From psychopathic to ecclesiastic!

An interview with the former bad boy of Italian horror cinema, John Morghen! 

by Christer Persson

John Morghen, or Giovanni Lombardo Radice if you will, is one actor whose characters always seemed to get into a lot of trouble. Perhaps he was type casted a lot, but there wasn’t many other actors had could portray these characters in such a vivid way that John, or Johnny as he prefers to be called, did. I remember seeing that famous drill scene from CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD over and over again, looked in amazement over the giant hole he got in his stomach in CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE, cringed when his private parts was cut off in CANNIBAL FEROX, rooted for his character Ricky in HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK and enjoyed his portrayal of the homosexual Brett in STAGE FRIGHT. But Johnny has done so much more than these low budget shockers.
Because Johnny is multilingual, he has no problems to work in either Italian, French or English productions. He has proven his talents by appearing in various stage plays, drama movies and directing operas among other things. If the eighties was his way up to stardom, the last decade has been a lot more profitable for him with big budget teveseries and the remake of The Omen which has made him a star. Heeeeere’s Johnny!

Christer: Even though movies like HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK, CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE, CANNIBAL FEROX, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD and STAGE FRIGHT were made long ago, it seems like having a life of their own. Do you feel intimidated that so many remember you from these kinds of movies? And is it weird to be recognized even in a small cold country as Sweden?
John Morghen: At the beginning, some years ago, when I found out that my old movies had so many fans I was quite surprised. By now I got used to it and accepted this fact with pleasure, because it’s always good to be liked and remembered even by young people who weren’t even born when those movies were shot.

Christer: Many of the roles that you played, especially in the eighties, often ended in gruesome deaths. Was it a conscience choice to accept these roles, or was it the only roles offered to you?
John Morghen: Italian directors do not have a great amount of fantasy. I started with a thriller (HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK) with a crazy neurotic kind of character and was typecast as such. I did what they offered me and never hid the fact that horror movies are not the ones I prefer. But I always tried to do my best and treated the scripts as if they were by Shakespeare (a bit hard at times). Later on I was called for different things, but mainly for TV productions (most generally European fiction shot in English). So I also had fun with Middle Ages sagas or the Bible. But I am aware that my popularity stills come from the horror movies.

Christer: Which movie was the worst experience to appear in and which one has been the best?
John Morghen: CANNIBAL FEROX was an atrocious movie. I hated it from the beginning. I accepted it only because I needed the money and regretted afterwards because of the pointless and stupid racist violence in it. Surely the only one movie I am ashamed of and the most difficult and hard to shoot, because of the locations in the jungle, and the continual shouting by the director (he wasn’t shouting at me, but it was enervating all the same).
The best- even watching it back after almost thirty years- was CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE, because director Antonio Margheriti was a real gentleman and an enchanting person and I liked the character of Charlie Bukowski very much.

Christer: My all time favourite film with you, as the gay actor Brett, is Michele Soavi’sSTAGE FRIGHT. You gave a great and memorable performance in that one. Do you have any fun memories from that set?
John Morghen: Shooting was hard because it was a very low budget movie, but we were all quite enthusiastic about being there because of the passion Michele Soavi was putting in the movie (his first one). I was a great friend of his since we had met whilst shooting Lucio Fulci’s GATES OF HELL and so I was very eager to give him my best. Furthermore I liked the role, because it was the first ”funny” role I was offered and on stage I have a reputation for being a pretty good comedy actor. Michele gave me the freedom to improvise and I remember funny bitching dialogues with Mary Sellers.

Christer: You also work as a screenwriter, appear in stage plays, television series, translate plays and have directed some operas. What do you enjoy the most? And how do you find the energy and motivation?
John Morghen: Well money is always a very good motivation, but this apart I always put a lot of energy in whatever I do and I like to change because I bore easily. The work as screenwriter is surely the one I liked the less, because I was writing mostly for TV series and when you do that your freedom as a writer is very limited. I love the stage and miss it terribly if I am not playing for a while and I adore the movies, because of the electric atmosphere on set, the rush, the sense of adventure, exotic locations. I am a bit of a gipsy actually, so the movies tribe is really the kind of company apt for me. Translating is a quiet, homely work that I do a lot, because I can do it wherever and I think I am pretty good at it. I translate plays and to do that, in my opinion, you must have an actor’s ”ear”, the immediate feeling that a line sounds right or wrong.

Christer: Since many of the movies made were produced on a moderate budget, was it some special connection among the actors? Do you have contact with any of the old colleagues?
John Morghen: I got along very well with many actors whilst shooting, but afterwards I kept in touch with very few. I am in touch with David Hess and love him a lot and I had recently the pleasure of being to some conventions with Catriona McCall, who’s really a charming and sweet person. I occasionally meet in Rome Antonella Interlenghi (still beautiful as a rose) and, as for the directors I am in touch with Deodato and of course Soavi.

Christer: Soavi’s visually stunning THE CHURCH marked a turning point for your acting; you played a priest for the first time, which you also portrayed in the remake of THE OMEN. Do you think with age your appearance changed from rebellious punk, to a more serene confident look?
John Morghen: You only mention THE OMEN, but as a matter of fact I had a brilliant Ecclesiastic career since THE CHURCH, because I was promoted Cardinal in a Luigi Magni Tv movie (LA NOTTE DI PASQUINO) and then I was pope Pius XII in another Italian TV movie. And I fondly remember the other priest I played with Deodato in another movie I did with him Can’t remember the English title because my partner was Michael York and he was absolutely terrific. A real thrill. (The movie is called PHANTOM OF DEATH)
As for my appearance I really don’t know. They keep calling me mostly for bad guys, but probably age gave me a subtler quality of evilness, as it happens with father Spiletto in THE OMEN.

Christer: Martin Scorsese’s GANGS OF NEW YORK also featured you in a little role, how did you get that part?
John Morghen: I wouldn’t really call it a role. It was almost an extra job, even if I was paid as an actor and stayed on set for one week. In the original script the actors playing Uncle Tom’s Cabin had a few lines, but they were cut before shooting because of the considerable length of the movie. At that point my agent didn’t want me to do it, but I insisted because I was curious about the huge reconstruction of the Nineteen Century New York, the big cast and the importance of the movie. To me it was fun, but if you blink an eye you wouldn’t know I was there. So I don’t even put it in my curriculum.

Christer: Since you work on several continents and in different languages, what’s the biggest difference from Italian filmmaking from, let’s say, American?
John Morghen: Money and fantasy, strongly related one to the other. American directors generally work with big budgets and they can have whatever they ask and take their time for special effects or difficult scenes. Italian directors, most especially the horror ones I worked with, worked with little money and thus had to stimulate their fantasy to realise the sequences they had in mind. And as for that the Italian crews are incredibly good. They can do whatever out of a string and a piece of wood. And at times it’s more fun to be on a low budget movie set than on a rich one (salary apart, of course)

Christer: If you get to show your fans one movie you have made from each decade, the seventies, eighties, nineties and the new millennia, which ones would you choose?
John Morghen: In the Seventies I wasn’t yet in the movies. My first movie (HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK) was shot at the end of 1979 and released in 1980. So I’ll name two for the Eighties and they are HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK and CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE. As for the Nineties I would say the TV mini-series THE HEART AND THE SWORD (directed by Fabrizio Costa) and for the new millennia the Bible episode about Saint Paul in which I was the cruel king Herod Agrippa.

Christer: The final question is the one I ask to every prominent person interviewed. Mr. Morghen, What is the meaning of life?
John Morghen: A hard one I’ll answer you with a quote from Life Is A Dream by the Seventeen Century Spanish dramatist Pedro Calderon de la Barca: But whether this might be reality or a dream, only one thing matters: to behave well. If it’s reality because it is and otherwise to find friends for the awakening moment


For those who wonder what ecclesiastic means:
Ecclesiastic noun
1. a member of the clergy or other person in religious orders.
2. a member of the ecclesia in ancient Athens.

Also check out John’s webbpage: www.giovannilombardoradice.com

List of the dead

Welcome gals and ghouls to a rotten piece of material today! I have a spot-spot for the undead, the walking dead, the ghouls, the rotten corpses whose only motivation is to consume the living! I confess.. I love the undead! 

Today I have looked deep inside my maggot infested brain to come up with a list 

of the fastest, bloodiest or the stupidest of all zombie movies ever made! All written down for your entertainment! Let the gut munching begin!

The angriest zombie

28 weeks later

Braindead

Demons

Nightmare City

Re-Animator

Winner: Dr. Hill (David Gale) in Re-animator – Stuart Gordon (1985)

Motivation: He´s angry, he´s bitter and he´s in love….

The most stupid zombiemovie ever made (the stupidest)

Burial Ground

Dawn of the Mummy

Winner: Burial Ground – Andrea Bianchi (1981)

Motivation: You can’t get stupider than this. Even in a genre where most of the participants already are braindead!

The best Vodoozombies

Zombie flesh eaters

Zombie Holocaust

Porno Holocaust

Winner: Zombie Flesh eaters – Lucio Fulci (1979)

Motivation: The mood, the violence and the set pieces on a tropical island makes this the ultimate voodoo zombie movie!

Most iconic zombie

Mr . Tounge -  Day of the Dead

Zombie from Zombie flesh eaters

Cemetery zombie  - Night of the Livind Dead

Dr. Jacob Tess Freudstein -  House by the cemetery

Dr. Hill – Re-Animator

Tarman – Return of the Living Dead

Winner: Cemetery zombie (Bill Heinzman)  - Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero 1968)

Motivation: The first stumbling modern zombie and also the one who has gotten the most exposure, sure all the others are icons as well, but you know.. they´re coming to get you Barbara!

The most sexy zombie

Erotic Nights of the Living Dead

Porn of the Dead

Porno Holocaust

Zombie strippers

Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!

Return of the Living Dead 3

Deadgirl

Winner: Julie Walker in Return of the Living Dead 3 – Brian Yuzna (1993)

Motivation: Have you seen the movie?

Most rotten zombie

Tombs of the Blind Dead

The Beyond

House by the cemetery

City of the living dead

Winnner: The Beyond – Lucio Fulci (1981)

Motivation: I am glad that The Beyond isn´t filmed in Smell-o-viosion. The stench would be unbearable.

Most talkative zombie

Creepshow

Dead Heat

Dead and buried

Re-Animator

Winner: Dead & Buried

Motivation: Come on! Haven´t you seen this movie either?

The fastest zombie

Dawn of the Dead

Return of the Living Dead

Day of the Dead (the shitty remake)

Resident Evil 1-4

Winner: Dawn of the dead– Zack Snyder (2004) (Look at left corner on the picture for coolest living person alive!)

Motivation: These rotten stinkbags would even outrun a trained athletic!   

The Slowest zombies

The Beyond

The living dead at the Manchester Morgue

Zombie flesh eaters

Burial ground

Shaun of the Dead

Night of the Living Dead

House by the cemetery

Winner: The living dead at the Manchester Morgue

Motivation: You either has to be nailed to the floor or be totally immobilized to get caught by these maggot infested corpses (luckily for us, many of the cast gets eaten none the less).

The sneakiest zombies

Dead and buried

Return of the Living Dead

Winner: Return of the Living dead –Dan O´Bannon (1985)

Motivation: Send more paramedics!

Best Headshot

Dawn of the dead (1978)

The Beyond

Zombie flesheaters

Winner: The Beyond

Motivation: None needed!

The bloodiest zombie movie

Braindead

Dead snow

Day of the Dead

Versus

Winner: Braindead – Peter Jackson (1993)

Motivation: Queen Erbetzh Bathory couldn´t ask for more blood to bathe in than the absurd amount of blood that is spilled in Braindead.

Third reich zombies

Dead Snow

Shock Waves

Oasis of the zombies

Zombie Lake

Winner: Dead Snow – Tommy Wirkola (2009)

Motivation: The coolest nazizombies this side of the second world war and the most aggressive hoard of zombies since Braindead.

The cutest zombie

Petsemetery

Redneck zombies

Winner: Redneck zombies – Perciles Lawnes (1989)

Motivation: The cutest babyzombie you’ll ever see.

Best zombie make-up

Walking dead

Night of the living dead (re-make)

Day of the dead

Dawn of the dead 

Dawn of the dead (Re-make)

The Beyond

Zombie Flesh Eaters

Winner: Day of the Dead - George A. Romero (1985)

Motivation: Tom Savinis, and his crew, did some astonishing make-up effects in Day of The Dead. Just look at Mr. Tounge and Bub (Howard Sherman)! 

Best death by zombie

Splinter in the eye - Zombie Flesh Eaters

Torn i half ( Choke on ´em!)- Day of the dead

The bite Tarman takes out of the poor guys´ head in Return of the Living Dead

Dr. Freudsteins impaling of Dagmar Lassander in House by the Cemetery

Winner: Splinter in the eye -  Zombie Flesh Eaters

Motivation: Even though Mr. Fulci tried his best, he never could create a more cringeworthy scene than this!  

That´s it for today! Do you agree with me? Do you disagree? Come on... write a comment if you don´t want the undead to haunt you forever! 

Don´t call me motherfucker, motherfucker!

That old title from the norweigan rockband Turbonegro is one of the best songtitles ever! It got that in-your-face-asshole-attitude I like. Just like I find movies with that attitude strangely attractive. Of course in real life I prefer that people are polite and that every human being is treated with care and respect (there are some exceptions to the rule here, I´m not Gandhi). In movies nevertheless, the nastier the merrier! I´m sick and tired of movies that wimp out and doesn´t take the opportunity to go all the way. Offensive? Repulsive? Blasphemous? I hope! Sometimes it’s easier to get some people’s attention if you give them a hard punch in the face. Figural speaking that is… anyone can beat my sorry ass any day of the year.

Let´s highlight some of the pictures that has gone all the way and made a long last impression on me!

1. The Exorcist is the only movie that makes me want to believe there is a God. The Exorcist was made when I was two years old, but it is still one of the most horrifying pieces of celluloid ever produced. William Friedkin approached the subject matter as a drama movie and did some really courageous choices in what to show the audience. I mean, the scene with the crucifix is still shocking and the overall atmosphere of the film is haunting and damn scary. And how many movies lets an 12-years old spew out romantic lines like “your mother sucks cocks in hell” and “ Let Jesus fuck you!” That kind of dialogue offends me as well when watching The Exorcist! An extra crucifix under the pillow for Max von Sydows brilliant portrayal of Father Merrin.

2. John Boorman wasn´t fooling around when making Deliverance in 1972. The first 45 minutes is a slow drama about four men on a fishing trip. Beautiful scenery, well written dialogue and good performances don´t give away what awaits them in the dark forest surrounding the creek. But when the terror starts, it never lets go until the credits roll. The “scream like a pig” scene is so utterly disturbing and realistically done that it´s no wonder that it´s a scene that most people remember from the film. Ned Betty really looks like his virginity is stolen from him, and his performance is outstandingly good. A grim reminder of that it is a beautiful world we live in, and that it´s the human race that has some serious fucked up problems. An extra banjo for the brilliant “dueling banjo” scene in the beginning.

3. Martyrs. A real showstopper! I was literary tongue-tied after watching this unflinching French movie. The best horror movie in years and it has one of the best female performances I´ve ever seen in a movie of this kind. Martyrs is totally remorseless and it really feels like someone has punched you in the face hard, time and time again while watching it. I don´t want to give away anything about this film. Cannot stress enough how much you need to see this one!

4. Guinea Pig 2 –Flower of flesh and blood is an old classic. The Japanese knows how to set the record straight with good taste. If it´s not eels up in women’s body cavities, humiliating candid camera shows, longhaired ghosts, cute schoolgirls or outrageous animated hentai, you know that you can always count on them in making extremely gory movies. Even though there has been a lot more violent movies produced since Guinea pig 2 came out, it is THE one that broke boundaries and made Charlie Sheen reach for the telephone and call the F.B.I . No plot, no story, just the dismembering of a young Japanese female lying on a table. Great special effects and a good alternative for watching either Pretty Woman or The Lion king.

5. Inside is another French movie and also a really disturbing one. The interesting thing about Inside is that it could easily been done without all the gore and blood, because as in the case with Martyrs, there is a good solid plot in the movie as well. But Inside also goes all the way and does also make you cringe in some of the scenes where the violence goes over the top. Solid performances and enough blood to fill up a bathtub.

6. Even though all the cannibal movies produce in the seventies in Italy was groundbreaking it surely is Cannibal Holocaust that takes the gold medal. It contains rapescenes, abortionscenes, scenes of animal mutilation, cannibalistic murders and some ad lib puking. Not only that, Cannibal Holocaust is also is a sharp comment on how far a documentary filmmaker can go to make a movie and especially the makers of mondomovies. Not the perfect movie for a date in other words. If your date is not into hardcore cannibal movies that is!

7. Irreversible is infamous for a grisly rape of the beautiful Monica Belluci that lingers on in one continuous take for about ten minutes. The scene with the fire extinguisher also makes an impact (to say the least). A movie that stays with you for a long time after you´ve seen it.

Thanks for the mammaries Mr. Meyer!
Russ Meyer… let me count the ways I love his movies: the knockers, the senseless violence, the boobs, the absurd humor, the breasts, the funky music, the massive gazongas and last not to forget THE TITS! His movies was like a mental booby-trap for most men who saw them, you didn´t expect a thing really and then BAM! The tits bitchslapped you in the face until you got that silly, goofy smile upon your face. And kept you come back begging for more!

I´m certainly not an expert on Russ Meyer, and have not seen all his body of work. That said, the movies I HAVE seen were for years sort of a guilty pleasure. Why that was, I don´t remember… perhaps ´cause I didn´t liked to acknowledge my sexual preferences? Nowadays I couldn´t care less.

I don´t remember how old I was when I first saw Supervixens, but it sure got me bitten by the Meyer-bug. Big time. Double D time! Mr. Meyer had a background as a photographer and became the author, the Ingmar Bergman, the Fellini, of sexploitation cinema. Mr. Meyer shot the films, edited them, directed them and wrote the scripts. His love for the trade was apparent, and his love for big women even more so. Another really cool thing about him was that he actually owned his own movies, and took care of much of the business by himself. Even until his last days he was dedicated to the art of showing the bodies of women to the world. For that we thank him!

From the early success of the softcore The immoral Mr. Teas to his last motion picture Beneath the valley of the Ultravixens, he archived an original and personal style that influenced a lot of other independent directors (and many, many dirty minds). Of course his work was not considered as art by the critics (even though famous Roger Ebert co-wrote with some scripts with Meyer), but as many filmmakers with a mission, the critics was never his target. The fans who loved movies and big breasts were the main public. He did not disappoint us.

Faster pussycat, kill, kill was his first big break. A tale about three sexy strippers who are not at all innocent kittens, but rather vicious cougars who don´t think twice about kidnapping or even murder. Although not filled with naked ladies, Faster pussycat, kill, kill was cast with sexy clothed women. Second best so to say.

My favorite of Meyers earlier film is Mondo Topless. Topless girls like Babette Bardot, Darlene Grey and Sin Lenee dance to funky sixties music the entire film though. No plot, all fun!

Then came Beyond the valley of the dolls. It was written by Roger Ebert and the story involves a girl rockgroup that has just moved to Los Angeles. They are looking for the big break into the business, but ends up meeting some really strange and dishonest people along the way. Not a fun trip down the road of sucess in other words and while some sexy lebian scenes does steam the movie up, it´s the more darker aspects of sex, drugs and rock ´n roll. We like it anyway!

Roger Ebert went back to the typewriter with Russ and wrote Up! Adolf Schwart (look a lot like some german dictator with the same surname) gets killed off and a sort of “who-dunnit” starts. But it is of course just an excuse for some absurd humor and to show off some of the female actors impressive chests! Who needs a plot anyway when Kitten Natividad, Raven de la Croix and Linda Sue Ragsdale gets in frame? I don´t.

Supervixens is the film that that really has that perfect “Russ Meyer” feel to it. The plot is a mixture of humor, surrealistic bits and pieces and some violence sprinkled over it. The murderous cop Harry Sledge (brilliantly played by Charles Napier) has murdered Clint Ramseys wife and does his best to frame Clint for it. Ramsey flees from his job and meets with big breasted women after the other on his way to freedom.

Uschi Digard

“Swedish” Uschi Digard (and an extra plus for Uschi as a Swedish telephone operator), Shari Eubank and Christy Hartburg are the gals with the “largest” roles. Easily my favorite Meyermovie!

As is Beneath the valley of the ultravixens my other favorite Meyer-movie… hmmm… but I CAN have two favorites come to think of it. Tits come in pairs, so I guess Meyer favorites can as well! For being written by one of Americas famous movie critics, Beneath the valley of the ultravixens has a really whimsy story. The essence of the plot is about a couple who has sexual problems (the husband wants to use number two, and not the entrance with the carpet). Even though the story is paperthin the movie really works as a sex-comedy with lots, LOTS, of sexual innuendos. Sort of a “hardcore” softcore movie if you get my point. It´s a really “jolly” and jovial movie and marked an endpoint for Meyer as director for feature movies sadly enough.

There is not a single filmmaker before (or after) the rise of Russ Meyer that has successfully exploited the female curvaceous body as respectfully and as charming as he did. The critics complain that he exploited the girls and that his movies were demeaning towards women. I beg to differ. Mainly because Meyer did movies about women he loved. What´s wrong about that? Nothing at all. His love for big women might annoy a lot of people, but in those days it was all natural! No silicone pumped breasts, but women who had got a bonus at their chest. Environmental friendly breasts!

Russ Meyer passed on to the land of breastmilk and honey in 2002, at the impressive age of 82. I´m sure his healthy life philosophy “I always had a tremendous interest in big tits” helped him get that old.

On a personal note and sort of question to you who reads this!

I´ve said it before, but I´ll say it again. The strange and the bizarre have a certain appeal for a lot of people. It may be car accidents, horror movies, s/m-sex, extreme body modification, real murders on the internet or just the old "stuffing-a-flower-up-the-butt-routine". Why? It has to be something in the human nature that just wants to experience something out of the ordinary. Whatever THAT is?
When I was a kid, we challenged each other with watching the opening to Lucio Fulci´s The Beyond (I went home and never watched it at the time. Chicken, I know…) whereas today it´s chechclear or other brutal beheadings that are being shown around. Am I getting to old for this shit or is it something disturbingly wrong in watching real life murders?
As a freakvent (pun intended) surfer on the electronic highways, I´ve stopped at some brutal forums where there are nothing to burlesque to be shown. Everything is real and presented in flinching detail and for the most of the time in gruesome color. I don´t really know why I look at it, hell, I don´t want to know why either. Most of the time I feel sickened of the images, but before you can spell Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious I´m back and what do you know? I look at them again.
My initial road to the authentic material is crooked. I love special effects. All the old F/X masters like; Dick Smith, Tom Savini, Rob Bottin, Mark Shoestrom, KNB FX group, Gianetto de Rossi, made many films worth seeing. The craftsmanship in the art of making pictures was the thing that spellbinded me. It was the illusion of horror that trapped me. I was insulted the times people asked if a snuffmovie wouldn´t be the greatest thing to watch! Why the hell would I want to see that? Then over the years, when I was studying Film arts I wrote an essay about mondomovies. A long and tedious task of watching hours of real footage mixed with a lot not-so-real footage. I did that because I had a real problem with the subject. Why look at authentic material where people get hurt or killed? Somewhere a along the way I got influenced as well. I guess the researcher in me got bitten by the mondobug real bad.
I live a quite normal life, have a family, have some very good friends and I have my mother stuffed up in the attic (that last thingy was a joke, I don´t have an attic). I´ve always had a certain attraction to the dark and obscure. And I don´t think that I´m special in that sense at all, I think all of you readers feel that strange attraction whisper in your ears sometimes. But all are not made equal in the eyes of the ancient God Yog-Sothoth and therefore a lot of people watch it for all the wrong reasons. Some to impress others, some because they get off on the subject matter, some because they are interested in the morbid and a whole lot of people who watches it just because it is there to be looked at. So, my question to you is: Why do YOU look at pictures and movies of real human suffering?

 

Keep repeating to yourself: he is only an actor, he is only an actor, he is only an actor…

The most dangerous actor ever committed to celloluid, David Hess speaks!

Interview by Christer Persson

You think Brad Pitt is a badass in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS? Or wait! You thought that John Lithgow was scary in RAISING CAINE or you might even have thought that Robert De Niro was really naughty in CAPE FEAR? Let me tell you, there is a guy that are scarier, more bad-ass and more naughty than all of them tied together on a stick… his name is David Hess! And when he´ll tell you to piss you pants, you better do it right away!

Or wait… was that the characters he played? David Hess has been cast as a badass in movies since that infamous LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT got people repeat to themselves that it was only a movie. The sheer presence of Hess in movies since then sort of makes you really dislike the guy. He has played bad guys in AUTOSTOP ROSSO SANGUE, THE HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK and SWAMP THING. Of course, there is more to the story. Do you for instance know that he has a couple of Grammy awards at home? Did you know that he wrote the hitsong Speedy Gonzales and even wrote a tune for that guy from Memphis…what´s-his-name… Elvis Presley?
So, what more is there? Mr. David Hess was kind enough to answer a few questions for you to find out!

Christer: You are most famous for your character Krug, from Wes Cravens classic LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. A film that was influential to many of the violent movies of the seventies. Today there is a new wave of these violent and misogynic movies (and remakes as you most certainly know) what do you think is the main difference between the older movies and the new ones?
David: More Hollywood control, more interest in the all mighty buck and less interest in making a movie. Hard to repeat something that's seminal to begin with!

Christer: AUTOSTOP ROSSO SANGUE, in which you played against Corinne Clery and Franco Nero, is a very special and well made movie. What do you think makes it so special that it even today finds new fans?

David: It's an ensemble work and in order to work trust is the most important element. We all loved each other and because of that were able to dig down into that untapped part of who we all are at root level.

Christer: One of the funniest roles you’ve made is in Ruggero Deodato´s BODYCOUNT, which is a sort of FRIDAY THE 13:TH rip-off. It seems like you had a lot of fun on the set with Mimsy Farmer and Charles Napier. Was Ruggero Deodato a more relaxed director than when you were making HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK?

David: Not really! Ruggie is always pretty intense and the consummate perfectionist. He had problems with english early on in his career, so the producers asked me to direct the english ensemble part of the movie, but we worked together and we have remained friends to this day.

Christer: Is it a different spirit in today’s “up and coming” filmmakers, than the spirit filmmakers, for instance Wes Craven, had in the early seventies?

David: I don't know if it's much different, but there are so many more things available. The computer editing systems for one. Better special effects, blue screen techniques etc. We had to work from film and be able to visualize everything right through to the final print. Now with the new equipment, it makes covering mistakes much easier and maybe that's made the new breed of directors a little lazy and somewhat careless. But a good filmmaker will always be a good filmmaker and a good story is just that! As for Wes, I think he got caught in a time warp because of his early success and never really overcame his reputation as a B horror film director. He's better than his films!

Christer: What do you want to be remembered for, when you (god forbid!) pass over to the other side? Your music, your acting or do you have something else up your sleeve that I don´t know of?

David: My essence is music. That's what I've always been about! Everything I do from writing to acting to directing has a musical base. When I act I think in musical terms as do I when I write. I'm at my happiest when I'm composing or performing whether on stage or in a recording studio. Without my songs I'd be a shell of man. My music is what keeps me alive.

Christer: Does people get surprised when they find out that you’re musician and not only that, that you also is a Grammy award winner?
David: A little bit. It's always interesting to see their reactions when they find out I'm more than just KRUG from LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.
Christer: What movie that you have starred in, are you most proud of?

David: Hard to say? I think that the last film I did...SMASH CUT, is pretty interesting, but I'm not much of a self rater. I let the work do my talking...but I must say that the 'trilogy', ending with AUTOSTOP ROSSO SANGUE was as good as it gets.

Christer: Is there anything (apart from this interview) you really regret doing or not doing in your time in show business?

David: I would like to have done more Broadway. I turned down a lot of musicals, for what ever reasons and then the offers just stopped. Singing and acting on Broadway would have been a high point, but I have a wonderful family and that, too, is a high point. Most importantly is not what we regret not doing, but that we live with the choices we make.

Christer: The final question is the one I ask every prominent interviewee: What is the meaning of life?

David: That answer would take knowing the meaning of not-life. Maybe the Buddist have it right in the end. The striving for Samadhi...cleansing one’s mind of all thought, is the answer. I just don't know, but then that's a good definition of life, also.

Make sure to check out Davids website: http://www.davidhess.com/