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Lin Shaye: Telling a Story with the Godmother of Horror

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Around this time, Columbia University had added a new theater program. Lin applied and was accepted into a three year program that kept her working twelve hours a day in the world she had come to love. Acting classes, voice classes, and singing classes all culminated in a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theater and an introduction into the burgeoning off-off-Broadway theater scene of New York. Once again, she was working with men and women who, like herself, would go on to become legends in their field.

Irene Fornes, Murray Mednick, Wynn Handman, Julia MIles, and Harvey Fierstein. She worked with them all and and more fully developed her love of acting and the thrill she received from sinking into a character.

“The idea of stepping into another human being’s life is very tantalizing because it’s safe when you do it on stage. It’s a safe place to experiment and I still feel that about acting. I feel like it’s the safest place to go to the deepest part of yourself that no one else needs or even wants to hear about in real life, but it’s a safe haven for you to really explore your deepest everything. Your deepest fears, your deepest loves, your deepest anxieties. And then, when the director yells cut or the curtain comes down you get to be recognized for having gone to those dark places and get to come back to real life. There’s something very exciting about that process.”

She continued her work in theater and continued honing her craft.  She even picked up a film credit or two. Jack Nicholson flew her down to Mexico for two weeks to shoot a small role called the Parasol Lady in his film Goin’ South, and she appeared in Alone in the Dark, an offering from New Line’s early days. And then, one day, Wes Craven walked into the offices to meet with Bob Shaye about a film he wanted to make called A Nightmare on Elm Street. Lin played the role of Nancy’s English teacher in the film and the actress says people still tell her how memorable she was to this day. It’s both funny and flattering to the actress considering how she got the role in the first place.

“I was cast in A Nightmare on Elm Street because my brother Bob told Wes Craven, ‘You need to put my sister in your movie,'” the actress laughs. “Bob used to drive me crazy because he would introduce me to people as ‘my sister, the actress’ and I would just freeze up inside when he did that. Of course, I came to realize later that it was just a good bit of brother/sister teasing and that he really respected me for what I was trying to do. But at the time, I just wanted to disappear whenever he’d say it.”

Even so, with Bob’s insistence, Lin had a role in what would become one of the most iconic horror franchises in film history. She also had the chance to return and play another small role when Craven returned to the franchise to create the New Nightmare. However, in neither of those movies, did she actually work with the franchise’s iconic star, Robert Englund. As a matter of fact, they wouldn’t share time on the screen together until years later in the cult hit 2001 Maniacs, but we’ll get to that a little later.

After Nightmare, New Line productions really began to take off and when they needed to fill the role of a sheriff’s secretary named Sally in the creature feature, Critters, Lin fell right into the part. Shaye left quite an impression in the role and she returned for the sequel a few years later. It was a golden time for her. The roles were coming faster and more varied by the day. Crossing genre lines she would appear in Amityville: A New Generation, Dumb and Dumber, The Nature of the Beast, and countless others.

And then in the late 90s, she took on two of her most memorable and hilarious roles in Kingpin and There’s Something About Mary.  Outside horror films, the actress says, these are the two roles people often quote when they approach her.

“I still get stopped for those. I just had to write, ‘Tell me what is it about good sex that makes me have to crap?’ That’s become one of the funniest lines ever written. I’m so fortunate that no one can take those things away. That’s one of the great things about being in the movies. Those will live forever.”

Click on the next page to read all about Lin’s work with Robert Englund and a little movie called Dead End that opened the door to a franchise she never saw coming!

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Brad Dourif Says He’s Retiring Except For One Important Role

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Brad Dourif has been doing movies for nearly 50 years. Now it seems he is walking away from the industry at 74 to enjoy his golden years. Except, there is a caveat.

Recently, digital entertainment publication JoBlo’s Tyler Nichols talked to some of the Chucky television series cast members. During the interview, Dourif made an announcement.

“Dourif said that he’s retired from acting,” says Nichols. “The only reason he came back for the show was because of his daughter Fiona and he considers Chucky creator Don Mancini to be family. But for non-Chucky stuff, he considers himself retired.”

Dourif has voiced the possessed doll since 1988 (minus the 2019 reboot). The original movie “Child’s Play” has become such a cult classic it’s at the top of some people’s best chillers of all time. Chucky himself is ingrained in pop culture history much like Frankenstein or Jason Voorhees.

While Dourif may be known for his famous voiceover, he is also an Oscar-nominated actor for his part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Another famous horror role is The Gemini Killer in William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III. And who can forget Betazoid Lon Suder in Star Trek: Voyager?

The good news is that Don Mancini is already pitching a concept for season four of Chucky which might also include a feature-length movie with a series tie-in. So, Although Dourif says he is retiring from the industry, ironically he is Chucky’s friend till the end.

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Editorial

7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch

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The Scream franchise is such an iconic series, that many budding filmmakers take inspiration from it and make their own sequels or, at least, build upon the original universe created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson. YouTube is the perfect medium to showcase these talents (and budgets) with fan-made homages with their own personal twists.

The great thing about Ghostface is that he can appear anywhere, in any town, he just needs the signature mask, knife, and unhinged motive. Thanks to Fair Use laws it’s possible to expand upon Wes Craven’s creation by simply getting a group of young adults together and killing them off one by one. Oh, and don’t forget the twist. You’ll notice that Roger Jackson’s famous Ghostface voice is uncanny valley, but you get the gist.

We have gathered five fan films/shorts related to Scream that we thought were pretty good. Although they can’t possibly match the beats of a $33 million blockbuster, they get by on what they have. But who needs money? If you’re talented and motivated anything is possible as proven by these filmmakers who are well on their way to the big leagues.

Take a look at the below films and let us know what you think. And while you’re at it, leave these young filmmakers a thumbs up, or leave them a comment to encourage them to create more films. Besides, where else are you going to see Ghostface vs. a Katana all set to a hip-hop soundtrack?

Scream Live (2023)

Scream Live

Ghostface (2021)

Ghostface

Ghost Face (2023)

Ghost Face

Don’t Scream (2022)

Don’t Scream

Scream: A Fan Film (2023)

Scream: A Fan Film

The Scream (2023)

The Scream

A Scream Fan Film (2023)

A Scream Fan Film
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Movies

Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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