There is a dark side
to heavy metal.
And there certainly is a
dark side to the horror genre.
The monster characters
scared people.
First time seeing the phantom on a
screen, or people change their looks.
They were shocking to people.
And I think the rock stars
scared a lot of people,
certainly the generation
before them.
Maybe that's why there's that
affiliation and associations
with one another
that they identify
to some degree, their genres.
Sometimes the shows are
theatrical, like King Diamond,
like Alice Cooper,
like Rob Zombie.
There is a visual feast
that goes along
with the, the audio, uh, feast.
People like a show.
And metal bands
and movies give people a show.
It's escapism.
As long as there are kids in
their teens going through angst,
there's gonna be
aggressive music,
and there's gonna be
aggressive imaging.
So between horror movies
and metal,
that certainly plays
a big part in it.
I think a lot of us in, who,
who chose to play heavy metal,
uh, or hard rock are
somewhat outcasts.
And I think we kind of look
at these monsters as, as too.
But there's something
that draws us together.
And f... for me, that was one way
of meeting people too.
Like, you're
a horror fan. Great.
We're gonna get along just great.
You like metal? Oh. Even better.
I think people
wanna feel something.
They wanna feel
something powerful,
and fear is one of those things.
And, you know, listening
to music is such an elation.
And metal, especially,
is so, you know, so angry.
When you're a kid, you know,
that just feeling something
is so important for people
who are fans of,
of metal and horror.
If you're the nerd in school,
if you're having...
Your parents are in your case,
or the bullies beaten you up,
you can go watch a horror movie
and, like, say like,
"If only this guy could
be killed by Michael Myers."
Or listen to some heavy metal
and just get that aggression out.
Or go into a wrestling character
or something.
And there is a certain element
of show business that's dark.
Heavy metal music,
for the most part is, is made
for the same reasons that horror
movies are made, it's to let loose.
It's to free that fear,
it's to free that tension.
You are in this moment with,
with heavy metal music, you know?
Like in the mosh pit.
You're just letting go
of so much energy.
And so much emotion that should
just been sitting on you all day.
You know,
the escapism of heavy metal
is the same as the escapism of
just sitting down with your friends
and watching a shit ton
of fucking horror movies.
Which is honestly, there's
nothing better than that, you know?
Metal is violent.
Horror is violent.
Everybody likes
fucking violence.
Violence gets people's
dicks hard.
And when people's dicks
are hard, they have fucking fun.
- And then we chop them off.
- And then we chop your dick off.
There's some kind of an
aggressive feeling in the music that
kind of goes with that feeling
of superiority.
There's something very
testosterone-driven about metal music.
And I think that
if you're the killer,
if you're the monster,
you're in this place of massive
total annihilating control.
And I think that that's one of the
things that you feel as a player.
Rock and roll is the devil.
And horror is the devil too,
so it's perfectly natural.
I think of heavy metal
as really uncompromising.
You know, there are plenty of people
who don't like heavy metal. So what?
There are plenty of people who
don't like horror movies, and so what?
And I think that they share that
sense of "We are what we are."
And the world we represent
and are in is a very extreme one.
And it's not sweet and pretty like we'd like
to pretend or some people wanna pretend.
Horror and metal
work so well together
because of teenage boys.
We like scary stuff,
and we like heavy stuff.
It's exciting.
The whole
heavy metal sound again.
It's, uh, tempestuous guitars.
A lot of them.
And the lyrics are usually
some form of rebellion
and death, uh... danger.
And it's just slamming at you
with a beat, with a great beat.
I mean, who doesn't love that?
Pop music can be with chick flicks
or, or, or things like that, you know,
they just go hand in hand.
But luckily, we got the horror.
'Cause I think it's just
about ex... being extreme.
Extreme gore,
extreme being scared.
Extreme, it's just extreme.
Horror fans and metal fans
just are looking for that fix,
and that's what, you know,
metal and horror does.
You don't normally have extreme
pop songs that shock people.
When you want something extreme,
you take it to the highest level
it can go, which is heavy metal.
You can't just walk by a metal band
playing and not, "Holy fuck! Whoa!"
You know, no matter what kind of music
do you like, horror is the same thing.
We're the extreme edges
of that art form.
It's a lot cooler
in the outer limits. Join us.
I think there's a lot of,
like, shock value with horror.
And I think with metal,
it's also the same thing.
You wanna have that impact. They're
gonna make you go to maybe a dark side
which everyone has
and they don't like to go to.
But It's kind of
make you realize
that this is a part
of humanity that exists.
It's like all the dark,
unrestrained urges
of destruction.
Yeah, you've got
plenty of scary images.
And the more you try
and escape yourself,
the more you'll see.
It just meshes well.
You know, if you have
extremely intense scene
in a horror film
where it has to be hard-driving,
scary and suspenseful and stuff,
I think metal music
works well with it.
That music is aggressive
and can be in your face.
And so can
many good horror movies too.
If you're listening to a heavy
metal album, it's a release.
People are in the mosh pit,
they're, they're working out
their angst in a horror movie.
It's kind of the same thing.
You see people getting,
you know, and you get all...
and, uh, in the end,
you know it's not real.
It's... That's, I think,
the bottom line.
It's kind of like a fantasy.
A good heavy metal song...
should be like
a good horror movie, you know?
Exciting to watch or listen to
with a lot of dynamics.
I'm not really sure
where it's gonna take you,
but once you get there,
you're glad to be there.
People are curious
about the morbid,
skittish about the morbid,
and decided about the morbid,
and what is considered morbid.
But their fans out there
of extreme bands
that play gore influence music,
that I think would like to live
that lifestyle or whatnot.
So many different connections.
The music and the horror genre
are defiant
against society, okay?
And those things work together.
They're just totally opposed
to anything conventional.
The real hardcore
horror fans are,
you know, a niche. They're like a
brotherhood. And fans of metal and hard rock
are very much the same.
They kind of feel like a little bit
of an outcast and maybe don't get
the attention or respect they deserve,
and I think they kind of gravitate
towards each other, some.
I did a music video
with Dee Snider,
and Alice Cooper called
"Be Chrool to Your Scuel."
And Alice talks about Dee Snider
and himself being hard fanatics.
Every Saturday,
they're at horror movies.
And so I see a connection
in the heavy metal bands
of the people that I know
and horror movies.
Horror is the dark side of,
of, of movies or storytelling,
and I think our music is the
dark side of everything as well.
Heavy metal has
always been dark.
There's no puppy dogs
and ice cream in heavy metal.
At least alive puppy dogs and
ice cream without blood in it.
We want that aggression.
We want something that's almost,
in a sense, scary.
You go to a Slayer show,
and the anticipation
of that band coming on
when you're standing on the floor, where
you know that pit is going to break out,
is very similar to sitting
in a movie theater,
knowing that
something's gonna happen
that's gonna scare the shit
out of me.
As humans, I don't know why
some of us crave
and need that in our lives.
But I'm just glad
it's out there for us.
Listen to the sound of metal.
It's so focused on tri tones
and tensions that,
you know, it, it...
- What the fuck?
- We gotta go. Let's go.
All right. Well, we have to go.
And what I'm trying to tell you
is that the sound of metal,
metal sounds terrifying.
Movies are terrifying.
That's the connection for me.
For some reason, those
two genres maybe just connected
because they just,
they get no respect.
Which is fine because who cares?
They're still here.
I think the future is
a more cohesive bond.
Especially as movies become
more appreciative and respectful
of, uh, rock and roll
and heavy metal,
and industrial, all these
different kinds of, uh, musics
as a soundtrack to stories.
I think when you take a look at the,
uh, metal concept and the horror concept,
that they've intertwined so much
over the last three decades
that they will never unwind.
They'll always be together.
So you're going to see them continue
to evolve and develop together.
To watch where they go
and how they continue to grow,
I think it's gonna be
exciting for all of us,
both as the actors and
the performers, and as a fan.
You got to move forward.
You can't just stay in the past.
You've got to move forward. It'll never
stop because those are the main genres
that will appeal
to, uh, the audience.
To keep the history alive, I think
we need to embrace our fears.
If you talk about exorcising the
demons that are inside yourself,
the best way to do that is to
share them with other people.
I think metal and horror
will always be with us.
And when it starts fizzling out,
people start running out of ideas,
it would just, you know, like
everything go around in a circle
and we're back
at square one again.
I think that horror and...
heavy metal music are
going to stay together forever.
There's that angst
that everybody is drawn to.
These very dark images.
I think it's just,
just going to stay here forever.
And there you have it.
Metal and horror,
a perfect match.
Any questions?
Um, a crossover between the two
is fascinating and definitely unique.
Those attracted to the dark
and aggressive
clearly found their outlets
for expression and pleasure.
The two art forms go hand
in hand, without question.
Well, I'm happy
to hear you say that.
Your lesson is now complete.
So what happens now?
I give you the grand finale.
What's the grand finale?
Hello,
from the other side.
I just always liked
being scared.
I like the creativity
that's behind,
uh, being able
to scare somebody.
Always loved a really good
horror movie that could
kind of stick
with you afterwards.
I just grew up watching
that stuff at very young age
I know it's not very, you know,
a "good parent thing to do."
They're thrilling.
They're exciting.
-I mean, at certain times,
they're suspense... -Death metal!
And it's just a lot of fun
to watch either way,
I think people like
being scared,
and they all have this, um,
dark side themselves
that a lot of people, you know,
kind of keep hidden,
but it's kind of a way for them
to let their dark side out.
Really like the old-school
campy films and stuff.
But, um, John Carpenter's
Halloween is what really got me into it
when I was like about eight
years old and I just, like,
really absorbed the culture
of horror and everything.
The scares, it's the shock value
I'd have to say.
The villains are the best.
We've got Pinhead in the H,
Michael Myers in the O,
Leatherface in the R,
Pennywise in the other R...
Jason in the O,
and Freddy in the R.
- I like horror because...
- I like violence in general, pretty much.
It's just a way for me to be
different than anyone else.
What I love about horror is the, it's
the, it's like the roller coaster thing.
You're just enjoying
that moment, that edge of fear.
I've thrown myself in there,
you know?
It's been a taboo
for the longest time, you know?
For the longest time, yeah.
Then finally, when metal came,
metal was pretty taboo
at the time,
and they just kind of like
came together.
I love heavy metal.
Uh, I don't know,
I've loved this
since I was 12 years old.
It really gets your pum...
Your blood pumping
and your, uh,
your adrenaline going.
Just like watching
a horror movie.
Uh, it's loud, it's extreme.
It just gets me
in a certain mood, you know?
I listen to it,
I feel energized.
I go into mosh pits. So, like, I
love to have a music I move to.
You can't beat the shit out of
somebody with Taylor Swift, all right?
Takes a lot of...
energy to do it.
The imagery goes together
so well, I mean, look at the, uh,
covers of, like,
old Iron Maiden album,
it's, it's straight up horror
right there.
And they just go hand in hand.
You put a horror movie on,
you could turn the,
you could turn the sound off.
And put a,
then put a record on horror,
you know, death metal or metal,
whatever, it goes hand in hand.
They both kind of feel off-limits
in a certain way, you know?
Like something that you're not
supposed to be doing,
but, you know, you do anyways.
Favorite of all time?
I would have to say
tie between An American Werewolf
in London and the first Halloween.
I am a huge Black Sabbath fan.
It has to be Hellraiser.
I'm all about Doug Bradley.
Iron Maiden, Metallica.
The Chucky series
and the Freddy Krueger movies.
Maiden, oh yeah, Judas Priest.
Halloween, um, Evil Dead.
Deicide, Cannibal Corpse.
- Probably Alien.
- Slipknot.
The Texas Chainsaw.
Bands like The Black Dahlia
Murder and Dying Fetus.
- I will do that.
- Definitely Anthrax.
Friday the 13th.
You can't go wrong with that.
Alice Cooper, uh, King Diamond.
The Exorcist.
Metal guys, they always push
themselves to, to break ground,
break new ground,
break barriers.
I think horror
does the same thing.
And when you put them together,
it's fucking sex dude.
It's just pure sex.