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:: TONY TIMPONE INTERVIEW ::
BY JESSICA DWYER
04/10/05
Tony Timpone has been with Fangoria Magazine for a long time.
He's been a champion of horror fans and film everywhere. He's
gone up against the likes of Morton Downey Junior, Geraldo Rivera,
and stood his ground defending the love of horror by people like us.
He's been a hero of mine since I was a young Fangirl in high school,
writing my own little cult column in the school newspaper. So
I was very happy when he let me ask him some questions about what
Fango has going on nowadays and a little about himself.
FG: Hey Tony.
TT: Hey there how are you?
FG: Good, good.
FG: I’ve been reading about Fangoria
Television if you could tell me more about what that is and where we
could find it?
TT: Well if you have HDTV and INHD service we
begin airing the first of the Fangoria TV programs, Ghost Stories
EVP this month.
FG: Oh great!
TT: The dates for the show are April 8th.
And it’s actually on in demand, INHD on demand service. And
the dates for the show, Ghost Stories EVP are April 8th,
11th, 14th, 20th, 24th,
and the 27th. And that’s a reality show that follows
paranormal investigators who follow spirits and try to record them
using special electronic equipment.
FG: Like White Noise?
TT: Yeah exactly. The whole White Noise
thing. That’s the first of our shows, and we are actually looking
for cable providers to carry the entire Fangoria TV slate. Right
now we are teasing people with it, trying to build interest. And
eventually we’ll be out there in full force with out own network.
FG: Oh that’ll be great. I know they are
doing The Scream Channel and The Horror Channel. I don’t think they
have gotten on the air yet.
TT: No, unfortunately not. And Fangoria TV
was actually the reaction to that. The others weren’t making it
happen. And the company that owns Fangoria TV is actually, the
creative group is actually the east coasts largest post production
house. They have the equipment, they have the cameras, and they
have the studio to create original programming. Instead of going
out and licensing other people’s movies and old TV shows, they
decided “Hey, let’s go out and produce the stuff ourselves and get
our own network. Pretty much what they are doing, building it step
by step.
FG: That is really great.
TT: Yeah, it’s very exciting.
FG: I wanted to get your opinion of the PG13
horror films coming out recently. It seems like they are coming out
as PG13 at the theater and then going unrated on DVD. Do you find
that trend to be a little disturbing?
TT: Well, one good thing about the whole PG13
horror craze is that it’s widened the audience to teenage girls who
were never really into horror before. The success of Buffy The
Vampire Slayer on TV which really empowered young girls kinda
spilled over into the movies with films like The Ring, The
Grudge, and The Ring 2. And well, the PG13 are really making a
lot of money. The Grudge and The Ring made a lot at the box office.
But R-rated films are still making a lot of money too. Hide and
Seek was rated R that made 50 million dollars, The Exorcist
Prequel from last summer was a success at 40 million. So uhm, it’s
a marketing thing. The way I look at it, I can wait to get the
unrated DVD. And if it means more people are going to horror films,
even to see a watered down version, you know I can wait. I can
tolerate it. It’s a marketing decision, it’s all about money. You
know what can you do? We might as well just take what we can get.
I saw the R rated version of Cursed and they ended up
releasing a real watered down to theaters and I would say it wasn’t
that great of a movie to begin with, but at least the R rated
version had some you know, some gore to sustain interest, where as
the PG13 version was like a porno without the sex scenes.
FG: (laugh) it was lacking in certain areas
and died pretty quick too.
TT: Yes.
FG: Where do you see horror heading in the
future, particularly the American horror film? Since we seem to be
doing more and more remakes of overseas films and Americanizing
them?
TT: Well, I see…I think the Japanese remake
craze is going to peter out at this point. I mean, there’s probably
going to be a Ring 3 and a Grudge 2. But eventually over the next 2
or 3 years that whole mini craze will have dried up. I’ll be
curious to see how The Devil’s Rejects does this summer. Because
it’s a real extreme, R-rated horror film that really hits you in the
gut. Uhm…I’ll be curious to see if the audience supports that, and
I hope they do because it’s a really good film. But it’s the
perfect antidote to all the PG13 horror films. As far as future
horror films, I think George Romero’s Land of the Dead will
probably be the final word on the whole zombie craze. And I’m
excited to see the new version of King Kong, and some of the other
remakes too, like The Fog. As to other themes and trends to come…I’m
not really sure. I’d like to see some of the Spanish movie makers
come over to the states and do some stuff. Like Jaume Balagueró who
did Darkness, I’d like to see him do an R-rated horror film.
I think there will be some good stuff in the years ahead.
FG: I saw Sin City on opening day and
what Robert Rodriguez did with that and that tying in…it’s not so
much a horror film, but it’s got some heavy effects and quite a bit
of gore. I think that will tie in well with The Devil’s Rejects
coming along and spicing things up a bit.
FG: What do you consider the best horror movie
to come out in the past 10 years?
TT: Oh in the past 10 years…Oh gee…let me
think about that. Ask me another one and I’ll mull that over.
FG: That’s a toughie I know. I know that
Fango has its own films coming out, with movies like The Last
Horror Show. What can we expect from you guys coming up?
TT: We have a film that comes out next week
called Skinned Deep. On Fangoria’s Gore Zone label. After
that we have a Japanese horror film coming out called Hiruko The
Goblin. Then after that we have an Irish zombie film called
Dead Meat.
FG: An Irish zombie film?
TT: Yeah, the first one.
FG: That sounds awesome. I don’t think I’ve
ever heard of one. I know we have the Brit one with Shaun of the
Dead.
TT: Yeah, this is an Irish zombie films. This
one owes a lot more to Night of the Living Dead than more of
the recent zombie films. Oh, and I would say going back to the best
horror film of the last 10 years. I would have to say 28 Days
Later is my favorite. That one really hit me in the gut. I
thought it was scary, I liked the characters, I thought it was
really it really got into the whole SARS thing. I just found it
really exhilarating that film. So I would say that was my
favorite. And a close second to that was Ginger Snaps. That
film had a great subtext to it and I love horror films that have a
great subtext. Multi layers and that you can watch again and again.
FG: I loved Ginger Snaps. It was just
a really neat take on the werewolf genre and really really good
acting.
TT: Yes.
FG: Okay, well we saw the 100 scariest movie
moments on Bravo with Jaws taking the top spot. So what’s
your personal number one?
TT: Well, I don’t know if you knew I was the
producer on that show?
FG: Yes I did (laugh)
TT: Well actually I think Psycho or
The Exorcist should have been number one. But I was leaning
towards Psycho for number one.
FG: It influenced so much. I was actually
surprised that The Exorcist didn’t take the top spot because
I’m still psychologically scarred from that film.
TT: I think the reason for that is Bravo is
owned by Universal and Jaws was the Universal movie. (laugh)
FG: Ah I see (laugh)
FG: With the number of horror related action
figures being released lately, what would you like to see done that
hasn’t been done yet? I actually just got a Darkman figure which I
never thought I’d see in a million years be made.
TT: I always like the classics…I like
monsters. I’m not really a collector but the two McFarlane toys I
have are Pumpkinhead and The Fly. I love all the Alien creatures,
the queen I think those are really cool. But ones that haven’t been
done…I think that just about everything has been done. I don’t
think anyone has done a Crypt Keeper yet.
FG: Actually…I think I have, I used to have a
doll of him that talked. But I don’t think they’ve done a really
good diorama of the crypt yet.
FG: So can we expect more Fangoria conventions
coming up this year and next?
TT: We have a show in LA, Burbank June 4th
and 5th and that’s going to be one of our biggest shows
ever. You’ll be the first to know that Rob Zombie is coming to our
show in Burbank.
FG: Oh that’s awesome!
TT: Yeah we are really excited to have him
there.
FG: I know he’s working on the LA holiday
parade this year with Bloody Disgusting so I can’t wait to see what
a Christmas Parade by Rob Zombie is like.
FG: So my last question is what kind of advice
do you have for an up and coming webzine like Fangirl?
TT: I would say report the facts. The problem
with a lot of horror websites is they print rumors and they steal
from other websites and don’t credit them. So that just makes them
seem very unprofessional and Fanboyish. My advice to you would be
just be as professional as possible and report the facts. Don’t
print rumors and with a lot of other websites, people just like
knocking the other guys and the big boys and you know…just throwing
mud around. Just be above that, stick to the facts and stick to
reporting what you enjoy and credit people when you take from other
websites. A lot of horror websites they are always taking listings
from Fangoria and our Chopping List and not crediting the
information which is kind of annoying.
FG: When I take anything like that, when I use
a story I always put the name of the website and a link to it.
TT: And that’s the way it should be.
FG: I know I’m not doing this for profit. I do
this for the fact that I love the stuff and it’s a great outlet.
And it gives me the opportunity to do what I love to do and write.
So I think it’s only fair that you give that to the other people
that have scooped it first. Well thank you so much for your time
Tony I really appreciate it.
TT: Thank you it was a pleasure.
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