To close the weekend, we have a brand new Inspiring Scare for you slasher fans out there. We have discussed Joston “El Rey” Theney’s film AXEMAN AT CUTTER’S CREEK previously here at Slasher Studios and we are proud to bring you Theney’s Inspiring Scare.

At the behest of horror filmmaker and webmaster of SlasherStudios.com, Kevin Sommerfield, I’ve been enlisted, along with some of the greatest up-and-coming filmmakers, to do a brief write up of the horror film that launched my interest in horror filmmaking, or should I say my plunge into depravity, lol. Now, I’ve seen a great many horror flicks in my day – (Cunningham’s) Friday the 13th, (Lynch’s) Prom Night, Happy Birthday to Me, Sleepaway Camp, (Zarchi’s) Day of the Woman “I Spit on Your Grave”, (Romero’s) Dawn of the Dead, Suspiria, (Craven’s) Nightmare on Elm Street, (Carpenter’s) Halloween, etc – but going back as far as I can remember to the first one that left a lasting impact, I would probably have to say it was none other than the 1985 film THE MUTILATOR.

Not widely known as a film that changes lives – or is even really that good, Buddy Cooper’s little gem of a horror film has one incredible, iconic moment. Anyone who has ever seen this film in it’s unrated glory has probably walked away with the same image – a fisherman’s hook, and what it does to an unsuspecting female victim. It was the first time I remember gasping in fear and glee simultaneously. Growing up in the inner city and experiencing life in its rawest form, it made being surprised and/or terrified nearly impossible. And at that point I definitely hadn’t felt a sense of “uh-oh” and “yeah” in a horror film simultaneously. Creatively utilizing the hard shadows of our film’s killer and his victim . . . and his weapon, the filmmaker shows a type of gruesome mutilation that has yet to be replicated, at least as far as I know.

Slashers got off to a great start in the late 70’s, but by the mid-to-late 80’s, they had become formulaic, by-the-numbers and every other popular phrase we have for predictable . . . and this one was no different. Well, a little. Instead of “spring break,” Buddy Cooper gave us . . . wait for it . . . “fall break.” Yeah . . . I know. But at least he gave us the iconic moment that launched my interest in horror filmmaking. Or should I say my plunge into depravity. Thank you Buddy Cooper for THE MUTILATOR! Without it, my upcoming slasher AXEMAN AT CUTTER’S CREEK probably wouldn’t exist.

Bloody Best,

Joston “El Rey” Theney

To check out more information on AXEMAN AT CUTTER’S CREEK, check out the official Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/AxemanAtCuttersCreek

We have discussed slasher flicks, old monster television shows, horror movies trailers, and supernatural thrillers so far on Inspiring Scares here at Slasher Studios. Today, we have horror filmmaker David B. Stewart III with a taste of the macabre and a little zombie action for you horror fans.

“I would have to say my obsession with horror films started sometime in the fall of 1986 when I was eight years old. I can remember sitting in front of my Grandparents’ console TV watching George A. Romero’s 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead for the very first time on a UHF channels Friday night horror feature. I remember being glued to the TV scared and fascinated, waiting for my parents to come and pick me up. I made them stay until the movie was over.

I knew I wanted to make a horror film of my own one-day. I read all about how they made that movie and in 1993 begged my Grandmother to drive a friend and I to Pittsburgh for the 25th anniversary Zombie Jamboree convention. To my surprise she did. At that convention my Grandmother wound up chatting with Russ Streiner’s Mother in the concession area, she was more than happy to drag him out of the convention to meet us. I was elated. I probably asked him a thousand questions that weekend about filmmaking and he told me everything I wanted to know. Toward the end of the convention he gave me his card and said that if I ever needed advice all I had to do was call. It would be about five years before I ever used that card (when I was in pre-production for Maplewoods aka Operation: Nazi Zombies) to ask for advice, to my surprise he actually remembered me.

In 1994 I had my first job working at a mom and pop video store in my hometown. I must have watched every horror film there. Some of my other muses back then were Bill Hinzman’s Flesh Eater, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Friday the 13th, Halloween and many others. In 1995 my friends and I collaborated and decided to make a movie. Still being in High School this was unheard of at the time, at least where we were from. I wrote a script and we decided to make a fan film feature continuing the then ended Friday series where Jason Goes to Hell left off. Our 97-minute S-VHS feature was called Friday the 13th Part X: To Hell and Back. It is available to watch on Youtube in its entirety.

In 2003 I had the pleasure of making friends with Bill Hinzman who was at the time helping me plan another feature (that is still currently on the back burner). I can remember sitting and talking with him about all his experiences in the business and listening to every lesson he had to give. He was an insightful man who deserves a hell of a lot more recognition for his work, at least as far as I’m concerned. I will forever remember the advice he gave me and appreciate what little time I did have to spend with him. Going from that little kid in front of his Grandparents TV watching him on NOLD to sitting with him in his living room watching it with him was something I could have never foretold and will always remember as one of the best moments in my life. We lost a great member of our community when he passed away this past February and my heart goes out to his friends and family. He will live on forever through his work, if you haven’t seen it, you must.

Currently I am in production on a Nazisploitation/Horror flick, inspired by the infamous films of Bruno Mattei and Lee Frost. I like to say it’s kind of a Hellraiser meets the Third Reich. So be on the look out next summer for previews. For those of you out there seeking to get into film, my advice to you is go for it. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t.

Happy Halloween!”

Make sure to like the Facebook pages for both Operation: Nazi Zombies and Friday the 13th Part X: To Hell and Back.

As part of Inspiring Scares, Slasher Studios has taken a look at the work of various horror writers and filmmakers but we have for you a rare Slasher Studios first today. We are taking a look at the Inspiring Scare from FX Artist Shiva Rodriguez (because what is a horror movie without some great special effects?) and the horror movie that changed Shiva’s life forever…

The first thing I remember about Friday the 13th was that I wasn’t allowed to see it. I was about ten years old when it came out on cable, and despite the fact that I had already been exposed to a great deal of theatrical blood by then, my mother was very skeptical about letting me see this notorious film. Like any responsible parent would, she sent my brother and I to stay at our grandmother’s house for the night while she exercised “parental discretion” and watched the film herself. Of course, I was calling home every ten minutes to see if she’d let me watch it. After the first hour, I was told that I could not see it under any circumstances.

Fast-forward a few months later when my father presented his children with this new-fangled device known as a VCR and then proceeded to indulge his daughter in renting whatever films her heart desired. So at long-last, I got to watch Friday the 13th. Any fears that my mother harbored about how the film might affect my dreams certainly came true, but not quite in the way she’d anticipated. For the first time I got to see death scenes that looked very realistic when compared to the stage tricks I grew up with. I was absolutely fascinated by the idea of doing practical FX. From that day forward, makeup artist Tom Savini became my hero and my kid brother became my guinea pig. Although it came out long after The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween, Friday the 13th is often credited for ushering in the slasher film genre. I’m guessing that’s because the 1980s gave birth to a swarm of killer-on-the-loose films that all tried to out-do each other with how many different ways they could knock off a cast of teenagers.

We start off with the obligatory first pair of victims before the opening credits, then on to meeting the team of counselors who are fixing up an old, run-down camp for its grand re-opening and presumably hoping that everyone has forgotten about the Voorhees kid who drowned and the two counselors who were murdered there in the not-so-distant past. Very shortly thereafter, the cast gets depleted down to a single survivor and a very angry killer. The film utilizes a beautiful blend of all things terrifying. An isolated setting, characters put into very vulnerable positions, showing us horrible ways to be murdered with whatever objects happen to be laying around, and of course, it all takes place during a dark and stormy night. There’s no doubt that this film was cleverly engineered to give its audience nightmares.

Of course, what I loved the most about it were the realistic and gory FX which really raised the bar to the point that many of the other films that followed its path simply couldn’t compare. We get to watch a girl get hit in the face with an axe. We get to view a gory decapitation in the POV of the character wielding the machete. We even get to see Kevin Bacon get skewered through his throat by an arrow. (By the way, that image really stuck with me a couple years later while watching Footloose.) The film paved the way for a long string of sequels by resurfacing the drowned child (Jason), and things eventually became a bit goofy as the numbers got higher and the writers started running out of plausible places to send Mr. Voorhees. Recently a re-make of the original film was done and I was very glad to see that Jason found his way back home to good old Camp Crystal Lake.