Quick update on some fun things this week, Wendy and I will be at the Paradigm Symposium paranormal convention in Minneapolis this weekend, so look out for us and let’s hang out if you’re there!
Also in more fun haunting news, I just launched St. Paul Ghost Walks which is the first haunted history walking tour of downtown St. Paul, Minnesota (I like to call it the Evil Twin) and that launches this Friday the 13th!
And there’s still time to vote for our band, Sunspot, in the Madison Area Music Awards – if you voted in the first round, it doesn’t cost anything to vote for us in the FINAL round (ends May 19th). If you haven’t voted, it’s five tax-deductible dollars and every penny goes to helping out music education in Madison area schools. It’s a cause we believe in deeply and are proud to have been supporting this charity since the beginning.
This week, I got to take some time to talk to a creator after my own heart, Christopher Saint Booth. As a musician, film producer, and paranormal investigator with a superb sense of style, he and his brother Philip bring glam chic and a distinct sophistication to the world of the weird.
I met Christopher at the Chicago Ghost Conference (Episode 61 of the podcast has our haunted wrap up) when Allison from Milwaukee Ghosts grabbed a copy of his book, The Exorcist Diary: The True Story, which is an adaptation of the original journal kept by the priest who was performing an exorcism on a boy named Roland Doe, and that was the real-life story that would eventually inspire William Peter Blatty to write the pea-soup barfing, crucifix-humping movie that we all know and love, The Exorcist.
In our conversation, we start with his career as a musician on the Sunset Strip in the late 70s and early 80s and his move into art director on various films (hey man, he got to work on Dreamscape, the film where people could travel into each other’s dreams and we’ve talked about it on this podcast a bunch of times!)
In addition to some fun Hollywood stories, Christopher shares with us some of his real life paranormal experiences that he’s also documented in an autobiographical book called PARANOIA – The Strange Case of Ghosts, Demons, and Aliens.
While he’s always been into horror movies, what I think is interesting is how the brothers stumbled upon becoming paranormal filmmakers. They were filming a movie called Death Tunnel at Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Kentucky, a legendarily haunted hospital that has been closed for decades. In the script, they used the real legends of the sanatarium for inspiration.
But the real show was what was happening behind the scenes. They got so much footage of weird stuff occurring while they were filming that they were able to make a documentary, SPOOKED – The Ghosts of Waverly Hills Sanatorium with weird footage, EVPs, and haunted history of the famous building.
And that documentary led them into a brand new direction, being able to create fictional movies based on the historical legends and then going in depth on the truth behind them, a real mix of the paranormal and pop culture. This was a fun interview full of anecdotes, paranormal tidbits, and a discussion on following your passion, whether it’s musician or filmmaker or gourmet hamburger artist (or a veggie burger artist for me!)
Welcome to see you on the other Mike, where the world of
Speaker:the mysterious collides with the world of entertainment.
Speaker:A discussion of art, music, movies, spirituality, the
Speaker:Wendy, and self discovery. And now,
Speaker:your hosts, musicians and entertainers who have their
Speaker:own weakness for the weird, Mike and Wendy from the
Speaker:band, Sunspot.
Speaker:Welcome back. We're home. We're in Wisconsin. We're not in California
Speaker:anymore. Back too. And it's been nice weather, so I'm not gonna come back. Oh,
Speaker:gosh. Yeah. It's Mike summer came. Mhmm. It was here for the weekend,
Speaker:and now it's winter again. Yep. It's gone. It's back, like, 40 degrees today. So
Speaker:this well, we got what we No. It's fine. I'm not complaining. It's been great.
Speaker:I think I think we're over the worst of it. Yeah. Yes.
Speaker:So, anyway, there hasn't been any paranormal weather over here.
Speaker:No. No. No Mike travel fog. Nothing like that. No weird clouds.
Speaker:Nope. But something fun about Wisconsin that
Speaker:we're doing right now is the Madison Area Music Association
Speaker:Awards. So fun. Called the Mamas, and the reason why it's fun
Speaker:is because, you guys could actually help
Speaker:put instruments in kids' hands and help out with music education in the Madison
Speaker:area and also do us a real solid. Yeah. We've, we've
Speaker:talked about it before, Madison Area Music Association Awards. Yes.
Speaker:And your votes got us into the final. Yes. Thank you
Speaker:so much. And, we did hear from a lot of you who said you voted
Speaker:for us. So We appreciate it. You get the credits for us making it into
Speaker:round 2, and we really, really appreciate it. If you voted for
Speaker:round 1, you can vote for round 2. You don't have to pay again. Your
Speaker:your money went into the good cause, and now it's just for us.
Speaker:Now now you're just doing it because you're a kindhearted, good person. And so
Speaker:we we really like kindhearted good people. And if you wanna continue to be 1,
Speaker:just go on for round 2 Yeah. And go in and vote for Sunspot. And
Speaker:then if you didn't vote for round 1, you can still donate money Yeah. And
Speaker:and show you the warmth of your heart. And the warmth is it's it's only
Speaker:a $5 warmth to your heart. So you don't have to worry, like, it's gonna
Speaker:be draining out or it's it's it's $5. The music goes completely to the
Speaker:charity, a 100%. The money, all of the proceeds. Right. Goes right to the
Speaker:charity Yeah. To help children, learn more about music in
Speaker:Madison, in the Madison, Wisconsin area, and it really is a great is a great
Speaker:program that we've supported wholeheartedly for the past decade. We
Speaker:have. And we've seen the good results from it too. We've seen students that have
Speaker:come up and, like, benefited from that particular charity.
Speaker:So And then we've seen them at, like, shows and stuff. Right. So it's, like,
Speaker:it's leading the next generation and how to be awesome. Rockers. So, we'll
Speaker:have links to that up in the show notes at othersidepodcast.com/91.
Speaker:But we absolutely appreciate it. If you've already voted, please go in and vote round
Speaker:2. It doesn't cost you anything. And we have the we'll have the
Speaker:categories at othersidepodcast.com/91. If you
Speaker:haven't had a chance to vote yet, don't worry, my friends. It's okay. It is
Speaker:not too late. You can do that today. That's right. And we're in a
Speaker:few categories. So, hopefully, at least one of those maybe will
Speaker:get an award. That would be neat. So it's fun, and it's just a it's
Speaker:just a fun way to do something cool for charity. Of course, it's tax your
Speaker:$5 is tax deductible. So that means you can better. You can
Speaker:stick it to the man too at the same Mike. It's helping out
Speaker:a band and helping out kids. That's right. Good stuff. Yes.
Speaker:So what else is going on this week, Mike? It's, this is gonna be Friday
Speaker:13th coming up. It is gonna be Friday 13th. Yes. Yes. Yep.
Speaker:That's first Friday 13th of the year, and we are gonna be running
Speaker:a haunted history tour in Madison. Alright. Excellent.
Speaker:See that madisonghostwalks.com. Some new stories on that. So if you
Speaker:guys have gone on it before, you're gonna see some brand new stuff. Cool. And
Speaker:it's the inaugural Saint Paul ghost walk. Hey. So, yeah.
Speaker:I've been talking about it for the past couple of months. Congratulations. Thank you very
Speaker:much. But now it is launching this Friday. The stories
Speaker:are done. The route is done. Exciting. You know, the guides have
Speaker:walked it and stuff like that. They've gone over the stories, and it's gonna be
Speaker:really fun. So Friday 13th 8 PM, Saint Paul ghost walks dot com, and that
Speaker:will be in the, show notes as well. But you and I are
Speaker:gonna be in the Twin Cities this week. Yeah. We're gonna be we're gonna be
Speaker:up there. Something different we haven't done before? Yes. The,
Speaker:the Paradigm Symposium. And, there's
Speaker:gonna be a lot of first of all, the keynote speaker is Travis Walton
Speaker:from Fire in the Sky. Excellent. So he's gonna That's so cool. Yeah. And I
Speaker:I've heard interviews with voices. He's a really cool guy. So we're looking forward to
Speaker:meeting him in person. That's great. And, so Travis Walton's gonna be there. Nick
Speaker:Redfern is, like, a monster hunter that I he's one of my favorites. Cool.
Speaker:Like, this English guy lives in Texas now, in Dallas, and
Speaker:I've read all of his books. Wow. And, actually, one Mike,
Speaker:went to the UK. I took along his book, 3 Men Seeking Monsters. Uh-huh.
Speaker:And it's these different places that they go Oh, cool. In the UK to search
Speaker:for, like, legendary, British So you used it
Speaker:as a trip guide. A little bit of a trip guide. It's like, okay. It's
Speaker:like Mike in this area. Let's go see where they went and things they checked
Speaker:out. Let's do that too. Cool. So, Nick referenced there. And I mean,
Speaker:it is the who's who of
Speaker:the paranormal at the Paradigm Symposium. Great. So it's gonna be super fun. And you
Speaker:guys will hear as we bug people there. Yeah. And It'll be Mike you're
Speaker:with us bugging people. And if you're there, find us. Yes. And say
Speaker:hello. I don't I don't there's not gonna be, like, a 1,000 people there. So
Speaker:you'll probably meet us over one of the days. Mike Mendy from
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah. You know what we look like. Just check the website if Yeah. At
Speaker:the par I will be at the Paradigm Symposium hanging out, talking to people, checking
Speaker:out, mixing and matching with the fine people of Twin Cities. I can't wait.
Speaker:Yep. The fine weirdos up there. We're looking for a That's gonna be I'm really
Speaker:pumped for that. Yes. So the interview this week, funny enough, is
Speaker:a guy we talked about in a previous podcast Oh.
Speaker:Because we checked out his presentation and his stuff at the,
Speaker:Chicago That's right. Ghost convention. Yep. And
Speaker:really interesting guy. Like, we talked about, like, he had a cool hat, Mike, a
Speaker:cowboy look. Yeah. You guys were excited about that. Like, that he was I mean,
Speaker:not not that not the cowboy hat, but Right. But the fact that it was
Speaker:another visually interesting person to look at, that they very, had a
Speaker:cool visual style and, was a really interesting speaker.
Speaker:Another English guy and just fun to listen to and a and a cool
Speaker:producer. Awesome. Had a really great conversation with him the other day as we talked
Speaker:about the latest stuff he's doing and also his personal
Speaker:brushes with the paranormal and how that's influenced
Speaker:his filmmaking work. Okay. Well, why don't we take a listen?
Speaker:See you on the other side. I'm here with film
Speaker:producer Christopher Saint Booth
Speaker:who, you know, I'm Facebook friends with this guy and I gotta
Speaker:say he might rival that dude from the Dos Equis
Speaker:commercials for the the title of the most interesting man in the
Speaker:world because I always see him doing awesome stuff.
Speaker:So thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us today,
Speaker:Christopher. Well, thank you very much. That chap's out of work now,
Speaker:so not sure if that's a good thing. No. But at
Speaker:the same time, they're looking for somebody to replace him. So that's something
Speaker:go. You might wanna consider. Okay. So for
Speaker:people who might be unfamiliar with your work so far, can
Speaker:you give a a list a a couple of the the titles you've
Speaker:had, a privilege to be part of, and some works you've
Speaker:recently done in the paranormal field? Well, we're
Speaker:basically, me and my brother are film producers and directors for the Sci Fi
Speaker:Channel, most recently Discovery and
Speaker:Destination America, Chiller, which is an NBC
Speaker:channel. Mhmm. And, we run our own company, distribute our own
Speaker:products on Amazon and Vimeo and Redbox
Speaker:and, you know, the the whole concept of distribution. And, basically, we
Speaker:do nothing but paranormal and scary stuff, which
Speaker:makes it very fascinating because we're constantly in search of a,
Speaker:you know, a new idea or a new new way to
Speaker:look at something that's already possibly been already put out there and finding out the
Speaker:truth. So it's it's a very incredible adventure. We're
Speaker:involved in all sorts of music business as well as, feature films
Speaker:as well. And so that was something that I was also interested in asking
Speaker:you about as well because I was into music. I've been playing
Speaker:in a band for what feels like a 100 years. And before I kinda got
Speaker:into this field and started writing haunted history tours and started doing these
Speaker:podcasts, and this is episode 91. So if you're listening at home, you can
Speaker:hear the show notes and see a picture of Christopher's face and stuff like that.
Speaker:Othersidepodcast.com/91 is where you can
Speaker:find that. And, so, you
Speaker:know, you originally were a musician, right, when I was looking you up and everything?
Speaker:The name of your band was you were in a band called Sweeney Todd for
Speaker:a while? Yeah. Sweeney Todd was a Canadian band that
Speaker:had, several Juno Awards and a gold gold
Speaker:album out. At the time that, I joined the band
Speaker:that actually I replaced a singer called Bryan Adams. And
Speaker:Bryan Adams went on to be, you know, the Brian Adams we all know.
Speaker:Right. He's done a couple of things. Yeah. He's done a few things. And I
Speaker:took his place as a singer. And that that's where my
Speaker:professional music career started. And then, of course, I ended up in Los
Speaker:Angeles and doing my own thing. So when you came over so
Speaker:you're obviously from the UK originally? Yeah.
Speaker:And, you know, did you so you came over to the US to make it
Speaker:as a musician? How at what age did you do that?
Speaker:About well, I was I was I was touring in Canada when
Speaker:I I the day I turned 18, I always remember I did my first
Speaker:big gig in Canada. So, that was
Speaker:with Sweeney Todd. And then after that,
Speaker:we, you know, formed our own bands after that band kind of,
Speaker:you know, took a break. We formed our own bands. And to get to
Speaker:America was the only way to be bigger in the
Speaker:music business at that Mike, for us anyway. So we
Speaker:we went down there about Wendy. 20, 21 years
Speaker:old is when I started in America in the music business.
Speaker:Oh, that's that sounds like fun. We my,
Speaker:Wendy, my drummer, and I, we were just in, Los Angeles last week, and
Speaker:we're back in Madison, Wisconsin this week. But it's always it's always fun
Speaker:to go visit the dream factory every once in a while and, you know,
Speaker:the entertainment business and all the Hollywood stuff.
Speaker:And and so I can just imagine, getting there, working on your
Speaker:bands and stuff like that. And as a young man and that must have been,
Speaker:like, the realization of a dream and everything. It was a rock and roll thing.
Speaker:I mean I mean, it really was. It was Mike Wendy we landed,
Speaker:we fought you know, we formed, we've actually brought the band that I was
Speaker:in and my brother, Philip, from Seattle, which was
Speaker:called Alley Brat. And we brought them to LA, and then we
Speaker:started playing, you know, the rainbow, the whiskey, the
Speaker:Starwood at the time. Starwood is no longer, but that Mike, was a bigger rock
Speaker:and roll club. And the troubadour, of course. And,
Speaker:you know, we were Mike a big rock and roll hair glam band.
Speaker:I mean, that's I think we spent more on on hairspray than we did anything
Speaker:else at the time. It was in the eighties. Right? Early
Speaker:early early actually, late seventies, early eighties. And,
Speaker:bands like, Motley Crue actually
Speaker:backed us up, which is pretty strange, but they weren't Motley Crue at the time
Speaker:that everybody, you know, they became. But Motley Crue actually backed us up
Speaker:and, actually, even you 2 did in a gig we did in Orange
Speaker:County. Oh, that's awesome. I know. I mean and they were
Speaker:really nice people. They have to tell you that you 2 tabs were really
Speaker:nice. But we that's the way we started. And, of course,
Speaker:that actually when that kinda ran out of gas due to more
Speaker:creative than anything, we ended up getting into the movie business.
Speaker:And so when you first started the in the movie business, did did you know
Speaker:that you were gonna be into, this kind of field
Speaker:and the weird and unusual and supernatural and stuff? Was that I mean, maybe
Speaker:we should go back a little bit and say, did you have an interest in
Speaker:this kind of thing from an early age? Well, no.
Speaker:I just I mean, the movies you like is kind of the direction that
Speaker:we took it. You know? Mhmm. We went to Ridley Scott, and
Speaker:The Exorcist was probably the scariest film that I I've
Speaker:ever seen and still is in in some ways. And, of course, who would
Speaker:think that, oh, many I don't even know how many, many
Speaker:years later that we'd actually be doing filming in the
Speaker:real Exorcist House, which is bizarre. Right. The scariest
Speaker:for my business. But, I think we're
Speaker:just into into looking at things differently. Like a musician,
Speaker:you know how Wendy you write a track, you have a tendency
Speaker:to be a a viewer on the side of the road, and
Speaker:you take in what you feel is the story that you
Speaker:wanna tell. And I think the stories that we always told were dark.
Speaker:You know? Mhmm. And, obviously, that matched the horror
Speaker:of the supernatural vein. So that's kinda even our first film we
Speaker:did was paranormal, supernatural,
Speaker:and that was way before we even got involved with the paranormal
Speaker:documentary, sci fi, and different stuff like that. But
Speaker:every film we ended up doing seemed to have ghosts in them for some
Speaker:reason, and I don't know why, but they did. Well, so
Speaker:so you didn't have something Mike you didn't you didn't see a UFO when you
Speaker:were a kid or, you know, a lot of people are like, well, I I
Speaker:you know, it's like, well, why are you into this stuff? And some people will
Speaker:be like, well, you know what? It's because this old woman used to come into
Speaker:my room at night and, change my socks. And when I
Speaker:when I asked my mom about her, there was nobody there. Funny you should mention
Speaker:that. We did have an have an old
Speaker:an older lady come into our room, when we were very
Speaker:young with open eye and visitors, and we were
Speaker:screaming. We both saw this woman come in. And when we
Speaker:you know, my mom ran in and opened the door, turned the
Speaker:lights on. She was gone, and we explained
Speaker:who she was. And my mom said, well, that's your grandmother,
Speaker:and she just passed an hour ago.
Speaker:Oh, man. That was the first, I guess, real
Speaker:paranormal experience, though. I don't think that stuck, you
Speaker:know, to make us wanna do it. But then again, maybe it did. I don't
Speaker:know. But, you know, we, you know, we did I
Speaker:saw UFOs when I was living in Malibu. And I wrote, you know,
Speaker:obviously, in my I have a book called Paranoia, which actually
Speaker:goes through, like, 10 years and
Speaker:30 different, cases of that I've been involved in
Speaker:and, like, since I was young, but kind of explains all the
Speaker:creepiness that I went through. And, of course, it's kind of my point of view
Speaker:of how the real life works with the afterlife.
Speaker:But I think, just having a different point of view is
Speaker:is like being sensitive, and then that is opens you up to
Speaker:paranormal experience. Well, I think so too. And you'll
Speaker:you'll notice that, I think that, more of the people who have tend
Speaker:to have experiences, tend to be the the creative
Speaker:artistic types. Yeah. Definitely. Like, you know,
Speaker:women are definitely more sensitive, and and Mhmm. And gentlemen that are gay are
Speaker:obviously more sensitive. And and everybody that is, like, an artist,
Speaker:a writer, a poet, a painter, an actor, anybody has
Speaker:to use emotion to communicate,
Speaker:or more emotion to communicate is, I think, is gonna be open
Speaker:to what people can't see because then what it's
Speaker:open to is what people feel. And then what what you
Speaker:feel is where the afterlife comes in because, you know, 9 out of 10
Speaker:times, you feel something before you ever see it. Mhmm. That's if you're
Speaker:lucky to ever see it. And I think that's a great
Speaker:no. That's a I think that's a great way to put it. If you deal
Speaker:in a, an art form where, I mean, a lot of it is emotion
Speaker:where that's you know, especially we talk about music or we talk about
Speaker:visual arts and things where so much of it is the feeling.
Speaker:And, you know, that's when a lot of people have experiences. The
Speaker:first thing they'll say is, well, this emotion overtook me. So it's
Speaker:Mike, if a spirit cannot communicate with you
Speaker:through, like, obviously, showing up and talking or waving high or
Speaker:something, the one way it can communicate with you is
Speaker:a feeling. And I and so I I think that's an
Speaker:awesome point. I haven't I haven't thought about that before that, you know,
Speaker:Communicating through feelings might be the the the
Speaker:the first step or but okay. So
Speaker:you guys start getting into filmmaking. You you have your band, but you have a
Speaker:lot of hair probably. It's eighties. It's a lot of fun.
Speaker:And then you kinda you moved skills. Did you start scoring
Speaker:films, or were you guys already, filmmakers
Speaker:while you were working on the band? We were we were always a band
Speaker:even when we did, movies. I mean, I could never
Speaker:ever put that down. Phil still plays guitar and because I
Speaker:write all the music to all the productions we do.
Speaker:And I never put I never gave that up. Just
Speaker:one I kinda got. I don't wanna use the word bored, but maybe
Speaker:my creative energy. I think you would probably understand that,
Speaker:you know, if you're writing a lot of songs and music,
Speaker:and then you write, you know, obviously, someone you really love, then you feel like,
Speaker:okay. What's next? And for me, I would take a break, and
Speaker:I would go do, like, photography or, you know, digital graphics. I
Speaker:even did a game design where I did 3 d characters for a
Speaker:while. That's cool. I would just bounce around. I mean, I'd be
Speaker:in I'd be in, like, basically, a studio room that would have
Speaker:one you know, computer setup would be 3 d animation that I was
Speaker:working on, you know, skinning, 3 d figures and stuff,
Speaker:really, you know, dark looking people. And then on the other one would be
Speaker:my music studio, and on the other one would be, like, you know, something else
Speaker:I'd be doing. I'd be, like, in a chair that would, you know, revolve
Speaker:and just do all three things when I would get bored. And I just you
Speaker:know, as long as I was creating, it didn't matter to Mike, music or writing
Speaker:or or photography or whatever. But we
Speaker:also that magic thing that we all have to do is make
Speaker:money. Right. That's the top part. I know. I
Speaker:wasn't making too much money doing Mike at the very beginning.
Speaker:After, you know, the big bands broke up, I was basically out there
Speaker:like everybody else paying to play. You know, in the Troubadour,
Speaker:if you know the Troubadour Mhmm. You know, Santa Monica. That's where Guns
Speaker:N' Roses just played their first reunion gig.
Speaker:You know, when we played then, and still to this day, you have to pay
Speaker:for water, you know, and it's like you have to pay to play. You
Speaker:have to, you know, guarantee so many people that are
Speaker:gonna come in and buy a drink to see your band, and they'll let you
Speaker:play there. You know? And it's basically paid to play, and
Speaker:so you aren't really making any money. So in order to do
Speaker:that, we ended up actually,
Speaker:my brother's ex wife,
Speaker:father was a director for the Playboy Channel.
Speaker:Okay. So he had worked, like, as a
Speaker:PA. And I was actually doing PA work in other films,
Speaker:like, you know, big films. I was in the art department,
Speaker:a production assistant on really big films, but I wasn't making very much money at
Speaker:all, not even $50 a day. And I was doing 12 hours and
Speaker:lifting really heavy stuff. And but I don't I
Speaker:was learning the big business from behind the scenes. Actually, that's when it all
Speaker:started. I found a budget for, you know, a
Speaker:movie called Dreamscape, which had Eddie Albert in and, Dennis
Speaker:Quaid in it. Oh, yeah. That's a we've talked about Dreamscape, I think, 3 or
Speaker:4 times on this show too because that's where they could launch into each other's
Speaker:dreams, and the guy was trying to kill the president. And Right.
Speaker:Yeah. Oh, no. I love it. I worked on that movie. I actually
Speaker:was the guy who taped the lizard guy's tail on.
Speaker:Awesome. And remember the billboards of the apo
Speaker:the apocalyptic city when it blew up. Remember that? Oh,
Speaker:yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I I moved those billboards and, of course, you know, the
Speaker:dream center, that is, we had to scrape those
Speaker:floors. That was an old veterans hospital. Uh-huh. It was a 100 month, the,
Speaker:Wendy. We describe it to make it look like a dream center, and
Speaker:which is by the way, a lot of this stuff is in my book, paranoia,
Speaker:because I had paranormal experience while working there,
Speaker:actually. There was a veteran that was,
Speaker:an escaped veteran from the new hospital, ran into the old hospital,
Speaker:and was in the in the basement yelling, I didn't mean to kill you,
Speaker:Joe. I didn't mean to kill you. Freaky stuff started going on.
Speaker:I mean, all this crap started going on. But meanwhile, we were you know, that
Speaker:wasn't paid very well. So we were offered a $125
Speaker:a day to do whatever we needed to do for
Speaker:Playbo, which is basically pick up the food or, you know, get to
Speaker:dry cleaning or whatever they did. You see now that's the kind of movie I
Speaker:would pay to play to be on. Well, you know,
Speaker:we all thought that at the beginning. It plays with your
Speaker:psyche because, being what I think I'm
Speaker:more of a gentleman or romantic. Sure. I was seeing some horrific
Speaker:stuff. Not necessarily from the classy films, but,
Speaker:you know, other people would hire me to work on their movies, which were
Speaker:truly, serious porno, and it
Speaker:was horrible to watch for me because I it was
Speaker:very, against what I felt. You know,
Speaker:I was not a prude. It's just I had you know, I was the guy
Speaker:who was, like, running around the set, giving them their robes to
Speaker:put on because the girls would walk around naked all the time. Someone would go
Speaker:with them. And I thought, you know, it's a time to get professional and take
Speaker:your clothes off. It's the time to put them back on too. You know? Mhmm.
Speaker:But, meanwhile, to make a lot of sense, we did that for a while.
Speaker:And, because of
Speaker:our visions of of music and movies, we were asked to
Speaker:make a film. And then we started making
Speaker:movies for Playboy. We actually did 86 films for Playboy.
Speaker:Wow. And That's a that's a that's a that's like somebody's total career right there,
Speaker:and that, you know, was just a few years for you. Yeah. We did we'd
Speaker:actually did that in the 3 years. We made 86 films in 3
Speaker:years. Did you guys get to you guys get to write them and
Speaker:everything? Phil wrote them, and they were
Speaker:very romantic. They at that time, Playboy it
Speaker:was back in the eighties, so Playboy needed a reason to show
Speaker:nudity. So the only way you could do that on even on cable
Speaker:television was to have a really good story Sure. And to have good
Speaker:production value. So And you can have really sexy you can have really
Speaker:sexy romantic films, you know, too. And and, like, nine and a half weeks and
Speaker:things like that could they could ride the edge of that and be a good
Speaker:movie. Yeah. That's what we did, actually. We turned these Playboy films
Speaker:into erotic thrillers, basically. Because, actually, after
Speaker:I noticed because, I even did the music for them. So
Speaker:it's Mike I got when I get in royalty checks, they turned every one of
Speaker:the films we did into erotic thriller because it was so story
Speaker:driven and so all of that. But, anyway, we
Speaker:got basically, we really learned how to make movies at that point
Speaker:because we were doing 2 a month. But the
Speaker:business was starting to get really seedy, and the people were getting
Speaker:seedy. And the story and
Speaker:the romantic part of it was going out, and it was just getting down to
Speaker:basically, you know, 1
Speaker:guy filming himself with 12 girls kinda thing. Right. It
Speaker:was just where where porno became not odd
Speaker:anymore. Like, in in in Europe, porno
Speaker:is art. In America, art is porno.
Speaker:And, you know, it just became very,
Speaker:hardcore, and I started feeling very
Speaker:shameful, I guess, about myself and my soul. And
Speaker:I was watching the young girls, you know,
Speaker:Well, you'd be you know, it's, it's one thing to be an actress and
Speaker:stuff like that, but it's another thing to be degraded. I've had some friends that
Speaker:were photographers and visual artists where they were like, hey. In the beginning, it was
Speaker:great. And then they were Mike, too much exposure to, something
Speaker:that that didn't feel it was good for their spirits. Yeah. It it
Speaker:was getting to it wasn't sitting good with my psyche. So Philip and I
Speaker:said, we've got to get out. It was you know, we're really you know, we're
Speaker:pretending ourselves too that we were making movies. This is really in our
Speaker:beginning of our career. You know, we were pretending. We're making good money, but we
Speaker:were pretending. And when it came down to it, we really didn't make a real
Speaker:film. So we said we got we got a call. So we clicked.
Speaker:And we took the money we had earned, and we made our 1st horror
Speaker:film, which was Dark Place. At that time, it was called Shadowbox, changed its
Speaker:name to Dark Place. And that started a gentleman,
Speaker:rest in peace, Matthew McGrory, who is the
Speaker:giant in, Thousand Corpses there in,
Speaker:Devil's Reject. He played Cool. Yeah. He was
Speaker:basically our main actor in it, but it was the only movie that
Speaker:he didn't have to wear makeup in. And we let him do
Speaker:dialogue because he was a very beautiful,
Speaker:you know, different individual. Sure. And he right. He was great. I loved him,
Speaker:and we became really good friends. So Well, it's like the it's like the
Speaker:guy from, Michael Berryman from, The Hills of Eyes or
Speaker:whatever. Like, you you know, you meet him in person or whatever just like a
Speaker:regular dude. Whenever you see him in the movie, you know, they always it's so
Speaker:it's nice to be able to let those people their natural look
Speaker:kinda shine through. I filmed a movie with him. I did a movie
Speaker:called Solar Fire, which had him and Charlton Heston
Speaker:in. Awesome. Yeah. He played and and the late
Speaker:Jack Palant, which is beautiful. How are the I mean, this is a
Speaker:sidetrack, but Charlton Heston and Jack Palance on the set. I
Speaker:mean, they are that's about as old classic Hollywood as you can
Speaker:get. Unfortunately, Charlton had a drinking
Speaker:problem. Oh. And he was very drunk. Jack
Speaker:Palace was incredible. He was he would, I
Speaker:actually was I was I was the music,
Speaker:designer of the props, And, I designed all the
Speaker:futuristic, musical instruments Oh, fun. Baseball.
Speaker:And then they put me into the film. This is all in my book,
Speaker:by the way. Then they put me in the film because they thought I looked
Speaker:like a scruffy Mad Max at the time. So I don't know if that was
Speaker:a compliment to an insult, but they put me in there. And, of
Speaker:course, Jack Powers would come up and pull this digital trumpet out of my
Speaker:hand and and just play in between takes. He was
Speaker:very nice man, and Michael Berryman played, I
Speaker:guess, the mutant, which is what he's pretty much used to playing. Right.
Speaker:You know, but that's why I first met Mike. Because Michael has a beautiful
Speaker:playboy wife, which is, you know, which he didn't really
Speaker:think was gonna happen, you know, he's done something. But he did. He was he
Speaker:was a nice guy, nice chap. But, anyway, Mike, all
Speaker:that dried up, but we went ahead and made that film. It's called Dark Place,
Speaker:and we released it. And it did really well in Europe, but it didn't
Speaker:do do very much in America. And that was
Speaker:the time that the movie Saw was put out. And those movie, the
Speaker:first Saw came out was right when we released our film.
Speaker:So horror was going into more of a different direction. I I I
Speaker:personally like the first saw movie. And then after that, it
Speaker:became very, you know, torture
Speaker:porn Right. In a way. Right. The first one's pretty clever. First
Speaker:one was really good at look. Right? So, you
Speaker:know, with that in mind, we ended up, doing trailers
Speaker:for a living. We would make everybody's film trailer look
Speaker:better. When they when they would make a trailer, they could they couldn't sell
Speaker:it. So they bring it to us, and we would put our pizzazz. Because that's
Speaker:what we've been doing, you know, for Playboy for a long time was making
Speaker:these nothing films into look like big budget productions.
Speaker:Sure. So after that, we met somebody who said, you
Speaker:wanna make another movie? We said, yeah. And he said, well, I
Speaker:wanna make a movie about,
Speaker:pirates and an art heist in this big old museum
Speaker:that they've got these, you know, these, rare paintings and people going
Speaker:to steal them. And I go, okay. Well, what's the place called that
Speaker:you wanna film it at? Because, you know, if you get a good location, you
Speaker:can make it film cheaper. He goes, it's at Waverhill Sanatorium.
Speaker:And I went, okay. What is that?
Speaker:So at that point, I did a lot of research. Right.
Speaker:And that place is incredibly haunted. And I found
Speaker:out what the place really was. And at that point, I
Speaker:turned back to the other producer and I said, you're not gonna write no
Speaker:bloody art film. What you're gonna
Speaker:write is what really happened at Waverly and what the locals are
Speaker:calling their monster. And
Speaker:we wrote the script over the history and the hauntings of
Speaker:Waverly's sanatorium, and that became
Speaker:Death Tunnel. And that was released by Sony Pictures. And
Speaker:that was our 1st major movie after dark place that
Speaker:we released. And that did pretty well. It actually turned out to be a cult
Speaker:film. It was 10 How close did you keep
Speaker:that to history? Like well, a lot
Speaker:of people, you know, there's a few people mocking it because, you know, you have
Speaker:the, you know, the, you know, the typical teenage
Speaker:initiation, which is very typical. That wasn't really part of the
Speaker:script that that I wrote. That was actually the other producer
Speaker:that had written that part in it. But I'm glad he did because, actually,
Speaker:making it more, you know, college teenage
Speaker:orientated was the reason probably why Sony even picked it
Speaker:up. Sure. And you gotta figure when you're making something, you've gotta have somebody
Speaker:to buy it. Otherwise, it's a movie. I see so many people making
Speaker:movies, and I just kinda go, I sure hope you've got someone to buy
Speaker:it after you make it. You know? Because everybody's going out, you know,
Speaker:okay. Even throwing it on Netflix now is not a
Speaker:success. Everybody throws it on Netflix at the very end. You know?
Speaker:Mhmm. But but, we
Speaker:all the stuff that I don't know if you've seen death tunnel. I haven't seen
Speaker:death tunnel yet, but now it we'll link we'll link to it, and now it
Speaker:goes on my list. You've got to see it because, not
Speaker:only is it really dark, and and it really is done really
Speaker:well because it's you know, the lighting is incredible. And, of
Speaker:course, I do the music, and the costumes are really great. It's about
Speaker:5 girls that do do initiation in
Speaker:Waverhill sanatorium to see if they can spend the night there. And,
Speaker:of course, you know Things go poorly.
Speaker:They start dying. But to to there these
Speaker:these girls in old fashioned 90s with their their initials,
Speaker:Devin, Elizabeth, Ashley, Tory, Heather.
Speaker:Oh. Let's go. Yeah. Right. Let's go. Yeah. Well,
Speaker:they, you know, have to get out of this asylum. So
Speaker:what we put in it is everything that really happened there,
Speaker:and including all the death that death that really happened there.
Speaker:Like, there was a guy electrocuted. So one of the girls gets electrocuted.
Speaker:There was people that froze to death because they put them out on the balcony
Speaker:for fresh air in the middle of winter because of TB. So we have
Speaker:people freezing to death, turning to ice and stuff. And and
Speaker:then there was a rumor about a doctor that would push a gurney
Speaker:around and and come and get the dead, so he became our
Speaker:our death dude in there. So, I mean, everything in that whole
Speaker:movie really happened in the sense of whether it was
Speaker:real or a legend that was supposed to be real. So none
Speaker:of it was, like, made up. It was made up. And it it
Speaker:was it was based on legends and on history.
Speaker:So even in the stuff that seems way out, there was actually everybody had the
Speaker:legend about that. So it's pretty cool, including
Speaker:the fact that Waverly was still taking money for
Speaker:dead patients at the time. Mike, when somebody would die,
Speaker:you're supposed to report them so their budget, Mike, $35 a bed
Speaker:at that time Right. Would Mike it away. They wouldn't report them
Speaker:so they could keep getting the money. So they're even Crooked as
Speaker:well as cruel. Yeah. So even some of the dirt is really in that
Speaker:movie. Of course, that movie, when we were filming it, we
Speaker:started to get apparitions and cold
Speaker:spots and shadow people and all crazy stuff. Real stuff started to happen
Speaker:when we're making the movie. I said, we better get a film crew
Speaker:into in here to film us going through what we're
Speaker:filming. And then that turned out to be the documentary
Speaker:spoof. Ghost of Wave Waverhill Sanatorium, which
Speaker:sci fi then released that on their channel.
Speaker:And you see, I think that's an incredible story because it's like you you guys
Speaker:are working on a horror film in a place that's got haunted stories in it.
Speaker:And that's that's the perfect kind of, like, setup for a horror
Speaker:movie right there. Yeah. So sci fi loved that idea,
Speaker:and and they wanted that they wanted it really
Speaker:bad, so they did it. And I think it's had over been on sci
Speaker:fi for, like, 5 years. What? 5 or 6 years.
Speaker:And that title is about, what, 9 years old down. About over
Speaker:4,000,000 people have seen it now. So it's a great film. It's
Speaker:that's called Spooch. You've ever seen Spooch. I disagree. And that
Speaker:Spooch is a the documentary
Speaker:of what happened in Waverly, and we talked to the real
Speaker:patients that were still alive, the doctors and the staff that
Speaker:were still alive. And then all the locals that would
Speaker:tell us the stories, the ghost hunters, the owners of Waverly,
Speaker:everybody that we could find. And then we go down there and film,
Speaker:you know, Waverly and put it all together to kinda find out what really
Speaker:happened there. It's beautiful, but it's also sad because we thought
Speaker:in fact, a lot of the patients, unfortunately, have passed since
Speaker:we've made that movie because they were in their nineties when we shot them.
Speaker:You know? So how did you like, the permission to shoot there. Like, it was
Speaker:already closed down. Yeah. And so
Speaker:was I mean, you just had to get it from the like, are the owners
Speaker:do, like, the county reclaim it or something? Or, like, who owns
Speaker:that property? No. It was private property. The owners bought it on
Speaker:eBay, and they paid they paid $250
Speaker:for it. And, no one had
Speaker:filmed there before. And so
Speaker:we offered them, a very well, at that
Speaker:time, a large amount of money to take over the asylum
Speaker:for about 10 days and then, you know, be able to come back and film
Speaker:off and on for 3 years there. And, that's
Speaker:what we did. And, then, Ghost
Speaker:Hunters went in right after we filmed. And
Speaker:when they, they were actually they they said they were the first to
Speaker:do Waverly. And, actually, we
Speaker:were, but this show came out Aired first. Right.
Speaker:1 hour. 1 hour before that show. They came
Speaker:on, and I remember Grant saying at the very end, well, this
Speaker:place is haunted. Nothing's gonna top that. And then I was shocked. And then
Speaker:our show came on. Spooked. So
Speaker:that's cool. As an art director, when you were there, like, how much did
Speaker:you have to like, what kind of shape and condition and
Speaker:stuff like that is in? Because we're used to everything. Like, here's how it really
Speaker:looks, and here's the, you know, the Hollywoodization of it. Like, how much
Speaker:did you have to change or adjust or, to make it
Speaker:look like you wanted it to look in the movie? Absolutely
Speaker:nothing. It looked like Jim Burton.
Speaker:The walls were literally warped,
Speaker:almost in a circular, you know, Mike,
Speaker:labyrinth direction. It was the peel the paint
Speaker:was peeling for 80 years. It was still there.
Speaker:Nothing at all. In fact, we found a lot of the real props we used.
Speaker:The needles, the gurneys, the wheelchairs was some of them were still there.
Speaker:So absolutely nothing. All we did is come in, light it,
Speaker:bring 2 gallons of green slime that we
Speaker:put dripping from everything. And that was it. And then we
Speaker:brought 5 nineties, 5 sexy girls from LA.
Speaker:And They must have been loving it. It's odd filming.
Speaker:And the thing is, I remember when we brought the girls
Speaker:there, right, from Beverly Hills. Right? Oh,
Speaker:oh Mike. You know? I feel like that. Right? And we drove
Speaker:up and they got their mouth was dropped. They
Speaker:went, oh my god. You know? What am I what did I get
Speaker:myself into? Like, this is gonna be my big break if I survive.
Speaker:I know. And I said, and by the way, Billy is haunted.
Speaker:And they died. I mean, they Wendy, oh my god. And
Speaker:The fear the fear was real. You didn't have to direct too much.
Speaker:Yeah. And there's no cure for fear at all. So it was
Speaker:like, they started getting ill
Speaker:when they were filming, and they got very scared. And,
Speaker:they saw a lot of things. So everybody saw I mean,
Speaker:truly I mean, honestly, everybody really witnessed
Speaker:something weird there and went home.
Speaker:Well, if they didn't if you weren't believing in ghosts when you got there, you
Speaker:believed when you left. And so
Speaker:now getting spooked on, you know, making a doc first of
Speaker:all, it's brilliant that you get a making of documentary that's a
Speaker:paranormal documentary in addition to your your, fiction film, you know,
Speaker:your historical fiction. So number 1, that's that's a brilliant idea to
Speaker:get a 2 for 1 shot out of it. And Yeah.
Speaker:And and numb and so that was like, okay.
Speaker:Now you're a paranormal filmmaker. You know, in addition to, like, okay. We
Speaker:have stories with, you know, art and things like that. Like, now we're doing
Speaker:some, you know, real stuff and documentaries and things.
Speaker:And so what was, like, your next you know, we Mike did, like, a light
Speaker:bulb go off or something? You're like, man, there's a Yeah. Like, this ghost hunter
Speaker:stuff is taken off. I became a producer, so
Speaker:that's where it all became Mike, okay. Now what now what are we gonna
Speaker:do? A producer needs to be like any
Speaker:artist, by the way, anybody that makes a living off of their talent should
Speaker:have 3 at least 3 irons in the Mike,
Speaker:because 2 of them probably won't burn.
Speaker:And, that's what, you know, what you gotta
Speaker:do. But Spook did so well,
Speaker:that Syfy ordered 2 more immediately. They at a
Speaker:really good amount of money. And, that became
Speaker:Children of the Grave, about ghost orphans
Speaker:and The Possessed, the first case of possession in
Speaker:America in 18/77. And those shows,
Speaker:went on to be the next shows for sci fi for the
Speaker:next 2 years after that. But more than anything, the
Speaker:respect level that we had inside each other was important
Speaker:now. Even when we were doing Playboy, we were trying to
Speaker:respect the craft of erotic
Speaker:art and, and, you know, romantic
Speaker:turn on and try to treat everybody with respect.
Speaker:Mhmm. So that respect value came into the
Speaker:paranormal. And, you know, like in in
Speaker:Spooked, we dealt with a lot of elderly people, which were really beautiful
Speaker:talking to, you know, talking to the owner.
Speaker:The owner of Webley's father, we asked him who he
Speaker:would interview. And he go he said, yeah. So
Speaker:he showed up, and he was in all dressed up in a nice he was,
Speaker:like, 80 something. Dressed up in a nice little suit and a hat
Speaker:and, you know, ready to be interviewed in a haunted asylum. It was like this
Speaker:old chap with a cane walking down the middle of a haunted
Speaker:hallway. And it was so cool and beautiful. So when we
Speaker:went on the Children on the Grave, it was time to respect the children
Speaker:that we were trying to help basically tell the
Speaker:stories. And I think that's I think I love the point you're making there because
Speaker:I think that's something that, you know, is is
Speaker:more recent, especially in paranormal documentaries and things like that. When you talk
Speaker:about the producer being the artist and artists in general, it
Speaker:you know, the respecting the craft and doing your best and, you know, doing your
Speaker:best to make it something special and not sensational and
Speaker:not I mean, because if if you're gonna do a half ass job or
Speaker:something like that or just, you know, do it just to get it done or
Speaker:something, then you might as well just be doing any a day job or something
Speaker:easy or something like that. And it it's that respect of
Speaker:I wanna do this because I believe in it, because I think about something, I
Speaker:wanna make it special, I wanna make sure the people I deal with are treated
Speaker:well, and that the whole experience is something that's pleasant and
Speaker:fun and and things like that and important and artistic. I think that's what
Speaker:separates, like, the artist from the, you know, the
Speaker:the sausage maker. Well, it does. I mean, when I
Speaker:was, you know, crazy, I did a music video,
Speaker:back in the eighties. I played Jesus. And what was difficult
Speaker:was to play Jesus, a music video, and also be the
Speaker:producer, which means you gotta keep everything on budget. So
Speaker:here I am saying Jesus says everybody can eat, and the producer
Speaker:says, no. Everybody can't eat. It's gonna cost too much. Right.
Speaker:One sandwich a piece, everybody. Yeah. Exactly. It was, like,
Speaker:really difficult to to do that stuff, but at the same time,
Speaker:you know, if I ever added up how much I made making these shows, I
Speaker:mean, I swear a lot if I don't even make a dollar an hour. You
Speaker:know? But I wasn't really doing it. It's very
Speaker:brilliant and very rewarding. If you can make
Speaker:money doing your own craft, it doesn't
Speaker:have to be a lot. As long as you can survive, you're fine
Speaker:with it. You don't need to be, you know, a a millionaire
Speaker:and have all this stuff. As long as you can make money and survive
Speaker:doing what you love to do. And that by the way, if you're a
Speaker:gourmet hamburger maker, that's really cool too Right. Because you're
Speaker:doing what you believe in. And if you like working at
Speaker:McDonald's and you really love it, that is cool too. You
Speaker:know, it's you just got to be passionate about whatever you do.
Speaker:And I think that opens up the world to put you every
Speaker:I believe every every couple years is Mike a
Speaker:step to heaven. You reach your ultimate goal, which is
Speaker:obviously where you're satisfied and you let go, and then you become
Speaker:a super incredible human being or whatever Sure. In your
Speaker:heaven. So it's really important that you really care about
Speaker:what you do. And if you and I understand you gotta do. I used to
Speaker:dig ditches. Okay? So, I mean, I know I know how it
Speaker:is, but I always used it for a reason,
Speaker:you know, to get to a better place, a stepping stone. I need to
Speaker:dig the stitch so that I can go and do what I wanna do. So
Speaker:I'm gonna really do a good job doing it. You know? Oh, trust me.
Speaker:We've we've played in so many dumps. It's like you get to you're sitting
Speaker:there going I'm sure you will I'm sure you will play in many more. Oh,
Speaker:I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, I miss
Speaker:those dates, you know, of playing live because I was a
Speaker:singer, a lead singer. Oh, yeah. And they I bet I bet they loved
Speaker:you. I missed it, you know, but I
Speaker:I I, still do I still I'm still in a studio doing music, and I
Speaker:still love it. And, you you know, became a
Speaker:writer. I've written a few books now, which have been a I you know, I
Speaker:did, Rob, a a couple months
Speaker:back, and I just released it. I did a book called paranoia, the
Speaker:strange case of of ghosts, demons, and aliens,
Speaker:which I did pretty well. And it's like an autobiography
Speaker:of rock and roll. So sex, ghosts, and rock and roll,
Speaker:really. Sweet. But, it's done very deep and spiritual
Speaker:in a sense that if you, you know, you feel it's very positive. It's a
Speaker:very positive book. And that's a lot of the story of you and and a
Speaker:lot the experiences you've had in entertainment and,
Speaker:paranormal stuff? Yeah. Everything. Entertainment, the rock and
Speaker:roll days to the plane Jesus, my mom dying of cancer
Speaker:right after I prayed Jesus, and I was very enlightened. I was I was
Speaker:crucified in a rock and roll Guns and Roses type music
Speaker:video, so they crucified me. Okay. The problem is when they
Speaker:were crucifying me on the music video,
Speaker:in my psyche, it felt like it really was happening. So
Speaker:when I came off of the cross, everything seemed different to
Speaker:me. And it was really weird, and I don't know what it was. But even
Speaker:it was Mike a epiphany for just a moment, it was
Speaker:enough to make me appreciate life so much more to the fact,
Speaker:I was able to help my mom pass ovarian cancer,
Speaker:which she died terribly of. And I was
Speaker:so enlightened after doing that music video. She wasn't
Speaker:afraid to let go. And I was 33 at the time,
Speaker:which was Jesus' age. Right. So it's pretty, I mean, pretty
Speaker:trippy. You know? It really is. That's a par that's a powerful, that's a
Speaker:powerful story. You know? Like, you're doing something very emotional.
Speaker:Obviously, you know, you're playing a role that's very emotional and we, you know, we
Speaker:make a joke about those glam rock videos and stuff like that.
Speaker:Right? But Yeah. You're doing something that, you know, use feels
Speaker:important, artistic, emotional. You're you're carrying it
Speaker:through on the on the set, you know, you're taping it and everything and
Speaker:or I mean video filming it And you're carrying through it and then you
Speaker:have those feelings, and then you reach a different level in your head that enables
Speaker:you to do something wonderful for something someone you love. That's an awesome
Speaker:story. Thank you very much. And and,
Speaker:it also helped me deal with the pain. Obviously, losing your mom
Speaker:is terrifically, destructive. So at that point, I've
Speaker:always learned that when something destructive comes in, you must turn it into
Speaker:creativity. I think when our mom did pass, we
Speaker:were making a movie at the time that it happened.
Speaker:I got really upset that day. I fired everybody. I was a producer at
Speaker:that time on a movie, but it was devastating. But, I mean,
Speaker:I tried to you know, I'm I remember the phone call from my
Speaker:mom saying, now don't you go falling apart Wendy I die. Don't
Speaker:go falling apart. And how are you supposed to deal with that? Right.
Speaker:You're gonna go falling apart. So I try to think that
Speaker:every time that I get sad that I go ahead and create
Speaker:something and create something out of destruction.
Speaker:And we're still doing it today, but I was saying that I went ahead
Speaker:and turned that book, which is a great book. It's,
Speaker:almost 200 pages, and it's Mike, I
Speaker:turned it into an audiobook. And I I never done an audiobook before,
Speaker:but I wanted to tell the story Mike. So I went ahead and narrate
Speaker:it. And then I put music behind it with sound
Speaker:effects of all these stories. Some of these stories I've been telling you today are
Speaker:in that book. And it turned out so great. I mean, it turned out
Speaker:so well. It's like a Pink Floyd album, knowing narration.
Speaker:And it turned out so cool that I just love doing that.
Speaker:And I I hope to do many Mike, of that.
Speaker:But but, yeah. So That's called, like, paranoia, the audio
Speaker:experience or something or an audio experience? That's correct. Yeah.
Speaker:It's on Itunes. That's on Amazon, and it's on spooktv.com,
Speaker:which is my webs which is our own website and also all my other
Speaker:books. I also put another book out, which actually
Speaker:was to correspond with, remember the Exorcism
Speaker:Mike, Destination America did? Yeah. So okay.
Speaker:Let's talk about that. I wanted to ask you about that for a second because
Speaker:that was right before now, so everybody out there, like, I met,
Speaker:Christopher at the the Chicago, Ghost Conference last year, and he put on
Speaker:a a cool presentation. And so Allison, who you've guys have heard on the
Speaker:podcast before a 1000 times, my Mike, who runs Milwaukee Ghosts, was
Speaker:super excited because she already already had a couple of documentaries in Skinwalkers and
Speaker:everything, and and she's been working on this
Speaker:Wisconsin Exorcist. And so she needed to she needed to
Speaker:pick up a copy of and it's it's, like, the secret diary of The Exorcist.
Speaker:Right? It's called no. Actually, it's called The Exorcist Diary. The
Speaker:Exorcist Diary. Yeah. And you guys did this,
Speaker:special on Halloween last year, and I remember seeing the updates and checking it out.
Speaker:It was great. But how so how did you guys get that special?
Speaker:Let's talk about that for a second. Well, it wasn't my special.
Speaker:Basically, the, the producers of,
Speaker:the Ghost Asylum b series on Destination
Speaker:America asked me to,
Speaker:bring in my, feelings on the movie, The Motion Picture, The
Speaker:Exorcist, and what it has had. We did our own movie,
Speaker:a documentary called The Exorcist Bio, which went out on
Speaker:Red Box, which did well on Red Box. And, is
Speaker:on iTunes and on Hulu right now. Oh, cool. And,
Speaker:you might wanna check that out because actually we're getting ready to pull all them
Speaker:down because, I should have talked to you at the very end of this. I
Speaker:have an a special announcement to tell you guys, which is great.
Speaker:But then, anyway I like that. We made our own show, and it was basically
Speaker:we were the first ones ever to film inside the real
Speaker:Exodus House and do a paranormal investigation and tell you the truth as
Speaker:well as well as, interview the real family
Speaker:of the boy. It was a boy, not a girl that it happened to and
Speaker:the real Exorcist, family. We put it
Speaker:all together and called this documentary The Exodus Mike.
Speaker:And they wanted me to, you know, talk about that as well as
Speaker:talk about the movie, exorcist, as well as bring a copy of the
Speaker:real diary. And I have a copy of the real diary.
Speaker:So And this is the diary that this is the diary of the priest doing
Speaker:the exorcism? Yeah. The 14 priests wrote
Speaker:about what really happened. And it's it's,
Speaker:awakening and it's scary, but it's also really cool to know
Speaker:what happened, you know, the the truth of behind the movie. So I
Speaker:turned that into a book, and, it's
Speaker:actually perfect timing. It came out right after that special,
Speaker:which had 2 1,200,000 viewers, I think, on came
Speaker:out. And, I got to revisit
Speaker:we were the 1st there. We got to revisit the house,
Speaker:and it hadn't actually gotten 10 times
Speaker:worse as far as, you know, bad vibes in that house,
Speaker:bad energy. So it wasn't
Speaker:really enjoyable to go back in that house in a way. How does the
Speaker:crew feel on this? Like, I mean, as a producer, as the
Speaker:vision behind it and stuff like that, like, you have a you have a compelling
Speaker:interest. Like, we're gonna go check out this place with bad vibes, and it's gonna
Speaker:be but how many you know, you bring, like, a a boom operator
Speaker:or something. How does that guy feel? Well, a
Speaker:lot of them, you know well, first of all, everybody on that show
Speaker:was beautiful, and it was a discovery,
Speaker:channel production of Destination America's
Speaker:Ghost Asylum, Exocism Mike, and they were all
Speaker:great people. All of them. Discovery was great. Destination
Speaker:America was great. Tremendous entertainment. The production company Ghost of Time was
Speaker:great. Very caring people. I mean, I
Speaker:have to really mention that because it was a weird thing that
Speaker:they were doing, you know, going in to exercise a house,
Speaker:get rid of a bad energy that happened there in 1949.
Speaker:And, they had the crew, and there was a lot of crew. It was probably
Speaker:close to, I think, at least a 100, not a
Speaker:150 people there. Wow. Crew members, and there
Speaker:were 2 huge satellite truck coming actually, semi
Speaker:trailers. There was, you know, makeup, props,
Speaker:dressing room, grip trucks, cameras, and everything. I mean, it
Speaker:was a you a huge production, and it was a live event.
Speaker:So you can times that by 2 when you do live because you need the
Speaker:live trucks there as well. Right. So it was probably almost like a
Speaker:football field full of people and trucks and equipment
Speaker:all to do this little house. You know? Well, I just I just
Speaker:imagine, like, just some dude, you know, Mike a like a PA or something like
Speaker:that. It's like, oh god. Like, there's Mike I'm
Speaker:terrified. The place is giving bad vibes. They're talking about the devil,
Speaker:and I'm getting scale for this. Like, this isn't worth it.
Speaker:Well, they did do some of them did do that. Some got very scared, and
Speaker:a lot of them refused to go into the house. So,
Speaker:yeah, it had it had that energy about it. It definitely
Speaker:nobody felt that it was a good place. No. So
Speaker:this was last year when they did this live thing. How long ago did you
Speaker:guys do The Exorcist file? 2010. Okay. So
Speaker:just a just about 5 6 years ago. And so you're in
Speaker:there. And was there a a regular family living in the house now? Or is
Speaker:it Yeah. There was a, a gentleman, and
Speaker:recently he has, I think, Beyonce now that's lives there.
Speaker:And did they know about, like, the history and stuff like that, or did
Speaker:you did did you were you the one to tell them, like, hey. Didn't mean
Speaker:to weird you out or anything like that, but some really crazy stuff went down
Speaker:here. Well, again, a lot of this is in my
Speaker:book, paranoia, and also in the Exodus diary book, which is at spooktv.com.
Speaker:And, also, you can see, you know, on SpookTV, you can get the
Speaker:Exodus, file, which is our movie about it. But the
Speaker:man that bought the house knew knew it was
Speaker:the ex's house, and he bought it for that reason. Ah. And he bought it
Speaker:on 6606.
Speaker:Perfect. He doesn't believe in it at all.
Speaker:But for some reason, he wanted the house blessed.
Speaker:That's right. Yeah. Well, that's
Speaker:that's great. And my sister, Allison, was saying that she really enjoyed,
Speaker:The Exorcist Diary and that she couldn't, you know she she thought it was well
Speaker:written and well done, so everybody make sure, to check that out if you're looking
Speaker:for the real story behind the fictional story that, made us
Speaker:all, pee our pants when we were 10 years old. Now
Speaker:what's looking next for for you guys that you're still you're still at it?
Speaker:You're still doing it? What's the next kind of step if you just had this
Speaker:book come out and you had paranoia and the audiobook of it come out? What's
Speaker:your next, you know, visual video production that people are gonna be able to check
Speaker:out? I just released a new book, just to
Speaker:get up on that one. Oh, please. A book called
Speaker:Angel or Devil, and your system might like that one too.
Speaker:Basically, it is, it explores 2
Speaker:of America's first possessions and exorcism. Not the
Speaker:Exodus one, but actually the other 2. One happened in 18/77
Speaker:that our movie The Possessed is based on, but this is a book form
Speaker:now. And one that nobody's ever touched, which I'm actually
Speaker:with green lighting and making a movie about it. But it's about an
Speaker:exorcism that happened in Wendy. And it's
Speaker:about a legion of demons inhabit a young girl
Speaker:brought to a, I mean, scary place, a convent
Speaker:for an exorcism. And in this convent,
Speaker:disturbing and extraordinary events lash out because where they
Speaker:find out the family has a past of dark magic
Speaker:and has created a curse that is 7
Speaker:times evil. And the point is, this is a true
Speaker:story. And, the movie,
Speaker:Emily Rose and even The Exorcist was based off of a lot
Speaker:of the, events that happened in this story. Oh, that's
Speaker:awesome. They including with the girls hanging on the ceiling
Speaker:upside down kind of thing. Mhmm. That happened in this,
Speaker:and this is a journal. It's not necessary this book I have is
Speaker:actually my book, but it's got the real journals in it. So
Speaker:you can read the real of what happened. Like, oh my god. Really? It's
Speaker:really cool. And what this is, it really
Speaker:pushes on is what happens if the
Speaker:exorcism doesn't work? Okay? And
Speaker:then meaning that you exercise somebody.
Speaker:Okay. You know, she or he's healed. And then a
Speaker:few years later, they become repossessed.
Speaker:Well, if you look at that concept, even back into the
Speaker:biblical terms of that, if you get repossessed,
Speaker:the next time you get possessed after having an exorcism,
Speaker:the evil is 7 times worse.
Speaker:Mhmm. And I thought that was incredible concept and idea
Speaker:that Yeah. It's terrifying. It is. It's terrifying. And that's the
Speaker:kind of stuff we do. So that's in a book called Angel or Devil, and
Speaker:that's at spooktv.com. And we have actually,
Speaker:limited editions which are autographed and numbered. We have, like,
Speaker:I I think, 10 of those left. And, that's angeldev@spooktv.com.
Speaker:I've seen that graphics for it and stuff like that. It looks really cool. I
Speaker:didn't know the actual story behind it. That that's great. The, that you went into
Speaker:that 1928 exorcism, and it's something that hasn't been explored
Speaker:as much. And so I think that's a that's a fun thing. What city did
Speaker:that happen in? Iowa. In, Earling, Iowa,
Speaker:state of Iowa. And it's a true story, and that church is still
Speaker:there. So as a researcher and I know we're running out of time with someone
Speaker:Mike so I I know you've you've been doing this research for years and stuff,
Speaker:but how do you get your hands on, like, a a journal done by,
Speaker:like, an exorcist or some nuns? I just know a lot of
Speaker:people and a lot of, people that
Speaker:believe that we will handle it right, that we'll tell the true
Speaker:story, and we won't embellish it. Everything we've done, we have
Speaker:embellished it. I mean, Death Tunnel, yeah, but that was a that was a
Speaker:fictional movie, but Spooked was was nonfiction. Everything
Speaker:on Spook was nonfiction. The movie we did
Speaker:for Syfy Dead Still, which is still on Syfy Channel,
Speaker:last year, is about a haunted Victorian camera. And
Speaker:that's is based on true events. If you if you see the movie Dead
Speaker:Still on SciFi, that's not a movie. Oh, awesome.
Speaker:And, so I we're going on the road and, of course, we're doing Penthurst,
Speaker:Aragon on June 4th 5th in in Penthurst, which is
Speaker:incredible down in Pennsylvania. Then we're heading to the
Speaker:haunted farm in Waltzing, Kentucky On July 16th,
Speaker:Fandom Fest in Louisville, 29th to
Speaker:31st July. Silcon, August 20th.
Speaker:Saturday night, we're doing Ashmore Estates on August 20th. Then the
Speaker:100th birthday of Ashmore Estates in September, 9th to
Speaker:10th, which is incredible. The Hunt's birthday of that one.
Speaker:And October 2nd, Skipfest. ChicagoCon after that, which we're
Speaker:doing ChicagoCon again. October 7th 9th, where I met you.
Speaker:And then after that, we're doing Mike paranormalcon in Pennsylvania
Speaker:on October 29th to Halloween. And then, of course, the
Speaker:cool thing is that we have just,
Speaker:licensed 4 of our films to Destination America. Oh,
Speaker:congratulations. That's awesome. Yeah. And Discovery Channel. And they
Speaker:will be I've told that they will be playing
Speaker:to Ghosttober this year.
Speaker:Okay? So you get to see, we're
Speaker:releasing 4 films that have been re edited and remastered.
Speaker:4 of our best, shows are being gonna be airing on Destination
Speaker:America coming up in October. Well, congrats. That's that's awesome
Speaker:news. And it's and like Mike said, you guys are having a super busy summer
Speaker:and and Halloween season this year, so that's exciting. Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, Mike, I keep doing it. And, of course, my my favorite
Speaker:thing I'm looking forward to is my little boy, Gabriel, who's 9 years
Speaker:old, coming to visit me for summer. Oh, that sounds nice. I
Speaker:could take get to take 30 days off and and, pinch
Speaker:his cheeks. Fantastic.
Speaker:And so people can find all your stuff at spooktv.com.
Speaker:Yeah. And I'm on Facebook. Christian Stinko is on Facebook. Our streaming
Speaker:videos on spooktvdashodot
Speaker:com. Spooktdashod.com is our own streaming
Speaker:channel. Our movies are up there, streaming. Of course,
Speaker:Destination America. We got 4 new shows coming out That's awesome.
Speaker:This October. So So make sure you guys get out there. All the links will
Speaker:be up in the show notes at othersidepodcast.com/91.
Speaker:We'll have links directly where you can check out all their stuff. But make sure
Speaker:you keep supporting and watch it when it's on, because it's always
Speaker:good to see, like, independent, exciting,
Speaker:filmmakers who have a visual eye, and fellow musicians
Speaker:who are out there exploring this paranormal world and making stuff for you
Speaker:guys. So thank you very much for spending your time with day with us,
Speaker:Chris. Thank you very much. God bless everybody. Alright. We'll see you
Speaker:again. Bye bye.
Speaker:Such an interesting perfect crossover between the paranormal
Speaker:and pop culture. I mean, it's Mike he was meant to be on our podcast.
Speaker:I think he was. I think he was. Just a guy that leads an interesting
Speaker:life. Yeah. And the 2 of you talking together too, like, I could
Speaker:tell his interests were very in line with what the stuff that you dig.
Speaker:So Yeah. So I had a lot to lot to say to him. So, anyway,
Speaker:I'm looking forward to checking out his newest stuff and the stuff he's talking about
Speaker:on Destination America and everything. So make sure you check out
Speaker:his website and things like that and, see I will. See what Spooked
Speaker:TV has in store, and I'm sure we're gonna see him again too. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:I can't wait. Absolutely. Very cool. So, inspiration behind this
Speaker:song is that, Christopher was really talking about,
Speaker:like, you know, how to live your life with passion and
Speaker:how when he felt like he was selling out or when he was selling
Speaker:his talent short, that he that that was when he decided
Speaker:to move on and try different things. Yeah. And if he didn't have those feelings,
Speaker:he wouldn't have started on paranormal Wow. Stuff in the first place.
Speaker:Look at that. So this song kinda relates to that. That feeling of,
Speaker:like, if you're gonna do something, you know, don't don't quit.
Speaker:And and, you know, you can Go with your instincts.
Speaker:Yeah. Like, you know, you you you can't sell out because you end up losing
Speaker:a piece of your soul. Mhmm. And so this song is called The Wilderness of
Speaker:Almost Was and Never Were.
Speaker:Thank you for listening to today's episode. You can find us
Speaker:online at othersidepodcast.com. Until next
Speaker:time. See you on the other side.
Speaker:What did I get myself into? Like, this is gonna be my big break if
Speaker:I survive.