Thirty years ago, among the Winterberries and a canopy of red Maple leaves in Somers NY, a young Brian Spears walked through the winter chill and entered a video store. He went straight to the horror shelf and tried to choose a title that had the bloodiest prospect. Little did he know that decades later he would create his own bloody prospects with “Old 37”. Spears’ work with Pete Gerner on “Old 37” has been nominated for an SFX award at this years HorrorHound 2015 event.

Spears used to be afraid of horror movies until he discovered that he could make them himself. He turned his childhood garage into a make-shift studio. He says that the horror movies that he watched between the ages of 13-18 are near-and-dear to his heart, and going to the video store at that time always meant his first stop was the horror section.

 

Spears was intrigued by “Toxic Avenger” and tried to re-create that character making masks with whatever material he had available. “Evil Dead 2” and “The Thing” were the two movies that inspired him to want to manipulate the human form and forge body parts into realistic looking extensions of the natural being.

 

In 2003, Spears got his chance and began working on Tony Mandile’s “Midnight Mass”. Although he created many prosthesis and gore effects for this vampire movie, Spears was in awe of just being surrounded by the hustle and bustle of a live movie set. Through all the chaos, he met Peter Gerner and together they would go on to create Gerner and Spears Effects with dreams of being the pinnacle company for movie special effects and make up.

“Gerner & Spears Effects was going to light the indie horror scene on fire- needless to say we were a bit delusional,” Spears says, “it’s taken us some 15 years climbing one step at a time but we love every minute.”

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As with most successful people, looking back at where one started and where they are today, the temptation to change a certain aspect of an early project is always present. Although Spears says he sometimes wishes he could have a do-over, he is honored to have worked with some really good film makers.

Glass Eye Pix is a company that has helped Spears hone his craft and has been a major part of his career,”’I Sell the Dead’ was the first film I can say I am super proud of. The experience both on set and off were amazing. GEP also makes films I enjoy watching. Glass Eye produced ‘Stakeland’ another project that had a huge impact and led to other Jim Mickle flicks that feature some gags I am very proud to have done.”

His hard work and determination have paid off. “Old 37”a film that is getting a lot of horror hype through the internet and festival circuit, brings two horror icons together in a blood-bath of horror and notoriety. Starring Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th: VII) and Bill Moseley (Army of Darkness) “Old 37” has taken the horror festival circuit by storm.

Recently nominated for Best Horror Effects at HorrorHound Weekend 2015 in Cincinnati, Spears says that shooting the film was literally a disaster in the beginning. A hurricane moved through the state of New York followed by an unusually harsh winter.

Eventually, the climate did change and filming finally began. Spears says he dove into the script and found that the slice-and-dice film offered some interesting possibilities, “The movie was a bit slasher, mad men-psychos with a hint of clueless teens- and we got to kill a few folks.” he said, “A highlight was a full body burn- extra crispy, using prosthetics we took a lovely actress through several stages the end result being a makeup any gorehound should dig.”

Spears says that working with Kane Hodder was incredible. In “Old 37” Hodder dons yet another facial disguise and Spears was honored to have designed it, “We even created a custom mask for Kane’s character- knowing his history behind a mask we certainly took that seriously but were totally stoked. We were more than pleased with it and Kane dug it- keeping the original.”

 

Spears and Gerner have no intention of slowing down. They have many projects in the works and last year alone they have worked on some critically acclaimed movies such as “We Are What We Are”, “Sacrament” and “Late Phases”. With eleven films either completed or in post-production, the team has come a long way from the vampire movie that started it all. They continue to do what they do best and horror fans can appreciate their time and commitment to the craft.

“With every gig I feel I get better,” say Spears, “and I have been lucky to have worked with, worked for and collaborated with some amazing talents that inspire me. I hope your fans keep watching horror movies cuz I can use the work.”

Somewhere, in a small town, a 13 year old is scrolling through a library of horror movies on a streaming device. He or she will eventually land on one that Spears and Gerner have worked on, and perhaps in their garage there is a space just big enough for them to forge their own dreams.

No word yet on when you can see Spears work on “Old 37”. No release date has been determined. But you can keep up with the film here.