TRICK OR TREAT: CELLULOID'S METAL NIGHTMARE

TRICK OR TREAT: CELLULOID'S METAL NIGHTMARE

Bill Holdship

Back after he’d just finished filming Paul Simon’s One Trick Pony, Lou Reed told me that “making a movie isn’t much fun because you spend most of your time just sitting around doing nothing. That’s the pleasure of playing in a rock ’n’ roll band. It’s immediate gratification. You go out and you play and it’s right there. But with a film, you’re just sitting around.”

And Lou was right. People do spend a lot of time sitting or standing around doing nothing and looking bored on a movie set.

And if the movie set happens to be located in Wilmington, North Carolina, and if it happens to be early June, people stand or sit around doing nothing and looking bored in the extreme heat. That’s right, folks. Technicians on a movie set experience the same drudgery that other people encounter in everyday jobs—and sometimes even more. I mean, I met the guy who designed and built E. T., for crissakes (he won an Oscar for that, as well as for Alien and 1976’s King Kong remake), and he was working in a literal sweatbox on the Wilmington set, building a huge gorilla arm for the forthcoming 1986 remake of _

1976’s King Kong remake (or I guess it’s properly called a sequel).

And besides wondering why anyone *■ would want to make another version of King Kong, one also wonders why Dino DeLaurentiis, the last of the big Hollywood movie moguls, would want to launch a studio in Wilmington, N.C. I mean, this is the kind of town where police drive around with big dogs-in the back of their cars!

back of their Nonetheless, a slew of movies have been produced at the DeLaurentiis studio since its inception in 1984, ranging from Michael Cimino’s disastrous Year Of The Dragon to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most recent blockbuster. In early June, three movies were being shot at the studio— Trick Or Treat, The Evil Dead II and the aforementioned King Kong remake/sequel entitled King Kong Lives—while Diane Keaton, Sissy Spacek and Jessica Lange were filming the movie version of Beth Henley’s Pulitzer prize-winning play, Crimes Of The Heart, just down the road in Southport.

Why North Carolina? Well, for one thing, the climate is said to be “good” for film production. Plus, it is a beautiful area, and there are a lot of good spots for location shooting. But, even more importantly, North Carolina is a non-union state, meaning that films can be made much cheaper there than they can in Hollywood or New York. And don’t kid yourself. Movie studios aren’t interested in making art. They’re interested in making money.

Hence, King Kong Lives, since the last remake made big bucks, even though it was a critical bomb, And hence the majority of what they ve been trying to pass off as movies” lately. It almost makes you wanna believe those rumors about everyone in Hollywood being on cocaine.

. So I don't know what to tell you about DeLaurentiis's Trick Or Treat, which is scheduled to open at your neighborhood theater on October 24th. and which is the movie they sent me to Wilmington on a “rock press junket” to write about. To be honest, I was originally prepared to tell you that it sounds like the cheesiest of teen exploitation flicks. Get this: A “heavy metal horror film, the story basically revolves around 16-year-old Eddie Weinbauer. heavy metal buff and the most unpopular kid in his school. Eddie idolizes metal star Sammi Curr. who has mysteriously died in a hotel room fire. Naturally, the evil Curr’s spirit returns to take control of Eddie (backward masking, Satanic messages, the whole bit) and wreak havoc on those around him. Like I said— cheesy.

The only problem is they seem to have gotten some real good people involved with Trick Or Treat. Marc Price, who plays Skippy on TV’s Family Ties, has the lead

role. Sammi Curr is being played by “newcomer” Tony Fields, whose role in Richard Attenborough’s film version of A Chorus Line was the only thing a lot of critics liked about that film. Kiss bassist and former “Bat Lizard Gene Simmons is doing a cameo role as rock deejay Norman “The Nuke’ Taurog, while Ozzy Osbourne, in some inspired casting, is doing a cameo as an anti-rock evangelist, (Rob Halford had to drop out of the project at the last minute due to scheduling conflicts.) Martin

Putting it all together is Charles Martin Smith, who’s making his directorial debut with Trick Or Treat. Even though he brings intelligence and integrity to every project he’s been involved with (and therefore may bring Trick Or Treat the satirical edge it needs'to succeed), one’s tempted to say that Smith is following in the footsteps of his old American Graffiti co-star, Ron Howard. Smith is probably best known for his portrayal of Terry the Toad in that George Lucas epic, one of the great rock ’n’roll flicks of all time, although he s also been splendid in Starman, Never Cry Wolf and as the Crickets bass player in The Buddy Holly Story. As was well-documented at the time, Smith played his own instrument in the Holly film, and his familiarity with rock and musicianship made him an ideal candidate for Trick Or Treat, even though it’s a long way from ‘ Peggy Sue” to heavy metal anthems.

‘‘Well, it’s all rock ’n’ roll,” says Smith. ‘‘One of the reasons I wanted to do this is that I’ve always been a rock fan, and I wanted to make sure that we could do it with as much authentic rock stuff as possible. I also saw a chance to do it with the kind of comedy that you don’t often see in films anymore, the kind of comedy that appeals to me.

“This is not just a commercial movie that you crank out. It could have been. It may have been conceived as that, but the creative people involved don’t want that at all. I think American Graffiti was a good example. It was a teenage cruising picture, but it’s a good film and it’s about something. It’s absolutely about something, even though it appears to be a good-time movie. You can make an entertaining film, even a youth-oriented film, and still have it be about something.

“I don’t think we’re exploiting anything. I’m trying to make a good movie, but as far as the way it’s promoted or what people are going to think of it, I don’t know. Probably nobody expects us to make more than a regular teenage horror picture, but we’re doing our damnedest to make it good within the limitations we have, meaning not a lot of money and not a lot of time.”

And what of the PMRC’s reaction to a film about a Satanic—not to mention dead—heavy metal star? “We’re worried about that,” he says, “because we don’t want to say that this stuff is bad or that people into it are a bunch of devil worshippers or anything. That’s not what we’re saying, and we talked a lot about it during the construction of the script. In away, we’re kind of satirizing all sides of it. What we’re saying is, look, it’s just music. It’s only rock ’n’ roll.”

Like the Smith and Ron Howard comparison, one’s also tempted to say that Trick Or Treat star Marc Price may be following in the footsteps of his Famiy Ties co-star, Michael J. Fox. At 18, he still looks like the ideal teen next door, although he’s quite removed from his TV character in the metal fan “costume,” which includes an optical illustion T-shirt that is either a skull or a woman administering a blowjob, depending on how you look at it. Price says that he bought the shirt himself at a store called “Retail Slut” in Los Angeles. He also says that his musical taste has always leaned towards ’60s music—“the Beatles, Donovan, stuff like that”—but since he began working on Trick Or Treat, he’s started to appreciate metal music, particularly Judas Priest, who he feels is “the best of heavy metal.”

Even more interesting is that Price lets it be known that Trick Or Treat has already made a hundred and seventeen percent of its money back from foreign deals, pre-release sales and video contracts, not to mention the soundtrack LP that CBS will release to coincide with the film. (Just for the record, the soundtrack features the British metal band Fastway “as” the Sammi Curr Band—similar to what John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band did in Eddie & The Cruisers— and will probably include a new song by both Kiss and Ozzy. How thrilling!)

Price talked about lots of other things, such as Family Ties and future film roles, but let’s just get to the most pertinent question of the day: Is Mallory as hot in person as she is on Family Ties'?

“Oh, yeah, there’s no doubt about it,” says Marc. “Absolutely no doubt about it. It’s very easy to love that girl,”

Never let it be said that CREEM doesn’t get to the heart of the matter!

The most impressive part of this “rock press junket”—the one major event that made me decide that Trick Or Treat just might turn out to be more than teen exploitation junk—was when the press got to interview Sammi Curr. You gotta understand that no one was allowed on the Trick Or Treat set during actual filming, nor did we see any rushes from the film—all of which made us wonder just how good the film was going to be. But then they let us talk to Sammi in full metal regalia (it takes him four full hours to get prepared), and even the biggest cynic would have to admit that this guy is good.

Of course, we got to meet Sammi’s alter ego, Tony Fields, earlier in the day. Tony told us that he’d based the Sammi character around five rock personalities in particular—Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, David Bowie, Tim Curry (in his Rocky Horror,role) and Gene Simmons. And you can definitely see all this—plus more—in Sammi’s character. He manages to merge these figures with some aspects of punk and some of the sleaziest aspects of current metal (i.e., Motley Crue). In the process, he may have created the "perfect” composite ’80s rock star (though one that has more to do with Altamont than it does with Elvis Presley or John Lennon).

Ironically, other than a brief stint as Conrad Birdie in a local theatrical production of Bye Bye Birdie, Tony’s roots are less rock ’n’ roll than they are "dance gypsy.” He toured as a dancer with Debbie Reynolds’s nightclub act. He spent four years as one of those "weird” dancers on TV’s Solid Gold. And prior to his appearance in A Chorus Line, he worked as an assistant to award-winning choreographer, Michael Peters. Nonetheless, Tony (who isn’t a Method actor) says that he puts on Sammi’s make-up and costume, "and—boom—it just takes over!" And he’s not kidding, although, to be fair, the incredible amounts of alcohol they served us prior to the interview—and the darkness of the room—definitely enhanced the overall effect.

Sammi—who hisses a lot and speaks in a low, gravelly, evil-sounding voice— even has a psychological basis for his character: "When I was a child at school,

I was laughed at and called names, but music made me feel good.” He’s also an incredible asshole, barking and howling at those who dare to misunderstand his music and message. "My messages are very plain and simple,” he hisses. "Find yourself, live for you, be yourself, and don’t let any motherfucker, no matter who—mom, dad, anybody—tell you or brainwash you and expect you to be a certain way or a picture of what they think you should be.”

The best part of the interview was when Sammi got mad at CREEM contributor Roy Trakin, who was covering Trick Or Treat for another publication. Roy was laughing when Satanic messages were being discussed, and Sammi doesn’t like people laughing at him. "YOU!” Sammi hissed. "You I will come down on!! And QUICK!! I don’t like you, you fuckl I swear to God! I play music, and that’s all I do!” Later in the interview, Sammi had Roy and a writer from Spin evicted from the room.

"CREEM ha lost its integrity and soul." — Gene Simmons

Sammi Curr scared me—and fascinated me—all at the same time. It was really neat.

And so we’ll save the "best” for last. The big "hype” of the day—the item DeLaurentiis studios used to get rock writers to come to Wilmington—was a press conference type interview with Gene Simmons, even though the longtongued wonder appears maybe a grand total of 10 minutes in the film. Ol’ Gene-bo said some real neat metal things to all of us during that interview, and if you wanna find out what a rockin’ dude he is, you should pick up a copy of CREEM’s sister METAL magazine, where Gene’s interesting comments are printed in their entirety with no editorial comment. But for now...

I realize there are those who believe Kiss made a huge contribution to rock ’n’ roll—and I can still remember a time when Kiss were probably the most popular band in the world. As far as I’ve ever been able to see, though, Kiss’s biggest talent has always been for making money. I hated them from the first time I saw them open for the New York Dolls in 1974, hate them even more today, and think they look sillier without the make-up than they did with it. What’s more, Gene isn’t even aware that the Replacements covered one of his songs—and actually made it better.

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Gene Simmons strikes me as very pompous, arrogant and definitive proof that someone who acts like he knows what he’s talking about can actually convince a lot of people that he knows what he’s talking about. Not that he comes across as a super jerk or anything; some would even find him “charming.” What bothers me is this overwhelming superior attitude Gene seems to radiate, as he sits there, eating his second ice cream cone of the day with a knife, and expounding on everything from architecture and writing books to the Bible and rock ’n’ roll. He’s a legend in his own mind. And when he discusses acting, even though he says he’s not comparing himself to them, he talks of Brando, Nicholson, Cagney and Shakespeare. I mean, c’mon\ This is a guy who’s emergence into celluloid was that great epic, Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park. (But let’s be fair: Gene did receive critical accolades for his role in Runaway with Tom Selleck; I didn’t see it, but my brother says he played “a real asshole.” Gene’s also in the process of completing two other roles: an Arab terrorist in Wanted Dead Or Alive, and some sort of transvestite in Never Too Young To Die. Who knows? He may be good. Oh, yeah, and Gene was originally offered the Sammi Curr role in Trick Or Treat, but turned it down.)

I don’t think Gene was real fond of me, either. He sorta got mad when I asked him if he thought Motley Crue had “stolen” a lot from Kiss. “I don’t know that the word ‘steal’ is relevant,” said Gene. “Because we’re using big words now, see. That’s like ‘gymnasium.’” (Gene’s also quite a punster. He was saying stuff like that, and stuff like “On the other hand, I have five fingers” all day long.) Gene does think that Motley Crue were “influenced” by Kiss— which, as far as I’m concerned, is almost as neat as giving birth to Charles Manson.

Gene said a lot of charming things, such as: “I love fucking all groupies because they don’t want anything from you. They don’t want one of your balls. It’s to the extent of ‘You want me to leave now?’ They just want a piece of you.” And he sorta got defensive when someone poked fun at the Kiss solo albums debacle of the mid-’70s. Gene says that all those records went platinum, and that “No other group—not the Beatles, nobody—did what we did.” And I believed him.

And I think I sorta made Gene mad again, because he was taking great pride in telling us how both he and Paul Stanley never smoke or drink, and I said that I saw a recent Kiss concert on MTV in which Paul introduced “Sloe Gin” by championing the pleasures of alcohol. “So we lied,” said Gene, and I can buy that.

Gene also seemed to contradict himself during the interview, because he said: “The concept of anyone being beyond criticism doesn’t exist in rock ’n’ roll. Everybody gets torn down, and that’s good. That makes things more honest. Cut away the fat, just leave the meat, and it’s honest. The day rock ’n’ roll is afraid of criticism is the day it’s dead.” Which is funny, because I’ve heard that Gene hates CREEM Magazine for making fun of his band and how silly they look. So I ask him: Do you hate CREEM Magazine?

“I do now.”

Why?

“Because it’s lost its integrity and soul. At one point—right before it folded and then came back again...I know all about it. A new company bought it in Los Angeles. I know all about it. But it’s yet to come back. I think the typeface blows wet moose balls. The photography is lame. Nothing about it reeks of...nothing about it feels like the people care. Even Faces, which I feel is way overboard in its lauding of bands—it’s like ‘they’re the gods of this,’ and all that is fine—but it still has a more honest sense about it than CREEM has had for about 10 years.”

What can CREEM do to get “it” back?

“Get some young...Turn it over to the fans. Get some young photographers...! don’t think the age thing has much to do with it ’cause (like an old geezer), see, I’m at least 35. You get some young guys who care. Girls, too. And have them fuck each other. A lot. And then you’ll start to get close...”

Thanks, Gene. I’d take you up on it, ’cept all the girls at CREEM are either married or engaged.

So you may wanna go see Trick Or Treat. That’s not a recommendation. But Tony Fields will probably be real good. The PMRC will probably hate it. And even if it sucks, it can’t possibly be any worse than Top Gun. 0