I didn't want September to slip away without acknowledging a certain anniversary...
Eleven years ago, in September of 2004, in a little house in St. James, Long Island, Frank Cilla, Edward Wheeler and I had the pleasure of working with a talented group of young people in the production of the film, DEMON RESURRECTION.
For the members of the DEMON RESURRECTION cast and crew, I'm sure 2004 must seem like a very long time ago. And, as the years that have passed since have been filled with change and growth as families were raised and careers were pursued, those few days spent working on a little low-budget horror film in a house overlooking Long Island Sound are now probably little more than a distant memory. But distant though it may be, I hope it's also a pleasant memory. It is for me.
I wanted to take the opportunity to offer my sincere thanks to everyone who helped make the film what it is. I also want to thank the reviewers who had such kind words for the film and the many fans who offered their enthusiastic support.
For those interested in taking a trip down memory lane, the complete 2004 DEMON RESURRECTION Production Blog, which includes dozens of candid, behind the scenes photos and videos can be found here:
Christopher Zisi, who reviews horror and exploitation films on his "Emporium for B Movies" blog, was good enough to take a look at DEMON RESURRECTION recently and had some nice things to say about the film. Some excerpts:
An over-the-top, gory horror film... INSEMINOID meets THE DEVIL'S RAIN... Gore, nudity, disembowelment, a monster baby, and a neat Necronomicon-like book... a perfect movie for this blog....
William Hopkins' direction reminded me a bit of Lucio Fulci. In some ways, this film resembles that great Italian horror of the 70s and 80s... Not for the squeamish, DEMON RESURRECTION will deliver on scares, gore, and surprises. Ms. Golightly is terrific as a woman, seemingly defeated, who pulls it together to do anything she has to in order to save herself and her friends. Find this film and add it to your DVD collection.
Christopher's endorsement, coincidentally, comes just as DEMON RESURRECTION debuts on YouTube. After getting over TEN MILLION views of the various clips on the DEMON RESURRECTION YouTube channel, the full film has now been made available for rental and purchase on the site. Also, we're now able to accept FAN SUPPORT on the DEMON RESURRECTION channel. For those of you who have already paid to see the film or buy the DVD but who still want to make some contribution to our efforts, you can now throw a little something into our tip jar. Just look for the blue SUPPORT button on the DEMON RESURRECTION YouTube channel home page: https://www.youtube.com/demonresurrection Every dime received will be put toward future productions like DEMON RESURRECTION. Thanks!
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UPDATE 11/18/2017:The newly remastered version of DEMON RESURRECTION in 1080 HD & Widescreen is now available at http://dresurrection.vhx.tv
Just around this time last year, writer Stuart Willis had some kind words for DEMON RESURRECTION in his review of the film on the Sex Gore Mutants website. Now Stuart has published a 450-page book of his reviews of "post-millennial horror films" and among the 300 reviews in the book, he's been good enough to include a newly-written one of DEMON RESURRECTION.
The book, The New Flesh: 21st Century Horror Films A-Z, Vol 1, is available now in ebook and paperback form on Amazon, and given its comprehensiveness, its very reasonable price and the excellence of Stuart's writing, it looks to be a very smart buy for any horror film fan.
My thanks to Stuart for remembering DEMON RESURRECTION. I wish him great success with The New Flesh.
How Does It Work? Head over to dresurrection.vhx.tv and click on the BUY MOVIE button at the bottom of the page to purchase the DEMON RESURRECTION Special Edition Package.
Once you make your purchase, you'll see an alert in the receipt that you have received 3 free rentals to share with friends. It will also be noted in your email receipt. Click that link in the receipts to go to the free-gifts page of your VHX account. You can share the free rentals right from there! Just copy and paste one of the redeem URLs from that page to a friend, or share it on Facebook, Twitter, or via email. Once your friends click the redeem link and start watching, they will have 3 days until the rental expires. You will also receive an email alerting you that the gift was redeemed. The DEMON RESURRECTION Special Edition Package includes:
– the full-length, unrated, uncut, uncensored version of DEMON RESURRECTION
– optional, downloadable SPANISH and ENGLISH subtitles
– an audio commentary track with the film's director and co-producer
– a 30-minute "Behind the Scenes" featurette
– over 30 minutes of interviews with cast and crew.
Watch online in your browser or download the high-quality MPEG-4 files and watch on the computer or device of your choice. Files are DRM-free. DEMON RESURRECTION is unrated and contains scenes of gory violence and nudity. Intended for adult audiences.
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UPDATE 11/18/2017:The newly remastered version of DEMON RESURRECTION in 1080 HD & Widescreen is now available at http://dresurrection.vhx.tv
Back in 1988, while I was working as an assistant manager at the Gramercy Theatre in Manhattan, I purchased my first camcorder. It was a General Electric CG 9911, a big, shoulder mount VHS model. Eager to test it out, I brought this marvel of technology to the theater and spent the day torturing my fellow employees with it.
The resulting footage has somehow survived the passage of almost thirty years and exists in my collection of VHS tapes in the form of this rather poor quality copy, which I recently rediscovered. It's several generations removed from an original recording which wasn't all that good to begin with, so it's pretty grainy and glitchy. But as it's probably the only surviving video of the Gramercy from that time, it has some small value to me and will perhaps be of interest to those who worked there during those years.
I left the Gramercy not too long after this footage was shot and fell out of touch with the other staff members, so I can't say what became of most of them. Of those seen in this video, the names I still remember are: Maud St. Preux, the assistant manager in the red dress seen peering through the auditorium doors at Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the feature that was playing at the time, Morton Tankus, the bearded assistant manager who is seen conducting an inventory of concession stand supplies, Ruth Honor, the concession stand attendant, and Evelyn Perna, the cashier, who I believe passed away a year or so after this footage was shot. I'm afraid I've forgotten the last names of the other two employees in the video: Willie, the security guard, and Jose, the usher seen picking up his paycheck.
The appearance of Roger Rabbit in this footage should be enough to identify it as being of 1988 vintage, but if more evidence is needed, check out the promotional material on display in the lounge, including posters for Die Hard, Big and Cocktail. As for the arcade games, if memory serves, both had been in place in the Gramercy lounge for several years by this time. The Ms. Pacman game was just barely useable due to image burn-in on the monitor. The machine which is seen turned to the wall is an out-of-service Robotron game. I spent many hours on that one and probably bear some responsibility for wearing it out.
If I'm not mistaken, the Gramercy Theatre closed as a movie house in the early 90s. The theater itself still stands, but it's a music venue now and, judging from the photos I've seen of it online, much changed from the way it was back when this footage was shot.
Looking at the footage now, I wish I'd spent less time in the basement of the building, in the manager's office and employee's room, and had instead gotten some shots of the outside of the theater and of the auditorium with the lights up. But at the time I had no way of knowing that this would become my only record of the years I spent at the Gramercy Theatre, and no way of knowing that I would live long enough to become nostalgic for those days.
