Reviewed by
Todd Garbarini
Headpress,
a London-based publisher, has recently released Dark Stars Rising: Conversations from the Outer Realm, a series of
interviews by author and interviewer Shade Rupe. This 550-plus page paperback tome, laid out
and designed by David Kerekes and featuring artwork by Howard Forbes, consists
of discussions culled from nearly twenty-five years of interviews with artists
and reviewers such as the late Divine, Richard Kern, Jim Vanbebber, Johannes Schönherr, Zamora, the Torture King, the
late Chas. Balun, Peter Sotos, Dennis Paoli, Buddy Giovinazzo, Brother
Theodore, Teller (of Penn and Teller), William Lustig, Hermann Nitsch, Genesis
Breyer P-orridge, Udo Kier, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Floria Sigismondi, Dennis
Cooper, Andre Lassen, Tura Satana, Gaspar Noé, Arnold Drake, Richard Stanley, Dame
Darcy, Stephen O’Malley, Joanna Went and last but not least, the brainchild
behind the It trilogy, Crispin Glover. Granted, the majority of these names are not
on the tip of the tongue of the average person on the street when asked about
entertainment personalities, but I’m sure that the subjects would not want it
any other way. For the most part, these
personalities fall further outside of the mainstream than Pluto is from Earth; for
the most part, they defy being labeled. Trying
to describe these people is the equivalent of attempting to discuss David
Lynch’s Eraserhead with a group of soccer moms.
This book is not for the faint-of-heart. Lavishly illustrated with personal
photographs, some of them of a truly violent and bizarre sexual nature
featuring both male and female genitalia, the book also features behind-the-scenes
shots on film sets.
Being a horror film fan, I loved the interview with the late Chas.
Balun, the man behind the Deep Red magazine of the late 1980’s and early
1990’s, whom I met in 1990 at a Dario Argento signing in Albany, NY. Deep Red, named after Argento’s best film, was
my introduction to scholarly views of my favorite horror films.
The book also features newspaper clippings of the original ad
artwork for movies and ad slicks for personal appearances. Some shots include Jim Vanbebber in front of the Cinema
Village in Greenwich Village and Dennis Paoli with behind-the-scenes shots of Re-Animator. I am a sucker for images of movie theaters with
films from the past: Buddy
Giovinazzo’s Combat Shock on the marquee at the Deuce on 42nd Street
in New York; William Lustig’s Maniac at Century’s Green Acre Theatre in Valley
Stream, NY; and a few others.
The
final thirty pages or so consist of some very entertaining book and film
reviews.
If
you’ve got the twenty-eight bucks and a strong stomach, Dark Stars Rising: Conversations from the Outer Realm is a great
way to spend an afternoon seeing what the wilder side of life has to
offer.
Highly
recommended.
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