Ghouls on Film

Our Fiendish Plans ...

Our chilling tale begins in the backwoods of Connecticut where a quiet young woman learns to play guitar …

I have known Miss Myra Graverobber for far too long to admit in this blog post. We grew up together, became obsessed with music and movies together, dyed our hair together, and drove around in her parents’ jeep listening to Operation Ivy together.

Last weekend, I traveled back to New England with another close friend from high school to rendezvous with the sinister songstress and see her new band The Evil Streaks play in the fair city of Providence. (Such a perfect name for a city in a horror movie isn’t it?) The Evil Streaks is Myra’s third band and she shares the stage with John Kozik (Guitar & Vocals), The Rev (Bass & Vocals), and Sloth (Drums). She also plays guitar in Gein and the Graverobbers and formerly headed up the late, great, Ghouls Night Out.

It is a rare treat to interview someone I truly love and have known for a long time. Unfortunately we were imbibing a tasty tonic called the Ginger Gentleman. So my questions to her about her longtime love of all-things gothic were, shall we say, scattered. But it was still fun. And she kind of creeped me out.

Ghouls: What’s the first time you every played live?  I will act like I don’t remember it.

It was the talent show in high school. It was a song that I wrote on my acoustic, and I had been taking guitar lessons, so it was the first five or six cords that I learned.

Ghouls: Tell me a little bit about Myra, who is she?

So, Gein and the Graverobbers were all named after serial killers, and I chose Myra Hindley because, yeah, she was really sick and twisted, but she had really cool hair and a cool name. So, I’m Myra. (Editors note: She also had one of the best Smiths songs ever written about her. I like her hair too.)

Ghouls: What made her hair cool?

It was big and poofy.

Ghouls: So you started with Gein and the Graverobbers, and that band sounds like Slayer playing surf. Then, you went on the form a couple other bands that were also horror inspired?

I branched out and started Ghouls Night Out. I always had visions of being in an all-girl band, so I recruited my friend Chrissy to play bass and my friend Jane.  She had a drum kit and she kind of practiced, but she had never played in a band before, neither had Chrissy, but they’re very into music so I just was like ‘Alright you’re going to be in my band, this is what we’re doing.’

So they were down with it and they just practiced their asses off and later we recruited Amy. Amy was a really good songwriter and guitar player and she had a lot of connections so we did really well in the beginning. We got a lot of shows and, sure, part of it is because we were an all-girl band which people consider a novelty, but I thought we put on a show.

Beware The Evil Streaks

Ghouls: What’s the scariest thing that Ghouls Night Out sang about?

If you listen to the lyrics, a lot of the songs are screwed up but they’re passed off as cute. There’s “Bully” which is about the movie “Bully.” It’s based on a true story about these kids in the middle of nowhere. There are two friends and one is a bully and he bullies his best friend, and they decide that they’re going to kill the bully. It’s just crazy, they just beat the shit out of him with a baseball bat and dumped him in the river. It’s based on a true story which is why I think it’s scary. It’s really fucked up.

Ghouls: Ghouls Night Out is named after a Misfits song. Both you and I grew up listening to the Misfits and we really love them (still), but when you listen to their lyrics you can’t ignore the fact that they are incredibly misogynistic and abusive toward women. So first, does that ever bother you? And how do you deal with it on a small scale, like when you are singing along, and on a larger scale, when you are playing in a band with all boys and in a genre that is heavily influenced by the Misfits?

They’re very misogynistic, I totally get that. But also a lot of their songs – they’re singing about like, “Return of the Fly” and a lot of it’s just like, fun campy stuff. That’s what I focus on.

Usually people show up to a show, and I used to be guilty of it, you see a girl onstage and you’re like alright she looks pretty cute, but she probably can’t play. So, I think we really surprised people when we actually rocked it.

Ghouls: What was the first horror movie to inspire you and get you hooked on the genre?

I’d have to say “Psycho.” It’s my all-time favorite horror movie because I think that it changed the world of horror. Monsters and aliens are scary … but Norman Bates, representing a person that you think is harmless … but is really a nut case that will kill you… ugggh is sooo creepy!!! He’s very much like the real-life Ed Gein. Janet Leigh and the shower scene is genius! Hitchcock was not afraid to take risks which is something I admire. Killing off the main star so early into the movie was unheard of at the time. Every time I watch it, I notice some new detail. And probably “Night of the Living Dead.” Gein and the Graverobbers dress up like zombies — all of them except me ’cause I’m supposed to be like the Marilyn to their “Munsters.”

Ghouls: Who is your favorite female in a horror movie?

May. From the movie “May.” I guess she’s my favorite because I can relate to her and how she felt at some moments, though I wouldn’t handle things the way she did.

Ghouls: That’s really fucked up and I’m scared to be in the car alone with you. OK. So moving on and putting you on the spot, what girl musicians from the horror/surf/rockabilly scene do you love?

One of the first bands I got really into had an amazing guitar player who was female, and that was The Raging Teens. Amy Griffin was amazing.

It goes without saying that I think Myra is pretty amazing too.

Find out more about The Evil Streaks here.

Type WHOAH! Negative

The worlds of music, horror, and fang-licking-good eye candy lost more than just a pretty face when Peter Steele passed away on April 14, 2010 after a sudden heart attack.

Born on January 4, 1962, Steele was best known as the vocalist, lyricist, and bassist for goth-metal band, Type O Negative.  Throughout his career, he appeared in several low-budget films and his music with Type O Negative served as the soundtrack to 1998’s “Nosferatu: The First Vampire,” as well as popping up on numerous horror movie soundtracks.

His flowing, jet-black hair, piercing green eyes, and gargantuan height were as much a trademark as his rich baritone voice, introspective lyrics, and warped sense of humor.  It was Steele’s charming sense of self-deprecation that prompted him to joke about his 1995 Playgirl spread which revealed that the hulking 6′8″ hunk was packin’ some proportionate heat. Steele duly noted “That’s why my mother named me ‘Peter.’”  (I will fully admit that I still own this issue of Playgirl. Not being of age at the time, I went to great lengths to cop an eyeful of Peter’s pecker, passing myself off as 18 to score a copy at a local mall bookstore back in the day.  It still holds a special place in my collection and you will have to pry it from my cold, undead hands.)

It was more than just the pecker Peter was packin’ that made him so special. Rather, it was the total, erm, “package” of intelligence, eloquent honesty in sharing his most personal torments and struggles in his lyrics, and his quick sense of humor that made him a legend.  Farewell, Gentle Green Giant, and thank you so much for the music and memories that helped make this ghouly girl the woman she is today.

Peter Steele on “Jerry Springer,” 1995

Rob Zombie & Mel Brooks Kindred Spirits?

Doing a bit of thinking the other day in my personal Fortress of Solitude (AKA – “my bathroom” — which is usually where some of my better ideas strike me), I realized that Rob Zombie and Mel Brooks have quite a bit in common.  Initially, that comparison would usually find itself accompanied by 500 milligrams of Thorazine, but upon further examination, it makes quite a bit of sense.  Mel Brooks is of the few entertainers to have won an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony, and a Grammy, having dabbled in all aspects of popular entertainment. While he hasn’t reaped the golden statuettes the way Mel has over the years for his body of work, Rob Zombie has dipped a toe in nearly every sphere of entertainment, as well.

Rotting Flesh & Musical Numbers ... so Perfect Together

Delving further into their similarities, it seems that Rob Zombie is well on-track to becoming to horror what Mel Brooks is to humor.  While Mel Brooks has often used horror as a backdrop for his outrageous brand of comedy, Rob Zombie sprinkles a generous dose of hilarity in his horror films.  Throughout his career, Brooks has taken classic horror (“Young Frankenstein,” “Dracula: Dead and Loving It”) and turned it on its ear, going so far as to even poke fun at real life horrors like mental institutions (“High Anxiety”) and historical horrors ranging from Nazis (“The Producers,” “To Be or Not To Be”) and the Spanish Inquisition (“History of the World: Part I”).  Conversely, Zombie’s twisted humor has provided bright spots in his dark, original concepts like “House of 1,000 Corpses” and “The Devil’s Rejects.”  (When the patriarch of a serial killing family is a foul-mouthed, fried chicken-loving clown, it’s hard to not laugh.)

The comparisons don’t stop there, however.  Both Mel Brooks and Rob Zombie seem to have their own repertory companies built into their films.  Familiar faces such as Dom DeLuise, Harvey Korman, Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, and Cloris Leachmen are all the usual Brooks suspects, cropping up to bring the funny to a string of unrelated films.  Ditto for Rob Zombie.  Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Tyler Mane, Leslie Easterbrook, and (of corpse, his wife!) Sherri Moon Zombie are all repeat offenders with no less than two film credits apiece.

Sheri Moon and Anne in their Leopard Best

That brings us to the wives!  Behind every great man is a great woman.  Rob Zombie’s main muse is his wife, Sheri Moon Zombie who he married in 2002 after dating for 13 years.  Sheri has starred in every single one of Rob Zombie’s films and many of his music videos, becoming a scream queen in her own right.

In Mel Brooks’ case, his longtime inspiration was his wife, the original Ulti-MILF, Mrs. Robinson herself –Anne Bancroft. The couple was married for over 40 years until her death in 2005.  Brooks cited Bancroft as his biggest cheerleader and the person who pushed him to recreate “The Producers” and “Young Frankenstein” for the Broadway stage. Unlike Rob Zombie’s wife, Bancroft only appeared in one of her husband’s films, acting alongside him his remake of “To Be or Not To Be.”

Although Brooks and Zombie have looked to their wives as on-screen or behind-the-scenes collaborators, both auteurs have made some other rather high profile collaborations with other noteworthy peers. Mel Brooks got his start alongside Carl Reiner and Sid Caesar as a writer for “Your Show of Shows.”  Brooks partnered once again with Carl Reiner on the “2000 Year Old Man” series of comedy routines, resulting in a Grammy for both of them.

Among some of Rob Zombie’s most prominent alliances is his team-up with Lionel Richie on a cover of The Commodores’ “Brick House” for the “House of 1,000 Corpses Soundtrack” and also with Alice Cooper on “Hands of Death,” featured on the “X-Files” soundtrack.  (Incidentally, Rob and Alice are together again for a tour billed as the “Gruesome Twosome,” sharing a double bill on stages across the U.S. and Canada.)

Captain Spaulding to Remake the 'Producers?'

Bearing their respective Grammy noms and nods in mind, as always, with both Mel Brooks and Rob Zombe, music is key.  Some of the most hilarious, jaw-dropping moments in Mel Brooks’ films have been set to song.  No one ever viewed goose-stepping in quite the same way as when a chorus line of high-kicking dancers formed a rotating swastika to the tune of “Springtime For Hitler.” And let’s not overlook the brilliance of the lines, “The Inquisition / Let’s begin! / The Inquisition / Look out sin!” Beyond the occasional song-and-dance routines sprinkled into many of his films (including more recent fare like “Men in Tights” and “Life Stinks”), Mel went all out in crafting music and lyrics for full-scale Broadway musical interpretations of his classic films, “The Producers” and “Young Frankenstein.”

In Rob Zombie’s case, his music was what brought him to the dance, starting out as the frontman for metal group, White Zombie before branching off into his own solo career. After unleashing several albums, Zombie broke into film as a writer/director.  Like Brooks, Rob Zombie wrote many of the musical compositions on his first full-length film, “House of 1,000 Corpses,” contributing both atmospheric instrumental compositions and also thematic original offerings with lyrics pertaining to the film.  Even when he hasn’t written music for his films, the attention to detail in crafting the scenes using music as a scene-enhancer is one of Zombie’s cinematic hallmarks.

The two also share a few bombs between the two of them. For all of the great films Mel Brooks has put out, there have a few clunkers.  While “Silent Movie” was a valiant attempt at making the first non-talkie in decades, it wasn’t quite as up-to-snuff as his other films.  “Life Stinks” and “Spaceballs” had some high spots, but otherwise missed some of their marks.

Even though Rob Zombie doesn’t have quite the body of film work as Mel Brook does, he can look to the dismal remakes of the Michael Myers “Halloween” franchise as his own personal Waterloo.  Zombie has one original film, “Tyranosarus Rex” in the works, but has also been rumored to be helming a remake of “The Blob.”  (These remakes aren’t so hot of an idea, Rob! Really!)

Could a Live-Action Musical Collaboration Be in the Works?

The comparisons between the two continue in terms of animation.  Although you’d never guess that cartoons would be yet another realm for Mel Brooks to conquer, he has with “Spaceballs: The Animated Series,” appearing on cable network, G4.  Running neck-in-neck, in 2009, Rob Zombie released “The Haunted World of El Superbeasto,” an animated comedy/horror film which revolves around a luchador and throws in some Nazi zombies for good measure.  (And you know if there’s one thing Mel Brooks would approve of, it’s laughing at Nazi zombies!)

Although Mel Brooks made his breakthrough in television writing “Your Show of Shows,” Rob Zombie has now claimed some level of fame in TV, having directed a recent episode of “CSI: Miami.” It likely won’t win him an Emmy, but Rob Zombie is slowly inching up to Mel.  The lone sphere Zombie hasn’t found himself involved with that Brooks has broken ground with is live theatre. That said, I’m hoping that some day, Broadway finds itself home to “Devil’s Rejects: The Musical.”