Editorials
[Set Visit] A Trip to Gepetto’s Lair in ‘Cassadaga’!
Last October, Tim Anderson and I trekked over to Sanford, FL to visit the set of Anthony DiBlasi’s Cassadaga, which premieres this coming Saturday, October 22 at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival in CA. The film – which centers on a deaf girl who attempts to contact her late sister’s spirit during a seance but instead attracts the avenging ghost of a murdered woman – looks to have some fairly intense moments judging by what we saw during our trip.
The two days we were on set for, which also happened to be the final two days of principal photography, were filled with things we can’t really get too specific about – like what exactly is going on in Gepetto’s lair – but Tim did a really respectable job of giving you guys an idea of what you’re in for without completely ruining any third act plot points.
Read past the break for Tim’s set visit report and check back shortly for interviews with the film’s producers, Scott Poiley and Bruce Wood, as well Anthony DiBlasi.
Just off the main drag in downtown Sanford, Florida–a picturesque turn of the century city founded on the shores of Lake Monroe–there is an old brick warehouse that serves a film production studio. From the outside it resembles any old industrial building that has been sitting around for the better part of a hundred years. A few cars are parked off to the side, the asphalt’s cracked with weeds–the kind of thing Florida is know for. Old streets built on swampland, just a little disuse away from the elements creeping in, taking back what was once theirs.
From the main entrance, the non-descript building doesn’t appear to be the scene of anything specifically special. But around back the unmistakable bustle of a motion picture film set is buzzing at full tilt. Wardrobe, Make-up, Grip Trucks and Craft Service are all situated in what on any given Sunday is probably an empty parking lot that would be just about big enough to park a few dozen cars, or maybe play a game of soccer with some street kids. But today, and for the next several weeks this is ground zero for a new horror film–A film based on the spiritualist community of Cassadaga which lies just 31 miles up the interstate.
Cassadaga was founded in 1894 by a medium who claims he was sent there after a vision told him to travel to Florida from Iowa. A hundred and seventeen years later Cassadaga is recognized as a U.S. Historic District and better still as “The Psychic Capital Of The World”. It’s not a place to suffer fools and they take their spirituality very seriously in this little hamlet with only about 55 homes on 57 acres. In Cassadaga, the people keep to themselves a bit, and locals know that despite obvious appearances the town is really not about ghosts and goblins. Much of this explains why there have never been horror movies made about this legendary town–even though it has shown up in popular books and made mention on TV shows such as The Glades.
But this Cassadaga has only a tenuous connection with the real place. This films exists in a very fictionalized version of the small town. One where a young woman with a tragic past, hopes to start fresh. One where the ghosts of the past are still present and a serial killer is stalking his prey.
And, it’s the killer (known only as ‘Gepetto’) whose lair inhibits the set we are visiting today.
Inside the warehouse the production team has crafted a two-story torture chamber–where the killer (because all horror moves need an antagonist) has set up shop. Literally shop. The room, all dingy and painted a two-tone of yellowed/white and green, is a veritable workshop of fear, with every manner of rusty tool needed to extract bloody terror. Severed doll heads hang from the walls and in the center of the room, an enormous marionette’s control bar hangs ominously over the set–foreshadowing the unspeakable misery that I’m sure will be befall some nubile young starlet in only a matter of hours.
As the crew runs in and out of the set prepping for the next shot, I’m struck by the obvious associations between a puppeteer, pulling strings to make entertainment and the role that a horror movie director plays in toying with audience expectations, moving this piece here to make a reaction occur over there. That’s when my eyes make their way over to one of the masterminds behind this production, Director Anthony DiBlasi.
DiBlasi, who made his directorial debut with the Clive Barker adaptation Dread which was picked up by Lionsgate for their After Dark Horrorfest is no neophyte genre filmmaker. He started his career as Barker’s assistant before graduating to an Executive Producer position on films like Midnight Meat Train and Books of Blood. But this time, instead of working from source material that’s he’s intimately familiar with, DiBlasi finds himself behind the lens of an original screenplay by a pair of newcomers Writer/Producers Scott Poiley and Bruce Wood.
This trio have assembled a cast lead by Kelen Coleman (Children of the Corn: Genesis), Kevin Alejandro (True Blood) and Oscar winner Louise Fletcher (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). With an Effects/Make-up team lead by Lee Grimes (Pirates of the Caribbean, Zombieland, Sorority Row) fans looking for some gruesome gore gags and–from what I saw–one hell of a set piece (see the poster art) are in for a real treat.
Having spent the final two days of Principal Photography on set with fellow writer David Harley, I was struck by how intense portions of this film are and by how committed the crew and cast (specifically Coleman who was put through the emotional wringer, yet still spent her downtime, happily chatting about what a great time she was having, and personally lamenting that she hadn’t made it to Universal Studio’s Orlando to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter) were in turning out a film that satisfied not only genre fans looking for horror, but suspense fans and mystery fans looking for a solid story arc.
David and I sat down with the filmmakers–who took time out from getting the final shots of their feature in the can–to talk to us about where the story came from, and how they found themselves on the set of their first feature (for Poiley and Wood) and for DiBlasi, how he founds himself 3,000 miles from home, in the 100 degree Florida heat, making a movie about a girl, a ghost, and a serial killer that’s not quite all there (you’ll see what I mean)…
College kids, strippers and vampires—those were Donald P. Borchers’ only requirements when he approached Richard Wenk about writing and directing a movie for New World Pictures. As requested, Wenk cooked up Vamp (1986), a tailor-made blend of the decade’s teen movie craze as well as its horror boom.
Grim and earnest stories were still very much a part of the ’80s horror landscape, yet Vamp is something of a comedy. One difference between it and, say, Saturday the 14th, though, is the former avoids using schtick. Wenk’s movie proves that horror comedies also don’t have to subtract thrills from their recipes. Of course, it takes a minute before reaching that point; college antics and culture shocks preface this one macabre misadventure.
Vamp‘s initial setup is apt for a typical college-set, sex-driven comedy; to bribe their way into a fraternity house, two pledges (Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler) go looking for some adult entertainment. Without wasting time on any further exposition, the characters embark on an all-in-one-night trip that quickly detours into terror.
To procure their elusive MacGuffin—a stripper willing to gyrate for some frat boys—Keith (Makepeace) and AJ (Rusler), plus a third wheel named Duncan (Gedee Watanabe), trade the safety of their remote college campus for the seediness of some unnamed city. The setting is recognizably L.A. by day, but as soon as night falls, downtown, along with the characters, slips into a kind of surreal universe. Director of photography Elliot Davis gave this early entry on his prolific résumé an unusual yet distinctive look; that Mario Bava-esque, magenta-green lighting is omnipresent, so much so that it’s almost its own character.
Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler in Vamp
The faint comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s After Hours are merited, although not just because of Vamp’s distinguishing nighttime aesthetic. Save for the primary characters, the supporting roles in Wenk’s movie are also quite colorful and transactional in their behavior. The difference here, though, is the additional urge to ruin Keith and his friends at every turn. Some of that harm is humorous and tolerable enough, whereas the moment Vamp dishes out its first fatality, it’s abundantly clear how this movie qualifies as horror.
Vamp falls into that category of horror movie that reveals its genre with a scream rather than a series of whispers. The opening scene can function as a hint of what lies ahead—things are not at all what they appear to be—but otherwise, Wenk is more than happy to hold off on the horror. When that time does come, though, it catches the viewer off guard. In addition to the pure shock value is that sudden decision to upend the movie’s foremost feature. Or so it would seem.
If afraid of major spoilage, those new to Vamp would be wise to stop reading here. There’s just no skirting around the fact that the central fellowship in this buddy movie hits a serious snag when AJ is killed. That development causes the story to become more of a “long, bad night” journey for Keith and his romantic interest. So while Wenk scores points for subverting expectations, there is also a touch of sadness in his decision. Because if Vamp does anything well, it’s making the characters likable.
Something that comes easily to Vamp—and other teen horror movies from this same era—is its ability to invent young characters worth caring about, or at the very least, are interesting and not so immediately off-putting. More impressive is how Wenk did all this without actually fleshing out those characters. Still and all, Keith and his kind are a grade above cookie-cutter, and in some cases, aren’t completely devoid of growth.
Grace Jones in Vamp
Vamp appeals with an assorted cast of characters. No two are the same, nor are they operating on the same wavelength. The cinematically extroverted AJ, whose actor conveyed charm and vulnerability in near equal amounts, comes alive when he’s at his most undead. Makepeace then makes the chronically cautious Keith a sympathetic fellow, even as he’s more and more affected by the night’s bizarre events. Meanwhile, Duncan is indeed the designated loser of the whole bunch, but Watanabe still manages to humanize him. As a bonus, the role didn’t require him to pull a Long Duk Dong.
As for Dedee Pfeiffer, she is plain adorable as the mysterious After Dark server nicknamed “Amaretto”. She spends all night fixing her dress strap while at the same time trying to get Keith to remember how he knows her. As their offbeat romance grows, it becomes another highlight of this movie. Whether or not Pfeiffer’s character is really a vampire also creates some welcome tension in the story.
Like a lot of its contemporaries, Vamp went on to become a bit of a cult classic. That current status is determined by several factors, but without a doubt, the casting of Grace Jones is the most considerable. The image of her writhing on that unique-looking chair, a Keith Haring original, springs to mind whenever this movie is brought up.
Chris Makepeace, Billy Drago and Paunita Nichols in Vamp
Prior to that first display of unequivocal horror, local vampire queen Katrina (Jones) took to the stage and delivered a strip show like no other. One would expect nothing less from that renowned model and performance artist. By now reports of Jones’ tardiness on set are no secret, yet it’s also hard to deny her commitment to the part of Katrina. It was, in fact, Jones who took charge of her character’s appearance—on top of Haring painting her body and that now-iconic chair, she had Andy Warhol handle her costuming. And not too many actors could seize a room’s attention without saying a single line of dialogue.
In 2022, Vamp received a retrospective novelization from Encyclopocalypse. This literary union of preexisting source material—Wenk’s original screenplay—and new ideas from author Christian Francis amounts to a more comprehensive visit to the After Dark Club. The basic story there is no different than what’s shown on screen; however, Francis gets creative with the characters’ origins and designs, and he enhances a number of key scenes.
The novelization expands on the urban and social decay of the main setting, and supplies a background for the After Dark Club. Sandy Baron’s character, Katrina’s emcee and familiar, is given ample motivation for sticking around; up until the fiery end, he is loyal to his friend and former business partner “Squeak”, who looks like he was “fed through a combine harvester, and left as nothing more than a heap of mangled remains”. Then there is Billy Drago’s character Snow, the leader of a street gang called The Dragons. His reason for menacing Keith and AJ is more altruistic than in the movie; he and his peers act tough to scare off any potential food for the vampires.
Lisa Lyon in Vamp
If not for all the backstories, Francis’ Vamp would be a hell of a lot shorter. Instead, this tie-in read dives into how AJ met Keith—the orphaned Anthony Joseph hailed from a broken home back in Brooklyn—and how their friendship flourished over the years. Keith’s archership is no longer just an assumed part of his entire being; it’s a confidence-building extracurricular for a boy who got picked on before coming into the protection of the new kid in town. These supplemental, in-depth looks at the protagonists, plus their close connection, are maybe unnecessary. The movie already did a fair and concise job of addressing their platonic intimacy without the need for flashbacks and insights, specifically in that scene where AJ lays it all out as he sacrifices himself.
Where the novelization gets off course is its approach to the minor characters. Intermittently backstorying the likes of Katrina’s indentured servants, Seko (Leila Hee Olsen) and Vlad (Brad Logan), ends up disturbing the flow of the writing. Was it absolutely essential that readers know Vlad was the Grand Duke of the House of Romanov, or how Snow’s accomplice Maven (Paunita Nichols) became so dentally challenged? No, not really. However, one’s mileage with these random biographies may vary.
The novelization is a more substantial experience, but for a movie like Vamp, less is more. And as plentiful as they are, it never simply coasts on its campy charms, either. The character work sits comfortably in that realm between cursory and meticulous, the script is sharper than first realized, and Greg Cannom’s vampire makeup is straightforward yet effective. Most of all, the movie didn’t squander its out-of-the-box concept. Richard Wenk made his vision of a “comic nightmare in which just about anything that can go wrong does” come true, and it is very enjoyable.
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