AC:  Greetings, boys and ghouls, to another exciting installment of Fool’s (inter)Views.  Today, we are honored to have with us…

Dave Kosanke of Liquid Cheese fanzine, "MOVIES & MUSIC TO MANGLE YOUR MIND!” www.myspace.com/liquidcheesefanzine or http://hometown.aol.com/dkosanke/myhomepage/index.html  

Welcome good sir!

DK: Thanks for having me. I'm truly honored to be in the company of the 'ol Doc!

AC:  You live in Franklin, Wisconsin. Anything exciting to tell about your surroundings?

DK: Up until only a few years ago, we had one of the few surviving authentic drive-in’s located only a few miles away from my house. It was called the 41 Twin. This was the same place where I grew up watching horror and fantasy films as child, which incidentally is what led me to my obsession with genre movies. Sadly they tore it down and built a Northwestern Mutual building in its place.

AC:  How long have you been putting out Liquid Cheese? And where'd you come up with the name?

DK: I started the rough draft of Liquid Cheese back in 1994, which was done on a Commodore 64 computer. In late ’95 I bought my first Windows-based computer and the next year I restarted Liquid Cheese proper. I took a hiatus in the early 2000s, but in 2004 I came back with the second version of Liquid Cheese and I haven’t looked back since. The name comes from an episode of Married With Children. Al Bundy is watching some cheesy B movie, but he gets interrupted and has to go to the neighbors’ house. He’s wishing he was back home watching the movie, so he says something like “right now the breast monsters from Mars would be fighting the liquid cheese.” I really didn’t have to think too hard about what I wanted to name my zine, yet I didn’t want anything ‘typical’ sounding, or something that would pigeon hole me either, since I never wanted to have to limit myself.

AC:  I was thrilled to meet up with you last year at Flashback Weekend and encounter LQ firsthand.  I blew through the current issue that you were distributing and immediately came back for more.  Why do you choose to keep doing it "old school" with printed 'zines as opposed to a website?

DK: I’d rather have something you can hold in your hands, store away, and come back to years down the road. That’s how I am with the magazines I collect. A website is nice for today, but years from now who knows which way technology will point? If the entire information superhighway crashed tomorrow, I’m sure tons of material would be lost. With a printed ’zine, it is always available and will hopefully stand the test of time.

AC:  I’m much the same way.  I enjoy the tactile experience of a physical book or magazine, plus I hate reading for long periods of time on the computer.  So keep it up, my friend!  I love the “Dave’s eye” viewpoint of your visits to the various horror conventions, and you’re a kickass film reviewer.  What was the first horror film that really bit you hard with the bug?

DK: That would be either ALIEN or the original AMITYVILLE HORROR. I saw both of them around the same time period (’79-’80) and they scared the crap out of me! That feeling of being scared was such a rush, I couldn’t wait to experience it again. I took this challenge to see as many horror films as I could, and seeing how VHS and Cable TV was starting to break into the market, I was able to see plenty of films as a kid.

AC: I also saw ALIEN when it first came out and the most memorable thing about it was that when the “chest-burster” scene happened, the audience didn’t scream.  We just all sat there in shock and disbelief, silently freaking out.  And the “Get OUT!” scene in AMITYVILLE still gets me on a gut level.  So, tell us, what have you done for the horror genre lately?

DK:  Publishing and writing Liquid Cheese has been my main contribution to the horror community for nearly 15 years now. I’ve also freelance quite a bit, with some of my work appearing in Midnight Marquee, Scary Monsters, Ultra Violent and HorrorHound. I go to as many conventions as I possibly can, which I also use to help sell DVD’s as part of the Xploited Cinema gang. I do some writing for websites as well.

AC:  All right, fine, I guess you can keep your “Horror Fan” t-shirt.  Can you tell us the last 10 films you've seen and rank them on a scale of 1-10?

DK: 

WHO CAN KILL A CHILD? – 10

CENTERFOLD GIRLS –8

HEADLESS EYES – 6

PENANCE – 7

ICHI THE KILLER – 9

ATTACK OF THE 50ft WOMAN – 6

GIRLS TOWN – 7

GAMERA GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE – 9

EMANUELLE AROUND THE WORLD – 7

BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON - 1

AC:  Nice views there, and quite the variety too!  I’ve not seen CHILD yet, but I’m dying to.  Got it sitting on the “to-watch” shelf, so I’ll get to it eventually.  Ditto for EMANUELLE – That’s with Laura Gemser, right?  I’m glad that 50-FOOT WOMAN is finally out on DVD, and good call on GAMERA: GOTU!  I’m not a huge Gamera fan, but when I saw it for the first time last year, it pretty much blew my mind with how genuinely good it was.  I wasn’t expecting that from a movie with “Gamera” in the title.  I haven’t seen LESLIE VERNON yet, but I’m sure our readers would like to hear the reasoning behind your hateful “1” rating.

DK:  BEHIND THE MASK was hyped it up quite a bit in the horror press, but what I saw was a bad Christopher Guest impersonation "masking" as a (un)scary movie.  Several ideas in this "mockumentary" fell flat on the floor, or were borrowed from the superior SCREAM.  I also thought there was too much lame humor, and not even a hint of gore to at least keep things interesting.  It appeared to me that the film might play better to horror newbies who like Freddy & Jason, but otherwise you can pretty much forget it.

AC:  From previous conversations, it sounds like you have an astounding library of DVDs and box sets. What are your top five prized possessions?

DK:  Number one on my list would be the Gamera box set I have from Japan that includes all of the original movies, including the rarely seen GAMERA: SUPER MONSTER flick from 1980. The nice thing about this particular set is that all the films (except for SUPER MONSTER) include English subtitles. The downside is that it cost me $600!! Next up would be the Dai Majin box set from Japan, which again includes all 3 original movies with English subtitles in a cool looking box, complete with booklet and postcards. Nobody does box sets better than the Japanese; I can assure you of that! I really love Anchor Bay’s tin of Fulci’s THE BEYOND, I wouldn’t give that up for the world. Next is the 2-disc set of STREET TRASH that Synapse put out last year. Not only is that arguably the greatest DVD I’ve ever laid my eyeballs on, but I had most of the cast sign the inner sleeve when they appeared at the Cinema Wasteland show last year. Finally Grindhouse released I DRINK YOUR BLOOD in a limited signed edition a while back, which I own and love dearly.

AC:  Damn, my mouth’s watering.  I remember when I did the PLANET OF THE APES retrospective earlier this year, you sent me a photo of your “Ape Head” box set.  Cool stuff.  So, where do you see Liquid Cheese in 5 years?

DK:  Unless I run out of things to say, I see Liquid Cheese staying pretty much the same, in both layout and content. I may upgrade my computer system at some point, but the black & white Xerox look will stay the same. I don’t need to spend lots of money towards making it professional looking, that isn’t a goal of mine.

AC:  Works for me.  Do you have a favorite close encounter with a horror celeb?

DK: That would probably be when I met Robert Englund at the Ronald Reagan airport in New Jersey 10 years ago as my buddy and I were coming back from a Chiller Theater convention. He was sitting in a bar with some woman, and my friend pointed him out. We approached him nicely, and he was more than willing to talk with us for 20 minutes or so. We got his autograph, along with a drawing of Freddy to boot! He was super cool. The only regret about that particular incident is that we drew a crowd over to him after that, which didn’t seem to please his lady friend that much!

AC:  Tell us the last goal you achieved and a couple that are on your short list.

DK: A couple of things come to mind. First, I contributed an article to the next issue of HorrorHound magazine, which means my name will be in a nationally distributed magazine, a first for me I believe. Second, getting my work into a full-length book; your HORROR 101 project is a goal I didn’t expect to realize so soon, but that’s the way things work sometimes! One goal I’ve had for the past few years was to contribute some way to a DVD. So when Synapse unleashes THE KINDRED later in the year, my promotional bib from the Vestron VHS release will be on display for all to see!

AC:  Sweet on all counts, and it’s an honor to have you on board with H101.  Anything you want to tell us about this Ryan Olsen character? How'd you guys hook up?

DK: I knew Ryan from the Mainstream Metal Shop, which was a local music store that had a special heavy metal section in the back. I used to buy stuff all the time, and since he was the only one who worked there, we starting talking shop and found out we had similar interests in both movies and music. He would also stock Liquid Cheese as well. So it was only a matter of time before we took our friendship outside of the shop to the point where we hang out all the time. Since his passion is music, it made sense to have him write the CD reviews for Liquid Cheese.

AC:  Is there anything else you'd like to add or give props to?

DK:  Yeah, I'd like to mention the cover artist for the last few issues of Liquid Cheese.  His name is Putrid, and he is clearly one of the rising talents in the horror/comic art scene.  His name is starting to get out there more, and I know for a fact that his artwork for Liquid Cheese has helped the zine in ways that I could never have accomplished myself.  Also, if anyone is a fan of Italian giallos, specifically the visual style of Dario Argento, and has a fetish for Long Jeanne Silver, go check out I KNOW WHO KILLED ME. It blew me away, and it is one of the most stylish and lavish horror films I've seen in a while.  Lindsay Lohan is really good in it, and I just hope that her recent tabloid behavior doesn't turn people away from seeing it.

AC:  Awesome!  I’ll probably be interviewing Putrid at some point right here, so staytuned.  I just read the article on IKWKM in the last Fangoria and I definitely want to check it out.  As much a party girl as LiLo may be, I still think she’s a dandy actress.  Last question: I’m a newbie to the horror genre, and I’ve never seen a horror flick from before 1995. Where should I start?

DK:  In my mind the two most important horror films for a newbie to seek out would be the original PSYCHO (1960) and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968). PSYCHO is arguably the single most influential horror film ever made since it brought real horror into the spectrum, whereas before it was ghouls, ghosts and aliens that were scaring us. Norman Bates brought the horror right into our own homes, and with it the implement-wielding maniac was born. Once people see it, they’ll never look at showers the same way again. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD again took the ghouls to new levels of gruesomeness and brought about the rise of the modern horror film. The creepy atmosphere and relentless violence told us as much about ourselves as it did the undead coming back from the grave. I think if people start with those two movies, they’ll see how contemporary horror cinema was created, and how nearly everything made since owes at least some small debt to either film.

AC:  No argument from me on either one of those.  Well, that's about all the time and space we have for now.  Dave, it’s been a pleasure, thank you so much for chatting with us!  Hopefully you’ll stop back by throughout the week and answer any other questions that folks might have for you.

DK:  I'm always monitoring your activity on MySpace, since it is informative, witty and most of all fun!  I'm glad to have been a part of your ongoing study of horror fiends across the nation!