By J.R. Taylor
The stereotype of a horror and sci-fi convention is nerds holed up and playing three-dimensional chess games while bandying about Star Trek trivia. Actually, there are still a few of those events out there. The new documentary Unconventional, however, captures the glory of the pop-culture behemoth that is the Chiller Theatre convention--held twice yearly at New Jersey's Sheraton Meadowlands Hotel.
Michael Furno and Danny Doyle have produced a compelling look at a truly skintreffic event. Featured players include original Texas Chainsaw Massacre star Gunnar Hansen and Chiller perpetuals such as 42nd Street Pete. There are also glimpses of genre icons including Linda Blair (Picture: ) and David Carradine. Unconventional is also very generous in looking into--and up the skirts of--the parade of uninhibited gals who attend Chiller in incredibly sexy outfits.
That includes the lovely Tiffany Shepis (Picture: ), whom the camera wisely follows as one of Chiller's special guests. "We needed a Scream Queen," Furno explains, "and we'd been interested in Tiffany for a feature film we're working on. We've always felt that she's more talented than she's been able to show in the past. If Tiffany had said no, we probably wouldn't have done the movie. Her fan base is really dedicated. Not that she ever would, but she could kick those guys square in the nuts and they would still adore her."
In fact, Unconventional shows Tiffany doing the exact opposite of kicking a guy in the nuts as she obligingly kisses a fan's girlfriend. "That's the tremendous thing about Tiffany," notes Furno. "She's always giving 100%. We knew her before we began filming and had the chance to party with her in L.A., so we weren't surprised. If there's ever anything that she thinks will make people laugh, or will shock people, she'll do it."
Unconventional also finds time for Z-level skinema, as helpfully embodied by stand-up comic and video filmmaker Bobby Gonzo. He shows up at Chiller with a bevy of babes ready to bare their boobs for his fans.
"We never knew of Bobby beforehand," says Furno. "We met him at the first convention we went to, which was April 2003. The antics at his booth are hysterical. He's got one of the most interesting tables at the convention. His movies are . . . well, they're what they are. Bobby knows he's not making Academy Award-winning films. He's older, and not the most attractive man around, but he's got these gorgeous skanky women who all want to be in his movies. He doesn't pay them, he doesn't feed them, but they all line up to be in a Bobby Gonzo movie."
Furno and Doyle weren't prepared to come across that kind of film promotion, either. The duo originally came to Chiller with plans for a documentary looking into the sad plight of typecast Scream Queens. "But then we got to Chiller," says Furno, "and 42nd Street Pete was walking us over to meet Linnea Quigley (Picture: ). We were there for five minutes, and we said, "Fuck this Scream Queen documentary. This is our documentary."
As the filmmakers chronicle the long weekend of Halloween 2003, Unconventional doesn't shy away from the debauchery that regularly overtakes the hotel once the convention itself shuts down. "Once Saturday night rolled around," Furno recalls, "somebody's ass was being whipped everywhere we looked. I'm not easily shocked, but it was unusual. I thought Jamie the Troma Transvestite was very funny, but watching her wasted and faking masturbating in the hotel bar was disturbing. Oh well. I don't judge anyone's behavior, and you can't deny the entertainment value."
There's also no denying the entertainment value of the assorted girl/girl mingling captured on film. "We had to actually tone things down," says Furno. "We've got hundreds of feet of film of girls making out in the lobby. So many women were involved that at one point we were wondering if we should do a slightly-less-lesbian cut of the movie. Most of those scenes are hot, but some of them were just drunk and sloppy."
Unconventional's parade of protruding pride doesn't just feature skinema icons, though. The legendary dominatrix Mistress Rhiannon also shows up in the crowd. As Furno explains, Chiller is also her kind of audience: "I love Rhiannon. She's very smart and quite delightful. Really a very intelligent businesswoman. She knows that she's freakish. She doesn't look in the mirror and think she's normal. She knows she's over-the-top. She couldn't take out an ad in a magazine and reach the kind of fan base that's more attracted to the odd."
Unconventional is a long-awaited film, primarily because just about every Chiller Convention has featured some documentary crew that never got around to editing their footage. Furno and Doyle have a pretty good marketing base just from the thousands who've ever attended Chiller in the past. Still, Furno remains pretty modest about his finished product: "To tell the truth, I'm not sure we captured the scope of Chiller. We may have failed in portraying how huge the convention really is. But the response from people who go there has been wonderful. People really love Chiller, and they look forward to us doing it justice."
***Unconventional opened at the Crown Theater in Manhattan on October 15th, and fans can follow both theatrical and DVD releases at RevEarth.net. Yet another wild Chiller weekend starts on October 29th, with guest skinema legends such as Stella Stevens (Picture: ), Jeramie Rain (Picture: ), and Cassandra Peterson, a.k.a. Elvira. For more skinformation, go to ChillerTheatre.com
