8th July 2011.

Phew! My feet haven’t touched the ground since returning from Cannes. What a dizzying and eventful couple of months it’s been. I’ve staggered from one movie in production to another, all the while having to pay attention to the FrightFest line-up and attendant duties. STRIPPERS VS WEREWOLVES had me spending a great deal of time with Robert Englund – the one, the only Freddy Krueger himself - who I absolutely adore so that was no hardship. The British PUSHER remake had me interviewing headline star Richard Coyle for the second time in six months, the first time was on GRABBERS. I promised I wasn’t stalking him.  Although actually I think I really am as I really like this down to earth actor. He’s also the star of OUTPOST: BLACK SUN. Strangely enough every time I was on location with either movie, in Croydon or in Shoreditch, we were always next door to where THE DARK KNIGHT RISES also filmed. At one point I walked on to the set of the Christopher Nolan movie by mistake. “Ooh sorry”, I said, “I’m looking for STRIPPERS VS WEREWOLVES”. One of the camera crew said he wished he was on that movie instead of the new Batman! I did pile on his agony by revealing that day’s shooting was going to feature copious amounts of nudity. 

But of course the one movie I’ve been asked about more than any other is Dario Argento’s DRACULA 3D. I’d been on call to go to Biella, an hour’s drive from Turin, where the production had been located for most of June. The changing weather meant the schedule was forever being tinkered with resulting in my not being sure when the best time to arrive would be. Sod’s Law meant of course that would end up being exactly the same period the FrightFest Weekend Pass tickets went on sale. As I twittered to many in the Sleepy Q that day, only Dario could possibly keep me away from that important event. Everyone seemed to understand. And as luck would have it I arrived on location at the perfect juncture to watch the entire climax being filmed from start to finish and to catch up with the key members of the cast including Thomas Kretschmann, Rutger Hauer, Asia Argento, Marta Gastini and Unax Ugalde. Plus all the technicians helping Dario put a new vision of the Bram Stoker legend on screen like his SUSPIRIA and TENEBRAE director of photography Luciano Tovoli and his go-to special make-up prosthetics man Sergio Stivaletti. 

My time on DRACULA 3D turned out to be the most fun I’ve ever had on an Argento set. OPERA was an extraordinary one to cover because much was filmed in the centre of Rome and the crowds of onlookers made it a very unusual experience. TWO EVIL EYES meant George Romero and Dario, so fabulous, right? TRAUMA was fascinating because of filming in a Minneapolis suburb where no one knew who Dario was. THE STENDHAL SYNDROME I reported on for a week from inside the maniac’s ‘Graffiti Room’ torture chamber. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA was a dream come true because of shooting in Budapest’s elegant opera house and meeting my movie music idol Ennio Morricone. SLEEPLESS signalled another week camped out on a Turin side street.  Perhaps it was the whole 3D side of DRACULA, or the fact the first two nights I was there was spent in the middle of a forest miles from anywhere in an almost fairytale setting. Whatever, I had a blast on DRACULA 3D and loved every second of being there. 

Because the movie is still a year away from release I have to be careful what I reveal about it. Suffice to say the finale takes place in what I can only describe as a Tim Burton-style burial ground featuring the mausoleum of Dracula’s long-dead wife. Being able to watch genius Tovoli light the set like the opening of SUSPIRIA was a total joy. Being then able to watch the takes in full 3D on the monitors was amazing. I had no idea you could do this but of course the six man 3D technical support team surrounding Dario had to be able to tell if it was working, if there was any ghosting, and the in-your-face effects were successful. My one enduring memory will be Asia, playing Lucy, baring her fangs on camera, then racing to the playback, putting on 3D glasses to see how she looked, then going back on set to correct the angles. Oh, and how wonderful Thomas Kretschmann was to me once more. He kept reminding me it had been 15 years since we had first met on STENDHAL, ten years since we worked together on Pupi Avati’s KNIGHTS OF THE QUEST and five years since we were in Sitges together for GRIMM LOVE. In all those years he’s never changed and I think he’ll bring a terrific feral quality to Dracula. Who knows when we’ll see him on screen again as he’s just signed a six year contract on the Jaume Collet-Serra directed TV series ‘The River’ produced by Jason Blum and Oren Peli of INSIDIOUS and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY fame.

Strange how life works out really. While on set I kept receiving tweets about my DVD commentary on TENEBRAE, which I showed Dario. Asia asked if I wanted to mention FrightFest on her twitter account, which we did on a photo of us both together. And Dario’s other daughter Fiore mentioned how she never saw me except on her father’s movies! I’ve told Dario this before, but I’ve thanked my lucky stars ever since meeting him for the first time on TENEBRAE. Incidentally DRACULA 3D will be covered extensively in the new edition of my out-of-print book ‘Profondo Argento’, published once more by FAB Press mid 2012.

Until the next time.