The Point Radio: Return Of The Horror Movie Host

It is an American pop culture tradition that dates back to the 1950s – the TV horror movie host. Producer/actor, Bo Keister, is taking it to the digital age with HILLBILLY HORROR SHOW, a new twist on the old concept. Plus we circle back to AMC’s HALT AND CATCH FIRE to talk to Kerry Bische (Donna) about where the new season finds her character.

We’re back in a couple of days with Dania Rameriz – from X-MEN to HEROES and now DEVIOUS MAIDS, her acting career is red hot.

Transcript

The Point Radio. Hey, it's Mike Rive. It's a tradition that began well in the 1950s, continued into the 80s with Elvira. Then there was Mystery Science Theater, and now there's the Hillbilly Horror Show. The horror movie host revived digitally.

We'll talk to the guy who's behind all that. Plus, we're back for Halt and Catch Fire, and this time we talked to actress Carrie Biche about exactly where her character's headed in the new season. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point.

The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio. It's been a concept that's been around since the 1950s and 60s with local TV stations filled up their Friday and Saturday night programming by having wacky characters introduce scary movies. And the concept evolved into the 80s going nationwide with Elvira

and then into the 90s with Mystery Science Theater. And now it's gone one step further into the digital age with Hillbilly Horror Show, hosted by Bo Kester, who explains this concept. Well, the concept behind it is he called me Tales from the Crypt. They got together, there was some romance there, and they had a kid,

and that kid grew up to be Hillbilly Horror Show. So you've got a lot of really ridiculous Hillbilly humor mixed in with some awesome horror shorts from all over the place. As we said, these hosts have been around for decades, and I asked Bo if he had any inspirations from what had come before.

You know, there's definitely a huge influence there. I mean, my teenage years were just filled with horror movies and, you know, USA up all night, you know, horror flicks and things of that nature. But I grew up on Tales from the Crypt and Creep shows, so, yeah, there's always been a real love there for me.

And when Blue came up with the concept for the show, I just jumped at it because it was like, that's awesome. We're doing that. We're definitely doing that. Hillbilly Horror Show, unlike others, uses short films, original films, rather than commercial movies.

So how do they choose these films? What criteria does Bo use? What we really look for a lot of times, I mean, we seek out films on our own quite a bit, by looking at what's going on with the film festival circuit. You know, I mean, there's so many different film festivals out there that have, you know, horror genre, you know, categories.

And when you start seeing the same films in the top two, top three at all these different film festivals when they announce the winners, those are the ones that we really want to take a look at first. Now, we do get a lot of submissions, and some of them are fantastic. Others, not so much. But, you know, we, I mean,

we still try to be respectful of the filmmakers and the work that they're doing because, I mean, being filmmakers ourselves, we know what goes into it. And you certainly don't want to kill anybody's passion. But, you know, we look for upper echelon quality and a really strong storyline, strong acting, strong technical.

And I think we found that with a lot of our shorts. I mean, some of them, even though I use the Nest a lot as an example, you know, I don't know how a short film could have that level of CGI in it. It's just amazing to watch. And you just don't see that a lot in short films.

And it's just so cool. And, you know, and then, you know, you have films like, you know, from Patrick Ray and Jason Posterman. And, yeah, I mean, the acting, the storyline, it's fun. It's funny. It's got, you know, some great humor elements to it.

And it's also got a nice blend of horror. I mean, they're just great films, one right after the other, if you really look for it. Right now, the show is available digitally on DVD, but any chance it might move to another venue, say cable? Well, I mean, our goal is network.

I mean, we'd love to find a home for it on regular television and make it more of a weekly series than, you know, than doing it by volumes like we do now. That's going to take some work. But if we just keep pushing and keep building an audience and keep growing,

I think eventually somebody's going to have to perk up and pay attention to what we're doing, because we are building a following. We're building a brand. And, you know, people are loving what we're doing. I mean, you know, we get feedback from our fans all the time.

And they're so impressed with the quality of the series, the humor behind it, the quality of the short films. And it's such a great way to expose, you know, up and coming filmmakers. You know, I think, I think eventually a network, maybe something like Chiller Channel or something like that.

Would, you know, step up and say, hey, you know, this is for us. And we hope that that happens. But as for right now, volume two just came out on DVD. Volume three is now available for pre-order on DVD. And we're hoping to release volume four on iTunes and Amazon Prime soon.

And then from that point on, we're looking to film five and six this fall. All right. So how can fans get the Hilbally Horror Show? Right now, go to HilballyHoreShow.com. On the right-hand side, you'll see icons for all the Roku channels and different platforms that it's available on.

And up at the top near our banner, you'll see a couple of DVDs. And you can click that. And it has a list of all of our retailers that you can order the DVDs through. And, you know, you can watch it. And you can also watch some stuff right there on the homepage.

And you can also watch it on YouTube. And behind the scenes. Bo's also an actor with a face you'll recognize from a number of small roles. I ask him what's next on that agenda. Well, I guess what's on the front burner for me right now,

other than just auditioning for different films and things that come along through my agents. Right now, we're working on, we're in pre-production with a film called Finding Waldo. I'll be playing a character named Chance Reed, who's a former pro football player that basically pissed his career away on alcohol and a faithful night of drunk driving lands him in prison.

And we pick up his story as he's come out of prison and he's working in the mail room of a Lloyd's of London-like insurance company. And he gets tasked with going and interviewing an eccentric novelist named Waldo Green, who's claiming to be insane. And there's an 80 million dollar insurance payout hanging in the balance if he is.

But when I go to interview him, things go completely wrong. He kidnaps me, breaks out of the psych ward, and takes me on the road trip for pale all over the place. He's through the desert and through some very painful experiences. That at one point ends up with me wearing an inverted mohawk. So, it should be all sorts of fun, but as the story evolves and the twists and the turns come along,

you kind of begin to realize that Waldo's not exactly what he seems. And the film blues written a beautiful script, and when that twist ending comes, the audience is going to be just dumbfounded. You know, it's a little bit, the hangover, it's a little bit film only, it's a little bit sideways. I think it's going to have, I think it's going to have huge audience out there. I think people are going to love it.

Catch up with the Hillbilly Horror Show available right now online at hillbillyhorrorshow.com. And before we head into the weekend, let's check the latest in pop culture. Marvel continues to tease its readers about what exactly their world's going to look like after Secret Wars. There are a couple of images out there that contain characters, well, which raise a few eyebrows. For example, a female Wolverine, the Thing, and a Guardians of the Galaxy uniform.

Daredevil looking more like Netflix than what he does in the comics, and of course, old man Logan as well. These images are all over the internet, but the real announcements will more than likely be made between now and the end of the summer. Apple Consumer is a little sad today because, well, next week was supposed to be pretty big on our calendars. There were a number of announcements that were on the way, at least as what the rumors told us, including a brand new update on Apple TV. That announcement has been pulled, no idea exactly what they will be talking about when the week begins.

But in the meantime, Nat Geo TV has been added to Apple TV. That includes Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, and Nat Geo Studios content, all joining other apps available on Apple TV. After 14 seasons, it's goodbye to grassy. Team Nick is sending the show off with a two-week series finale. The event launches with an hour-long special that takes place on the 20th of July. That's a Monday.

And Monday through Friday at 9 p.m. for two weeks, there'll be special episodes, including an hour long. It goes there to grassy's most talked-about moments. That airs on July 31st on Team Nick. Mega Man is headed back to TV, Dentsu Entertainment, along with the guys from Man of Action who did Ben 10, who ended up developing a 26-episode animated Mega Man series. It'll be released in 2017, which will coincide with the 30th anniversary of the character.

Production on the next season of Arrested Development is going to begin as early as January. And according to Brian Grazer, who talked about this on the Adam Carolla show this week, 17 new episodes of the series will be available on Netflix by mid-2016. It's been even been a month since ABC announced their fall schedule, and now they've made a couple of changes already. The biblical drama of kings and prophets has been taken off the fall lineup for now for alleged retooling.

Quantico gets an upgrade going from Tuesday to Sunday nights at 10 o'clock, joining the lineup that already includes Once Upon a Time and Blood and Oil. Looks like Nicky Glazer has landed a permanent gig with Comedy Central. They've ordered a show called Not Safe with Nicky Glazer to series, as well as a one-hour special featuring her as well. Both projects are set to debut again next year.

Meanwhile, over on Comedy Central, Children's Hospital has now been renewed for season seven that'll also debut in 2016. Actress Carrie Bechet is Donna, wife, mother, and inspired computer programmer in AMC's 80s drama Halt and Catch Fire. I talked to Carrie about the role and asked her how Donna has evolved from the beginning episodes last season to where she'll be this season. How would she describe Donna? You know, I was thinking about this today.

I was trying to think of things that I had in common with her and things I don't. And I think I really admire some stuff, and I think I'd probably be better if I had her sort of like conscientious attention to detail. I think at root she's a very practical person, and I don't know if that's something I can say about myself. And I really love getting to explore that part of myself that is so practical, that really does accept the circumstances around her and really make the best of what she's got. So where do we find her character in season two?

Season one was really trying for her relationship with her husband and her family, and part of the reason was because she was really playing a supporting role in the family to her husband, Gordon. And right at the end of season one, I think they had a little bit of a wake-up call about the status quo not really working for them. And so I think they agreed, and season two is all about Donna getting to be the flying kite a little bit, that she gets to kind of spread her wings to use some more flight metaphors. The heart of the new season is the relationship between Donna and Cameron, played by actress Mackenzie Davis. It's an unlikely friendship, and I asked Carrie how she thinks that evolved.

I really love the two of them together. I think part of the attraction is what you said, is that it's such an unlikely pairing of people. And one of the things I really appreciated that they sort of discovered and really saw like a discovery during season one was that these two people, which are so different from each other, that they actually have a real deep respect for the other person. And I think that makes for a really interesting business relationship because they each have strengths and weaknesses and can recognize what those are. And so to kind of throw them together in a situation where they're really trying to collaborate and work together to build something is a really kind of fascinating, nuanced project. So what shape is Donna's Mary Gin?

You know, I'm really, at the beginning of season two anyway, I'm really hopeful for them. It feels like they're more of a team than they were. It feels like Gordon sort of woke up a little bit to the fact that his wife had goals and ambitions. And I think they're both making a really conscious effort to change the dynamic. And then I think that effortful and very big shift in their relationship dynamic causes some friction down the line as such a big seismic change is want to do in relationships.

And we'll just have to kind of take it as it comes, shall we? Paul then Catch Fire is set in the mid 1980s, which I guess makes it a period piece and gives Carrie a few wardrobe challenges. You know, I really, really dig the wardrobe that I get to wear. I know it's sort of high waisted pants are sort of controversial in this fashion way, but I think they really helped me feel the character and feel the period because I don't worry about the period very much. The writers take care of that and our production designer and our excellent hair and makeup and costume crew.

They're really telling the story that it's the mid 80s and I just get to worry about what characters would do in these circumstances. It's tough, I feel like, and my mother is a beautiful woman, but every time I look in the mirror when I'm in the wardrobe, it makes me feel like I am my mom. So it's a little bit of a struggle to feel like I just feel old. I just feel so old. Carrie's done interesting roles here and of course another series like Scrubs as well. I asked her what would be her dream job. I would love to play a villain in a piece of theater.

I was a theater actor for a long time and I haven't done a play in a while and I would love to get back to doing theater. It's a really excellent art form to be an actor in. You do so much work so much of the time as opposed to film sets where you work for a minute, you work for three minutes in a row and then you wait around for three and a half hours. So I love doing theater and I would love to play, I think often I play good girls and I think I'd like to play someone bad. Carrie Bechette, part of the cast of Halt and Catch Fire, new episodes every Sunday on AMC. And see more right now at amctv.com.

That does it for the podcast. We're back in a few days and when we are, we bring Donja Ramirez to talk about the season of Devious Maids plus how much fun it was to be an X-Men, Buffy and Heroes as well. All that and more on websites like comicfix.com, michaeldavisworld.com, getthepointradio.com and the iTunes 5 Cast directory. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook under the point radio and we'll see you right back here in a few days. Thank you.