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Interview:
Gavin Schmitt: I’m here at the
Indianapolis HorrorHound convention with “scream queen”
Raine Brown. Are you ready?
Raine Brown: Whenever you are.
GS: Alright. Your first horror
appearance was in 2000 in a film called “Nightmare in
Shallow Point”.
RB: Oh my god. I didn’t think we’d
go that far back.
GS: I’m going there.
RB: Oh my god. Okay.
GS: The film is next to impossible
to find –
RB: Good.
GS: What are your fans missing out
on?
RB: (laughs) Nothing. No, it’s
really, really bad. I do low budget films, but it’s a really
low-budget film. It’s like a comedy. It definitely makes fun
of itself, it’s not serious. I play a Jersey girl, and I’m
on the beach with my boyfriend. And then we get attacked by
beach zombies. And then I turn into a zombie and kill
people. So, yeah, you’re not missing anything. It starts
with these beach surfer guys dubbed in Japanese, almost like
the opposite of Japanese –
GS: Right, like a backwards
“Godzilla”.
RB: Yeah. And with the… yeah.
That’s just how it starts off and it goes downhill from
there. So you’re not missing anything. And yes, it’s next to
impossible to find. I have a VHS copy that I will not share.
GS: Okay, a few years later…
“Satan’s Playground”, which is much easier to find. Dante
Tomaselli and Ellen Sandweiss, who happens to be here (at
HorrorHound) today. How were they to work with?
RB:Well, unfortunately, I didn’t
get a chance to work with Ellen. I had a small cameo in the
beginning of the movie. I don’t even think she was on set
that day. I met her at the cast party, I said hello and
she’s a very sweet person but I didn’t really get a chance
to work with her, really. Dante was wonderful, he’s great. I
had actually worked with him a year or two earlier on the
film “Horror” –
GS: Right.
RB: — and we just kinda hit it off.
He has a very cool visual style, and he’s very detailed, and
he really loves his actors. He’s great. He’s an artist.
GS: We talked with Dante. He told
us that while filming there were several “spooky” incidents
on the set, including gunshots going off at all times of the
night. Do you have any scary stories to share from the set?
RB: Unfortunately, like I said, for
“Satan’s Playground” I was only on set for a few days. I
didn’t get the full flavor of what the craziness was. But
during shooting, it was like 15 degrees out and there was a
wind chill of maybe minus whatever. We had this big crane
shot, and I just remember the crane had to go up in the air
and crash down inches away from my face. It was the last
shot of the day, with me screaming up to the crane. For me,
that was scary, because I didn’t know if that thing was
going to smack me in the head. But unfortunately I didn’t
get any ghost stories or the gunshots. None of the
supernatural.
GS: Industry question. One of the
perks of being an actress is you get to experience
international travel, whereas all I get is a 7-hour drive to
Indiana. Do you ever have time for sight-seeing or is it all
business?
RB: That’s kinda funny. It’s hard
to have time for sight-seeing, because usually you’re on set
all day and no one has time to drive you anywhere and I
usually don’t have a car. I try to do it as much as
possible, but the other reality is that when you’re working
by the time you’re done you’re usually tired, exhausted and
you don’t want to stay another day or two to sight-see.
You’re kinda like, “I just wanna go home. I worked, I’m
done.” So, you know, I’m been to a lot of places — Germany,
Italy, going back to Germany, I’m going to England this
summer — and now I feel like I’ve been all over the country
with conventions and filming. So I feel like I get somewhat
of a sense, like between the airport and where I’m going,
but not quite as vacation-y as it could sound.
GS: Have you ever met Eric Stoltz?
RB: No. Is there a reason you ask?
GS: Yes there is. I have read that
when you were a child, the scariest movie you saw was
“Mask”.
RB: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I don’t
want to meet him.
GS: You DON’T want to meet him?
RB: No. I think I would scream.
(laughs) I didn’t know you… God, you did your research!
GS: I reviewed a copy of “Pinkeye”
a few months back. I loved it.
RB: Okay, good. That was my next
question — “what did you think?”
GS: And Melissa Bacelar from the
film is like one of the family at Killer Reviews. She’s been
very supportive of us, we’ve been very supportive of her.
What is she and the Savage Roses staff — you’ve worked with
them a few times — like to work with?
RB: Well, Savage Roses is Joshua
Nelson’s company. He is an actor who got frustrated with his
parts so he started writing them. He really writes for
actors and he really has good characters and stories and
he’s creative. Again, for that movie, I had a cameo. So I
didn’t work with Melissa, I was only on set with her. But
she was on set making grilled cheese for everyone. So, I
mean, she’s awesome.
GS: She’s certainly the sort of
person who goes out of her way.
RB: She definitely did. And as the
lead actress, she didn’t have to. So that was really sweet.
(various off-topic conversation for
a few minutes)
GS: “Pinkeye” has an Edgar Allen
Poe aspect to it. Who are your favorite authors, and please
don’t say Danielle Steel.
RB: No, no, no, no. I would have to
say… is it like a cop-out to say Shakespeare? In terms of
literature, there’s so many words we use that came from
Shakespeare. I’ve read philosophy where they’re quoting
Jesus, the Buddha and Shakespeare. You know, there’s
something so musical in his words (works?). I would say he
would have to be. He may not be an author, but we take it as
literature even though they’re plays. But we take it as
books.
(people stop for photographs, a few
more minutes of off-topic conversation)
GS: And now, the reason we’re here
today — to promote “Psycho Holocaust”.
RB: That’s the best transition
ever. From great literature to “Psycho Holocaust”.
(more off-topic conversation)
GS:”Psycho Holocaust” — what is the
plot and what will the fans love about the movie?
RB: (laughs) Simple answer — the
fans will love the gore. The way people are killed.
Krist Rufty, the director: But not
the directing.
RB: (sarcastic) No, not the
directing. They’ll love… hopefully they’ll love that I’m in
it. In terms of the plot, it basically is six friends — you
know, couples — and they’re going on their last hurrah. My
character is pregnant, and they haven’t gone out together in
a while so they go on vacation. They go into this woodsy
area, of course, and things are just a little off and
strange and they run into these guys who are ex-soldiers.
These guys lost their minds and they have a really big
grudge; Desert Storm kind of made them lose their heads, and
they want to get back at America. So they go on a torture
rampage.
GS: Ah yes, the “torture rampage”.
Excellent.
RB: I love it.
GS: That’s what we want.
RB: I don’t know if you saw any of
the clips…
GS: I saw what looked like a
“dinner scene”. (The couples were seated around the table,
the ex-soldiers were standing over them, and one of the kids
has their guts ripped completely out of them.)
RB: Ah, yes.
GS: Herschell Gordon Lewis… wait,
is this another one of those “I wasn’t on the set” deals?
RB: No, no. This is kind of like
there’s rumor of an upcoming project he’s involved in and
maybe I’ll be involved in it but we can’t talk about that
right now.
GS: But you weren’t on set with
him?
RB: No.
GS: Damn. Moving on… the burlap
sack mask (somewhat visible behind Raine in the convention
photo). I see the burlap sack mask and instantly I’m
thinking two things: “The Town that Dreaded Sundown” and an
early Jason Voorhees. Do you know if this was intentional?
RB: He is Pillowface. He was
tortured, if I remember correctly… he was tortured in the
war and his face fell off. So he doesn’t have a face. It’s
his way of covering that all up. I don’t think it was
intentional. The special effects guy is here, if you’d like
to find out directly.
GS: Yes, please.
(Hank Carlson, special effects man
and former KNB employee, approaches the microphone)
GS: The burlap sack mask — is it an
homage to “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” or early Jason
Voorhees or do you just like burlap sacks?
Hank Carlson: Well, as an effects
artist I contacted director-writer Krist Rufty. He wanted it
to be originally just a pillow case, just something simple
that he had pulled over his face. I was like “I don’t know.”
But we talked a bit about it and came up with the burlap
sack. The original story behind the character is that he was
ex-military, he was abducted and he was very beautiful and
admired his looks. So the Iraqis cut his face off and gave
it back to his unit in a box. So he wears this mask over the
top. I wanted the burlap to make it look like there was more
form to it, so we can see the skull structure underneath. We
never see him remove it. When we did it, it wasn’t really
going back to any film, it was just that I like really
simple looks and I think they’re more effective than
elaborate makeup and monsters. It’s just like Michael Myers.
Or Jason’s hockey mask. Simple things are more scary.
GS: And I would agree with you.
Raine, any time someone checks the Internet Movie Database
or they read Fangoria, you’ve always got something like a
dozen projects in the works at the same time.
RB: (laughs) “In the works” is
right, yep.
GS: We’re here for “Psycho
Holocaust”, but is there anything upcoming we should be
looking out for?
RB: I’m so glad you asked that. I’m
going back to Germany, to film “Beast” with Timo Rose, the
guy who did “Barricade”. I’m going to be doing “Sculpture”
in July. That will be in north Jersey. I don’t want to give
too much away, but it’s an artist with a bad family history.
I will be in England at the end of the summer for “Brain
Cell”. And there’s another one, and again, there’s lots of
things in the works. There’s “Deep in the Darkness” with
Burning Grounds… and you know, I like to talk about these
things, but some of these projects are still getting
funding… so you never know. But you can always check out the
website, RaineBrown.Com –
GS: RaineBrown.Com, or the MySpace
–
RB: The MySpace is sometimes
quicker, because I can immediately bulletin and send updates
out that way. On the site I have to get a hold of the
webmaster and get him to update it, so I don’t know. IMDB is
good for that, too. But, yeah, I just feel really, really
lucky that I get to work with so many people and it works
out well so I get to do more projects with them.
GS: Any words of inspiration as I
walk away?
RB: Have a beautiful day!
GS: (sarcastic) I meant for the
fans, not me.
RB: (sarcastic) Oh, for the fans?
Well, I GUESS they should have a beautiful day, huh? Just
enjoy! Enjoy the fun and be cool!
A very special thank you to Raine
for the interview and for just generally being such a sweet
person to talk with. I look forward to running into her at
future conventions. And a thank you also to Hank Carlson for
his addition to this interview. (I would have prepared more
questions for you, Hank, if I had known who was going to be
at the convention.) |
