DEEN

Fangoria LogoMC: Back in the late 80's/early 90's, there was another horror publication called Gorezone. Were you involved in it at all?

AT: Yep. That was a Starlog publication and I edited that one as well. During that time, Fangoria's circulation really spiked thru the roof and we realized there were probably going to be a lot of rip-off publications that are going to come along and steal Fangoria's thunder. We thought we should create our own competition to discourage these other people that were going to try to steal our subscriber base. So we created Gorezone to literally form our own competition. And it worked. There were a few rip-off magazines that didn't come out or folded after one or two issues, whereas Gorezone lasted several years. I think it went up to issue 22 or so. Gorezone was a lot of fun to put together too. We put a lot of stuff in there that Fangoria didn't have like fiction, we had a make-up effects column, and a lot more independent and foreign film coverage. More reviews. It was fun while it lasted, but now we've folded a lot of those departments into Fangoria and on our website, so Gorezone lives in other ways. We're also starting a Gorezone video label to put out more independent gory horror films and so the title's going to live on that way as well.

some issues of Gorezone

MC: By profiling films in production for the magazine, were there any projects that either met or surpassed your initial expectations or surprised you upon release?

AT: I would say the two re-makes that came out this past year. Dawn Of The Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I had low expectations going in because I didn't think they were going to be able to top the originals. But even though they weren't as good as the originals, they stood out and were very effective in their own right. Ya know, I think they were much better then I anticipated and they did a good job of re-imagining the films. They didn't just slavishly recreate the magic of the original films, but they tried to do something different so I respect that. 28 Days Later was better then I thought it would be. I knew it was going to be good but it was even better then I expected; it really scared the hell outta me and I thought that was terrific. That's one that really blew me away.  

MC: Speaking of zombies, fast zombies or slow zombies?

AT: I think the fast ones are scarier. I love the original Dawn Of The Dead & Night Of The Living Dead but there's other social commentaries going on in those films. You have that in 28 Days Later, but I think it also upped the scare quotient by making them faster zombies. I think they're scarier when they're faster.

Leatherface

MC: In the 80's, you went on a crusade defending horror films. What do you think of the current state of horror films & how people view these films now?

AT: Well, back then video was just gaining popularity. There were all these mother's groups and PTA groups that were always attacking horror movies and violent films. That whole generation of concerned parents used horror films as a scapegoat. So yea, I was frequently called upon the carpet to defend the genre and the magazine. We were getting thrown off news stands. There was always a lot of trouble. And even back then, I said «you're going after horror films now but what's next? Are you going to go after TV and other movies», etc. etc. And sure enough that?s what happened. After they were done attacking horror, they would go after the NYPD Blue, and starting ratings on records and tv shows, all the trouble with the MPAA. It was a real mess. It got worse and worse and worse and all these censorship issues never really died. We're actually seeing a lot of that going on right now. But horror films haven't really been the target like they used to be. The MPAA has almost sort of been horror's best friend in the past few years. When you see what Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dawn Of The Dead got away with, it's unbelievable. 

MC: Do you think the MPAA has lightened up the past few years?

AT: Absolutely. Just look at Kill Bill and again, Dawn Of The Dead. It's amazing. I can't imagine those films getting R ratings, say in 1990. Look at what Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 went thru back then. The film was taken apart due to MPAA restrictions.

MC: In a recent editorial, you mentioned how you desire more original films based on un-adapted books, as opposed to all of these current re-makes. Can you tell us a few books you'd love to see adapted?

AT: There's a lot of great Lovecraft stories that haven't been done yet. Guillermo Del Toro wants to do At the Mountains of Madness, and I think that would be wonderful. Um, there's some (John Skipp and Craig Spector) books that would make good movies, like The Light At The End. They were the splatter punks of the 80's. They also did a werewolf book called Animals that I remember liking a lot. So I think they're some good 80's splatter punk type books that would be really cool to see made into movies. There's some Clive Barker stuff that hasn't been done yet. Like Weaveworld. Christopher Fowler, Kim Newman (some of the British authors). They've done a lot interesting ones that would make good movies.

Men, Makeup & Monsters

MC: You published a book called Men, Makeup and Monsters and helped edit several other books. What lead you to write that book and do work on the others?

AT: I was approached by an agent who wanted to represent me, and asked if I had any idea for books. So that was the first one I thought of. Fangoria, especially in the early days was the bible of the make-up effect industry. Back when every kid wanted to go out to Hollywood and sling make up or latex. You don't get that as much anymore because of CGI. So many people were coming to Fangoria just to read these profiles on Rick Baker and Rob Bottin and Tom Savini. They were the gods of our readership during the 80's so I thought it would be a good idea to write a book about all these make-up gurus who were inspiring the fans. We profiled 12-13 of the top guys at that time. I got that book done, but it was a lot of work writing a book and editing Fango at the same time, so when the idea for other books came along, I decided to just edit them. I haven't written any other books since, but I've edited 4 others under the Fangoria banner.  

My Mad Mags