Mr. Skin Mr. Skin

By Kimberly Martin

Not only is DEPT. 13 "The most bizarre movie studio on earth," but judging by its cinematic (and increasingly skinematic) output, it also appears to be one of the most up-and-coming movie studios on earth. Or at least in America. Or, at the very least, among folks who love horror and mystery movies filled with suspense, surprises, and tons of wildly gratuitous nudity.

Since the early '90s Atlanta-based DEPT.13 has been churning out some of the most titillating titles east of Tinseltown, including Bothered (1993) (Picture: 1), The Strange Case of Ezra Bumble (1994) (Picture: 1), Boobie Trap (2001), and A Face Full of Zombie (2005). The movies look great and the girls look even better--DEPT.13's founder/mastermind, Herb Henderson, has a definite gift when it comes to getting incredibly hot women to strip totally naked for the camera on little to no budget.

Boobie Trap is DEPT.13's top seller to date, probably due in no small part to the fact that its star, Melissa Wolf [MelissaWolf.com] (Picture: 1 - 2 - 3), is naked for probably about forty-five of the film's seventy-two minutes. Veteran Penthouse centerfold Melissa plays Clara, a hooker who has her breasts cut off (at the very end) and loves to masturbate in the shower. A lot.

Henderson, 35, first picked up a camera at fifteen and has produced an astonishing twenty-seven films to date, most of which he wrote, directed, and edited himself. In 2004 DEPT.13 joined forces with underground cult filmmaker Joe Christ to film, edit, and distribute Christ's most recent film, That's Just Wrong! (2005).

Henderson also has licensed and remastered Christ's entire library of short films for their first-ever DVD release. DEPT 13 issued the first two parts of the three-volume DVD set last year, which consisted of They Die Next and The Director Yelled Cut! Part three, Good'n Plenty: The films of Joe Christ Vol. 3, will be available soon.

Joe is currently booking screening dates to bring a double feature of That's Just Wrong! and Boobie Trap to several cities in the Southeast and on the East Coast.

Meanwhile Henderson is staying home in Atlanta, where he's preparing the DVD release of the nudity-filled Realm of the Bizarre (a compilation of Bothered, The Strange Case of Ezra Bumble, and Face Full of Zombie) and a few not-so-nudie projects, including Leadfoot and Paradox.

Henderson has begun filming his newest project, Edward: A Tale of Naked Asphyxia, a horror- (and nudity-) filled romp through the twisted mind of a serial strangler. Writing and casting has begun for Goth Girls Gone Wild!, an outrageously tasteless faux late-night infomercial, and Cocksucking Bloodsuckers, an after-dark tale of vampire prostitutes.

Henderson recently spoke to Mr. Skin, in what may be one of his last interviews before he becomes a household name--that is, if your household is anything like ours.

When did you found DEPT.13 and how did you come up with the name?
April 16, 1999. I was looking for a new label for making movies, as a way to distance myself from the past and to have something that was totally mine, to build up and bring people into. I was having trouble coming up with a new name--prior to that I had been Herb Henderson Productions, Kamikaze Picasso Productions, and Old Thunder Motion Picture Company, which produced absolutely nothing, and I wanted something that would be memorable. I chose 13 because it's almost universally accepted as unlucky, and I wanted to buck the system.

Tell us how you got your start as a filmmaker.
I made my first movie as a junior in high school--it was a documentary on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for my American literature class. Myself and a couple of friends were presenting biographical information on the author with a bit of Monty Python humor going on in the background. It ran for about forty-five minutes and had a lot of sight gags. In one scene we had one of the fellows telling us about Paul Revere's Ride, and in the background these two guys were stealing the tires off of his car, stuff like that. If memory serves me well, we got an A. We were the only video in the class, and everyone was thankful that it took up the whole class to watch it and we didn't get to their projects.

How long have you wanted to be a filmmaker, and why?
Since I was nine or ten. I saw the special-effects TV special on The Empire Strikes Back and the whole behind-the-scenes thing really captivated me. I started playing around with construction paper and models made of modeling clay. Unfortunately I never had a camera to photograph any of it with--I was trying to get into special effects without any way to film it. I was always visual and I always drew--I was always cartooning. That's what I fell back on for storytelling until I was able to get a camera in my hands. I had friends in fifth grade who had access to Super 8 cameras, and I wrote a ton of scripts that summer and made costumes because I was on vacation with my grandfolks in Kentucky. But when I got back into town and school started, strangely, they didn't have access to the camera anymore. The scripts were spoofs of Superman movies, there were four of them. They were five minutes each, titled Superman 1 through 4. I still have them lying around somewhere.

Who are some of your biggest influences and inspirations?
I don't really ever recall taking a particular person and saying, "I want to follow in their footsteps, they're so awesome." It was usually the finished products. So I guess if I could rattle off titles instead, I would say the Star Wars films, the early ones; Superman; Friday the 13th; Pee-wee's Big Adventure; Monty Python; The Benny Hill Show; and Dr. Who. Later on, I would say Porky's and cheesy '80s teen sex comedies--oh my God, The Party Animal, Spring Break, just about anything with titties in it as long as the titties are nice and the movie is funny!

Are you mainly a director, a writer, or a cinematographer--how would you describe yourself?
I'm a storyteller. I do whatever it takes to get my movie finished.

At times I'll write, and if I write it I usually direct it, and if I direct it I'll definitely shoot it. I wear all the hats, but I do direct other people's writings.

And now for an obvious question--why do you like to fill your films with so much nudity?
I like tits. When I was seven years old and I discovered Monty Python's Flying Circus on PBS at midnight, I saw a lot of really goofy guys doing really funny shit and one of the best parts about it was there were cartoons in the middle of the funny bits with naked women in them. They weren't cartoons in the traditional animation sense; they were actually photos of old people in the '20s and '30s style, Terry Gilliam's stop-motion animation. Joy, joy, it awakened in me--I don't know what it awakened in me, but it was a total love of naked women.

What has been the typical reaction to your films?
When it's the right crowd, everybody loves them. When it's the wrong crowd, they can't understand why I can't make "clean-ish" comedies. If you walk into something with the title of Boobie Trap, you ought to know what you're going to get.

How did you meet Melissa Wolf, and what other "names" have you worked with?
I met her through a mutual friend named Peter Lashway, who is a co-producer on Boobie Trap. She's been in the nude entertainment business since the early '80s.

I am also very fortunate to have worked with Paul Carden in an episode of my old cable-access TV show, Twisted Realities, called "The Game." Paul is a character actor now--he's part of the Screen Actors Guild, which means we can't work with him anymore. He's been seen as the judge at the end of The Gingerbread Man and the shopkeeper who runs out of the gas station in Run Ronnie Run! when they're on their way out west. I met Paul through his son; we were in a community band together.

Nora Villa (Picture: 1), the naked girl in Face Full of Zombie, was supposedly doing Playboy in Hawaii shortly after we shot that movie in 2001. After that I heard someone saw her on a TV commercial as a cheerleader for one of the big football teams, but I can't confirm that--it's all coming back from other people.

Carrie Ford, who played Sugar in Boobie Trap, was making the rounds on elimiDATE last year.

Are there any specific actresses you'd like to work with one day?
Yes. The actresses I'd like to work with are the ones who show up on time and fulfill their entire obligation to the production without bitching, moaning, or whining or quitting halfway through the production.

Hopes for the future?
I just want to make a living making movies. That's all. I'm a pretty simple guy.

*For more information on DEPT.13 please visit Dept13.com.