Back in the mid to late ’90s, I did something almost on a yearly basis that was one of those stupid things you do when you’re younger…driving from Chicago to New York for a convention, usually in the wintery month of January. I mean, when you have the opportunity to meet genre icons like Lucio Fulci or Paul Naschy, sensibilities tend not to come to the forefront of your thought process. Why pay $200 to $400 for a single plane ticket when I could get a bunch of like-minded horror fans in the car and make the 800+ mile drive there, stay a couple of days, and then make that same trip back. Granted, I was never dumb enough to do it alone, but the first few times we did this, it was in one straight shot. On the way there, we were so pumped full of excitement that the trip didn’t seem that bad. But for some reason the trip back seems sooo much longer. Sure, those long hours in the van were long, tedious, and sometime downright nerve racking. But it was an adventure, to say the least. Now I look back on those days with such fondness. Sure, maybe because I’m not behind the wheel at that moment, but those are still great memories.
Michael Parks had been acting for close to 60 years, first appearing on a TV series in 1960, and would appear in a ton of different programs over the years. In the horror genre, there were only a few titles in his long career, but like any role he took on, he was hard to forget. You can see him in films like The Evictors (1979), Umberto Lenzi’s Nightmare Beach (1989), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), Planet Terror (2007), Kevin Smith’s Red State (2011) and Tusk (2014).
If you were are a fan of British horror films of studios like Hammer and Amicus, then you will probably recognize Geoffrey Bayldon. He usually was a character actor in smaller roles, but like Parks, he always shined in them. You can see his work in films like Hammer’s Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) or Amicus’ The House that Dripped Blood (1971), Tales from the Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972), and The Monster Club (1981). My personal favorite of these titles was in Asylum. So much fun there.
Do you like to hear from different people in the film industry? From directors to composers to producers to actors, they all have insight to this crazy world that we follow. If you’re one of those that are trying to break into the film industry, what better people to get advice from than those that are already in the trenches. Filmmaker/author Danny Draven has written a book called Talk You To Death: 
