May 1, 2006

In Retrospect: Year TWO Of Icons Of Fright (May.06) by Rob G and Mike C

Rob G.’s memories: Wow. This, our May 2006 edition of Icons Of Fright will mark our 2 year anniversary on the web! And what an amazing two years it’s been thus far! I just re-read our retrospective from Year One to refresh my memory on where we were at a year ago, and now, my expectations have yet again been exceeded.

For starters, we had so many great new contributors in our second year. One of the biggest and most prominent additions was my good friend Jay Alvino (aka Jsyn). Jay and I had worked with each other on just about every job in the past 7 or so years, including doing artwork together at Tower records (and then again later for Sony), to playing in a rock band together. One of the first things that sparked our friendship all those years back was our mutual love of the horror genre. So, it was a no-brainer when he asked to hop on board the Icons writing staff. And since then, he’s had the most success, resurrecting a career in special effects make-up which until last August, he hadn’t done for 7 years.

It’s ironic that his first contribution for us was an interview with legendary director Bob Clark, and then almost a year later (to the date), Bob would ask him and his WICKED EFX crew to work on his upcoming ‘Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things’ remake. Jay also introduced what has become one of my all time favorite sections of the site, ‘THE VAULT OF THE FORGOTTEN & OBSCURE’. We get plenty of wonderful responses and reactions to our ‘Vault’ picks, so thank you!

This past year, my buddy Myk, whom I’d know for years from the bands Pacifier and Two Man Advantage and also from the Under The Volcano zine started submitting DVD reviews, and thankfully has kept up with a ton of new releases, which otherwise we might have never gotten a chance to talk about! So, thank you, Myk! We also got contributions from Elaine from Bloody-Disgusting, our buddy Gavin, and a slew of local filmmakers (whom I’ll mention again in a moment).

This past year sparked MORE ‘Icons of’ sites! Our good friend Mikey launched ‘Icons Of The Ring.com’, a site devoted to wrestling, and our buddy Adam launched a ‘My Space’ profile to feature ‘Icons Of Horror Rock’. We’re so happy to have inspired these guys to take their love of specific sub genres and roll with them. If all goes well, we’ll personally be launching a few more ‘Icons’ related sites this upcoming year.

Speaking of ‘My Space’, nothing has been a bigger help then being able to network with horror fans via the pages of ‘My Space’. There are profiles up for Icons Of Fright, Icons Of The Ring, Icons Of Horror Rock, Techno Weenie and our latest edition Icons Of Fright Live, which currently features downloadable MP3’s of a recent George Romero Q & A.

Let’s talk a minute about the FRIGHT exclusive interviews, which essentially are the backbone of the Icons Of Fright site. My favorite interview of the past year has to be the one we did with screenwriter Dan Farrands. (It’s also one of our longest interviews!) Being a huge Halloween fan, I thought it was an amazing treat for ALL Halloween fans to have Dan set the record straight on everything to do with Halloween 6: The Curse Of Michael Myers. It was also amazing to hear the stories behind ‘The Tooth Fairy’ character and ‘The Amityville Horror’ straight from Dan. In fact, our interview with Dan has become our most popular interview EVER. And also this past year, we had the pleasure of meeting so many promising new filmmakers. We launched a tribute to local independent filmmaking because we truly believe in featuring filmmakers whom we feel will one day be our future Icons Of Fright. Some of them networked thru the Icons site, and all of us have become friends and supporters of each other’s work. Adam Barnick has since submitted a few fantastic interviews to the Icons site, and we even gave sections to John Torrani (‘MOVIES THE BAD KIDS LIKE’) and we re-showcased Chris Garetano’s magazine ‘ARE YOU GOING?’, which gave us reprinted interviews with Rob Zombie, Eli Roth, Lucky McKee, Sid Haig and so many more.

The conventions continue to be an intricate part of what makes Icons such a fun website to run. There’s nothing like getting a chance to meet and interact with new friends and genre celebrities alike at these conventions! I have to personally thank both Tony Timpone (Fangoria) and Adam Malin for always being so supportive at the Fango/Creation cons and accommodating the Icons crew. You guys are the reason we’re all even here, and we will always credit Fangoria as the entity that brought all of these Icons friendships together. On a similar note, Icons Of Fright has never considered this a competition and we completely support and endorse ANYONE who puts their heart and soul into a horror related website. I’m personally come across some people that don’t see running a site this way and it’s a shame, because as far as I’m concerned, the more horror the better!

Last but certainly not least, I have to thank my co-creator of Icons, Mike C. We’ve had a rough two years keeping this thing going, but I think we’re finally starting to get a grasp on how important the Icons site has been to both of us in the past two years and I hope we’ll continue to do it for as long as we possibly can! I love ALL of Mike’s writing, weather it be the Trilogy Picks, or articles about going to the movies, Halloween: What Now?, or the sarcastic (yet potentially true?) Friday The 13th Remake. As a fan, I always look forward to what new articles and interviews may surface on this site. To all the wonderful fans, keep writing us and keep checking in. We love hearing from you guys. Because we ARE you. We encourage you… go start a website too! Anything and everything is possible. And now…. We’re on to YEAR THREE!… – Rob G

Mike C.’s memories: Retrospective 2005/06:

Here’s four reasons I’m not sure your humble Icons of Fright staff will make it to year three:

1. We were very excited to get to see “The Hills Have Eyes” remake a month early. It was the first “press” screening we’d attended. We liked the movie, gave it a good review. Our thanks? Ears in our inboxes.

2. Werewolves on Wheels Special Edition DVD with commentary and trailers. I have nothing left to live for.

3. EVERYONE’s charging for autographs these days.

4. I mean, if Samuel L. Jackson can’t save the Technoweenie, who’s gonna save the rest of us?

Truly the second year of Icons of Fright has been an eye-popping experience (and if you don’t believe me, just ask Jsyn. BA-DA-BING!). When Rob G. asked me to write up a Year Two retrospective, I didn’t know what I’d say. I’m writing this now, still not knowing just what to say. If anything–thank you. Thanks to all of you that come here every month and read our interviews and our reviews. Thanks for nominating us to be a Sci-Fi Channel Site of Week (it was exciting to be selected and twice as exciting when we found out you had to be nominated by readers). Thanks to the upcoming filmmakers that we’ve met this year. You’re struggle and your determination to create has been utterly inspiring. Thanks to Rob G, Jsyn, Technoweenie Vin, Myk, The Evil Barnick, Kevin, John, Gavin, Neal, Chris–thanks for all your contributions. It’s been a wild year, and the way year three looks already, there’s no slowing down ahead. And thank you for that. – Mike C.

Vin – The Techno Weenie’s memories: So, I get a call from Rob G the other day and he tells me that our 2 year anniversary is coming up and I have to write a little something about the past 2 years… um, first off…

Hello?!? It’s been 2 fucking years already?!? When the hell did that happen and where the hell was I? Oh yeah, I was probably being sick or trying some silly “Get rich quick” scam. I just really really love the fact that in a matter of 2 years, I went from:

– Technoweenie – who couldn’t work a digital camera (the myth is born)
to

– Technoweenie – was a manager of electronics at Target dealing with everything digital (year 1 of Icons Of Fright)
to

– Technoweenie – totally took it upon myself to redesign the Icons Of Fright Myspace profile and fuck with HTML codes and shit like that (year 2 of Icons Of Fright)

Who knows where I will be when I write my Icons Of Fright Year 3 Retrospect, but I sure as shit can’t wait to find out.

So, let’s talk then….

2 years and counting. Seriously, I don’t think any of us would have ever expected to be where we are right now. Through this little experiment called Icons Of Fright, we have made so many new friends, talked to so many great people and have been involved in lots of amazing projects. It’s full steam ahead for 2007.

We’ve got Rob G pursuing his filmmaking/scoring career. Jsyn doing make-up effects for some serious upcoming movies. Mike C making great contacts and expanding Icons into other markets. And me being totally and completely awesome. I don’t see any end in sight.

So, as I said last year, I just genuinely and whole heartedly want to thank everyone whom I have met over the past 2 years at the conventions, movie screenings, or even on Myspace. We couldn’t be happier doing this website and we have plenty of more goodies in store for you all!!!

Year Two of Icons Of Fright:

May 2006 edition:
Wendy Kremer – Actress – ‘2001 MANIACS’
Mushond Lee – Actor – ‘2001 MANIACS’
David ‘SLAVE’ Stagnari – Filmmaker – ‘CATHARSIS’, featured in ‘HORROR BUSINESS’
William Rot – Filmmaker – ‘Fango Blood Drive Volume 2′ winner’, ‘De Rigueur’

April 2006 edition:
Tibor Takacs – Director/Writer – ‘THE GATE’, ‘I MADMAN’, ‘THE GATE 2’
Danny Lopes – Actor – ‘Satan’s Playground’, ‘HORROR’, ‘Desecration’
Alex Vincent – Actor – ‘Childs’ Play’, ‘Child’s Play 2’

March 2006 edition:
Oz Perkins – Actor – ‘Dead & Breakfast’
Steve Daniels – Director/Filmmaker – ‘Fango Blood Drive Volume 2′ winner’
Jake Hamilton – Filmmaker/Composer – ‘Means To An End’, ‘GRACE’
Larry Fessenden – Filmmaker – ‘Habit’, ‘Wendigo’ & ‘The Last Winter’ – ‘Are You Going?’ reprint

February 2006 edition:
Herschell Gordon Lewis – Director/Filmmaker – ‘Blood Feast’, ‘2000 Maniacs’, ‘Color Me Red’
Sid Haig – Actor – ‘House Of 1000 Corpses’ & ‘The Devil’s Rejects’- ‘Are You Going?’ reprint

January 2006 edition:
Rob Zombie -Writer/Director – ‘House Of 1000 Corpses’ & ‘The Devil’s Rejects’- ‘Are You Going?’ reprint
Uwe Boll – Director – ‘BLOODRAYNE’, ‘Alone In The Dark’, ‘House Of The Dead’
Steven Shea – Director – ‘HOODOO FOR VOODOO’

December 2005 edition:
Eli Roth – Writer/Director – ‘CABIN FEVER’ – ‘Are You Going?’ reprint
Lucky McKee – Writer/Director – ‘MAY’ – ‘Are You Going?’ reprint
Gregory Zymet – Writer/Director – ‘APARTMENT 206’

November 2005 edition:
Paul Solet – Writer/Director – ‘Means To An End’ & ‘HEARTLAND’
Jon Nelson – Horror High Records

October 2005 edition:
Don Shanks – Actor/Stuntman – Michael Myers in ‘HALLOWEEN 5’
Paul Kratka – Actor in ‘Friday The 13th Part 3’ & ‘The Day They Came Back’

September 2005 edition:
Jake Kennedy – Writer/Director of the short film ‘We All Fall Down’
Ethan Dettenmaier – Writer/Director behind the upcoming ‘SIN-JIN SMYTH’
Jonathan Johnson – Writer/Director of the short film ‘The Radio Mechanics’
Steven Tsapelas -Writer/Director of the short film ‘Teenage Superhero Pregnancy Scare’, co-writer of ‘Alpha Dead’.

August 2005 edition:
Stevan Mena – Interview 2 with the Writer/Director of ‘MALEVOLENCE’
Dante Tomaselli – Interview 2 with the Writer/Director of ‘Satan’s Playground’ and ‘The Ocean’
Christopher P. Garetano – Director of the documentary ‘Horror Business’
Adam Barnick – Writer/Director of the short film ‘MAINSTREAM’
John Torrani – Director/Co-Writer of the short film ‘Alpha Dead’
Joshua Nelson – Actor/Writer of ‘No One Gets Out’ aka ‘Aunt Rose’

July 2005 edition:
Tim Sullivan – Writer/Director of ‘2001 Maniacs’ – reprinted interview from Horror Mania

June 2005 edition:
Dan Farrands – Screenwriter of ‘Halloween 6’, ‘The Tooth Fairy’, ‘Amityville Confidential’
Patricia Tallman – Barbara of ‘Night Of The Living Dead 1990’, ‘Army Of Darkness’, ‘Creepshow 2’

May 2005 edition:
Bob Clark – Director/Writer/Producer ‘Black Christmas’, ‘Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things’
Edwin Neal – The Hitchhiker of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’