AC:  Welcome everyone to the third installment of FOOL’S (inter)VIEWS!  Double dose this week (hence the change in colors) – today we are very pleased to have with us…

Robert Gannon aka Trent Sketch (http//www.myspace.com/trentsketch)  Hello, Robert!

RG: Hi there.

AC:  Would you mind telling the good folks at home what brought you to MySpace? And how do we know each other?

RG: Everyone is doing the MySpace thing now.  I have a dormant music account set up just to reserve the name space and have for years.  As for this account: networking and promotion for my projects.  You and I know each other from the IMDB horror boards, and I contributed the What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? essay for the Horror 101 [book] project.

AC:  And I thank my lucky stars to this day that you did.  Your Baby Jane piece was a perfect example of what I was hoping to discover through the H101 project – finding new ways of looking at classic horror films that I would personally.  Your ear for Frank De Vol’s music was a terrific element.  Thanks for that. What’s your normal daily routine like?

RG:  Right now, my life is kind of chaotic.  I had to transfer out of a big city university to a tiny little liberal arts college five minutes from my hometown, so I'm trying to get everything in order and develop a daily routine.  On the plus side, it means that I'm switching over to a media/cinema studies major and have an excuse to go watch films.  My money is coming in through a few projects until my new job at an art store starts up: I do online freelance writing for various sites and blogs, I just started an online art/craft/design business, I plan on attending some flea markets/craft fairs/art shows/conventions with my merch, and I fill in when needed for friends involved in theater/music/film.

AC:  Sounds like you’re a busy man.  What’s your preferred method of chilling out?

RG:  The strange thing is, all of that stuff is how I relax.  I enjoy watching movies, so writing reviews/articles/whatever about them can be a blast.  The business is pretty much me making whatever I feel like making, so if I’m in the mood to carve some linoleum, or sew, or paint, or anything else, I make a lot of things and then put up the best ones for sale.

AC:  What was the first movie (doesn’t have to be a horror flick) that first made a big impression on you?

RG:  The first film that made a big impression on me was The Little Mermaid.  I went through 3 copies of the VHS in a year when it first came out because I insisted on watching it every day after pre-school.  I still know every line, can sing every song, and even began to write out my own arrangements with a very poorly maintained electric organ (like the one in Edward Scissorhands, with the cheesy backing loops and on/off switch).  To this day, I find myself drawn to this Disney masterpiece, and cannot wait until the Broadway show premieres in the fall.  That's been a long time coming, and I hope it isn't a total disaster like the Tarzan musical.

AC:  Wow.  To be honest, I’ve only seen Mermaid once.  But you’ve got me thinking I should revisit it.  I remember doing “Le Poissons” at an audition once.  Since I’m not a great singer, I figured I’d sell the heck out of it with the French accent.  Didn’t get the job, but everyone seemed to enjoy it.  How many movies do you usually see a week?

RG:  Anywhere from 4-10, depending on time and who's paying me to write about what each week.

AC:  Being paid to write about movies?  I think you just made half our readers turn green with jealousy.  Nicely done.  Tell us the last 10 movies you watched, and give us your personal rating from 1-10.

RG:  Let's see:

Gremlins 2 - Ugh, 3/10
Tears of Kali - 7/10 due to very poor dubbing and no subtitle option on the DVD
Spiderman 3 - 4/10, only because Kirsten Dunst gets hit in the face and Tyra Banks makes a very limited cameo appearance
Roman - 7/10, and the fact that Lucky McKee wrote it while he was in college really shows through with very clunky dialogue - Bettis' direction and the editing is the saving grace of the film
Kairo (Pulse) - 5/10, I just couldn't get into it
Battle Royale - 9/10, one of my favorites
Little Children - 7/10, flawed, but worth watching for the performances
Children of Men - 8/10, great intelligent action film
Jesus Camp - 9/10, a great, debate-worthy documentary that is as scary as any horror film
BloodRayne - 1/10, watched only because I go through bouts of insomnia and this rolled up on my TV screen

AC:  Wow, harshness for the Gremlins sequel, eh?  I agree it falls a bit short, but I didn’t hate it that much.  I’m going to agree with your ratings for most of the rest of the movies I’ve seen. Of your J-horror viewings, I probably liked Battle Royale a little less and Kairo a little more, but only a point or so in both directions.  I’m curious about Children of Men – I didn’t think much from the trailers, but it seems like it’s getting pretty high marks all around.  And of course, I’m dying to see Roman, being the Bettis/McKee fan that I am.  Your excuse for BloodRayne, however, is still not excuse enough.  Shame on you.

RG:  I agree, there is no excuse to see BloodRayne.  As for Children of Men: it’s very different.  The performances are excellent, the screenplay is fantastic, and the cinematography is just wonderful. That said, it’s certainly not a film for everyone.  It is smarter than your average action film, but not by much as it goes farther and farther along.  And it seems like the goal is to create a Lars von Trier-styled action film: let’s see what else we can force these people to suffer through, and then do ten times worse the next time.  It’s worth watching for the performances and camerawork, but otherwise it’s very hit or miss.

AC:  Tell us the last personal goal you achieved.

RG:  The last one was pretty pathetic, actually.  I participate in a site called Television Without Pity, and wanted to obtain the rank of "fanatic," which requires 1000 posts.  Considering I was almost kicked off the site last year thanks to insider information on American Idol, it seemed like a nice little triumph, and it is a status symbol. 

AC:  All right, whoa there.  “Insider information?”  What’s that all about?

RG:  I auditioned for American Idol season 4 and made it far enough into the process to be able to break down exactly how the auditions work to anyone and everyone who would listen.  So, with my knowledge of the show, someone from the site asked me for some help with her audition for Season 5.  I gladly obliged, gave her song, wardrobe, story, presentation, and performance recommendations, and she took the skeleton I gave her and made it all the way to the top 40.  Some intrepid poster discovered that the girl’s posts had all been deleted, but they were obviously involved in a conversation with me, and the moderators went crazy.  I had to stop posting in the American Idol section of the site until Season 6 (where I auditioned again, and made it past the open call, but backed out on my own because I had a conflicting paying gig and money trumps famewhoring any day of the week) and even then, they were flagging me left and right and trying to get me off the site.  I think they feared if I said anything, they would be sued by Fox/19 Entertainment and they wanted to avoid that at all costs.  Understandable, but I wasn’t doing anything wrong, since I never personally acknowledged it until long after the girl was off the show.

AC:  Wow, online madness.  What are a couple goals that are on your “short list?”

RG:  Have one of my short-stories published in a print magazine (I've been dragging my heels waiting for the release of Horror 101, but now I'm just going to start submitting and see what happens), actually sell some merchandise through my online shop, self-publish a collection of short stories, and send in the form and money for a dealer table at the Fango Weekend of Horrors in Secaucus, NJ.

AC:  Sigh, I hear you about H101.  All I can say is, it’s a’comin’.   I was emailing with Mike Mayo of Videohound the other day.  He has a book that has been completed since last December, 2006 and it won’t see a release until February, 2008.  I think I’d lose my mind.  Good luck with your short stories, my man.  Your success is our success and vice versa.  What are you selling at your dealer tables?

RG:  As I said before, I do anything I’m capable of making by hand when it comes to my business.  For Weekend of Horrors, I’m going to focus on smaller items that can be easily tossed into the freebie bags they hand out at the door without breaking.  So horror themed buttons, stickers, figures, snowglobes, patches, and maybe a few other things as well.  It should work out nicely and be a welcome change from the countless booths of DVDs, action figures, and advertising for movies that will inevitably go straight to DVD/are being released by a sponsor.  And, if I get some new material written, I’ll be handing out free copies of some of my short stories as well, just to get people reading.

AC:  Got any good close encounter stories with a horror celebrity?

RG:  Last year, at the Fango Weekend of Horrors, they had a panel with the cast of Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.  R. Lee Ermey is looking pretty fed up with the actor to his right and the producer to his left, so he grabs my poster and says, very loudly so everyone on the line can hear, "Do you know what the difference is between my signature and everyone else's in Hollywood?"  I choose to play along and feed him "No, sir, what is the difference?"  Ermey: "You can read my signature because (death glares at peripheral panel members) I care about my fans."  Producer 1: "I'll take my time on your signature."  Actor to his right starts to take his time and writes his name legibly.  But the moment isn't over, oh no, not by a long shot.  Producer 2 asks me, "So what did you think of the face pulling scene, huh?  Pretty gory?"  I visibly recoil, since I thought the scene was needlessly gratuitous, self-indulgent, and woefully misplaced to try and bring in more audience members through a convention.  Diora Baird notices my reaction, laughs, and says "I don't like that gory stuff either."  Me: "Yeah, I don't like gory movies.  I prefer my horror to have some brains behind it."  She laughs, and says "Me too.  I can barely stand to watch this film thanks to the gore, but there's a lot more to it.  You'll still see it on opening day, right?"  Me: "Absolutely."  Producer 2 still hadn't signed the poster.  He almost rips it apart with the fine-tipped Sharpie and very angrily writes his signature down.  That was a great weekend.

AC:  Most excellent.  I’ve been a fan of Ermey since Full Metal Jacket, of course, but I didn’t realize that he actually studied acting after leaving the USMC.  I just figured he was one of those guys that Hollywood discovered, but turns out he really wanted to be an actor.  Pretty darn cool.  Speaking of the industry, who are some of your favorite horror directors?

RG:  Alfred Hitchcock is quite possibly the best director that has ever lived, or ever will live.  His work is suspenseful, intelligent, and absolutely disturbing.  Roman Polanski knows how to work a camera for maximum fright appeal, and certainly seems to embrace the genre and pull the best out of his actors.  He's not too bad in front of the camera, either.  Stanley Kubrick's visual style, attention to detail, and love of film is apparent in every frame of his work, and his more disturbing horror/genre films never fail to scare me, disgust me, and make me fear for the hope of humanity.  

AC: As you probably noticed, I’ve been catching up on my Hitchcock these days, so I’m not going to argue with your assessment of the Master.  Polanski’s horror offerings (with the exception of The Ninth Gate) are pretty outstanding, and Kubrick definitely knows how to get under your skin.  Three masters of audience manipulation – Good calls all.  Well, sad to say, this is becoming a bit epic, so we’ll wrap things up with one final question: I’m a newbie to the horror genre, and I’ve never seen a horror flick from before 1995. Where should I start?

RG:  I always recommend that any horror fan see Rosemary's Baby, which I consider to be the single greatest film ever made.  Your enjoyment with that picture can really determine which style of horror you'll enjoy.  If you don't get it, don't like it, think it's slow, boring, etc. - go for the classic slashers and other gore-filled fare: Black Christmas, Halloween, God Told Me To, and Suspiria.  If you absolutely love it, go for the psychological fare: The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Repulsion, The Tenant, and Hitchcock’s horror efforts.  And you really can't call yourself a true horror fan unless you've watched some of the Universal monster movies: Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man, and Dracula.  Then just follow along the lines of actors, directors, producers and writers involved in the films.  Chances are, they've done more work in horror than you think.

AC:  Amen, brother.  I’m thrilled to see lesser-known flicks such as God Told Me To and Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane popping up on your “starter” list, that’s great fun.  I try to pimp for Larry Cohen whenever I get a chance – his films are usually fun and smarter than the average monster movie.  Well, that’s about all the time and space we have for now.  I hope you’ll stop by throughout the week and answer any further comments or questions anyone might have.  Thanks so much!

RG:  It’s been great.