Kevin Lane's Spill Your Guts

Apologies we’ve been out of commission for a couple weeks. Along with the cheer and merriment of the season comes flues, colds and coughs and basically our whole team was bed bound for a bit. If I still sound a bit scratchy, well hopefully it just adds to the shows creepy vibe. And having your voice drop an octave sounds good anyway right?

Well let’s get right into it shall we?

Our guest in this episode is one of the great visionary directors currently working in horror. His work bares the signature of a director who is not only a master of his craft but also someone has has never lost touch with an almost childlike sense of imagination, as he often explores the dark side of folklore and fantasy. Similar to a filmmaker like Guillermo del Toro (so it’s no surprise they have collaborated), his marriage of the fantastic and the macabre gives him a distinctive style.

With his first true feature, the modern classic “Troll Hunter”, he came out guns-a-blazing and hasn’t let up since.

In this episode we are joined by the virtuosic director Andre Ovredal.

Andre and I sat down to talk about why he chose to follow up the decidedly lighter in tone hit “Troll Hunter”, with the disturbing and almost chamber play like (not to mentioning absolutely terrifying) “The Autopsy of Jane Doe”. The challenges of adapting a beloved book like “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” for the screen and why a very brief section of the legendary Bram Stoker’s Dracula about the “Last voyage of the Demeter” was a story that HAD to be told on film.

Let’s visit the world of the strange and the fantastic with director Andre Ovredal!

Another Halloween has come and gone, and I hope you all had sufficiently spooky time. Lots of candy and fake blood and sexy costumes…why can’t it be officially Halloween week? 

Soon it will be that most festive of holidays and I have to say, I love that one as much (full disclosure maybe more) because the sinister side of Christmas is masked by the most wholesome of veneers. We’ll have lots of Christmas episodes for you unwrap but that’s still a couple weeks out so in the meantime, we return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

In this episode we are joined by one of the busiest guys in the world of horror filmmaking. He has produced a series of films that have become huge hits financially and created a new slasher icon in the mold of Freddy or Pennywise.

He has a new film out that he directed titled “Stream”, and it has nearly every horror icon you can think of is in the cast (though friend of the podcast and genre royalty Jeffrey Combs really gets to shine here).

The film also features and appearance by a genre legend that we have just lost, the formidable Tony Todd. I had the great privilege of having a friendship with Tony for almost 20 years and his talent, humour, thoughtfulness and kindness was unmatched. So, this episode is for Tony. Who loved his craft. Who loved movies, the people that made them and the people that watched them.

Back to “Stream”, it’s a raucous, funny, gory, inventive occasionally touching movie that brings the goods and then some. And again, there’s the fantastic Jeffrey Combs performance! “ Stream” is streaming now.

Joining us to talk about producing the hijinks of Art the Clown in “The Terrifier” films and taking on directing “Stream” is producer/director Michale Leavy.

Happy Halloween!!! Welcome to the annual Spill your guts Halloween special.  I will be guiding you through this dark maze of tales filled with the ghastly and ghoulish. To celebrate this most fiendish of holidays we step away from our usual format to bring you tales of terror from various beloved writers and performers that we think make for a fun episode of the macabre and spooky that truly embraces the spirt of All Hallows’ Eve.

Before we get to our spine-tingling tales, I want to take a moment to talk with you about an important charity that we are working with, The Gatehouse.

The Gatehouse provides peer support and counselling resources for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse and their support persons. They are a registered charity operating in Toronto for in person services and online across Canada; survivors can join in virtual programs. 

Survivors of sexual abuse need to know that healing is possible and that it is never too late to make the call to ask for help in your healing journey from childhood sexual abuse. So many survivors across Canada are suffering in silence; many do not know that help exists!

Please visit thegatehouse.org for more information and while you’re there hit the “Donate Now” button to make a contribution. If you or someone you know is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, you are not alone and you there is help for you.

Now, the leaves are falling, the air is crisp, and the smell of carved pumpkins is in the air. It’s Halloween. A time for mayhem. Join me now as we gather around the campfire for stories that embody the menace and mystery of Halloween.

The horror genre, particularly the slasher part of it, has a long-standing history of “final girls”. Many of them brilliant and iconic and for good reason. My guest today has had the rare privilege of becoming one of the few great final guys in a series that has established its place in the horror hall of fame.

He has also starred in many other horror films, most fiercely independent ones, and even directed one. He’s been in plenty of non-horror films as well including working with auteurs such as David Fincher and Christopher Nolan (with whom he has worked with several times). 

He has evaded being typecast and always brings the kind of gravity and thoughtfulness that makes his presence in any film a highlight. Maybe the best way I can describe him and his contributions to the genre is to say that if he’s in something, I’m going to see it. I don’t need to know anything more about the film than that for it to become something I’ll watch. It’s a system that thus far has served me well as he has given some of my personal favourite performances and led me to some films that I admire that I may not have seen otherwise.

My guest today is Josh Stewart.

Many of you know Josh from his role as Arkin in the beloved films “The Collector” and “The Collection” (there’s a 3rd on its way at long last). Arkin immediately became an outlier in pantheon of horror leads in that not only is he a rather reluctant hero (if you can call him that at all) but he is relatable in that he has is own real-life problems and a psychopath, who sets up an elaborate series of traps that would make Jigsaw proud, seriously screws with his day. It’s a quiet and heavy hitting performance and one of the great ones in the history of horror.

Let’s pull up a chair with one of genres finest actors, Josh Stewart!

As we continue the countdown to All Hallows’ Eve, we have more in-depth chats with horrors best to keep you sated while binge-watching your favorite horror films (Great Pumpkin better be one of them). In this episode, we are taking a step away from the world of cinema to look at one of the most effective and captivating mediums for scaring the pants off you. The world of video games. 

One of the studios responsible for giving us some of the best, including “Until Dawn”, “The Quarry” and the Dark Pictures series, is Supermassive Games. And in this episode we are joined by Supermassive Games Chief Creative Officer Steve Goss and writer Graham Reznick.

Our first guest of season 4 has been on the show once before to discuss his work and the then recently released, now a genre favourite, “Psycho Goreman”. His work continues to be both a love letter to the 80’s genre films that inspired him but also a voice that is distinctly his own.

His newest film, “Frankie Freako”, about Connor, who bored with life, decides to shake things up by inviting some mischievous goblins into his home, has already become a hit on the festival circuit and hits theatres October 4th. I love the film and I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who has a place in their hearts for the movies like Ghoulies, Puppet Master and anything by the great little monster maker, John Carl Beuchler. 

Welcome back Steven Kostanski!

Hello Spill your guts listeners! This is your host Kevin Lane wishing you a happy Friday the 13th!

The show will be returning with our season 4 premiere on October 1 but in the mean time, we thought it might be fun to celebrate this most unlucky of days by revisiting our season 1 episode with Jason Vorhees arch nemesis, Tommy Jarvis. In Friday the 13th part 6: Jason Lives, Tommy Jarvis and Jason have the ultimate showdown and though Tommy had been played by two other actors prior to Jason Lives, Thom Mathews has become synonymous with character.

Now, I’m going to go ahead and guess if you’re listening to Spill your guts that you’re a collector of physical media. Of course you are. You have to be. You’re a horror fan. For our Canadian listeners, our beloved sponsor Cinema 1 is bringing back their 3-day Friday the 13th Horror Sale from September 13th to 15th. Slash the tax and take 13% off all horror movies at any of their in-store locations in Guelph, Hamilton, and London, Ontario. Or get Free Shipping within Canada on orders over $75 using the code: JASON13 exclusively at Cinema1.ca

Thank you for listening and please enjoy this return to Crystal Lake.

We’ll be taking a couple weeks to get things ready for a very VERY big season 4. Just wait until you see what we have in store for every horror fans favourite month of year. I’m so excited I could just burst! Like that guy in “Scanners”.  What are some other movies where someone just bursts? Anyway, thank you to our amazing team and our sponsors, Audio Process and Cinema 1, for another season of sitting down with horrors best and brightest and spilling guts. 

Now, let’s get into it.

For any actor, playing a major character on a tv series that not only garners tons of adoring fans but also enters into the pop culture zeitgeist and becomes a phenomenon is a major achievement. Especially when their character is a particular fan favourite and ends up in video games, comic books, made into toys and more. Then you add the element of that series enduring the test of time to become inarguably classic television.

I’ll one up that now. How about doing that twice?

Our guest in this episode has a vast filmography of dynamic and versatile roles but her performance as vampire Darla on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and its spinoff series “Angel” and as “Rita”, the wife of everyones favourite serial killer on the Showtime sensation “Dexter”, have made her a true genre star.

In this episode we are joined by the radiant and brilliant Julie Benz!

Julie sat down to talk with me about getting her start working on the George Romero produced, Dario Argento directed segment of the film “Two Evil Eyes”, when she realized that Buffy was becoming an important series, the benefits of working on two shows back to back that both had stars, Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz respectively, that were also great leaders. We talk about the excitement of getting cast to work opposite a virtuosic actor like Michael C. Hall and be a part of a critical darling like Dexter but also the heartbreak and feeling of betrayal that came later when she was written off the show.

I have to say that personally I have been a longstanding fan of Julie’s being a hardcore Buffy/Angel fan and then later a “Dexter” devotee. Julie is the kind of actor and person that anyone who speaks to people about their craft as a profession dreams of having as a guest. As thoughtful as she is open and real and man, is she ever a lovely human being. 

Ladies and gentleman, Julie Benz!

Getting any film finished and released is truly a minor miracle. There are so many stages of film production where projects fall apart. From financiers backing out at the last minute to a star quitting 2 days before production is set to begin. Most films take approximately 3 years from inception to completion when they do survive the Squid Games like survival test of getting a movie done.

Our guest take has just completed his 400th film. To put it plainly, he’s unstoppable.

The Godfather of B movies, the Puppet Master and a true master at reinventing himself time and time again… in this episode we welcome one of Spill your guts favourite guests, Charles Band.

Now, Charlie has created a new line of films titled Pulp Noire and with it, Charlie is setting out to show fans a whole new side to Full Moon films. Surrealistic, trippy, raw, and bleak… and nary a diminutive creature in sight. This new line shows Charlie reinventing YET again.

The first film in the series is titled “Quadrant” and is directed by Charlie himself (all the Pulp Noire films will be directed by Charlie who generally prefers to take the producing helm) . It’s a typically crazy Full Moon film that involves virtual reality, monsters and Jack the Ripper. Just see it. I can’t even begin to describe this gonzo head trip.

Quadrant releases on nearly all platforms as well as being available from fullmoonhorror.com on August 23

Charlie sat down with me to discuss the response to the recently released David Allen masterpiece “The Primevals”, to talk about the inception of Pulp Noire and why he chose to direct all the films himself and also to share his greatest fear. Which I’m sure you'll find is so very Charles Band appropriate.

Let’s strap on our VR helmets and be weary of the ripper as Spill your guts welcomes back the one and only Charles Band!

There’s a reason we love to see our favourite monsters return time and time agin but recently its been a period of transition. Shy of the original master slasher Michael Myers, who’s reign of terror thankfully continues, many favourites have been benched or transitioned into the world of television like everyone’s favourite good guy doll.

So, the time was ripe to unleash some new ones.

Our guest today has been a part of crafting the way forward for two iconic horror heavies. In one as the writer of several of the franchises most adored entries and the other, a work of his own creation.

In doing so he has cemented his place as one of the contemporary masters of horror and in my estimation, one of its greatest filmmakers.

The two franchises I’m referring to are “Saw” and “The Collector” and the filmmaker is the masterful Marcus Dunstan.

I should note that the two “Collector” films are among my personal favourites. With taut, stylish, nail biting direction from Marcus and a pitch perfect performance by the films star, the indispensable Josh Stewart, “The Collector” films have become an audience favourite so I think I can safely say we’re all rather excited for the upcoming third film (more on that later).

Marcus has a new film titled “#AMFAD All my friends are dead” that is one of the most fun times you could have with this years crop of horror films. Equal parts terrifying, scathing and laugh out loud funny, it’s decidedly lighter brand of Marcus Dunstan film and yet also fits into his roster perfectly. Original and with a hell of an ending, well, horror fans are in for a serious ride with this one.

“#AMFAD” is in select theatres now and is available on streaming.

Marcus and I discuss the happy accident the got him his first writing gig on a Saw film (he wrote 4 of them), his commitment in creating “#AMFAD” to not sticking to the usual tropes of a film about social media obsessed characters, how “The Collector” films could be so grizzly but still have heart and oh yes, some details on the 3rd film.

Alright, let’s join the terrifying and twisted world of Jigsaw and the Collector with writer/director Marcus Dunston!