Mad Mags: Fangoria Films

MC: How did the Fangoria Weekend Of Horrors get started?

AT: Well, pretty much as soon as I started here I got involved with the convention because I was going to the conventions myself as a fan even before I started here. The first Fango convention was in '84, and then I got involved with producing the shows by late '85/ early '86. I took a real active role to producing them, seeing them and booking the guests, and did everything it took to put on a big show.

MC: How difficult is it to get genre professionals involved with the Fango Weekend Of Horrors? How do you go about making your selections from year to year?

AT: I try to bring people on board people that the fans haven't seen before. That's usually the big goal. To bring a guest you just don't see at other horror conventions. To get a Quentin Tarantino or a Jack Nicholson or Kenneth Branagh, just cool people. Guillermo Del Toro. They want to do these conventions because the magazine supports their movies in print. They want to meet the fans and press in the flesh and promote their new movies. I'm pretty much able to get most of the people I want to at the Fango shows because I work with these people on a daily basis in the print edition and they want to meet the people who support them at the theaters. A great place to do that is at the conventions.

MC: The Fangoria Weekend Of Horror's takes place on both coasts. Any differences between the NY and CA shows?

AT: Yea, there are. At the LA shows, sometimes you have just as many celebrities in the audience as you do on stage. Ya know, it's the company town where all the movies are made. You get a lot of people coming down just to hang out, even if they're not speaking on stage. It's not uncommon to see John Landis or Quentin Tarantino floating around the dealer's room when you're in LA. That always makes for a pretty exciting atmosphere. But the fans in LA are kind of jaded because they see these people on line at the supermarket. But when you bring Ron Perlman, of Hellboy, to New York, it's a real event and the fans go crazy. They're not used to getting these people to come into their town.

MC: The New York shows have moved to different locations thru-out the past few years. What initially sparked the merger with Chiller for the most recent Fango convention?

AT: It started out as competition for the Fangoria shows. Kevin Clement who runs Chiller used to be a dealer at the Fangoria shows years ago. So he created his own show and it was a different kind of show but it kept growing and growing and getting bigger and bigger. I went to my first Chiller show and I just could not believe the numbers of people that were turning up. And at the Fangoria convention, the attendance was starting to erode a little bit. It wasn't as big as it used to be. So we decided it was time to switch partners and try to reach a lot more people and the first show we did with Chiller, we thought we had three times as many guests then with the previous convention partners that we had, Creation. The experiment worked and we were happy with the numbers of fans. The conventions are very crucial to us because we're promoting the magazine, and our video and movie projects. So the more people there, the better.

MC: You've helped set up events in Milan, Italy and the Fantasia Fest in Montreal. How'd you go about setting up these other Fango related events? What were the experiences for those events like?

AT: Well, those are different from the conventions because they?re film festivals. Those are very exciting to work on because it's always exciting to see a lot of these films on the big screen. A lot of these movies don't get big screen exposure, so you go to a festival like Fantasia in Montreal or the festivals in Spain and it's amazing when you see these films this way and not at home on video. You have a chance to discover a new film before anyone else. Fantasia was the first place to show the original Japanese Ring in North America. Last summer, they had Dead End and Undead. Films that haven't even come out on tape yet. It's a great place to get a buzz going and get the fans excited about upcoming films. It's exciting working with the studios to premiere these films in front of audiences of hundreds of fans who are seeing these movies the way they're meant to be seen and enjoying them.

MC: In the early 90's, Fangoria produced a series of films; Mindwarp, Children Of The Night and Severed Ties. How did these projects come together? Can you tell us a little bit about Fango's first experiences in movies?

AT: Yea, the first three movies we shot around the late 80's/1990 for Columbia-Tristar. They financed the films and the first one was Mindwarp, a sci-fi/horror movie with Bruce Campbell and Angus Scrimm. The second was called Children Of The Night and that had Peter DeLuise, Ami Dolenz, Karen Black. And the third one was called Severed Ties with Elke Sommer and Oliver Reed. They were shot for a little over a million a piece. They went direct to video and showed up on the sci-fi channel. They also played at festivals all over the world. And they did what they had to do. After producing a few movies, we decided instead of getting involved in production, about 8 years later, we thought why not start our own acquisition label where we would just distribute other peoples movies. That came together well. We partnered with a company called Delta Entertainment and now it's all come full circle again. Because the videos started doing so well, we figured why don't we start producing movies again. So that's where we stand now. We have a few arrangements with a couple of companies to do horror lines with the Fangoria name. Also, we're releasing our first theatrical horror film this year called The Last Horror Movie. It's been playing festivals in San Francisco, Philadelphia. We're looking at booking theaters this summer and it'll be at Fantasia in July. It'll also be at the Philadelphia International Festival in April. So, it's getting out there and we're looking forward to it getting a small art house release, much like what Bubba Ho-Tep was able to achieve.

MC: Did you get to see Bubba Ho-Tep?

AT: Oh yea. I loved Bubba Ho-Tep. It was one of my favorite horror movies, actually, favorite movies, period of the last year.

MC: Is there anything you can tell us about Sick In The Head, the new Fango film with Frank Henenlotter?

AT: Yep. He's going to write and direct. The film was set up to go into production last year, but some of the money fell out at the last minute so we're now actively trying to put the last piece to the financial puzzle together. It's a little bit of a struggle because the film is really extreme and out there, but it's a great script. People really like it. Eli Roth really loved it and was looking at producing it for his company. So, we're just trying to get the last few dollars in place so we can start, so it's going to happen hopefully this year.

MC: Out of the Fango films distributed on DVD, are there any particular ones you enjoy yourself? I know Slashers is a fan favorite?

AT: Yea, we came up with a really great campaign for that one and it seems to have sold the best since this movie we put out called Angel Of The Night, which is a vampire movie. That was our previous big seller until Slashers. I think out of all the movies, the one I?d like the best would be Eternal Blood. I think I like that one the best. I'd say the one with the most brains is Dead Creatures. I like that one a lot. And Angel Of The Night is a fun vampire romp. Another Heaven was our first attempt at doing a Japanese horror film, and I think that?s a good effective Japanese horror movie. We were very happy with the way that one did. Nothing goes out on the Fango label that I don't personally approve and if I don't like the movie, it's not going to go out. So there has to be something about the movie that I find attractive and so far I?ve been proud of all our releases.

MC: Thanks so much for talking to us Tony!

AT: Ok. Anytime. I'm looking forward to logging onto the website everyday to see what excitement you guys have lined up.

This interview was published first at Icons of Fright and is reproduced here with friendly permission of Michael Cucinotta. Visit Tony Timpone and crew at Fangoria.com!!!