Original subtitles

so yeah

because which word did not come out yet

which word actually came out while we were shooting

neither the demon

so we did not know yet that we had a hit on our hands

with which board I probably could have got more but now

and when they are from our panel last night

you had a little bit of hesitation

when you first read the script

as well or was it even before you read the script

it wasn't before

I was scared to go in because I thought they reject me

because I was like 25 at the time

and all the kids were supposed to be teenagers

and so I kept saying to my manager

I wasn't gonna go in cause I didn't want them to say oh

you're too old for it and so I just kept saying no

I'm not gonna go in it's oh

you really wanna see you oh no

I'm not gonna go in so

it was just the luck that I got to work with having

Tenny

actually needs a watch

be able to claim that they're my No. 1 fan

just throwing it out there just a suggestion

so you read it back when it was called Halloween Party

yes was there a huge amount of

change from the original script

into what was shot well

we totally lost the scene with the aircraft carrier and

otherwise it's pretty close to the original script

we had some crane shots in it though

yeah we did actually

there wasn't this the script I read now

if you if you read interviews with Joe Gusson

his original draft was drastically different

but they went through a lot of changes

before I came on board

uh the biggest changes

the ones that I affected were

there was an opening

where a priest spoke directly to the audience

and blessed them all

so they wouldn't get possessed while watching

and I told Joe I said

that might be a little too corny to start our film with

so just said screw it

and didn't we cut that

and then the only other things for me were in passing

when we were talking about the script

he said something about the house being possessed

instead of haunted

but there wasn't really addressed in the script

and I said well

that's great that's actually the hook right there

that's what we're

that's what makes this special is it's not ghost

it's demons and so I had him

I said right about that

so then that's what he gave Angela her

her whole

this is a house that's been possessed and not haunted

and yada yada

yada because

I thought

that would be an interesting hug for the audience

and then the only other thing was Judy

the heroine

was originally dressed like Little Red Riding Hood

and I thought we're doing a film about demons

you really don't want her running around in a

big red cloak and I said into there were

logic problems with the script in that you know

the door can lock itself

and then it can't unlock itself

but it can make its counter pins fall out

so that it will fall off

so I thought if we address these logically

we kill the momentum

and so many of these sequences were great sequences

but you just had to not worried

get bogged down in

the fact that they didn't make sense

so I thought well

let's dress her like Alice in Wonderland

that gets her out of red

which has demonic connotations

and then subconsciously we're saying hey

the house is Wonderland is just fucking with her

and once I told that to the crew

they actually took her point at the art department

in the scene where they're in the embalming room

and all the bottles are there

you can't see it on film

but one of they had a little bottle there said drink me

I think Amelia just showed up so let's get a warm run

if she clicks them three times

she'll be back in Hell House

no it's as far as like I I know that you are a little

you know I'm not sure if I'm gonna do this

a lot of tools for it

did any of you know each other before this

or had seen each other's work no

no actually

I was not a horror fan at this time so Joe knew

Joe was

I know

yes

okay so she knew you and

and I just she came in red and I liked her

but I didn't know who she was

the funny thing was

I knew somebody had worked with her

and he told me a story about her

but could not

I didn't know who she was when he told me the story

so when still after we were here

so oh

this is the gal that he was talking about

it was a good story oh my God

like what story like

oh my God

now I've got this bitch and I can't do anything with it

that was a good story but

it was funny that

I made the connection about halfway through the film

oh my God this is the guy he was talking about

and Joe was also like a big

MTV fan so

he knew who Amelia was

from the video she did for the Stray Cats

sexy and 17 so I didn't know who either of them were

but they came in red they did a really nice job

and so we cast them don't worry

we didn't know who he was

that's right I yeah

which one did not come out yet

so I was the unknown commodity as well

that's right that's right

yeah Amelia did

were you a horror fan before you came into the demon

you know

this is a question that cannot be answered in this room

I know I know he just did I um

I wanted to work with Steve Johnson

who had just won an Oscar for Ghostbusters

I thought this

special effects were gonna be incredibly fun

little did you know

27 hours as a state is not fun

glued to a tater totter strapped in a trench

no it wasn't fun fun for us just watching

oh yeah

no so I wasn't a fan of special effects

because I was fascinated by it

I think it's a very interesting art form

now all of you together how is how's pre production

was it a long pre production

was it very short was there pre production

yeah there was actually by pure luck

we found the house early and because of that

whenever there was not something going on

the office where we were casting

or I was dealing with script notes

I would hop in my car

and I would drive over to the house

and I would walk through it with a viewfinder

that tells you you know

you can actually adjust it like a lens

like a zoom lens so of all the films I've ever shot

that was probably the one I was best prepared for

and I think it shows I mean

cause you you know every

so

I knew not only how I was gonna wanna shoot the film

but I knew what lenses I was gonna wanna use each shot

so when we got there I could just say

you know throwing an 80

throwing a 200 whatever

um and one of the decisions I made early was to

in order for the environment of the house

to be drastically different from everything else

that was shot in the film

I used all long lenses when they were not in the house

like a Judy's house or out on the road

because that flattens the background

and then in the house I didn't shoot with anything less

the 25 was the longest lens I used

I think I use the 35 for a couple shots

I had to use with 35

25 or a 9 in so that even in a room like from

if you were 3 feet from that wall

it still look like you were in the hallway

the wall would be so far behind you

that was just so that the house would be creepier

and everybody thinks it's easy being a director

now is actors did you have an opportunity to

to rehearse a lot together

or was that not really a part of

of the the pre production for you

not a lot of rehearsal I don't remember

we may have done a week honestly

about half of my answer is coming out of my ass

25 years ago I certainly will say

for the pre production and rehearsal

I've never been on a panel with these two people

this is a little bit we're making history here

so I get to talk about them

and

you can hear stories that you have never heard before

that's right but there were things that Kevin

Kevin improvised at the last minute

some shots that became history

I mean really movie making history

some of those things were not pre planned

the shot with the broken mirror

and all of us looking into it

putting me on roller skates

to make me float down the hallway

none of these things were thought through in advance

I mean there was one scene

where Steve Johnson is smoking cigarettes

blowing them up my skirt

is coming out in little tubes out of my fingers

and while I have you here

because I recently

we got to see the Blu ray screening in Hollywood

were sold out oh yeah

you weren't there right now

but what we had in the script was

and now she's possessed

and you look at it and go okay

what does that mean you know

as an actor what does that mean

and Linnea you were so good

she kind of set the bar for the other actors to follow

that's what I will be when we're possessed

I

mean you're such

it's such I gave them excellent direction

like don't fuck up

you know that's true

she choreographed her own dance

and she also improvised a lot while she was dancing

and I knew she was gonna do this

and I knew I wanted to get some great shots of it

so Dave Lewis and I the DP

we actually got

a remote camera that usually only use for rock videos

at that time that was on a dolly

and then a gibb arm

that we control from the other room

so we didn't have to be in the room

and the camera could just follow her

so when she's laying on the floor popping up

we just basically let her do what she was doing

and we end up getting great shots

because she would fall down on the floor

and then we would drop down with her

and I think we did like you did it twice

we did two takes and then I just

and then I just cut the one

pieces from each shot that I like the best together to

uh do the dance and it worked out amazing yeah

and there's no CGI in there

it's like the strobe lights were going

there was no such thing as CGI no

we didn't know what it was yeah

we didn't know what it was in demons too

they said and now you're gonna throw a fireball okay

well who's gonna set my hand on fire

CGI I said what's that actually

was it CGI or just optical

optical I don't think CGI even exists that yeah

optical was they have to do it

they would have to like get a pen light

and it would have to be done like animation

you would have just set me off yeah

I would give you a tumble

we lit it on fire say throw the fucker

don't miss me and the camera

anything else fair game oh my God

I'm just gonna comment very funny

we have two ladies who've had two very iconic dances

and horror between

and

I dance on my ex girlfriend's grave so

I remember quickly go to cameo in this one

so technically all of you acted in this film

that's right yes

I'm I'm

I have the riveting role of guy shopping for milk

in the back of the

obviously you all remember that

yeah remember it

he was acting because if it was real life

he would have been shopping for real

and I think Joe Agustin the writer

producer was off to the left checking out the chips

now was that

that was something that was shot

and an actual convenience store in LA yes

were there any you know

there were any uh you know

just regular I was a human extras

any just regular

civilian extras

that were a little taken aback by what was going on

no no

you you when you you rent the store

even though it's a real store

you rent it and then you control it

so everyone

all the extras in the store actually crew people

does anyone who wasn't actually working

while we were doing that shot

got pulled into being the

being extra in the scene well

we had a lot of security

because we were not shooting in a great place

no we were shooting in lots

yeah

the corner or was it the corner of Adams and Vermont

which is you know

not the great area

so we had very heavy security

will shoot at night and you know

and of course

we had to retake a lot of the dialogue scenes

because it machine gun fire yeah

but a lot of people want to have that house

that when I talk to people

they like

I'd love to have that house as my house to live in

it was tragic that it got

you got torn down those were really gorgeous

yeah Hollywood

historic homes and it was huge

it was actually two buildings

with a porch that join them

so it was like a gigantic

took up like a whole corner lot

so it was huge back in the day of old Hollywood

that was a nice part of town

yeah well

Charlie Chaplin and the old movie stars

and though it was a beautiful home

if we could start with Amelia

out of curiosity is there one part of this film

that was just the absolute hardest for you to film

and you just felt like I just don't wanna do this

don't worry it's coming to you too

Kevin and

taking the prosthetics off took an hour and a half

getting them on took five or six hours

and it only took a few nights of that

before I was really not having fun

at one point I remember the makeup people saying

we have to send her home

because she has bleeding wounds in her face

oh we can't make up over bleeding

gaping wounds Oscar winner my ass

the stuff coming off is so glued on

it's just you know

I mean it's tough on the guys

but the women who have these

you know beautiful Alabaster faces

well you know

one night I think how was in tears

can I sleep in it yeah

so did I dread any scenes in demons one

no no

I have to say no and No. 2

I got to shag Darren to death which was a good time

and demons to the snake makeup was hard

it was hard and it was intense

if you haven't seen demons to yet they

they turned me into Kermit the frog

but I'm a 30 foot snake and all practical all

but no CGI

and in retrospect

I can say that if I hadn't been a professional dancer

I couldn't have done that

when I was growing up

we take off our pointe shoes and pour the blood out

put them back on finish the Nutcracker rehearsal

that's what it meant to be a ballerina

that's what it still means to be a ballerina

and you couldn't throw up your hands and say ouch

my face hurts and my fangs are bleeding

will you take the shit off my face

you just soldier through it

and um

also the name because you also got to dance in a film

this was at a time

I hit Hollywood right after flash dance

so Marie Johan was the

the person who got to do the dancing and flash dance

and one of my partners Peter Tram

was the one who did the dancing and footloose

and then they had another double to do the gymnastics

so it was a world where you were an actor or a dancer

you couldn't really be both

and we both got to be both in movies

and not get doubled

and I got in choreograph our own dances

and that was pretty darn fabulous

that's true that's true

yeah I got to be a director and a sex symbol

to this day to this day

and remains forever humble

Kevin for you same

same question I mean

is there any time that you were like screw

I'm done I'm done with this

or did you have a good time all the way

no actually

I had a pretty good time I just done Ouija board

which was a much more serious horror filming

and when you're doing the scenes

where the characters have to cry

and have all these emotional moments

the crew has to be quiet you have to give them

the actors time to get to a dark place

using whatever techniques they use to get there

and then you have to shoot the scene

and whether it's going well or badly

you can't say that was great

now let's go for another or oh

that sucked

you have to be very respectful of their process

and in neither demon sense

it was really just a campy

let's have fun movie

we never had to even wear your shoes

stuff like

it's even like things like eyes getting blown out

and I was like we're having fun

yeah so it was always fun

the only time I mean

you always you're always

when you got a small budget and an ambitious script

you're always fighting with time

time is your enemy when

there were times when we were like down to the wire

and I wanted to do a fancy shot

and the producers are just like

we need to get this shot before the sun rises

um usually you're

you're fighting sunset we were always fighting sunrise

but um

the shot with the mirrors

because I had plotted it out in my head

how I wanted to do it

I had the art department build a false floor that we

put it a 45 degree angle

I explained to the cameraman how we

I wanted to do it um

but didn't know it was gonna work

and so were she and no and when I kept telling him when

when I went no one seemed to quite

I couldn't explain it clearly to everybody

they like uh

what I finally just said put the floor up

you stand there and then half the cast on apple boxes

have a third on apple boxes

third just standing on the floor

and then third like kneeling

so that they would be at different levels

and what we had to do is wrap the camera completely

and do the team

which is like a black felt that absorbs light

so that

you wouldn't see the camera in any of the mirrors

and then we had to place that

all the actors around and we had to place them here in

the cameraman was sit there and go okay

move that piece of that okay

now I have I have Lenay in that neat piece of glass

and they said okay

okay now I have Amelia in that

and we did that with everyone

and then they all had to duck and so

and take and then I just

you know okay

you stand up first you

you you

so it all looks like you're walking up to the mirrors

but you're all just standing up

and so we're about halfway through it

everyone started to realize what I was doing

and Kathy Polowell said oh

this is a great shot have you done this before

I said if I had done this before

I wouldn't be sitting here shitting myself because if

when we're done it doesn't work

I just wasted my whole shooting day

to get this one shot

and I won't have time to shoot this scene standard

so we either get it in the mirror or we are

you know big time screwed

so luckily it came out exactly as I envisioned it

uh

and they don't take the time now

to really get shots like that

in the so called movies

yeah and that was his choreography

that was his moment of choreographing

something really amazing

do you all know what we're talking about

and I remember him saying

maybe you got to move an eighth of an inch

more to the left

because we can see somebody else's head behind you

trying to get each one of us in

each little piece of glass

that's true it was like you

you talked about an actor having to say their lines

find their light hit their Mark

which you can always tell

when you're working with someone

who hasn't done movies yet

and someone who has because they know how to do it

but even if you knew how to do all that

this was new cause this was like find your light

hit your Mark know your line

and while you're at it do this

there you go this is great

this is dog shit

you're fucking me

Oscar worthy you're ruining my movie

and we had 10 of them so everyone

nine of you did a great job

you fucked me but it came up

I think we did again

two takes and we were out and got it

when I'm going to assume with what you went through

I'm just from living dead

you know getting tackled by zombies in a graveyard

this might have been a walk in the park for you

it was a lot easier um

the only part I dreaded was

the final scene in the movie

because I knew I would be in the makeup chair

for a long time

we started at 3 in the afternoon one day

and I think we got the

the shot at dawn or something like that

so I think we were in makeup for I

I was because I have Randy Cook who I love

but he would like do the makeup and stand back and look

and do the makeup and stand back and look

it took like 14 hours I'm not kidding

and I was just like ready to tear it all off

but um

and then you get the jokes like

you remind me of that ex girlfriend

or have you seen a dermatologist about that

go nuts so I remember I'm wearing fangs

oh yeah

yeah

I know it was just like everybody would say that

and you felt funny eating in front of anybody

if you could eat you know

through the prosthetics

it made acting possessed a lot more method

I remember looking in the mirror not recognizing myself

and it was a really scary feeling

yeah like who is that

and people look at you different

well that was what I noticed is that

you know

Linnea was probably the only one that was within the

was kind of a star already in the horror community

so a lot of crew guys knew who she was

and they were kind of ruling and quickly will

and so they reacted to her specific way on the set

when she would show up hubba

hubba hubba

whatever and she showed up in the makeup

and guys who had been lusting after her

wouldn't even look at her

it was funny it's like it just makeup

but it was so good

that it was disturbing enough that you would be like

yeah come back when you got that on

it was really it was really striking

oh how funny

I didn't even know about that

out of curiosity during your hoodie

great experiences working with Steve Johnson

I mean he was amazing in this

I always think of the

I can't help but think about that

you know it's funny

Steven I did not get along because he what

you know if you see the commentary of the interviews

we talked about it and we're actually

we're really good friends now

I mean hanging out with

you know and I love them to pieces

but you know

it was his it was my film

which were did not come out yet

so this was still a showcase for me

everybody who worked on it wanted to showcase

their best of their abilities

and Steve did too

but Steve would actually like screw up my schedule

like he would just say

I can do the makeup in five hours

and seven hours later and still be waiting for it

so finally I just said I can't do this Steven

if you're not ready

I'm gonna shoot it as is and he got really mad at me

but I said listen

you know and I finally at one point I said to him

I know Steve

I know cause this was the first film by his own shot

he has started his own shop

he left Richard Edlin and he'd gotten a job uh

to do a Michael Jackson video

which he bought his he got like a you know

he's gonna get big advance where he bought a shop

he hired a big crew and then Michael Jackson fired him

haha

and he was like oh oh

the job like the next day and he

which is probably the only reason we got him

because we weren't paying a lot either

but he needed the job so he took it and but

but then he knew that this is his first film

out of the gate

he had to really come on like gangbusters

so he wanted his stuff showcase

but I finally had to sit him down and said listen

I understand that but I want my directing showcase

the actors want their performances showcase the DP

wants his lighting showcase

camera operator wants his camera movement

we all wanna be showcased

and it's my job to make sure that

what ends up being showcased is the entire film

not just once my so um

I finally what I did was that we made a compromise

we took the two most elaborate effects

which was the eye gouge and the razors in the throat

and I agreed not to shoot them

while we were shooting the film

we put them at the end we added on one day

and we spent half a day on the razor effect

and half a day on the eye effect

which is why they turned out so amazing

and that was like that I said

if you can then get them in their makeup

and out there at the wall on time

and I will kill you and you won't have to kill me

and actually when we did the wall scene

because it was like all eight of them

eight of them were possessed

he called in favor so we had like a dozen Oscar winners

oh yeah

working on there for free

just a favor to see

because everyone had to have their own makeup

so in order to make our schedule so well

I ended up marrying him

so you can imagine how long it took him to get ready

you two fell in love on this phone

yeah I have this huge crush on Steve Jobs

oh I'll tell you my secrets now

and then I hear that he is plaster casting

Linnea Quiley's chest nice

and enjoying the process a little bit too much

and I went oh damn

there he goes no

oh my God I got you sharing it

I know it but I got shit for it because he said

you just came in the shop and took off your top

and I'm like well

that's what I was supposed to do

he gave me shit about it I know

we went to see the cast later

and he could not stop talking about

this beautiful actress coming in and

you know she had the most perfect rise

and I said oh

you can't you did the cast

yeah and he got

and he was obviously enamored with her

I said well

maybe you should take her to dinner or something

this least you could do after you rub glue ball

on that note I think we should open up

who's first right up here

I was just wondering what your favorite

behind the scenes moments were

Philip Tanzini had his arm chopped off of his

spewing blood

and this was before there were laws

that you can't go out in public in special effect

makeup

and one morning after we've been up all night shooting

and he's missing as

it's just a bloody stub he drove through Burger King

yeah

and had the girl you know

reaching out to take his order and and

and here he is with the arms

and so for me we had practical jokes going

I think there are a lot of movies now

that people are very serious

and also Billy Gallo was running around with a steak

sticking out of his heart

and he would make it jump

you know he made

and it's so it was a fun cast with great sense of humor

Billy was so buff

we couldn't when he was laying there with the steak

and he's supposed to be dead

he could hold his breath

but because he had like zero body fat

every time his heart beat the sticker go

get out of shape would

you know my two behind the scenes all

both fell

we were shooting with this stuff called cookie smoke

which is now banned

because they decided it was carcinogenic

smoke up the house you can't see the smoke on camera

but what it does is when someone turns on a flashlight

it gives this beautiful beam of light

so that's why we have all these beautiful beams

come through the windows and everyone's flashlights

looks amazing

but we had a mixture of white and blue smoke

and you go home at night and blow your nose

and it would just oh

lots of blue coming out of your nose

so we had a prop department handles the cookie

and what it is

it's like a chunk that looks like Styrofoam

they put it in an actual frying pan

and they light it and it catches on fire

and then they put out the fire

and it wafts and smoke comes off

and the guy walks through the room with a fan

and fills the room with smoke

and then you let the smoke settle and then you shoot

so we're getting ready to do a shot

and the prop guy's assistant was very done ho

and he was always that was his job

so he would make sure do we have enough smoke

do we have enough so

we're getting ready to do Phil's close up

when he's at the fireplace looking at Linnaeus but

and so it's on him and we're just about to shoot

and affects the prophesist and goes

do you need more smoke and Phil goes

I'll check

and he shoves his finger up and blew from here up

and he goes no we're good

and the second one is

he's in the coffin with gel terashita

and she they

we did a take of them having sex in the cop

then she gets out to go

touch up her body makeup

so Phil is laying in the coffin just wearing a G string

and he in the first ad would banter all the time

so the first ad is leaning on the lid of the coffin

and he's and he's

he's talking to Phil

he's telling him a story or whatever

and Phil's listening

and I'm just standing there dealing with

you know the DP or whatever

but I'm hearing and I don't even know what story was

the lab where he's talking it

and when he's done Phil just goes

hey dude

do me a favor stop looking at me down there

the first lady fell on the floor laughing

those are my best memories

I remember anything it was just all such a whirlwind

I think just when we first like all met

I remember Bill being like a teenager

just like all that energy

and over the first day

Dean would just correct him all the time like

you know like his daddy

yeah and I remember that I

it was horrible the time

but when they're doing the scene

where they all go around

they have the camera in the middle

and they're going around the room

and I'm supposed to say wuss

wuss wuss

I didn't know how to say wuss or wuss

and so I would be

you know supposed to be a teenager

and so they would be having the camera go around in

my mind's going

I'm so nervous and everything crazy I got it

for the record it's worse

I still don't know

yes I know

we talked about this last night

I'm so I'm so intrigued by the lipstick scene

and they has got magic

she showed that to me in the audition

I said we have to put

that

back then

all the makeup they wore was foam rubber

they didn't have

the silicone and latex that they have now

which looks better looks more like skin

is easier to apply easier to move

it was all foam

rubber that had to be stuck on with glue

and then peeled off

but for the shot of the breast

foam rubber wasn't gonna cut it cause I wanted

you know you had to be close on it when it went in

and so Steve said I'm gonna make it out of gelatin

cause gelatin has a translucent like real human skin

the problem is it's gelatin

so it looks great but you make them all

you have to stick it in a fridge like Jello

and when you go out of the fridge

you got maybe two hours before

starts to turn into jello

like liquid

so he said when I build it

we have to shoot it right away

so we rehearsed it yeah

without the it's a plate that goes from here to here

and then it's hidden by her neck

her chin down

and it's tucked into the waist of her skirt

and you remember she's got her shirt open

so you don't see the sides

because the shirt blocks that

yeah and what I wanted was

I didn't wanna do one fake boob

and have her really topless

and then cut for the effect

cause I said they audience will know that's what we did

I said we'll start out wide and I'll push it

and she was worried cause when I double

it goes you won't see the effect

I said but I'll do a push in

so by the time the effect happens

we'll be in our close up but we didn't cut

we pushed in

so everyone thinks they're looking at her real boobs

and then they're completely creeped out

I didn't know they could do that

yeah but the problem was she's right handed

so we had for the left boob so she could do that

but when we rehearsed it

her hand doing it this way block the effect

so he said okay you got to use this hand

hello I'm right handed

so she was really nervous that

you know doing it with her left hand and having to do

is a very awkward and unnatural way to do it

but we did two takes they both went perfect

yeah and we were done

wow yeah

but we rehearsed before we even brought it out

yeah the camera move

and how long it would take her to get there

and the camera to get there too

it's very real yeah

it was amazing I'd look in the mirror with it on

I'd be like oh my gosh

must be Thursday

I like watching Kevin reenact at first

so it's very funny to sit yeah

yeah she does it

the iconic dance scene

music selected for that add so much to it

who chose that track and did she dance with it

when you filmed it or was it a live

do you remember the actual song

Joe had it in the script another Bow House

but it wasn't that it wasn't the right one

no that was the right song for that

she insisted that we use that song

and I um

I couldn't believe

when we actually got the rights to that song

yeah but what a difference that day

to have Stigmata Martyr as that song

and so you dance to something else

no no

she danced to stigma she brought it in to dance to it

we all said oh

once we heard her saw her dance to it was like

this gotta be the song so then we started

you know

do it yeah

going through the arduous task of finding the rights

and then bargaining and negotiating

yeah well

you can get the dance to

we weren't necessarily going to use it

because we didn't even know if

we didn't have the rights to it

yeah we didn't think we had the rights to it so

but we thought this dance is so perfect with this song

and we went it's funny

when I was one of the producers on the remake

which had a much bigger budget

and they had a lot of great songs

from Concrete Blond and Goat Whore and

you know every punk rat band you can think of

and at one point the director of that

Adam asked me

goes you had all these

you know

everyone was wearing these logos for all these great

punk bands but you didn't use any of the music either

we didn't have $4 million

but we were lucky we got the mouse song

you know we didn't think we were got

we actually weren't planning to budget any songs

Dennis which is my brother who composed

did the score was just gonna write all the songs

because we really didn't think we would get

anybody song so

we were very pleased when we got the about house song

the same thing on the dance

the dress seems to transform

during the process of the dance

is that like two separate outfits or layers added

you're seeing stuff dude

yeah no

it was she had the wedding gown and then

but it would have been real

once she got dancing and was jumping and yeah

no way you would have done in a wedding gown

no

there were several different renditions of that dress

you know one of them was when it

half the dress is burned off

and that was a body double

who did a double flip off a three story building

that's real that was real

she really did that the girl jumped

did it attached to a guy cause it's a boy did it

and half her body is really on fire

and she landed in a trampoline

no no boxes

they couldn't get they couldn't get

they usually use a big airbag

but because the area was too small to get an airbag

and they put cardboard boxes about three or four deep

and you know

fill and I said are you kidding me

those boxes collapse they break the fall I said really

and just before they did the jump

he picked up a piece of the picket fence

that was laying there and he threw that on top

I said what are you doing

he goes that'll break the ball too

he's the guy

she's wrapped around the guy

and he does a backflip off and

and she's hanging on to and the two of them

that's amazing it's a never been photographed

it was a stunt

that had never been done anywhere before

yeah

we didn't inform the crew

because it would have been a downer

there were services later

no one when Sal gets Sal goes off the roof with oh yes

okay the girl half her body is on fire

that's really really on fire no she was just I was

actually on fire cause cause angels out by then

she just no

actually no she's on fire

she's not on fire

you're all gonna have to watch it again

Amelia's having an alzheimer's

Kevin Tenny's a reckless director

to answer your question yeah

that was a see through dress

that was a different dress

it was actually layers of chifari

there were five or six different dresses

according to levels of possession

so when she was doing her dance

we have cause what we wanted was when she

we shot her from the side

where she's between the fireplace

we wanted to create the illusion that the fireplace

was making the dress transparent

so when we shot this way

and she was dancing here in the fireplace was here

we put her in the chiffon so you could see through it

and then when she was dancing all around

we had her in chiffon

so she could actually throw her legs around

and then when she stops dancing

stooge comes up she's back in the gown

wow that's amazing

you realize that

well why not when it transforms

you get to see Amelia's like amazing dancer like

it looks great

we've got time for a couple more questions

anybody in the back I don't want to miss anybody okay

now this gentleman

I was really intrigued with the demon

the person who did the demon voice

now how did you incorporate that

like when Angela would you know

like be speaking

but obviously wasn't your voice like how did you

did you have that guy before that beforehand

or did you have lips just sort of like tenure singing

he speaks and kind of that

that would be brutally hard to do it that way no

they said their lines and then in ADR

the guy came in and just dumped it

and he could actually just do that voice

I went to high school with him

and after we saw the Exorcist

he would cold call female

I know a guy who can do those voices

but actually they couldn't speak very well with those

keep it there we go

I'm going to record it now

so I mean

they sounded horrible anyway

so we just recorded them as a

basically as a track so he could dub to it

but we were silly

after all these years

knowing that the film has such a strong following

I mean

VHS collector and a lot of people out there

still eating select tapes

and there are few people that will go all the way to

have every single copy of neither demons

on VHS so

how's it feel

knowing that it's actually become such a huge

I'm kind of sad to realize that

mental illness has reached that

it's like it's obviously an epidemic

you know we had the screening in Hollywood

which by the way was packed

they put seats in the aisles

and let people stand up in the back

four people four rows deep

and they still turn people away at the door

and about halfway through the film

Billy Gallo who plays Sal

was sitting in front of me

and he leans back to me and he goes

did you ever imagine when we were on the Senate to this

that we'd be sitting here 25 years later

with a packed house and I said no

you if you got in a time machine

you went back and questioned any of us

or any of the other cast or crew and said

you know this is gonna be a cult favorite

we said no

we didn't even expect

the thing was gonna be in theaters

two weeks after it was released

it just it completely caught all of us off guard

oh yeah yeah

when we got the first review we got was variety

which is brutal

cause that's the trade paper for Hollywood

and it was a rave I mean

like a freaking rave

and I called the producer and I said

how much did you pay this guy

I can't believe we got that review

I thought I mean

I thought the horror fans might like it

but I thought the critics were just gonna butcher us

and and some of them did quite well

I still have scars from some of those skewers

but but they were

I mean the

even the ones who hated it

were still impressed with the production value of it

you know so

but no I don't think anyways

I might

I get so many fans now ago

why didn't you make a soundtrack CD

never occurred to us if you want one yeah

who wants a soundtrack CD to a film they never heard of

I think in retrospect now that I got to see it recently

and I hadn't seen it for 20 years

oh we're going for it

no we were getting less than minimum wage

it was a 23 day shoot we're getting tortured

and as I'm watching

we were talking about what a perfectionist

Steve Johnson was and what a pain in the ass that was

but

that's also one of the reasons this movie was so good

Kevin was going for nobody said we're tired

we're not getting paid enough

we don't really care

and when I watch those performances

Kathy Powell man

she was so authentic I mean

there are scenes where she's screaming

because of

a dismembered arm has attached itself to her

and she's gonna go

that's not easy to do

everything that was done in that movie

and when they are you were terrifying gorgeous

funny wonderful and terrifying

it would have been so easy for it to look silly

or cheap

and have it be something that's just a big joke

the rate I mean

what really makes the film scary is Kevin's choices

and his camera work oh yeah

the music also he wasn't getting paid very much

he was going for it all of the actors

man we put everything

you can tell we put our soul into that movie

and we were young we were hungry

we weren't well known we just thought hey

let's just give it all we got

so it's really kind of a pursuit of excellence that

I think made the movie work

and there's something in it that you all look at it

this and you go hey

why why does it appeal to you the way it does

I think that's probably the best way to end

thank you so much for coming out

thank you for coming to the commercial