Sundays With Conrad

Good evening, fiends. I confess that MicroHorror and this very blog have not been getting the attention they deserve in recent weeks. The truth is that I’m a lazy bum, but it’s also true that I’ve been spending a big chunk of my time in West Virginia and western Maryland, working with the great Conrad Brooks on his new movie, Zombie on the Loose. Now that my portion of the shooting is over, I wanted to share some of the experience with you.

The master at work

It’s hard work in hot weather, but it’s been lots of fun. A typical day would begin with me getting up bright and early to make the long drive out. I’d pick up Conrad at his home and we’d head over to the Hagerstown/Antietam KOA campgrounds, where most of the movie is filmed. Everyone would convene around 11:30 in the morning and then we’d go to… the haunted house.

Creekside Manor is not merely a haunted house, but it’s also a haunted house. I’ll explain: John and Judi Durham, who own both the campground and the Manor, originally planned to renovate the building and live there, but kept being plagued by apparitions, inexplicable noises and various other disturbances. They called in some ghost hunters, who confirmed that the building was indeed “occupied,” and renovation was called off. Instead, John and Judi dressed the place up, rigged a maze and special effects, and opened up a classic Halloween spookhouse which is now one of the best in the region. It’s certainly the only haunted haunted house I’ve ever seen, and this is where Conrad likes to shoot a lot of his movies.

Zombie on the Loose is the fifth movie in the Gypsy Vampire series, following Gypsy Vampire, Gypsy Vampire’s Revenge, Freaky Vampire and Gypsy Vampire: Final Bloodthirst. After the death of Count Lugo at the hands of Max the zombie, and the subsequent explosion of Lugo’s funeral home, everything seemed peaceful for a time… but some people just won’t let the dead stay dead. Lugo’s old assistant Lucy Black, freshly escaped from a mental institution, will stop at nothing to resurrect her master, and she’ll enlist the help of Soko the voodoo princess and the mysterious Dr. Freagosi to help her in her schemes. Can Max stop her in time to prevent the rebirth of Count Lugo?

Murder most foul! (SPOILER)

The actual filming was a low-tech affair, but ably handled by our cameraman Marvin Kennedy, a veteran of many of Conrad’s previous projects. We’d get into costume, take our places in the various spooky rooms of Creekside Manor and shoot the scenes as quickly and efficiently as we could. Conrad is from the old school of Hollywood, and he doesn’t have time to do take after take. Block the scene, do a couple dry runs for rehearsal, shoot, and move on– that’s the Brooks method. Most days we’d be over well before six o’clock.

Marvin, about to shed light on the proceedings

I got to meet some great people on the set, including a bunch of folks I recognized from Conrad’s other movies. I’m not the most social person in the world, but I was made to feel right at home. It even became a family affair, because not only had Conrad cast me as Max, but he cast my wife Jenesta Matthews to play the role of Jenny the maid, and her mother Harriette Matthews (an experienced actress in her own right, and the best mother-in-law a guy could ask for) came up for a day to blow us all away as Soko.

Nathan Rosen, John Durham, Conrad Brooks, Andy Bakner, Judi Durham

My part is done now, and even though it’s nice to have a little more free time, I’m going to miss the camaraderie. I understand that there are just a few more scenes to be shot, after which Marvin takes over for the editing and scoring. I can’t wait to see the final product. I’ll keep you all posted.

Beware the beast!

Thanks to Frank G. Quillen for the photos.

If you’d like to see more of me and Conrad at work, take a look back at us announcing the winners of MicroHorror’s 2009 Halloween contest.