Rider Strong is a talented and personable actor who has been in the business for over 15 years. He began his young career in the theater but soon started a long and successful TV ride with the hit 90's show BOY MEETS WORLD. He has since carved a nice place for himself in the horror genre with CABIN FEVER, TOOTH AND NAIL and BORDERLAND, the latter two are included in the AFTER DARK HORRORFEST 8 FILMS TO DIE FOR Box Set coming out on DVD March 18th. 

Rider was kind enough to answer some of my questions and I must say he could not have been nicer. He talks about the horror genre, his future in the business and his porn star name...trust me, just go with it.

Rider Strong: Hi!

Fan Girl: Hi, thank you for taking time out of your schedule to talk to me today.

RS: Your welcome

FG: The HORRORFEST 8 FILMS TO DIE FOR DVD Box Set is coming out March 18th and you happen to be in two of the movies.

RS: Pretty crazy

FG: TOOTH AND NAIL and BORDERLAND respectively, could you tell us a little bit about both?

RS: Well, BORDERLAND is based on a true story about a couple of Americans that went down to Mexico, the Mexico borders. They just crossed over to have a good time and a cult that was practicing human sacrifices and that is the true story part that happened in the 80’s actually kidnapped one of them. We made a modern day version of that and explore the pretty awful things that arise out of that situation. Well, what happens at the weird spaces between countries where it gets complicated as to who is going to investigate these crimes.

    TOOTH AND NAIL is a much more straightforward genre horror film. It is a post apocalyptic group of survivors who are stuck in a hospital in Philadelphia and they have an encounter  with a tribe of cannibals.

FG: Is it just a happy coincidence you’re in two of the 8 movies?

RS: Yeah it was. HORRORFEST actually picks the movies after they are already made. BORDERLAND premiered at south by southwest and about 4 or 5 months later HORRORFEST picked it up. Then almost a week later TOOTH AND NAIL had a premiere screening in L.A. and that night it got picked up by HORRORFEST. It was like 'Oh my god this is ridiculous! I am the horror movie king!'

FG: Yes! (Laughs)

RS: (Laughs) You know I was looking at Bruce Campbell and I thought, 'Alright, that could be my career'.

FG: You know I saw the BORDERLAND trailer and it actually gave me chills, that doesn't happen to me very often.

RS: Yeah! You know it is an interesting movie because Zev Berman (Director of BORDERLAND) is such a great director, it sort of plays to some of the genre conventions, and in some ways it is easily comparable to HOSTEL and other movies that follow similar storylines. We were actually filming at the same time as HOSTEL, the two projects were being made, they knew of each other but they were completely separate. But the thing about BORDERLAND is it is really a different take, it is not exploitative in the way that some of the other torture porn movies are. It is realistic and much more horrifying because of that. There is plenty of gore and in reality the more gory scene happens in the first 5 minutes, the rest of the movie is just the tension of knowing that there is such awful violence going on, that there are all of these creepy room where they are worshiping these weird spirits, having these weird rituals, that are just sort of incomprehensible. I think it just makes for a really scary movie. It is a much different take than HOSTEL or the SAW movies, which are much more in your face.

FG: Is there a different vibe on a horror movie set than on the sets of other types of movies?

RS: Well, yes. There is a level of fun. I mean, horror and comedy sort of go in the same category, which is that you KNOW exactly what you want from your audience. So, everybody on the set is very clear, it's like 'Ok, we just want to scare the crap out of them as much as possible or gross them out as much as possible' or whichever way you’re going in the scene. Everybody is working to make that happen, how do we make this happen? You know it is the same way with comedy. Every time I have worked on a comedy it is so much fun because everybody is together. I think that your typical SUNDANCE family drama movie is much more complicated. It is more complicated what you’re trying to get from the audience. It is like 'do you want these people to be rooting for me or be against me?’ I think in horror and in comedy its like 'nope! We know exactly what we want'. On a horror set your just more relaxed and you can have a lot more fun with it. Plus all the fun make-up stuff, that is another cool part. Your watching all of these, on both of these movies, some of the best people in the industry and what they can do on a moment’s notice, it is pretty amazing.

FG: Sean Astin is also in BORDERLAND, please tell me you guys talked about LORD OF THE RINGS when you weren't filming.

RS: Ah! (Laughs)

FG: I'll take questions nerds ask celebrities for 400 Alex!

RS: (Laughs)  Yeah, we talked for a little bit. A lot of my scenes in the movie were with Sean and we sort of bonded. Most of our conversations were about the industry because we were both child actors. We had a lot of the same experiences and we knew a lot of the same people. When your talking about child actors it is a pretty small community so even though he was 10 years older than I was once he was acting we still knew the same people and did some of the same things, So we bonded over that. Then LORD OF THE RINGS was so funny because you knew realize just how much work it was. Talking to him and realizing we are making this movie, we were so stressed out on BORDERLAND, this little 2 or 3 million dollar movie or whatever it was and we were working so hard and he was talking about how they had 8 units going on at one time. Basically that is 8 versions of OUR movie going on at once. They filmed these huge battle scenes and he dedicated a year and a half or two years of his life to making the movie. But what was also great is talking to someone who has had such a huge success like that who had those moments where it was tenuous, where he had to fight to get that job. That is always so cool to think that even though there was Oscar buzz around his performance and even now it feels like that character was just written for him, there was a time where he had to struggle and convince a great director to take him on. To give him a shot and to be able to pull it off like he did, so primarily our LORD OF THE RINGS conversations were about me sort of getting into the fact it is possible that these huge movies. That you think of, there are real people struggling behind them and they have to leave their wives for 2 years, so that was interesting.

In some ways it is daunting because, as an actor, you always want those jobs. I would love to be in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN  but could you imagine studying a fighting scene for 2 weeks? I mean, I get sick of having to do more than 4 takes and they do 27. You know?

FG: Yeah

RS: Because they can and they have the money so they just keep doing it.

FG: You have found yourself a nice little place in the horror genre. Do you actually enjoy watching horror movies?

RS: Yeah, I love horror movies. That's why I got into it, I was never a huge horror nerd but I loved them as a kid, like most people. My parents wouldn't let me watch certain movies, so I went over to a friend's house and watched NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, and didn't sleep for a week. I mean that was it, which was all it took. It was the fact that a movie could make me feel that intensely about stuff. THE SHINING was the ultimate film for me. I saw that for the first time when I was 13 and I couldn't even finish watching it the first couple of times because it scared me so much.

    Actually when I worked with Eli Roth on CABIN FEVER, I said 'Ok, just give me the list dude, give me a list of all the movies', because I knew that he had an encyclopedia of horror films and he was able to produce a list, I think he gave me 50 horror movies for me to watch. I couldn't make it through all of them, some of them I couldn't even find on DVD. But that was sort of my education into the deep genre, Eli's brain. There is this revival theater in L.A. called The New Beverly and they show old movies, double matinees, old double features and Eli took it over for a couple of weeks and showed some of his favorite movies.

FG: Oh cool!

RS: Yeah, it was hysterical. So I went and watched MOTHERS DAY, I had never seen it and Eli had talked about how it was one of his favorite movies and it was so funny to see it on the big screen with a full audience of horror fans. But to be honest I think, as an actor, it is time for me to take a little break from horror. You know for awhile there every job I was offered was for a teenager or to be in high school or college because of BOY MEETS WORLD. Then, because of CABIN FEVER it became 'Oh, you’re the go-to horror guy'. I read a script like BORDERLAND and my first instinct was 'no, no I can't do this!' but then I found out the people involved, I knew it was going to be a good movie and I had to do it. I keep getting sucked back in but I think now I am going to have to put my foot down and say 'light hearted fare for a little while'. I will always have a special place in my heart for horror, maybe when I return it will be as a director, I don't know about acting in a horror film.

FG: This is a little off topic but I have to ask you about this. You were once quoted as saying "If I ever become a porn star, I won't have to change my name".

RS: (Laughs)

FG: Please tell me you really said that, that is the greatest quote ever!

RS: Yes!

FG: Oh Yes! Ok, Good.

RS: It was one of those things I never realized until I was 15 and then someone finally said (does an impression of a dopey sounding person) "Ride HER STRONG?, Oh my god!"

FG: (Laughs)

RS: I was like, OK, now it makes sense. Then it really wasn't talked about that much until BOOGIE NIGHTS came out and the whole concept of giving yourself a porn name became normal, everyday dinner conversation, everybody would say it to me. Then when CABIN FEVER came out I was amazed at how many of the reviews made fun of my name. It was like, OK, I get it but what does that have to do with the movie? Roger Ebert was like 'Porno-named Rider Strong' and I was like OK, maybe you didn't love the movie but saying I am porno-named kind of implies I have done pornos and I am named because of that. I don't know but I have no problem recognizing I have a porno name. The hard part is that some people think I gave the name to myself..

FG: ...and that is even worse

RS: Yeah! Look, I had hippie parents. I can't help it.

FG: NO, It is a great name..

RS: Well, you know (pauses for a bit) thanks (Laughs)

FG: Well, your welcome

RS: The name has other connotations so I have had to overcome that a little bit. You know I have an IMDB page like every actor and there is a message board where people can post things about you and someone showed it to me. The MOST postings about me are about my name.

FG: Oh wow...

RS: (Doing the cute imitation of a dopey sounding person again) "His name is like a porno film, Oh my god, can you believe this?"

FG: Is everybody 15 years old? (Laughs)

RS: (Laughs)

FG: Well I wanted to ask you about that quote. Just me, asking the classy questions..

RS: (Laughs) Well you found a quote from me, which is nice. I brought it up first but when CABIN FEVER came out it was like a steamroller, it became this huge issue in major reviews. It was like OK, I know, I know, I'm aware

FG: How did you get started with acting?

RS: Well I did theater after school and stuff and that was really it. My first professional job was through an audition, a cattle call theater audition for LES MISERABLES in San Francisco and I got the part out of hundreds of kids who were lined up outside of the theater and that is when it was like, a REAL job. I had done plays and now they were paying me to do it, which is when my parents started thinking maybe we should take this seriously. My brother and I got into it at the same time and then he started doing commercials and stuff and agents in L.A. started calling saying 'come to L.A.and make a career out of it'. It took A LOT of convincing for my parents to commit to it, it is a lot of work on their parts but they didn't want to ruin our childhood. They didn't, mostly because we didn't pack up our lives and completely leave my hometown. My parents still live in the house I grew up in.

FG: That is really nice

RS: Yeah and a lot of my friends, who are still my best friends, were my friends before I started acting. During BOY MEETS WORLD I actually flew home every weekend so, that was really great to have my childhood. It was a good experience; it was definitely a quality upbringing. It was also very exciting because I was doing all these big things and meeting these really amazing top people, having a lot of fun on the set too.

FG: You appear really natural and real on screen, Did you have any formal training or was it all on the job?

RS: Oh thank you, I did. I had a couple of coaches in particular and in L.A. there is a pretty famous child acting school called The Young Actors Space. Everybody went there, like Leo DiCaprio and Tobey Maquire were there. They are like this sort of older generation. When I was there it was all working actors and it was a great place. So, I went to places like that but I never had a technique, never a method. I'm actually more interested in it now, I think because I did it as a kid and I started in the theater, I just always wanted it to be fun. It was always about just entertainment and getting a reaction out of an audience, BOY MEETS WORLD was filmed in front of a live audience. I don't know, when acting becomes all self-absorbed and all about getting into your character, I just get uninterested because it’s not fun anymore, it is just so much work. But actually, as I am getting older and in a refreshing way ,coming up against roles that are harder and more interesting and more complicated, I am looking into taking it more seriously with the training and stuff. So, I'll probably start working with some teachers or something, just to get exercised. That is really what acting class is, just exercise, like building those muscles. Being able to act on a moments notice, I think when your a kid being emotional is kind of easy. Not necessarily the acting part is easy but bringing emotions out, like I could laugh or cry or whatever at the drop of a hat all through my teens and now it is harder. Being natural in front of the camera might become more difficult as I enter into my late 20's and early 30's.

FG: Is there anyone you have wanted to work with but haven't yet?

RS: My god, so many people. You probably meant actors but I have more of a dream list of directors I would like to work with. I have been obsessed with PT Anderson (Paul Thomas Anderson, director of BOOGIE NIGHTS and THERE WILL BE BLOOD). Eli met him and apparently his is a big fan of CABIN FEVER so that's my IN (Laughs). I would be an EXTRA in one of his movies to be around that sort of environment because as I get more and more experience in this industry, the more I realize there is a group of good directors. There are A LOT of great actors out there , a lot of great out of work actors and actually finding a director that you can have a connection with and a creative collaboration with is wonderful. I think that is why the really great directors who are successful tend to work with the same actors over and over again because these stars just want to keep going back to that experience, they are really drawn to working with a good director because its hard. You can be a great manager of a set but not have that much going on creatively or you can be this creative genius and not know how to manage people or manage a set. So, finding someone who can do both of those things and forging a relationship where you can just have fun, that is a life-changing experience. I think in theater that is more common, you spend more rehearsal time together and you sort of develop that relationship, on a film set or TV set a lot of the time the director is so swamped. So, that's my dream list, directors and PT Anderson is at the top of that list.

FG: MAGNOLIA was like a religious experience when I saw it.

RS: Oh my god, I think I saw that 3 times in the theater, which I can't imagine doing now because that is  9 hours total.

FG: What are you working on next?

RS: Well, my brother and I wrote and directed our first short film, it’s a 20-minute short. This is kind of the next phase in my career and my brother's, to move behind the camera. So, that is my newest creative endeavor and I am really, really proud of it.

FG: Thank you so much for talking to me. You know a couple of my girlfriends got really excited when I told them I would be interviewing you. One even gave me a short list of questions I should ask you and I'm NOT going to ask you any of them. It reads like something out of Tiger beat, you know? "What kind of food does he like?" or "What does he look for in a girl?” I thought, Are you serious? Are you kidding me? There is no way I am going to ask him that!

RS: (Laughs Loudly) Well, its funny because those are the interviews I did and that is the way I thought interviews went. I was 13 when BOY MEETS WORLD started so when people start interviewing you it is exciting. Like Tiger Beat or Bop, they start coming to you, they take it VERY seriously, and they ask, "OK, what do you look for in a girl?” I thought these were just normal questions everyone asks. It’s a very odd thing and before you know it, it was like so much of my identity. It sort of got out of my control and you are plastered on everybody's bedroom wall, it is a very odd experience. It is funny now because I meet women my age or younger and it is always like "OOOOH, I used to be so in love with you!!” and I'm like, 'You USED to be, what about now?'

FG: (Laughs)

RS: So I am sort of permanently fixed in that age bracket and maybe they are reverted back to being 12 again and that is why her list of questions is like that. ( Snickers)

FG: I hope you don't mind if I put your face in little hearts around the article.

RS: (Laughs) When I was in college the paper, my school did an interview with me and that was the girl's whole thing, "I have been in love with you for 10 years, why haven't you called me?” Her whole article was hysterical; it was my face in little hearts, basically mocking me but in a fun way.

FG: Rider, thank you so much for taking the time out to talk with me.

RS: Well thank you!

The HORRORFEST 8 FILMS TO DIE FOR DVD BOX SET from AfterDark and Lionsgate films will be available March 18th.

Submit your Horror News here. Discuss RIDER STRONG in our Forums

Director Neil Marshall is no stranger to fans of horror.  A genre fan himself, Neil has carved out an already impressive filmography in the form of the well-received DOG SOLDIERS, a film that is achieving cult status with the story of a group of British Army soldiers who encounter werewolves during a routing training mission.  He followed this up with THE DESCENT, a brilliantly-made horror film about a group of friends who push themselves to the limit by descending into a cave and attempt to find their way out, only to discover that the caves are inhabited by man-like creatures who feed on humans. 

Submit your Horror News here. Discuss Neil Marshall's DOOMSDAY in our Forums

Axelle Carolyn Marshall has been a horror fan for years.  Like most of us, she became interested in the genre at an early age when most other girls were reading Judy Blume.  Following her love of the genre, she became a contributor to Fangoria Magazine and covered the filming of THE HILLS HAVE EYES (2006) among other films.  In her travels she managed to secure an interview with director Neil Marshall during press for THE DESCENT and later became his wife on Halloween in 2007 at an amazing castle in Edinburgh, Scotland.  In addition to this, she somehow manages to find time to write for L'Ecran Fantastique, SFX, and The Dark Side magazines, while also writing a horror column on IGN.com. 

Submit your Horror News here. Discuss Neil Marshall's DOOMSDAY in our Forums

Robert Kurtzman is a man who has worn many hats during his impressive career. Directing (WISHMASTER), producing (FROM DUSK TILL DAWN and the upcoming BUMP with SAW'S Tobin Bell) and special effects with K.N.B. EFX Group, just to name a few. Now, he and his crew at Precinct 13, a state of the art SFX company he founded in 2004, have done the ALMOST impossible. They have made a fun, in-your-face thrill ride called THE RAGE, without a big budget. How did they do it? Good old fashioned hard work and, oh, being phenomenally talented doesn't hurt either.   

THE RAGE is out on DVD now. Robert was kind enough to talk to me about the movie, the business, his future projects and his drive-in movie escapades.

Fan Girl: Tell us a little bit about THE RAGE

Robert Kurtzman: It is kind of this throwback, a drive-in film. It is about a mad doctor, played by Andrew Divoff, who is a Bela Lugosi-style mad scientist. He creates what he calls his rage; it is a mutant germ that turns people into blood crazy, bloodthirsty maniacs. And he prepares to unleash it on the entire world to destroy the pharmaceutical conglomerates. To destroy those who found a cure for cancer but had hidden it from the entire world. It is his retaliation.

One of his subject’s escapes from the woods and gets ate by vultures and eventually it starts to spread through the wildlife. It is kind of a madcap thriller, roller coaster ride. It is madcap B-movie madness.

FG: I talked to Robert Englund recently about horror comedies. Do you see the trend coming back?

RK: Yeah, it can. That is the type of movie I like to enjoy every once in awhile. I hang out with a group of people, everybody brings a movie, and sometimes they are big ones. Sometimes they are these ridiculous little low-budget movies. For example, we just watched POULTRYGEIST from Troma last night and it was pretty funny. I really enjoyed it and of course it is completely over the top, you know, tasteless and everything else.

FG & RK: (laughs)

RK: I enjoy that every once in awhile and it makes a good night.

FG: It would be nice to see more of that, you know it doesn't always have to be so serious and so DUN DUN DAH! (Tries to do serious horror music) It can be fun, you can watch it with a pizza and a group of friends.

RK: Right, it is a party movie. I really like that stuff in movies. I used to do that at the drive in. We'd go to the drive-in, 4 or 5 of us and sneak in beer and just hang out and watch crappy B-movies. Sometimes dusk 'til dawn, all night horror films. They would put 5 of them on in a row and you had really good ones and really cheesy ones but you loved them the same because it was part of the experience.

FG: You filmed THE RAGE in Crestline, Ohio as opposed to L.A. Did you like filming in Ohio better?

RK: Well yeah, I did actually (laughs) It is a little different because my other films, out here in L.A. and the ones we shoot in New Mexico are like studio pictures so it is a big crew and a lot of protocol. It is a different style of movie making. This was kind of like a big group of friends, we got together and we all kind of did 3 or 4 different duties each. We built our own sets, everybody painted the sets. We all did the effects; we all ran the camera, the dolly. You know, it was just one of those movies.

That was the difference, we would have never been able to make that out HERE. We kind of had to go outside the eye of Hollywood, to make it outside of Hollywood, to take that kind of risk.

FG: Yeah, where do you find the testicular fortitude to make a movie like that?

FG & RK (Laughs)

FG: What inspires you?

RK: We just talked about it for so many years and then we finally decided to put our money where our mouths were, just go out and do it. We raised what we could and we said we are going to adapt to what we get to fund this for. We'll adapt and have fun because we just wanted to make a fun ride, a really entertaining B-movie. We knew it was going to be a B-movie from the get go, that was the plan.

John Bisson and I wanted to go back in time like 20 years and do our EVIL DEAD. The experience of doing a film like that, that B-movie experience where you put a team of friends together and shoot it in the backwoods of Michigan or wherever, that is what we wanted to recreate.

To make our first film in the spirit of independent films like EVIL DEAD, PHANTASM and RE-ANIMATOR. We not only wanted to have the experience of making a guerilla style drive-in movie with a group of friends and filmmakers but we also wanted to do it on similar budgets to those films. This is about half of what they make Sci Fi Channel movies for today. We did the film for what those films cost in the 80's, and we did it without the 20 years of inflation added on. So we really did make a drive-in, Grindhouse 80's film with a touch of 40's and 50's fun thrown in.

You know, I got into the business out here through make-up effects and then moved into directing and producing but it is a different beast out here when your dealing with the studios. It is not so much hands on, as a director your basically isolated on the bigger films. Your isolated from the knowledge of every department, you know what I mean?

FG: Yeah

RK: You don’t know what every department is spending exactly. The producers will just tell you when you’re going over. This was different because we had to learn it all from the ground up and that was the fun of it. We'll raise the money we can and go through the experience of creating something from scratch

FG: And it is probably more of a comfortable, family-type atmosphere filming that way..

RK: It is but we also had our drama. I mean there is no way around it, when you have a bunch of artists who work together. Everybody is going to get temperamental, we all had our bad days, we still had all that, and it was fun.

FG: Any stories you can share? (Laughs)

RK: (laughs) No, no it is just heated tempers. The way we worked is if anybody blows up or gets upset the idea is we just let it go after that and later we talk about it and laugh like it was nothing. When you hold it in and bottle it up for months and months and months that's when it turns into something nasty (laughs)

FG: You were the cinematographer and the camera operator on THE RAGE too, weren't you?

RK: Yeah, for better or for worse. It was a good experience, I basically storyboarded a few sequences and then we kind of roughed it out because we had the stage to work from. We actually had the set for the mad doctor's lab. So I kind of pre blocked the fights with John, just in the lab ourselves after hours. Just coming up with stuff on the fly, we didn't have anybody second-guessing us.

FG: How many kills can we look forward to?

RK: You know I never counted them. It is funny; it is not as bloody as everybody makes it out to be, in my opinion, but that is only because I see it with a tinge of humor attached. It is not so brutal just for the sake of brutal. I mean it is funny brutal and sometimes I do things that are over the top, just to get a reaction from the audience. Like when I kill my own kids in the movie.

FG: Yeah, I read that your two little ones are in the movie. What do they make out if it? Do they see it as a make-believe, playground-type situation?

RK: No, they see it as a work thing. I don’t think they see it as a playground, they see it as work because they see how hard we work at it. Even though we have fun on set when they came on set the kids had memorized their lines, they nailed every line. I didn’t have to do anything. I just sat back and said 'these kids are amazing'. They are my kids but this was their first time walking on a set. They didn't get nervous and walk away. I had to coax them into a few scares but....

FG: That is really cute

RK: Yeah

FG: Is it true the torture scenes in THE RAGE were filmed in your old middle school?

RK: Yeah, it was actually in my mom and dad's high school. My old middle school but their high school. It is an old 50's high school in the center of town, it has an old boiler room in the basement and off the boiler room is a big old concrete room, and we used that for Gor's lair.

FG: Did you have any full circle moments, you’re making a movie in a place where you may have had fantasies of being a filmmaker.

RK: I didn't think of it that way (laughs)

FG: (Laughs)

RK: You know it's kind of sad, the school is abandoned and it is a great piece of property. It has got a giant auditorium in it and it is only being used for some of the things for the school district, most of it is abandoned. It is just this big empty building in town. I would love to see it where it would be put on the market as a draw for people to shoot movies in it. They could have a high school drama shot in it.

FG: I wanted to ask you about Andrew Divoff, who you have worked with before on WISHMASTER. Is he as professional, prepared, and open as I imagine him being?

RK: Absolutely. He is a complete joy to work with. It is funny because we did WISHMASTER together but we've stayed in touch for years since then, trying to find other movies to do together. This one just came together because it was just the right timing for both of us. When he walked on the set it was just like we were walking off WISHMASTER. It was a very, very good experience.

FG: I trust there is director's commentary on the DVD..

RK: Yeah, it’s actually me and John Bisson doing the commentary.

You know the ‘making of’ is almost as long as the film.

FG: Oh good, I love that.

RK: I couldn't cut it short. I just thought it was fun because it shows the movie was done kind of like this and you can do it too.

FG: Well, anybody who is really into movies and the genre doesn't want ‘the making of ‘ to be cut, you know? They WANT to see everything.

RK: Well, I hate the ones that are more like a press kit version. Just thrown together, like 'oh yeah, everybody is doing whatever'.

FG: They will show a few interviews and some scenes being shot but I like something a little more involved than that.

RK: Oh yeah 

FG: I was going to ask you about John Bisson, did he co-write THE RAGE with you?

RK: We wrote the story together and then John wrote the screenplay. He also production designed the movie. He also designed a lot of the make up stuff, the creature designs.

FG: Renaissance men...

RK: Yeah! We had a very small crew and we had to stretch that crew out over a long period of time. We just did everything ourselves.

FG: I read that THE RAGE is having great success screening at film festivals.

RK: We did Fantasia and Screamfest. It played in Sydney and we are going to Brussels. Also, Amsterdam, Taipei and Brazil. There is another one in France that just played it. It is getting a really good response from everyone, especially at those festivals; they are into those types of movies because it's an audience participation movie. Its something that is plugged in for all those happy go lucky gore hounds.

I would actually like to see the movie translated into French.

FG: (laughs) Yeah I was just thinking that when you said France. (Said in a French accent) Le Monster!

RK: (laughs and talks with a French accent) UH HUH! Le gore!

FG:...and everyone is carrying baguettes of bread

RK: (Laughs)

FG: That has to feel good when something you put so much work into turns out well and is met with a favorable response..

RK: I'm just glad that there are people digging it. You just throw it out there, you make something and you hope the fans like it, if it makes money...great

FG: How did the concept of THE RAGE become a comic book series?

RK: Well, I met with Scott Licina, who was just starting to launch the comic division of Fangoria, and we hooked up. I am doing a project called BUMP with him as well, he and Mark Kidwell, starring Tobin Bell (SAW) and it is based on the Kidwell comic book series.

Scott had handed me the treatment for BUMP and when I came on board for BUMP he started talking to me about other projects for the comic division of Fango. I told him I had this low budget movie I had just done, that I am pushing and me and John Bisson can spin stuff off and either do a sequel or a prequel. He said you want to do something that you couldn't do as a movie because it was too big, like take the idea of what you would have wanted to do with THE RAGE but couldn't.

So we came up with the backstory to THE RAGE. This was our Edgar Rice Burroughs version. We just did a kind of epic version with thousands of zombies and Mayan temples and all kinds of stuff. What happened between the doctor's escape from his own country and when he was hanging out in South America, what led him to the U.S. Exactly where he discovers the mutants to use in THE RAGE formula. So we just went out in left field and did a wild comic idea.

FG: What inspired you to get into the business?

RK: I was always into art growing up and GI Joe action figures and all that stuff but I also sat in front of the TV. I'm the kid in DREAM ON (HBO Comedy Series) just watching his life go by. My years are all categorized in the year certain movies came out, like '77 was STAR WARS,'75 were JAWS. You go back to the 60's with the Peckinpah movies. It is about watching those late night horror-host shows, Saturday afternoon movies and getting to go to the drive-in.

FG: I get the whole drive-in connection. God, I remember seeing THE ORGAN GRINDERS at a drive-in with my PARENTS (laughs)

RK: (laughs) I always had to catch them on the back screen until I got old enough to go on my own. My parents would think we were sleeping and they would be watching DIRTY HARRY on the front screen and out the back window I would be watching another screen. Those women-in-chains prison movies and we were like 'oh my god!' while peeking our heads out.

FG: What movies scared you as a kid? Were there movies that just really freaked you out when you saw them?

RK: OH, THE EXORCIST, it actually freaked me out when I saw it on television, even cut. Probably also HALLOWEEN and stuff. I was a kid of the 80's; my junior high school and high school years were in the 80's, but in 1978 HALLOWEEN came out. Yeah, that scared the hell out of me.

FG: I remember seeing horror movies with my parents. I watched THE EXORCIST with my dad UNCUT. I was 9.

FG & RK: (Laughs)

RK: That is what I'm doing with my kids, start them off with the Universal classics, THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, then gradually ease them into more (laughs) horrifying things.

FG: (laughs) Yeah, I don't remember being eased into it, which explains A LOT now.

FG & RK: (laughs)

FG: I was 12 watching THE TOOLBOX MURDERS, Hello! (Laughs)

RK: (Laughs)

FG: What are you doing next?

RK: Well, we are kind of gearing up for BUMP this summer and then I'm out here in L.A. to finish post on a movie called TO LIVE AND DIE, which is my first non-genre action thriller. I'm almost done with that and I'm pretty excited about that film. Also, Just finished THE DEAD MATTER, waiting on Ed Douglas to finish up editing and then we start some post work on that. That was another show we shot at PRECINCT 13 over the summer. Ed Douglas from Midnight Syndicate (A recording act), he directed DEAD MATTER and scored THE RAGE. He raised the money for his production and we basically produced it at the studio with him and put the whole project together with him.

FG: Did you direct some music videos that tie into THE RAGE?

RK: I produced them. One of them was shot at the same time we were shooting THE RAGE. One night we were shooting a RAGE sequence and Mushroomhead came in. We shot all of their stuff for the movie and then Dave Greathouse, a guy who works with us as a make-up guy and who is also Mushroomhead's makeup designer. He basically shot a bunch of additional footage for the videos on the same night. Then he went away and cut it into the DAMAGE DONE video, which is tied into the footage from the film.

Then in the mad doctor's lab we shot the 12 HUNDRED video, which won the MTV Headbanger's Ball thing. They put that together as well, we just produced it.

FG: Are those videos on the DVD?

RK: Yeah, those are on the DVD.

FG: One more question, who haven't you worked with that you have always wanted to.

RK: Clint Eastwood.

FG: Back to those DIRTY HARRY drive-in days..

RK: Yeah, I've worked with somewhat of an Eastwood and a McQueen and that would be George Clooney. But Eastwood is like the last of those guys from that era. You had the Lee Marvins, the Steve Mcqueens, the Charles Bronsons and he is the last of those. I would have loved to work with him.

FG: Thank you so much for taking time out today to talk to me.

RK: No, thank you for having me.

THE RAGE is available now on DVD. The BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE RAGE comic series is available at www.Fangoria.com

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Emily Perkins was born 31 years ago in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  She began acting by the age of ten and has amassed an impressive filmography that includes numerous roles in TV movies such as ANYTHING TO SURVIVE, the Stephen King miniseries IT, and MIRACLE ON INTERSTATE 880 which dramatized the events following the Loma Prieta earthquake which hit the San Francisco Bay Area on October 17, 1989 during rush hour.

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