A few months back, a band local to my hometown of Chicago popped up on my radar, and I still don't know how I'd missed them for so long. With a decadent sound reminiscent of Motley Crue and Buckcherry (both of whom they've toured with!) THE LAST VEGAS adds some Windy City-flavor to a a style of rock that sounds right at home on the Sunset Strip of Los Angeles.

Since checking out the April release of their new album WHATEVER GETS YOU OFF, frontman Chad Cherry and I have been exchanging emails and it turns out he's a 100% certified horror freak and Fango fiend. After a recent exchange in which Chad was flipping through FANGORIA #285 while waiting to catch a flight to L.A., it was apparent that it was time for a TLA installment of FANGORIA MUSICK's LISTS OF DOOM.



For the uninitiated, LISTS is the column where we track down some of your favorite (or soon-to-be favorite) bands to get their thoughts on on the world of horror, and which films scare them. So here's our 18th(!) installment - Chad Cherry of THE LAST VEGAS...

SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT -1984-  Dir. Charles E. Sellier jr
This flick ruffled feathers in the 80's and pissed of the PTA (and not because of the acting)! I guess they didn't like the idea of a deranged Santa hanging folks with Christmas lights, smashing people's brains in with a hammer, chopping children's heads off, and impaling Scream Queen Linnea Quigley on antlers of the antelope head hanging on the wall (But i sure liked it.) I love taking something so wholesome as ole' St. Nick and making him a box cutter and axe wielding teenage killer. "Naughty"! or nice..."Santa's here"!!!

MANIAC -1980- Dir. William Lustig
I would walk into the video store as a kid and get freaked out just by the theatrical cover, and then I'd get mad when mom said "you are NOT renting that"...But of course i did anyway. Maniac is such a classic slasher/splatter film. Schizoid Frank is a total night stalker and scalping women to decorate the mannequins that he beds down with is what he does! Oh and his abusive dead whore mommy still talks to him. Also "Disco Boy" Tom Savini (did the F/X and my hero) get's his head more than blasted off with a shot gun while sucking face on lovers lane. This is not a date movie... I've tried it out and all the girls run out screaming at first scalp.

TETSUO The Iron Man -1989- Dir. Shinya Tsu Kamoto
This is a different kinda horror movie to me. It's natural man v.s. the metallic "Brain World" of technology, and our hero can't do anything but mutate into a sadomasochistic biomechanical insect lookin' drilling killing monstrosity! This film has great dark surreal imagery and the violence is often brutal and explicit. Especially the scene when Tetsuo's ding ding turn's into the "Drill Cock" and destroys his girlfriend via carnal knowledge! Fuck her Iron Man! Fuck her!

THE THING -1982- Dir. John Carpenter
Personally I would hate to be stuck in the Antarctic on a research station with NO GIRLS. And the last thing you need is the nearby Norwegian scientists to unearth an alien spacecraft that has been buried in the ice for thousands of years with passengers who are shape-shifting organisms that can assimilate anything that's living- just to survive. And they do it in the most bloody, flesh ripping, puss ridden sickening way that the goddamn THING can imagine! YES! Paranoia and mistrust."Who's still human... Who's one of those... Things?" And the Rob Bottin F/X are fucking amazing!!! This is a comfort movie to me.

FRONTIER(S) -2007- Dir. Xavier Gens
Loving all types of horror (mostly from the older catalog) and classics that spawn the new, I thought I'd step out of the last couple decades and give kudos to the more recent. Frontier(s) is messy one! I love nasty families, and the characters in this one are a bunch blood spilling sick fuck-o's. A good gore bath of cannibals, nazi scumbag bastards, and a lil' torture. I've toured all of Europe and i think I've seen some middle of nowhere places like this.(And I'm glad i saw Hostel after the fact i was basically there.) Great film work and heavy shots at the end that make me cringe. Nice and disturbing.



PIECES -1982- Dir. Juan Piquer Simo'n
This is one of the movies I think about when I hear the words "Grindhouse". Seeing this as a youth, I would hold court on the bus ride to school with the story of a little boy who was punished for playing with his puzzle (of a naked woman...oooh). So on that note, he grew up only to hack up young ladies, take their body parts and sew them all back together in a mixed, matched fashion..Thus creating his very own "naked puzzle girl". This flick has that real sleaze ball quality to it that makes you feel creeped out (like 'you shouldn't be watching this') before anything even gets rolling. And by rolling I mean the chainsaw to the stomach scene that goes down in the ladies shower room...Gut wrenching!

FROM BEYOND -1986- Dir. Stuart Gordon
Being a fan of H.P. Lovecraft, From Beyond (like Re-Animator) is the adaptation of one of his short stories that Gordon had to put on the screen. Why you might ask? To show ya the unforeseen results that stimulating the pineal gland in your brain is a bad fuckin' idea! I'm all for the orgasm of the mind but that Resonator thing and creatures from another dimension. No Way! This movie is full of really gross imagery and lots of puss.'"The head that breaks apart and spills all that goo, made me realize that I was almost thru". And the S&M shit is priceless.

HALLOWEEN -2007- Dir. Rob Zombie
I have been obsessed with these films ever since I've heard the words John Carpenter  and when Rob Zombie re-made this one I nearly creamed in my jeans. He took it to a different level and gave you a deeper, darker, look into the eyes of The Shape. Michael Meyers is evil. This pick might be a little obvious and you all know that I wanna put Tobe Hooper's TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE on this list too, but no matter what -Rob Zombie knows his horror, and most freakoziods like myself will agree.  "Hell has come to your  town!"

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE -1978- Dir. Meir Zarchi
This is not really a horror movie to me (but it is to Jennifer the main character) as much as it was my first blood soaked revenge film i was susceptible to. None the less, it left a serious scar like any good splatter flick could. There are some pretty horrendous scenes of brutality on our heroine, but she chops, cuts, castrates and quotes back at her attacker- " suck it bitch" before some disembowelment. Sweet revenge. Not many folks can watch this one with me, (except Dean Gonzalez who has an autograph pic of Camille Keaton in speedboat, toting axe.) and that say's something about this film.

DAY OF THE DEAD -1985- Dir. George A. Romero
Ahhh Romero! Zombie Apocalypse!!! This one shows you how some of the only surviving members of an underground military establishment (or the world.."They still don't know") act when the living dead have basically taken over and ravaged earth. I love the character build up and how dire things get. Total clusterfuck! The F/X are some of the best ever put to film (my opinion goes, of course). Savini and Romero... What else would you ever need? Out of all the zombie films that have and will come out, this one will always hold a place in my vampire heart.

That's all for now, I hope this all sickens you in the wonderful way it does me - you freaks!


Check out THE LAST VEGAS' WHATEVER GETS YOU OFF, available now on Eleven Seven Music.

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