FANGORIA® - Celebrating 30 Years of Horror 1979-2009 - Horror Movies, Music, Comics, Books, and more. Dedicated to the Preservation of All Things Horror...

Raise your hand if you’ve been to Groesbeck, TX. Didn’t think so. Pulling into town the night before we trekked up to Texas Frightmare Weekend, the macabre mecca of orange state horror cons, I suddenly remembered I had a warrant for my arrest in Groesbeck and Mexia respectively. I’d been living in New York for the past year or so and completely forgot the fact that I had been pulled over for speeding last summer on my way out of town. I’m of the philosophy that it’s not really a ticket unless you get written up in the city where you actually reside. There’s a fundamental difference between that and a “road-trip” ticket where honestly I am just tempted to rip it up just after law enforcement has left my rearview. When would I be back this way again, really? Why do they even bother wasting paper on out of state drivers or someone like me that was merely passing through the nearly forgotten, albeit romantic, barren landscape of small town Texas?

Of course, last summer when I got pulled over, I wasn’t just passing through. You could, however, in the six or so minutes it takes you to drive through rustic towns like these, never know that a good ole fashion dirt road slasher flick was filming right in the very small town you were so quick to dismiss a moment ago. I spent a red hot and sticky weekend filming the now never to be seen micro-budget not quite horror classic called THE LEGEND OF AXEMAN ABE in Groesbeck last summer and now, almost a year later, I was in danger of going to redneck jail if I didn’t behave myself and keep a low profile. The only snag in that plan was the fact that I was driving a Prius which East of Waco garners attention and it’s not the good for you, pro-environment kind. Imagine taking the NY Puerto Rican parade and transporting it so the parade path goes down Main Street instead of Broadway and you might begin to understand the level of scrutiny I was under. I was definitely turning heads.



Luckily, filmmaker and friend Tyler T Hayes had a house on the edge of town and that was my ultimate destination. If you do ever find yourself in Groesbeck cruising past one dilapidated miniature house after another I guarantee you’d never know that inside one of those houses is a full fledged home studio equipped with Final Cut Pro, Logic 8, and HD monitors where someone might be cutting a trailer to a film that only started shooting a couple of days before you decided to try taking a shortcut in your turtle waxed station wagon.

Welcome to low budget filmmaking in Texas. In a few days actor/director Parrish Randall and Tyler Hayes managed to put together a two-minute trailer including full-fledged graphics and an original score. That’s where I came in and luckily at two in the morning we finally managed to get signal to Tyler’s Gretsch guitar and I was off and running with a few choice licks and atmospheric overtones. The trailer debuted at the Texas Frightmakers Panel this past Sunday at Texas Frightmare Weekend (along with the trailer to POSSUM WALK that just went up on the FANGORIA website) but more on that later. Right now, I really just want to talk about the van.

1984 Dodge. Wood paneling. Shag carpet. Cushioned leather swivel seats. The ultimate first tour auto that never embarked on the drug-induced, melody maker adventure it was always meant to take. This van was meant to run on rock-n-roll but we converted it to blood and guts octane. We supplied ALL the equipment for the convention including a 12-foot projection screen, two full PA’s(one that was a mid 80s vintage Peavy setup), a Behringer sound board and projector. We setup the entire screening room and announcement PA as well as provide the horror inspired playlist and KRK’s for the VIP party. This was pretty much all Tyler Hayes’ equipment and without him, the Texas Frightmare Convention in Irving, TX at the Sheraton Grand would’ve been telling ghost stories in the dark. One problem, though, we forgot the chords.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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