Tales From The Darkside: The Movie – Press Kit
Tales From The Darkside The Movie
Paramount Pictures
HANDBOOK OF PRODUCTION INFORMATION
PARAMOUNT PICTURES PRESENTS
A RICHARD P. RUBINSTEIN PRODUCTION
TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE
Starring in order of Appearance:
DEBORAH HARRY – CHRISTIAN SLATER – DAVID JOHANSEN – WILLIAM HICKEY – JAMES REMAR – RAE DAWN CHONG
Make-up Effects Consultant DICK SMITH
“Lot 249” Screenplay By MICHAEL McDOWELL
Inspired By A Story By STEPHEN KING
“Lover’s Vow” Written By MICHAEL McDOWELL
Produced by RICHARD P. RUBINSTEIN and MITCHELL GALIN
Directed by JOHN HARRISON
Artwork Copyright 1990 Paramount Pictures.
All Rights Reserved.
TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE is a Registered Trademark or Laurel Entertainment, Inc.
“TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE”
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
BETTY: When I was a little girl this was my favorite book. Which one was your favorite story?
TIMMY: Let me out of here. Help! What are you doing?
BETTY: Just pre-heating to 350.
TIMMY: Help! There’s a crazy woman in here. She’s gonna cook me! She’s gonna eat me!
Brace yourself for four ghoulish fables in one modern nightmare…
“Tales from the Darkside: The Movie” is a contemporary horror thriller written by Michael McDowell (“Beetlejuice”) and George A. Romero (“Night of the Living Dead”), based on stories by Stephen King (“Pet Sematary,” “The Shining,” “Carries”), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes), and McDowell. The film stars (in order of appearance) Deborah Harry, Christian Slater, David Johansen, William Mickey, James Renar, and Rae Dawn Chong. The film co-stars Matthew Lawrence, Robert Sedgwick, Steve Busceni, Julianne Moore, and Robert Klein.
A presentation of the Motion Picture Group of Paramount Pictures, a Paramount Communications company, the Richard P. Rubinstein production was produced by Richard P. Rubinstein and Mitchell Galin and directed by John Harrison from a screenplay by Michael McDowell and George A Romero. Dick Smith (“The Exorcist”) was a consultant for the film’s special make-up effects; special make-up effects were created by the K. N. B. EFX Group. The director of photography was Robert Draper; and the film was co-produced by David R. Kappes.
“The film brings moviegoers the stories that, frankly, we couldn’t make for television,” comments Richard P. Rubinstein. “In the course of exploring a great deal of exciting horror material during a period of many years, we came across stories that for various reasons – relating to the scope, subject matter, or the intricate effects required – were better suited for the big screen.”
The movie is the first to be produced by Rubinstein since the hit “Pet Sematary,” the highest-grossing film adaptation of a Stephen King novel.
“This is a film in the ‘things that go bump in the night’ tradition of scare-moviemaking,” Rubinstein says. “Our first objective is to combine great story-telling and acting. The special visual effects and make-up effects are meant to embellish the story. I feel that the most popular horror films present characters that moviegoers recognize and identify with.”
Director John Harrison describes “Tales from the Darkside: The Movie” as “a roller coaster ride of a film that combines three chilling horror tales with a startling connecting story by Michael McDowell that features Deborah Harry as a sinister suburban housewife.”
In “The Wraparound Story,” Betty (Deborah Harry) returns from the supermarket to begin her preparations for a dinner party. Her kitchen is unusual in many respects – special features include an enormous stove and freezer. There’s even a walk-in dungeon. Betty’s captive audience is a little boy named Timmy (Mathew Lawrence) who won’t be joining her for dinner – he is dinner.
As Timmy attempts to postpone his terrifying fate of recounting to Betty stories from the book, each tale unfolds on the screen…
BETTY: You have to be in the oven by no later than 1:30.
TIMMY: You said this was your favorite book. Don’t you wanna hear a story? It’s about these guys in college. They live in the same dorm and one of them’s kind of poor, so he works his way through school selling things. His name is Bellingham and he collects antiques. Well, one day Bellingham got a very special delivery…
The first tale from the darkside was adapted by Michael McDowell from the short story “Lot 249” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Christian Slater stars as Andy Smith, a college student menaced by a 3,000-year-old mummy.
“Lot 249” co-stars Robert Bedgwick as Andy’s best friend, Lee; Julianne Moore as Andy’s sister, Susan; and Steve Buscemi as Edward Bellingham, a graduate student eager for revenge after being cheated out of the Penrose Scholarship by Lee and Susan.
The story was originally suggested to producers Rubinstein and Galin by special make-up effects consultant Dick Smith, who also provided them with an extensive amount of reference material about mummies prior to the contemporary adaptation of this classic story.
Special make-up effects for this tale – as well as all the stories in “Tales from the Darkside: The Movie” – were created by Kurtzman, Nicotero & Berger, commonly known as the K. N. B. EFX Group, a company that has worked on such films as “Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child.”
“Each of the tales has a very different look,” says Harrison. “For example, ‘Lot 249’ has a look reminiscent of ’40s horror films with static camera and characters moving in and out of the compositions for suspense. Each story is told with a wry, ironic black humor. What is so challenging about an anthology film is that you are literally creating many films in one. Even though the stories are short, each necessitates the same attention to detail and continuity of vision that would be required by any feature-length narrative.”
BETTY: Goodness, it’s almost one o’clock. We’ve got to get things started.
TIMMY: Uh, wait. I want to tell you another story.
BETTY: Time to put the book away.
TIMMY: But I haven’t told you the best story yet. I had to stop reading it twice because it got me so scared – the one about the old man who was so rich. And he lives in this big old house all by himself…
The second take from the darkside, “Cat From Hell,” was adapted by George A Romero from the short story by Stephen King. The nightmarish tale stars William Hickey as a desperate millionaire who hires a professional killer (David Johansen) to get rid of a murderous household pet.
Director John Harrison has filmed this story in a gothic expressionistic style utilizing an array of lighting effects and camera movements. One of the cinematic devices implemented for this tale was a ‘cat-cam.’ Devised for the tale by Harrison and cinematographer Rob Draper, the cat-cam enabled the filmmakers to convey unusual shorts from a feline point-of-view.
The story’s biggest challenge for Robert Kurtzman of the K. N. B. EFX Group was the duplication of a live cat for the tale’s most horrorific sequences. If you thought the cat in “Pet Sematary” was frightening, just wait until you encounter this one.
BETTY: My favorites were the love stories.
TIMMY: Uh, yeah. Well, there’s one story in that book that’s really scary. But it’s a love story, too.
BETTY: Which one was that? You still have to cook for quite a while, but I’d love to hear the story.
TIMMY: Okay. Well, there’s a part of New York that’s really busy during the day, and when it’s late at night and hardly anyone’s around strange things sometimes happen. And ten years ago, on a cold, dreary night, an artist named Preston saw something very, very strange…
In “Lover’s Vow,” written by Michael McDowell, a Soho artist (James Remar) makes an unholy deal with a monstrous creature before falling in love with Carola (Rae Dawn Chong), who helps him put his life back in order. The artist’s agent is played by Robert Klein.
For what he describes as “a horrific fairy tale love story,” John Harrison evokes a film noir style enhanced by vivid and textured camerawork.
The monster in the tale – an enormous gargoyle – was created utilizing a ten-pound headdress and 40-pound wings. After co-producer David Kappes suggested a mountain climbing harness could be effective in the design of the creature, the K. N. B. EFX team were able to give the frightening entity a 15-foot wingspan.
In his motion picture directorial debut for producers Rubinstein and Galin, “Tale from the Darkside: The Movie” director John Harrison celebrates a variety of cinematic styles in a film of suspense and terror that relies on the classic ways of scaring people.
ABOUT THE CAST
Films with singer/actress DEBORAH HARRY (Betty) include “Hairspray,” “Forever Lulu” with Hanna Schygulla, “Videodrome” with James Woods, “Roadie,” and “Union City.” Harry began filming “Tales from the Darkside: The Movie” soon after completing her new album “Def, Dumb, and Blonde.”
Well-known as the lead singer of Blondie, Harry has appeared on television in a recurring role in the series “Wise Guy,” the telefilm “Sweet Little Rock & Rollers,” an episode of “Crime Story,” and the “Tales from the Darkside” series episode “The Moth” (written by Michael McDowell).
Harry made her legitimate theatre debut on Broadway in the New York premiere of “Teaneck Tanzi.”
The films of CHRISTIAN SLATER (Andy) include “Heathers,” “The Wizard,” “Gleaming the Cube,” “Tucker: The Man And His Dream,” “Personal Choice,” “The Legend of Billie Jean,” and “The Name of the Rose.”
His television appearances include HBO’s “Twisted” and the telefilms “Desperate for Love” and “Living Proof: The Hank Williams Jr. Story.” One of Slater’s first television appearances was in an episode of the “Tales from the Darkside” series during the show’s first year.
Slater was born and raised in New York City, the son of an actor father and a casting director mother. He played his first role at the age of seven in “One Life to Live.” He next acted in the role of Winthrop opposite Dick Van Dyke in a nine-month tour of “The Music Man.”
He has appeared on Broadway in “Merlin,” “David Copperfield,” and “Macbeth.” He performed in “A Christmas Carol” at Radio City Music Hall. His off-Broadway appearances include “Landscape of the Body” and the Williamstown Theater Festival production of “Sherlock Holmes” with Frank Langella.
DAVID JOHANSEN (Halston) has appeared in “Let It Ride,” “Scrooged,” “Married to the Mob,” and “Candy Mountain.”
Johansen is also known as Buster Poindexter when he appears musically with his Banshees of Blue. The group has appeared regularly on “Saturday Night Live.” Poindexter’s first album featured the hit single “Hot Hot Hot” and the music video of that song brought him an MTV Video Music Award nomination for Best New Artist in a Video. His second album, “Buster Goes Berserk,” features the hit single “All Night Party.”
Johansen has also appeared on television in episodes of “Miami Vice” and “The Equalizer.”
Born and raised in Staten Island, Johansen played in high school rock bands and moved to Manhattan at the age of 18. After a short stint working with Charles Ludlum’s Ridiculous Theatre Company, Johansen founded the glam-rock group The New York City Dolls and toured the country with the group for the next three years.
In 1984 after launching a solo career, Johansen created Buster Poindexter and his Banshees Blue. The group performed in New York at such clubs as Tramps and the Bottom line, combining hilarious uptown sketches with a unique collection of jazz, blues, Latin and lounge music. Johansen has been honored as Best Cabaret Act by the New York City Music Awards and won the 1986 New York City Music Awards as Entertainer of the Year.
Johansen lives in New York City with his wife, photographer Kate Simon.
WILLIAM HICKEY (Drogan) received an Academy Award nomination for his role in “Prizzi’s Honor.” His other films include “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” “Sea of Love,” “Pink Cadillac,” “It Had To Be You,” “Puppet Master,” “Bright Lights, Big City,” “Da,” “The Name of the Rose,” “Wise Blood,” “Mikey and Nicky,” “92 in the shade,” “Little Big Man,” “The Boston Strangler,” “The Producers,” “Operation Madball.” He made his motion picture debut in “A Hatful of Rain.”
His television appearances include the telefilm “Stranded”; episodes of “Miami Vice,” “Moonlighting,” “Crime Story,” and “The Equalizer”; and he starred in the “Tales from the Darkside” series episode “The Circus.”
Hickey’s many Broadway appearances include the recent revival of “Arsenic and Old Lace,” “On The Town,” “Mourning Becomes Electra,” “Saint Joan,” and “Thieves.” His off-Broadway appearances include “Small Craft Warnings,” “Happy Birthday, Wanda June,” “Adaptation,” and “Next.” For six seasons Hickey performed with the American Shakespeare Festival.
Hickey was born in Brooklyn. He is also a renowned teacher of acting at HB Studios.
JAMES REMAR (Preston) has appeared in such films as “Drugstore Cowboy,” “The Dream Team,” “The Clan of the Cave Bear,” “Band of the Hand,” “The Cotton Club,” “48 Hrs.,” “The Windwalker,” The Long Riders,” “Cruising,” and “The Warriors.” Remar made his motion picture acting debut in “On the Yard” directed by Raphael Silver.
Remar was raised in Boston in a family with six children. At 15 he left school to travel with a rock band for a few years. After returning to high school and working at a number of odd jobs, he was hired for a job in summer stock in Florida. While working there, Remar met Richard Boone, who sent the young actor to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York.
On Broadway Remar starred with Richard Gere in “Bent.” His other stage appearances include the Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of “California Dog Fight.”
On Television he has appeared in the mini-series “The Mystic Warrior,” the telefilm “Desperado,” and episodes of such series as “The Hitchhiker,” “The Equalizer,” “Miami Vice,” and “Hill Street Blues.”
Remar and his wife had their first child a few weeks after he completed his role in “Tales from the Darkside: The Movie.”
The films of RAE DAWN CHONG (Carola) include “Soul Man,” “The Color Purple,” “American Flyer,” “Commando,” “Choose Me,” “The Squeeze,” and “Quest for Fire.” She began her career at 12 in a Disney telefilm.
Chong married her “Soul Man” co-star C. Thomas Howell in 1989 and also stars with him in the upcoming “Far Out Man,” which was written and directed by her father, Thomas Chong, who also appears in the film.
She resides in Los Angeles and Woodstock, N.Y., and has a seven year-old son.
MATTHEW LAWRENCE (Timmy) appeared in “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” and “Pulse.” He is best known for his lead role in the telefilm “David.” On television Lawrence has appeared regularly on such series as “Dynasty,” in which he played Danny Carrington; “Sara,” in which he played Jesse; and “Gimme A Break,” in which he played Matthew. Lawrence has also appeared in two Andy Williams Christmas specials, “Wilford” on PBS, and “The Tonight Show.” Lawrence’s brother, Joey, is also an actor.
ROBERT SEDGWICK (Lee) starred in “Nasty Hero” and appeared in “Home Front” and “Now I Know.” On television he played the recurring role of Lance in “As The World Turns” and Hunter Bradshaw in “Another World.” After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Neighborhood Playhouse, Sedgwick began his professional acting career while attending Bennington College. He has also performed in numerous stock and regional theatre productions.
STEVE BUSCEMI (Bellingham) has appeared in “Mystery Train,” “Bloodhounds of Broadway,” “New York Stories,” and “Parting Glances.” His television appearances include “Lonesome Dove,” “The Equalizer,” “Miami Vice,” and the “Bed and Boar” episode of “Monsters.” Born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, Buscemi began his acting career in New York experimental repertories including La Mama and The Kitchen, often performing in plays that he co-authored with actor Mark Boone Junior. Buscemi is married to performance artist/choreographer Jo Andres and has appeared in her works.
JULIANNE MOORE (Susan) is known for her dual roles of Frannie and Sabrina Hughes in “As The World Turns.” She has also appeared in the mini-series “I’ll Take Manhattan” and in “The Edge of Night” as Carmen Engler. A graduate of the Boston University School of the Arts, Moore has appeared in many stage productions, including the American premiere of the Caryl Churchill comedy “Serious Money,” which opened at Joseph Papp’s Public Theatre before transferring to Broadway.
The films of ROBERT KLEIN (Wyatt) include “The Owl and the Pussycat,” “Rivals,” “The Landlord,” “The Bell Jar,” “Hooper,” and “Nobody’s Perfect.”
Klein received a Best Actor Tony nomination and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for “They’re Playing Our Song.”
After attending Yale Drama School, Klein began his career as a member of Chicago improvisational company Second City. His Broadway appearances include “The Apple Tree,” “Morning, Noon and Night,” and “New Faces of 1968.”
Klein’s television appearances include starring in the series “Comedy Tonight” and “Robert Klein Time.” His other television appearances include a regular role on “Bloopers and Practical Jokes,” five one-man shows for HBO, “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” “Late Night with David Letterman,” “Summer Switch,” “This Wife For Hire,” “Poison Ivy,” and “Your Place or Mine?”
His first album, “Child of the ’50s,” received a Grammy nomination. His other albums are “Mind Over Matter” and “New Teeth.”
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Director/writer/composer JOHN HARRISON (Director/score) makes his motion picture directorial debut with “Tales from the Darkside: The Movie.” Harrison was assistant director and composed the scores for “Creepshow” and “Day of the Dead.” He directed eight episodes of the “Tales from the Darkside” television series, including the first original teleplay written by Stephen King entitled “Sorry, Right Number.” Four of these episodes Harrison also wrote, including “Everybody Needs a Little Love” starring Jerry Ohrbach that brought Harrison a 1988 Writers Guild Nomination.
While studying film and television at Carnegie-Mellon in Pittsburgh, Harrison met producer Richard P. Rubinstein and director George A. Romero, who selected him to compose the score for “Creepshow.” Harrison also worked as first assistant director on the film. He served in these same capacities for “Day of the Dead” as well as directing the second unit.
His other television work includes writing and directing the pilot “Night Rose,” directing the pilot “Scary Tales,” and writing “The Legacy” episode of “Monsters.” He has also conceived and directed two rock videos: The Silencers’ “Rock’n Roll Enforcers” and The Houserockers’ “Angel.”
Harrison resides in Los Angeles with his wife and infant son.
Producer RICHARD P. RUBINSTEIN produced “Pet Sematary,” “Day of the Dead,” “Creepshow,” “Knightriders,” “Dawn of the Dead,” “Martin,” and he executive produced “Creepshow 2.”
The president and a founder of Laurel Entertainment (a unit of Spelling Entertainment Inc.), Rubinstein is the co-executive producer of the television series “Tales from the Darkside” and the executive producer of “Monsters,” which begins a third season in September 1990.
Rubinstein was born in Brooklyn, New York, and he was raised on Long Island. He studied business administration at American University and received his M. B. A. from Columbia University. In 1973 he made his producing debut as associate producer of “A Night With Nicol Williamson,” a television special executive produced by Dore Schary.
The “Cat From Hell” segment of “Tales from the Darkside: The Movie” is based on a Stephen King story and continues a Rubinstein-King producing relationship that began with King’s first produced screenplay (“Creepshow”) and first produced teleplay (“Sorry, Right Number”). Rubinstein lives and works in New York City, where Laurel Entertainment, Inc. was founded and is based.
Producer MITCHELL GALIN co-produced “Pet Sematary” and associate produced “Creepshow 2.” Galin joined Laurel Entertainment in 1985 and is Executive Vice President of Production for the company.
He was the Executive in Charge of Production for 42 episodes of the “Tales from the Darkside” television series and in 1988 Galin co-created Laurel’s series “Monsters,” for which he is Executive in Charge of Production. Galin is also senior producer for two upcoming Laurel Television projects: “Future Stuff” and “Spin TV.”
Prior to joining Laurel, Galin was director of Creative Affairs for the production division of Reader’s Digest and was Director of Development and Production Supervisor for Robert Halmi, Inc. Among the projects Galin helped develop or produce are the feature “Lily in Love” with Maggie Smith and Christopher Plummer, and the telefilms “Terrible Joe Moran” starring James Cagney and Art Carney, and “Trapped in Silence” with Marsha Mason and Kiefer Sutherland.
For “Tales from the Darkside: The Movie,” screenwriter MICHAEL MCDOWELL wrote “The Wraparound Story” and “Lover’s Vow”; and he adapted the Arthur Conan Doyle story “Lot 249.” McDowell made his motion picture debut with the hit “Beetlejuice” and co-wrote “High Spirits.”
McDowell began his screenwriting career with episodes for the “Tales from the Darkside” television series; making his directorial debut with one episode that he also wrote, “Seasons of Belief.” McDowell has also written for such post-“… Darkside” anthology series as “Amazing Stories,” for which he wrote three episodes; the new incarnation of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” for which he wrote the episode “The Jar”; and the HBO series “Tales from the Crypt,” for which he wrote the episode “Lover Come Back to Me.”
Screenwriter GEORGE A. ROMERO adapted the Stephen King short story “Cat From Hell” for “Tales from the Darkside: The Movie.” Romero made his motion picture directorial debut with “Night of the Living Dead.” He directed and wrote the screenplays for “Monkey Shines: An Experiment in Fear,” “Day of the Dead,” “Knightriders,” “Dawn of the Dead,” “Martin,” and “The Crazies.” He is the director of “Creepshow” and wrote the screenplay for “Creepshow 2.”
SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (author of the story “Lot 249”) is best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, one of the most popular literary characters of all time. Numerous films and television shows have been based on Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Holmes (1859-1930) is also the author of such historical novels as The White Company and a series of Napoleonic tales centering on Brigadier Gerard. Another Doyle character, Professor Challenger, is featured in a series of novellas, including “The Lost World,” which has been adapted into a motion picture three times. Doyle, whose interest in mummies was genuine, was an authority on the occult and wrote The History of Spiritualism in 1926.
Among the many films based on the fiction of STEPHEN KING (author of the story “Cat From Hell”) are “Pet Sematary,” “The Running Man,” “Stand By Me,” “Firestarter,” “The Dead Zone,” “Cujo,” “Christine,” “Creepshow,” “The Shining,” and “Carrie.” King’s novel “‘Salem’s Lot” became a four-hour telefilm that inspired a sequel, “A Return to ‘Salem’s Lot.” The best-selling author’s first original teleplay to be produced is the “Sorry, Right Number” episode of the “Tales from the Darkside” television series.
Co-producer DAVID KAPPES associate produced and was the unit production manager of “Jaws 3-D.” He produced the independent film “Likewise” and was production manager for “I’m Dancing As Fast As I Can.”
For television Kappes produced “In The Line of Duty: The FBI Murders” and he produced and was the second unit director of the Emmy-nominated “The Night They Saved Christmas.” He was the supervising producer and unit production manager of “Terrible Joe Moran”; supervising producer of Nairobi Affair”; coordinating producer of “Trapped in Silence”; associate producer, second unit director, and production manager of “Bill,” which won two Emmys, a Golden Globe, and the Peabody Award; and he was unit production manager and first assistant director of the American Playhouse presentation of “Pigeon Feathers.”
Kappes was born, raised and educated in New York City, where he continues to reside.
Director of Photography ROBERT DRAPER’s films include “Simple Justice,” “Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Meyers,” and “Tiger Warsaw.”
For television Draper has been the cinematographer of episodes of “Tales from the Darkside,” “Monsters,” “The Street,” “America’s Most Wanted,” and the pilot “Night Rose.”
He was born in Australia and moved to New York in 1984. Draper has worked on more than 200 documentaries, as well as music videos and commercial. He is also a cinematography teacher and lecturer who speaks frequently at college film schools and film workshops across the country.
Draper was recently chosen by the Arriflex Corporation to instruct the U.S. Astronauts at NASA about the use of ARRI cameras on space shuttle missions.
Production designer RUTH AMMON’s films include “Hang Tough,” “Walls of Glass,” and “Hard Choices.” As art director, her films include the American Playhouse feature “Longtime Companion” and “Vampire’s Kiss.”
For television Ammon was production designer for the After School Special “The Accident” and the American Playhouse presentation “First Love and Other Sorrows”; and she was art director for “The Incredible Ida Early” and HBO’s “The Invisible Thread.”
Ammon attended Oxford Polytechnic in England and Pennsylvania’s Muhlenberg College, where she received a Fine Art B.A. She has also worked as a commercial and television production set designer; and as a costume designer for stage productions. Ammon was assistant curator at the Center for the Arts at 1980 and 1981.
Costume designer IDA GEARON’s films include “High Stakes,” “Chill Factor,” and the upcoming “Superfly II” and “Mindwarp.”
Gearon was born in Illinois and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. She attended the California Institute of the Arts and New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology.
She has also designed costumes for the stage, including “Antigone” for Sidewalks of New York Theatre; and she was assistant costume designer for the Folksbeine Theatre presentation of the Yiddish play “Land of Dreams.”
She has also worked as a stylist for commercials.
The films of HARRY B. MILLER III (editor) include “Jack’s Back” and “Weekend Pass.” He work as a sound effects editor for “Back to the Future,” winner of the 1985 Best Sound Effects Editing Academy Award.
Miller was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky. He moved to Los Angeles to enroll at the USC cinema school in 1979. After receiving a Master’s Degree in film production, he has worked in various post-production capacities. For television he won an editing Emmy for the documentary “Go For It.”
DICK SMITH (Special Effects Consultant) received an Academy Award and a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for “Amadeus,” and he was recently Oscar-nominated for “Dad.” His other films include “Everybody’s All-American,” “Poltergeist III,” “Starman,” “The Hunger,” “Nighthawks,” “Ghost Story,” “Scanners,” “Altered States,” “The Deer Hunter,” “Exorcist II: The Heretic,” “The Sentinel,” “Taxi Driver,” “The Sunshine Boys,” “The Godfather, Part II,” “The Exorcist,” “The Godfather,” “Little Big Man,” “Midnight Cowboy,” “The World of Henry Orient,” and “Requiem for a Heavyweight.”
Richard Emerson Smith began his career as director of make-up for NBC television, where he worked for 14 years. He then became a freelance make-up artist and received an Emmy for “Mark Twain Tonight!” in 1967. He also received Emmy nominations for “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” “Harry S. Truman: Plain Speaking,” and “North & South, Book 1 (part six).”
Smith is a special make-up effects consultant for the television series “Monsters.”
The films of K. N. B. EFX GROUP (special make-up effects) include “Gross Anatomy,” “Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Meyers,” “Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3,” “Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child,” “U.H.F.,” and the upcoming “Dances with Wolves” and “Misery.”
K. N. B. EFX Group was formed in February 1988 by Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero, and Howard Berger, who decided to become partners after lending their individual talents to such films as “Predator,” “Day of the Dead,” “Child’s Play,” and “Deepstar Six.”
After attending art school, Robert Kurtzman moved to California. He began his career at John Carl Buechler’s make-up studio, where Kurtzman first worked with Howard Berger. Kurtzman’s pre-K. N. B. credits include “Evil Dead II,” “From Beyond,” and “Phantasm II.”
Greg Nicotero began his career working for Tom Savini on the “Tales from the Darkside” television series and, as Savani’s assistant, on “Day of the Dead,” the film upon which Nicotero first worked with Howard Berger. Nicotero has also worked on such films as “Creepshow II,” “Monkey Shines,” and “Invasion USA.”
Howard Berger, at the age of 14, decided upon a make-up career after meeting make-up artist Stan Winston. Berger has worked at various effects shops on such films as “Harry and the Hendersons,” “A Nightmare in Elm Street 4: The Dream Master,” and “Child’s Play.”
The “Tales from the Darkside: The Movie” score includes music for “Lover’s Vow” by director JOH HARRISON, who composed the scores of “Creepshow” and “Day of the Dead.” Music for “The Wraparound Story” was contributed by DONALD A. RUBINSTEIN, who composed the original theme for the “Tales from the Darkside” television series with Erica Lindsay. JIM MANZIE & PAT REGAN (“Stepfather II,” “Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III”) composed music for “Lot 249.” CHAZ JANKEL (“Earth Girls Are Easy,” “D.O.A.”) scored “Cat From Hell.”
1990 Paramount Pictures.
