Considered a ‘lost’ Linnea Quigley movie, Scream Queen now enjoys it first ever wide release on home video.
Horror star Malicia Tombs (Linnea Quigley) mysteriously dies after leaving the set of her latest, now unfinished, low budget Shot-on-video shocker. Soon, an unseen masked killer is chopping and hacking his/ her way through the cast and crew as punishment for Tomb’s death – leaving a bloody trail of revenge.
This super obscurity was shot in 1998 by indie horror stalwart Brad Sykes, and finally finished in 2002. Considered a ‘lost’ Linnea Quigley movie, Scream Queen is not only a solid 1990s Shot-on-Video slasher that borrows from the Italian Giallo sub-genre, but also takes swift jabs at the US independent horror movie scene of the time.
Director Brad Sykes stopped by to chat about the film.
Q: How did Scream Queen come about?
A: Scream Queen began as an idea that I pitched producer David Sterling while I was working on another of his films. It was just a concept at the time, but Dave liked the idea and offered to produce it. Once I had a greenlight, I started fleshing out the story and searching for our “scream queen”, who ended up being the ultimate scream queen, Linnea Quigley!
Q: And what were some of the inspirations at the time for it?
A: There were two main inspirations for Scream Queen. The first was Eurohorror movies of the ‘70s and ‘80s, like The Devil’s Nightmare, House of Psychotic Women and Tenebre, which I tried to emulate in terms of the ‘Gothic’ setting and some of the giallo-style murders.
The second big influence, which I think is more felt in the finished film, was my own experiences working in the movie business up to that time. Most of the films I had worked on were horror films of various budgets, so I wanted to comment on the ‘scene’ at the time with humor and parody.
Q: What are some of your fondest memories from the shoot?
A: The Scream Queen shoot was a real trial by fire for me, as a young filmmaker directing my first ‘professional’ movie in L.A. I wish we’d had a bigger budget and longer schedule, but we still managed to have fun and create some cool scenes. My favorite part of the shoot was getting to work with Linnea, who I was a huge fan of. She was really cool to hang out with before, during, and after the shoot and made the whole process more enjoyable for me. We even shot a music a video for her song “This Chainsaw’s Made for Cutting”, which you see in the film.
Q: Did you toy with the film – in terms of editing or fancying up the print – as part of this new Blu-ray?
A: Not so much for this Blu-ray, but around 2012, I supervised a new “director’s cut” of the movie which best represents the movie I directed in 1998. Along with eliminating some scenes which the producer cut in from another (unfinished) movie, I tightened a few scenes. We also corrected the video in spots to make for a smoother viewing experience. But I didn’t tinker with it any more than necessary.
Q: Visual Vengeance have packed this release with a lot of extras. Can you talk us through some of those? Have you had a chance to preview them?
A: Not only have I seen them, I had a large hand in creating them! The main featurette on the Blu is a half-hour doc that looks back on Scream Queen’s conception, production, post, and bumpy road to Blu ray release, called “Once Upon a Time in Horrorwood.” My wife, Josephina and I produced that doc through our company Nightfall Pictures. There is also a new interview with Linnea that I helped set up, plus a commentary, stills gallery, script excerpts, etc. I provided all of these materials, and approved the final transfer of the film, so I was closely involved with this release.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Currently I am promoting my new book “Neon Nightmares: L.A. Thrillers of the 1980s” (available from BearManor Media, Amazon, B&N, etc.) and my new anthology movie Hi-Fear, which is on DVD and can be streamed on Itunes, Amazon Video, etc. I am also producing special features for other upcoming Visual Vengeance releases of my films. And I have a new movie I plan on shooting next year. So plenty going on around here right now!