Writer Interview: Christopher Wayne Curry; A Taste of Blood: The Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis

On August 24th, I featured a book review of A Taste of Blood: The Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis on this blog. The book (from Creation Cinema Publishers) is a very enjoyable (and highly-detailed) history and celebration of a notorious "fringe" filmmaker who directed highly exploitable films such as Blood Feast and The Wizard of Gore. The co-author of this film book is the young Christopher Wayne Curry - pictured left with Mr. Herschell Gordon Lewis himself! - and he recently consented to an interview about the book and his love of the Gordon canon.

One of my goals for this blog all along has been to feature the work of young filmmakers and authors, so I was thrilled to have this conversation with Mr. Curry, and I appreciate his willingness to discuss his work in print in detail.

MUIR: In the introduction to your excellent survey, A Taste of Blood: The Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis, you write about your first experience discovering his films in a video store. Can you take us back to that moment (1985, I believe?) and what your first thoughts were? Why was this such a pivotal moment?

CURRY: Yes, 1985 is correct. Well, my first thoughts, as I held the box for Blood Feast were, “What is this thing, and how could a film made in 1963 possibly be as gory as this description would have me believe?” The pivotal moment came when I saw the first murder / gore sequence. I mean, it happened inside of 3 minutes and it was really BLOODY and not that deep dark red blood that was so prominent in the mid-to-late 80's, but this very bright stuff.

I should also add, that I was immediately taken by Herschell’s long, lingering shots of the blood and gore. The gore / horror films that I’d seen in those days had these very quick and hurried edits that showed very little of what I was wanting to see. Herschell just seemed to relish in the notion or idea of rubbing my face and nose into his work. It was kinda like riding a roller coaster for the first time; it’s exhilarating yet scary as you just don’t know what awaits you around the corner.

MUIR: As you began to see more H.G. Lewis films, what factor continued to obsess you? How do you see the director as important historically? Had you been aware that he worked so much outside the horror genre?

CURRY: One of the factors that kept me coming back was how raw and unpretentious these films were. There’s a real honesty in the movies that Herschell made. Ted V. Mikels, William Grefe, Ray Dennis Steckler, Michael and Roberta Finlay are all examples of the “do it yourself” school of filmmaking. These types of directors rarely have the opportunity to work on a sound stage, so 98% of their movies are shot on actual locations.

For instance, in the opening scene of Blood Feast we get a brief tour of the victim’s apartment and it’s an apartment from 1963, not some slick Hollywood version of 1963. I really liked this aspect of Herschell’s movies, they were like some sort of time capsules. Obviously, the movies are depicting a fictitious story, but they are depicted in very real places where very real people live with their furnishings and decor that were popular or accessible to them in their geographic region.

Historically speaking, Herschell is the progenitor of the “gore film.” Good, bad or otherwise, Blood Feast was the first movie to show blood and guts merely for the sake of showing blood and guts. Of course, there were films out there that showed blood from time to time, but not nearly as unabashedly as Herschell did -- and certainly not for the same reasons. Herschell and his partner Dave Friedman set out to make a picture that either the major Hollywood studios couldn’t make or wouldn’t make, and in the end, they wound up creating a whole new genre of motion picture. Now, being the “godfather of gore” ranks Herschell somewhere in the annals of film history, but I also think the “time capsules” that I talked about earlier also qualify as being somewhat historical.

Was I aware that Herschell worked so extensively outside the horror genre? Not initially, no. It really wasn’t until I got a hold of the RE/Search book Incredibly Strange Films that I realized the vast number of subjects that Herschell was willing to exploit on film.

MUIR: How and when did you decide to turn your admiration for this director into a book, and how did you find a publisher? How long did this process take, and was it difficult?

CURRY: I decided to write my own H.G. Lewis book after I found out that the only H.G. Lewis book in existence had been out of print for many years and fetched a healthy sum of $100.00 or more. Of course this was pre-E-bay days and you can get it much cheaper now, but in the early 90's The Amazing Herschell Gordon Lewis and His World of Exploitation Films was relatively impossible to come by. It was a means-to-an-end kind of thing.

I started hunting down a publisher by sending a query letter first, and then once they responded positively, I’d send them a package with 3 or 4 sample chapters, along with an outline of the entire work. Usually I wouldn’t get past sending a query. I received tons of rejection letters, mostly form letters with a stamped signature at the bottom thanking me for my interest in their publishing house, but they are not currently accepting new submissions or some such thing.

Now, I didn’t have an agent and so it was very difficult to find a publisher. All in all, I spent as much time writing the thing as I spent attempting to convince someone else that it was worth publishing. Here’s an interesting story, Fantasma Publishing was the first to have owned my work and it was the next book on their list to release, but in the meantime, they were sued completely out of business by Toho for releasing an unauthorized chronicle of Godzilla films. Well, in all that turmoil my manuscript and all of my materials were lost for a time in Key West. This period was incredibly difficult, as they had a lot of my original stills and one-sheets. Obviously, I had photocopies of the text, but there were all of the one-of-a-kind items that I could never replace. Eventually my stuff was sent back, and a year or so later I was picked up by Creation Books out of England.

MUIR: What was it like collaborating with your (very gentlemanly...) father on the project? As your Dad, did he ever pull rank on you?

CURRY: As a kid, he was the one who helped me with my research papers and my term papers and things of that nature, so it was mostly like a much larger version of that. I’d always seem to pick a subject matter that took place way before my time, and so he’d be kind enough to lend his thoughts and commentaries. It was easy for him to talk about that stuff because he lived through those time periods, and I think our book is all the better for it. And no, he never pulled rank on me, he was very patient, probably more patient than I was with him.

MUIR: Your book has so much visual appeal. How did you go about locating the photographs and advertising illustrations? Was this a difficult task?

CURRY: With the exception of a few things, Dan Krogh allowed me the use of those stills and photos and graphics, so it wasn’t difficult at all in regards to locating illustrations for the book. Dan - as you may or may not know - is also the co-author of the elusive H.G. Lewis book that I spoke of before. By the way, I finally did get a copy of it , and I was also lucky enough to meet Dan and have him sign it.

MUIR: You interviewed Mr. Lewis, so tell us, what are your impressions of him? Did he live up to your expectations, exceed them? How long were you on the phone with him? Have you continued a correspondence?

CURRY: Herschell’s a real gentleman to say the least. He was flattered at my admiration for him and his films, and he was always congenial and willing to answer questions whenever I called or e-mailed. The actual interviews that appear in the second half of the book are one shot deals, conversations if you will, and that particular chat with Herschell lasted somewhere in the area of 90 minutes. I haven’t necessarily kept in frequent touch with Herschell, though he does answer any e-mails I send , and I’ve run into him at conventions from time to time.

MUIR: How did you like working with Creation Cinema? Was that a good experience?

CURRY: Mostly it was all good, but nothing is 100% perfect. The majority of problems I had were due to my own ignorance. Like, I’d spoken with Dan Krogh about his book and he’d mentioned going over the “proofs,” and so I just took it for granted that Creation would send me a “proof” for my approval. They didn’t, and subsequently some things were left out of the book that I would have rather seen left in, even at the cost of editing out another portion. Oh well, I learned my lesson there.

MUIR: What thing (or things) would you like prospective readers to understand about a.) Herschell Gordon Lewis and b.) about your book itself? Where can the book be ordered today?

CURRY: Well, the first thing to know about Herschell is that he was not an artist of film making, he’s an artist of money making. As he’s said before, “I found out that I could put film in one end of my camera and money would come out the other.” Also, there aren’t any socio-political undercurrents to his movies. His films didn’t address any serious issues or concerns though some of them (his films) became targets of great concern. In the end Herschell is merely a business man. If a genre, whether it was gore, bikers, E.S.P., Rock and Roll or LSD, were to become unmarketable then he’d find some other subject to exploit for profit. I’m in no way suggesting that he didn’t enjoy making movies, because I know that he did. And he only got out of it because the drive-in markets were drying up and the distributors were becoming increasingly more difficult to deal with and the ratings boards were always on his back and so forth and so on. Recently he’s gotten back into it by doing Blood Feast 2 and I believe he has another project or two on the plate as well.

In regards to my work, I’d like to mention that the tone and the pacing of the book was meant to read like an H.G. Lewis movie plays. I never wanted to talk above the subject matter, because quite frankly there was no reason to. Herschell was a business man armed with a movie camera and I saw no reason to get analytical or poetic about it. I loved the movies, there’s no doubt about it, but if you’re looking for some deep study of sub-texts and underlying meanings in his films then A Taste of Blood: The Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis is not for you.

MUIR: What is your favorite H.G. Lewis horror film and why? Favorite non-horror film, and why? If a film student were starting out a study of the director's work, what is the first film you'd recommend?

CURRY: I’d have to say Blood Feast. I can watch that thing over and over again and never tire of it. It’s the first of its kind and for that reason I think anyone interested in Herschell’s cinema should start there. It has its historical value, and even today it still packs one helluva wallop.

My favorite non-horror H.G. Lewis film? Usually I’d say She Devils On Wheels, but that one does have some gore effects in it as well as a beheading, so it is approaching the horror genre, so I’d have to say The Girl, The Body and The Pill. This was Herschell’s cash-in on the newly introduced birth control pill. Herschell stepped right up to the plate and had his lead teenie bopper Nancy Lee Noble swapping out her mother’s contraceptives for another timely item, saccharine tablets. To no one’s surprise Nancy’s character “Randy” becomes promiscuous as hell and her mother becomes pregnant out of wedlock and has to undergo a back alley abortion. I think Nancy Lee Noble is cute as a button in this one and it also stars Bill Rogers who I think was one of Herschell’s better actors. Bill also starred as the vampire character in Herschell’s A Taste Of Blood.

MUIR: What is your next project, and can you tell us more about it? Where can readers find additional examples of your work?

CURRY: Currently I am hammering away at a piece that chronicles the life and films of the eccentric Ted V. Mikels. Initially the book was going to be entirely about his movies, but the more I’ve spoken with Ted the more of his real life stories are creeping into the text. Ted’s one fascinating dude and I’m proud to be working on this. Other than that I find time to contribute to Film Threat and MK-Magazine.

I'd like to thank Christopher Curry for discussing his work on this blog, and I know we'll all look forward to that book on Ted V. Mikels. Below, two more photos from Christopher's collection. On the left, Christopher stands with the Sphinx (as seen in the opening of Blood Feast). On the right, is Christopher with Bill Rogers (standing in front of a poster for A Taste of Blood).