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Thursday, October 15, 2015

Overlooked Crowd Funding: The History of Metal and Horror

"What we're selling and what we're buying is not stuff, it's memories"
-Joe Moe (Mad Monster)

Metal and horror have had a close relationship for as long as I can remember. That may not be saying much since I was only born in the late 80's, but that doesn't make it any less true. It's becoming more and more commonplace to see the two interact with each other, and the same can be said about the two fan bases. I didn't really think about it when I was younger, but many of the bands I gravitated towards when I started listening to metal had some obvious horror elements, like masks, monstrous personas, or gory live acts. They were the love children of both influences.


The undeniable relationship between metal and horror was briefly touched on during the VH1 series Metal Evolution but only in a shock-rock overview. There was just not enough time to get detailed. Well, now we're going to get a whole feature about the subject!

For the past two years, Mike Schiff has been travelling the world, collecting interviews with actors and musicians about several subjects surrounding horror and metal, and how they became such a strong duo. He has some great people involved in this project already; producer Robert J. Lucas is an award winning documentary film maker and has worked on several horror documentaries (More Brains! A Return to the Living Dead, His Name was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th). And executive producer Brian Slagel is the father of Metal Blade Records. He is probably responsible for a lot of the albums in your collection and for introducing you to at least one band that changed your life.
Mike Schiff also came out of working in the media, even working for the Howard Stern Show for eight years, but he wears a variety of different hats for this project. The most obviously important one is compiling all of the necessary interviews. He has amassed a pretty long list of people he has already talked to:

Ace Von Johnson (Faster Pussycat) 
Alice Cooper 
Johannes Michael Gustaf Eckerström and Tim Öhrstrom (Avatar)
Brian Slagel (Metal Blade Records)
Charlie Benante (Anthrax)
Chris Jericho (Fozzy)
Corey Taylor (Slipknot/Stone Sour)
Dick Warlock (Halloween II)
Doug Bradley (Hellraiser)
Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein (Misfits)
Dukey Flyswatter (Haunted Garage)
Gunnar Hansen (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
Jeordie White, aka Twiggy Ramirez (Marilyn Manson)
Joe Moe (Mad Monster)
John 5 (Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie)
John Russo (Night of the Living Dead)
Jonathan Davis (Korn)
Jose Mangin (Sirius/XM)
Kirk Hammett (Metallica)
Nivek Ogre (Skinny Puppy)
Ron Chaney (Chaney Ent.)
Sid Haig (House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects)
Tom Savini (From Dusk Til Dawn)
Wednesday 13 (Murderdolls)
... and that's not even all of them.

The History of Metal and Horror is already well into production, but in order to cover attorney fees, travel, promotion, post production, and so on, director Mike Schiff has launched an Indiegogo campaign. In one month, it has raised almost 10 thousand dollars of its 50 thousand dollar goal, and it's got 22 days to go. 

When it comes to perks, this campaign is pretty straight forward. Let's take a look:

Affordable:
  • $13 gets you an 8x10 of the art above, signed by the director
  • $25 gets you the DVD/Bluray of the completed documentary
Under $100:
  • $50 will get you the DVD/bluray and a shirt, and if that Brian Allen art from the top of the post is on it, then I'm definitely in! 
Breaking the Piggy Bank:
  • $100 will get you a personalized DVD/Bluray signed by the director, a shirt, an 8x10 of the art for the movie, and a special thanks on the site. This is the best perk, in my opinion. You get a signed copy of the movie and a couple other goodies on top.
From there it goes into producer perks and jumps up in price. But there is one cool perk for anyone who has a lot to say and can afford the...

Honorable mention: 
For $1000 you will get interviewed and added into the film's release as part of the special features. That's a pretty cool way to be involved in the movie \m/

Be sure to visit the campaign's Indiegogo page to see all the perks and other info. Or you can go directly to the movie's site MetalHorror.com to find info and sites for those who have already been interviewed, updates, press link, and more. Let's help this movie get made, we all know it's been a long time coming.

-Huntress

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