Opening Tonight: THE TRAGEDY OF MARIA MACABRE at the Wild Project

Opening tonight and running concurrently with my show DREAMS OF THE CLOCKMAKER at the Wild Project is Rachel Klein's THE TRAGEDY OF MARIA MACABRE, an underworld dance fantasia full of exquisite costume pieces, frightening movement, and eye-popping makeup. Tickets are available HERE. I hope some of ya can make it out!

The Tragedy of Maria Macabre Trailer from Rachel Klein Productions on Vimeo.

Film Review: NEW NIGHTMARE (1994, Wes Craven)

Stars: 4 of 5.
Running Time: 112 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: John Saxon (TENEBRE, ENTER THE DRAGON), Heather Langenkamp (GROWING PAINS, SHOCKER, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET), Robert Englund (EATEN ALIVE, DANCE OF THE DEAD, ST. IVES), Miko Hughes (MERCURY RISING, APOLLO 13), David Newsom (KISS KISS BANG BANG, 24), W. Earl Brown ("Dan Dority" on DEADWOOD, SCREAM, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH). Shot by Mark Irwin (VIDEODROME, THE FLY, THE BLOB, SCREAM). Music by J. Peter Robinson (THE WRAITH, THE GATE, THE BELIEVERS, COCKTAIL).
Tag-line: "On October 14th, terror no longer stops at the screen..."
Best one-liner: "Every kid knows who Freddy is. He's like Santa Claus... or King Kong or..."

I mean, clearly Wes was more than a little pissed that he created an epochal, child-murdering burn victim (who played our subconscious phobias like a piano) that was subsequently hijacked and transformed into a one-liner machine, corporate huckster, and frequent occupant of board games, pinball machines, yo-yos, and the like.

Wes Craven: disdainful toward what they did to his Freddy.

Personally, I'm cool with a Freddy who scares the shit outta me as well as one who rides skateboards and says things like, "Bon Appétit...BITCH!," but then again, Freddy wasn't my brainchild and magnum opus, so I guess I don't get to say boo. Regardless, NEW NIGHTMARE is a pretty ingenious way to reboot the series after Freddy's much publicized 1991 'death.'

I suppose this sort of thing had been done before (Lucio Fulci claimed that it ripped off CAT IN THE BRAIN), but never on quite such a scale. (Unfortunately, Craven's subsequent meta-effort SCREAM ensured that lower quality, postmodern, wink n' nod horror would stick around for some time.) The self-reflexivity goes nutballs, and in the best possible ways- Wes types his own script as it plays out on our screen:

Robert Englund appears as himself and makes nearly Fosse-esque jazz hands as mesmerized fans chant 'Fred-dy, Fred-dy':

FRED-DY, FRED-DY

and Heather Langenkamp tries to keep her son from seeing the first NIGHTMARE on TV. I love that in this alternate reality, ten years after the fact, all the original NIGHTMARE cast members still hang out on a regular basis. And you have to delight in the fact that the real Krueger (credited as 'himself') is supposed to be an eons-old demon kept at bay by the sequels! (So A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: THE DREAM CHILD served some important existential purpose after all!) There's a certain loopy brilliance to the proceedings, and a few actual scares, but there's something about it that never quite blossoms into the masterpiece it might have been (maybe it's Miko Hughes- John's son and the epitome of 'corporate child actor').

Still, there's a genuine power to certain scenes, like when reality fleetingly bleeds away and John Saxon and Heather become father and daughter once more...

Four stars.

Side note: The film also receives bonus points for using music from Wim Wenders' WINGS OF DESIRE in its trailer!

-Sean Gill

DREAMS OF THE CLOCKMAKER eligible for Innovative Theatre awards!

Our October production of DREAMS OF THE CLOCKMAKER is eligible for the New York Innovative Theatre awards, a tremendously supportive Off-Off-Broadway organization. It's simple to vote, but first you must register (for free) here, follow the link that will then appear in your email, click the vote tab on the left, choose "Audience Ballot," select the show DREAMS OF THE CLOCKMAKER (or any other shows you may have seen) and then vote your heart out for all the different categories.

Interview with Sean Gill at Adam Szymkowicz's I Interview Playwrights

Adam Szymkowicz's "I Interview Playwrights" blog was kind enough to ask a few questions of yours truly in conjunction with the opening of my new show, DREAMS OF THE CLOCKMAKER. You can read the entire exchange HERE.

Opening Tonight: DREAMS OF THE CLOCKMAKER

I'm pleased to announce that my play, DREAMS OF THE CLOCKMAKER, will be opening tonight at 7:00 p.m.!

Submitted for your perusal, Jillaine Gill, lady on a stage. She requests your company on a mystifying voyage to one of those old, out-of-the-way places; a land of splinters and shadows and the darkest corners of the world...

It's a sweeping narrative which shepherds us from Dust Bowl occultism to a low-rent 80's magic show to troubling mystical visions of a dystopian future. Written & directed by Sean Gill and starring Jillaine Gill. It will run through this October at The Wild Project (195 E. 3rd St. between Avenues A & B) from October 17-30 with 7:00 p.m. shows on Sundays and Mondays, and 9:30 p.m. shows on Fridays and Saturdays. Tickets are available via Smarttix at smarttix.com ((212) 868-4444). PR by Emily Owens PR.

DREAMS OF THE CLOCKMAKER opens in one week!

Submitted for your perusal, Jillaine Gill, lady on a stage. She requests your company on a mystifying voyage to one of those old, out-of-the-way places; a land of splinters and shadows and the darkest corners of the world...

My show, DREAMS OF THE CLOCKMAKER, opens next Monday (October 17th) at the Wild Project and will run for eight performances through the 30th. Tickets are available HERE, and the trailer is embedded below. Hope some of you can make it!

Dreams of the Clockmaker Trailer from Sean Gill on Vimeo.

Film Review: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984, Wes Craven)

Stars: 5 of 5.
Running Time: 91 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: John Saxon (TENEBRE, ENTER THE DRAGON), Ronee Blakley (NASHVILLE, THE DRIVER), Heather Langenkamp (GROWING PAINS, SHOCKER, NEW NIGHTMARE), Johnny Depp (CRY-BABY, DEAD MAN), Charles Fleischer (DEADLY FRIEND, ZODIAC), Robert Englund (ST. IVES, EATEN ALIVE, DEAD & BURIED), Amanda Wyss (BETTER OFF DEAD, POWWOW HIGHWAY), Jsu Garcia (GOTCHA!, WE WERE SOLDIERS). Cinematography by Jacques Haitkin (THE HIDDEN, CHERRY 2000). Head makeup effects by David B. Miller (THE BEASTMASTER, COCOON, WILD AT HEART). Music by Charles Bernstein (MR. MAJESTYK, DEADLY FRIEND).
Tag-line: "If Nancy Doesn't Wake Up Screaming She Won't Wake Up At All..."
Best one-liner: "Okay Krueger, we play in your court!"

There was a time when Freddy wasn't plastered on squirt guns, board games, nite lights, novelty albums, squish-'ems, pinball machines, and yo-yos.
There was a time when Freddy was scary as shit.

He wasn't a one-liner dropping contrivance- he was a terrifying burn victim and possible-pedophile who had the confounding power to haunt kids' dreams from beyond the grave. He wasn't all powerful, not by a long shot: in a toe-to-toe wrestling match between him and a high school girl (which actually happens several times in this film), the girl has a pretty good chance of kicking Freddy's raggedy ass. The existentially frustrating thing here is that Freddy cheats.

Even as the hall monitor.

He gets you when you're at your most vulnerable, your least aware- in the sweet ark of slumber. And more often than not, Craven shows Freddy's attacks from the outside- the sleeping victim thrashing about, slashed and beaten- we can only imagine what's happening in their world, and that's truly frightening. The cast is solid- Heather Langenkamp is our heroine (and a far cry from the CW douches on summer hiatus who star in today's horror), John Saxon (a Bava/Argento alum) is the no-nonsense cop dad, Ronee Blakley is the habitually loaded alky mom (watch for her hidden booze stashes), Johnny Depp is the boyfriend (even at this young age making some impressively bizarre acting choices), and, of course, Robert Englund is Krueger- a sheer force of malicious exuberance.

The visuals are startlingly potent- Freddy's arms extending to an impossible length:

a bed swallowing a victim and spewing a sanguinary geyser, a spectral form emerging from a rubbery wall:

a Cronenbergian face-lickin' phone:

or a girl chased up the steps as the carpet transforms into bemiring white goop. All of this is pre-CGI, and, in fact, is frequently visualized by extremely primitive means- its effectiveness remains a credit to the conceptual hotbed of primal fears and visceral anxieties that (ex-Humanities professor) Craven dips into. This is focused, forceful storytelling at its best. Five stars.

-Sean Gill

Film Review: HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY (1987, Ethan Wiley)

Stars: 2.5 of 5.
Running Time: 88 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: Arye Gross (SOUL MAN, MINORITY REPORT), Jonathan Stark (FRIGHT NIGHT, PROJECT X), Royal Dano (THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY, THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES), Bill Maher (RATBOY, CANNIBAL WOMEN IN THE AVOCADO JUNGLE OF DEATH), John Ratzenberger (CHEERS, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK), and Kane Hodder (Jason in FRIDAY THE 13THs parts VII through X). Music by Harry Manfredini (FRIDAY THE 13TH, HOUSE). Produced by Sean S. Cunningham (FRIDAY THE 13TH, DEEPSTAR SIX, HOUSE). Written and directed by Ethan Wiley (CHILDREN OF THE CORN V, co-writer of HOUSE I). Inspired by an original story by Fred Dekker (HOUSE, THE NIGHT OF THE CREEPS, THE MONSTER SQUAD, ROBOCOP 3).
Tag-line: "It's gotten even weirder." AND "Frightening Strikes TWICE!"
Best one-liner: "Look at me. I'm a 170-year-old fart. I'm a goddamn zombie."

Compared to the greatness of HOUSE I, it's difficult to admit that HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY doesn't really hold up despite possessing one of the greatest subtitles in memory, recent or otherwise. There's also the stroke of utter genius in casting John "Cliff Clavin" Ratzenberger in a similar role to the one that George "Norm Peterson" Wendt played in HOUSE I, but unfortunately the genius sorta ends there.

"Eh, ya know Normie, it's a little known fact that the HOUSE series is so deeply interwoven with CHEERS."

Also, it really has nothing to do with HOUSE I aside from the fact that it takes place inside a "house," which I guess would make more than a few movies unofficial sequels to HOUSE. Furthermore, it Italy it was released as LA CASA 6, which means the ersatz Italian film canon considered it to be EVIL DEAD 6! (Which for the record goes like this 1. Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD, 2. Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD II, 3. Umberto Lenzi's GHOSTHOUSE, 4. Fabrizio Laurenti's WITCHERY, 5. Claudio "TROLL 2" Fragasso's BEYOND DARKNESS, 6. HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY.) So wrap your head around that for a moment.


Anyway, I didn't intend for a full review, I just recently discovered my screening notebook from five or six years ago and shall reprint the slightly downcast entry for HOUSE II:

"So I'm sitting down on the couch, getting all amped up to watch "HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY." Hey, that's a pretty good subtitle. Almost as good as "ARTHUR 2: ON THE ROCKS." Man, I am in the mood for a horror movie. Okay, I'm watching it now. I'm pretty excited. Alright, I can see this movie is going for laughs. I like some laughs in my horror. There were more than a few laughs in "HOUSE I." What the deuce?! It's turning into a Western? Well, that's okay, "HOUSE I" kinda turned into a war movie partway through. Alright, now I can just sit back and relax until William Katt shows up. What? He's not in this? Damn, I guess I should have rented "HOUSE IV: HOME DEADLY HOME." Katt is back for that one. What?! It's not available on DVD?! Now I'm sad. But I can't be too sad, cause I'm watching these two whacky dudes and their dead grandpa cause a ruckus trying to find this crystal skull in HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY."


Zombie Royal Dano wrote the book on "raisin' a ruckus."


This still might actually be better than INDIANA JONES 4.

-Sean Gill