Still waiting for the director's cut
Let's take a break for a minute from considering the debate over Munich, the merger of The WB and the UPN (as long as you guys keep Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls whatever you do in your own boardrooms is cool with me), and the Kanye West Rolling Stone cover and consider a more overlooked creative tempest: The one surrounding Evil Breed. Also known as Samhain and Evil Breed: The Legend Of Samhain this film showed up on my desk yesterday and immediately caught my eye. It's not every cheaply made horror movie that features a cast comprised almost entirely of porn stars and Richard Grieco.
Let's take a moment to appreciate the actors: There's Jenna Jameson (who needs little introduction), Ginger Lynn Allen (
The Pink Lagoon), Chasey Lain (WMB: Weapons of Masturbation) and, as "The Breeder," Taylor Hayes (Captain Organ). Also, there's Grieco. (Booker, what happened man?)
You might think this wouldn't be the sort of project that would stir a lot of passion in most filmmakers. But apparently writer director Christian Viel isn't most filmmakers. On the message board of the film's IMDB entry, Viel explains how his vision got corrupted in great detail, in a post labeled "Samhain director apologizes… And provides some clarifications." A sample:
I get the rap for writing this film but truly, many people had their fingers in it, from the distributors (including their receptionist, I kid you not!) on to Mariani, who should claim credit for all the Screamish references. He is the horror trivia buff that wanted those in, not me. In the end, I was mostly a typist who tried to fit in a semicoherent structure all the mumbo jumbo they wanted packed in as exposition in this flick, except for most of the gore scenes. Mariani did come up with the Grieco one.
It goes on like that for a long time. I haven't watched this one yet. But if I ever do, I'll know not blame Viel for making the best Grieco-and-porn-heavy gore-fest. I'll blame the receptionist.