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Thanks for stopping by and as a warning, this page is still under construction. I'm working very hard to open all of the links and add more information as soon as I get it. THE BEST OF SCHLOCK CINEMA is my valentine to the B and low-budget horror genre and to the actors and actresses who have contributed a significant amount to the genre. The site will cover luminaries from the 1950s on up; those who achieved their major association with the genre no early than 1950 are eligible for this web-site. Doing it any other just gives your poor web-master just too much work for one man to conceivably do. After careful consideration and having analyzed the careers of 1000+ actors, I tried to narrow down my 'Hall of Fame' to 50 performers; 25 ladies and 25 gentlemen who stand out in my mind as the best and memorable performers in the history of schlock horror cinema. Nominees were to be weighed on talent (a relative term, I know!), dedication to the genre, quality of films, quantity of work, overall influence, their popularity and other such criteria. Basically though, I must say that the list is comprised of people that I just like seeing in horror films.
I grew up with an overall fascination with the horror genre. I can't explain when or why it happened, but I remember being about 8-years-old and sneaking into the living room late at night while my parents and siblings were fast asleep to check out whatever may be showing on Fox, USA Up All Night or TBS. I remember being horrified by films like PSYCHO (1960) and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), which had me showering with the curtain open and spending the entire night carefully peeking out my window with a flashlight, respectively, but I still couldn't get enough of the torture. I also remember watching every single episode of TV horror shows like The Hitchhiker, Monsters and Tales From the Darkside. Being a child of the 1980s meant we eventually got a VCR, so I and some friends rented out every single horror video from every single video store in town. I or my buddies would have sleepovers where we'd watch 4-5-6 films all in a row. I remember the pinnacle of this was when I pulled a 48-hour marathon of straight horror features such as MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY (1980), WITCHCRAFT 2: THE TEMPTRESS (1989) and THE WORM EATERS (1976) and when I arrived home from that exhausting weekend, I passed out in front of my family during dinner (my head landing directly onto my plate of pizza). When my mother quizzed me about what I'd been doing and threatened to take me to the hospital, I had to come clean with the truth and tell her I didn't sleep all weekend because of my friends snoring. I can't say my dedication has been that extreme since, but I still watch horror films any time I get the chance regardless of bad reviews, pedigree or cheesy video box art. Hey, I just cannot pass up titles like BLOOD GNOME or SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIMEBALL BOWL-O-RAMA. I guess that makes me both a fanatical person and a masochist, but what's life without obsession?
And speaking of obsession, I've noticed over the years attending a few conventions and speaking to other rabid horror fans, that there are no more dedicated fans in the world. Actors who were never fully appreciated during their lifetime, certainly are now. Memorable performers such as Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasence, Lon Chaney, Lon Chaney, Jr., Peter Lorre, John Carradine and the like are now revered as legends by critics and not only genre legends, mind you, but just plain bloody brilliant acting legends. Hardly anyone nowadays stacks up to some of those greats I just mentioned, but the horror celebrity is still a fun entity and actors such as Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Campbell, Karen Black, Lance Henriksen, Brad Dourif and Debbie Rochon (to mention a few) certainly give it their all each and every time I see them on screen, even if it is in the service of a crappy movie.
Of course, I've yet to see all of the films from all of the featured Hall of Fame members, but being the completist I am... I someday aspire to! I am proud to say I just recently finished up the entire wonderful Roger Corman Edgar Allan Poe cycle, I've almost finished with both Dario Argento and Mario Bava and, hell, popular American filmmakers like Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter, whose titles are more readily available here in the States, I've had wrapped up now for years. Right now, I'm going through my silent film craze and have just recently watched back-to-back Lon Chaney classics, along with my classic collection of AMC cult trash epics and the wonderful THE INNOCENTS (1961) with Deborah Kerr and Pamela Franklin. However, many of the performers included on this website usually perform in films of a much different caliber. Not all are bad, they are just different and when done with gusto, they can be just as entertaining. I've also taken up acting myself since 2003 and have put in four appearances thus far, with more lined up for later this summer. I will keep anyone interested updated on release information and production news on that stuff on a separate page.
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