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TO
HEAR YOU “SCREAM”:
For over 50 years since the dawn of television, the TV horror host has been a popular staple. For late nights usually on Saturdays, the host would introduce a classic (or not so classic) chiller while providing some entertaining segments of their own, infusing a brand of dark humor with quick one liners that focus on the macabre. Since the advent of the internet in the 1990s, horror hosted TV shows have become virtually extinct as horror websites like the Crypt has become a dime a dozen to provide insight into the world of horror. Melissa Bacelar, scream queen and star of EAT YOUR HEART and PINK EYE, looks to change all of that with THE SCREAM, a new half hour formatted show that she hosts which is available on the internet via its own website. To date, two shows have been released with more to come. The premise of the show is Melissa hosts as a vampire with a pet zombie named Z in a dungeon where she tortures guests, reviews classic and new horror movies, and lots more bloody fun. For Melissa, already making a name for herself on the big screen, why make the switch to host a horror themed TV show?
“It was one of those things that I’ve been mulling around with for about three years,” Melissa tells the Crypt. “It started when I started to get back into doing conventions heavily and I was talking with fans and with people in the industry and I realized that at the time there was nothing to keep us updated on new films and indie films in the television format. We have TALK SOUP and we have the E! ENTERTAINMENT and all these programs about the entertainment business but we have nothing that focuses on horror, so I also thought that it was interesting and cool to interview the fans on what got them into horror because the horror industry is this cool, underground place where when people do it, they are into everything about it. I thought it would be cool to have a talk show and go out and interview people. It started very simply with that thought. For two years I thought about it and talked about it but it’s not easy to produce a show. It’s definitely not an easy thing. There are a lot of aspects to it. I kept thinking if I wanted to do it, I wanted to do it right.” One of the benefits of THE SCREAM is one of its creators is a well respected cinematographer who had a similar program in the 1980s. Melissa explains the collaboration. “I have known Rick Schiaffo for a long time. Rick is the director of the show. He’s an amazing cinematographer. He’s won a couple of Emmys and knows his stuff when it comes to lighting and cinema. We sat down and he had talked about a show he produced in the 80s called ZTV. It was about horror and it took a horror host who interviewed people and reviewed old films and new films. I thought that it’s kind of what I want to do so we just spun some ideas together. Then we talked to Mimi Stephens and Jeff Spinner and talked about their ideas as well and they had these cool segment ideas. It came up that I should have a pet zombie so it all just developed. The next thing you know we are building a dungeon and it just came about.” Although she hosts as
Melissa Bacelar, she is portrayed on the show as a vampire. Melissa
explains why she is a creature of the night. “That was also a
progression,” she says. “I actually wanted it to just be me hosting the
show because people that see me and know me don’t really think that I
would be into horror or think that I have an evil side at all. On a normal
day in my real life, I’m running around with dogs and saving a cute,
fluffy animal, that’s what I do. People look at me and think I’m this tan
blonde with big boobs who plays with big, fluffy animals and that’s it. I
was originally playing it as that. I was playing it all cute and perky,
but with the progression of the show, we decided that because we want it
to be my dungeon and have a pet and I wanted to torture people, it didn’t
really work with me being me. We needed to have a character. I think that
vampires are really sexy, intriguing, and interesting. I decided that if I
was going to be anything, I wanted to be something cool, sexy, and
mysterious, so why not a vampire?” With two episodes shown and four completed, how much of THE SCREAM is in production? According to Melissa, “We had a meeting where we’re going to do a whole season. We have some people behind us now and we’re going to be producing eight more episodes over the summer. We’re going to be releasing them on DVD in the first quarter of 2009 probably.” One of the segments of the show is a “Ghoul On The Street” with Pretty-Scary.net’s Heidi Martinuzzi on set talking to guests and fans. So far, Heidi has been at the premiere of PINK EYE and visited a casting call for THE NEXT ELVIRA. How Heidi came involved was a very interesting story that Melissa laughs about. “Heidi is awesome. Here’s the thing, even though I like to multi-task, I didn’t want a show that was just about me,” the EAT YOUR HEART OUT star recalls. “Even though I wanted interviews, I thought it would be ridiculous to have me interviewing, reviewing the films, and hosting. It was too much so I thought I needed somebody that was funny, sarcastic, and hot, and could be my counterpart. Heidi was the first person that popped to my mind. Before I presented it to her, I was telling people that Heidi was going to be my street interviewer without even asking her. There was nobody else on my mind. Heidi was going to be our Ghoul on the Street as we call it on the show. I put out the press release and Heidi heard from one of my friends that she was on the phone so she called me and asked me what THE SCREAM was. She agreed to do it anyway but it was still after the fact. I love her sarcasm. I love her humor. She is so insanely funny and quick on her feet. There’s no getting anything past her. I agree with her on most of her reviews. And dude, who better than Heidi?” One of the more popular features on the show is the interview segment, where Melissa uses electro shock to torture her guests when they give an answer not to her satisfaction. Melissa explains the reasoning very simply. “Why not?” Laughing, she turns quickly serious. “I’m a very controlling woman in general. My character’s even more controlling and I like to get what I want. When I don’t get what I want, I need to coax them into it. That’s why I torture them. You need some blood for a horror show. You need some screaming, and it’s so much fun.”
THE SCREAM SHOW begins
with a short film where a hot babe is being stalked by a knife wielding
maniac who says “I want to hear you scream.” With a different guest star
each week, Melissa says that this is the most challenging part of THE
SCREAM SHOW to produce. “It’s a huge production. Rick Scaffio works on
DAYS OF OUR LIVES, he’s an Emmy Award winning cameraman, so he takes these
shoots extremely seriously. It’s a short film. We cast a scream babe and
he writes and does all the shots for a killing basically. Each one will be
different. We have a bunch scheduled that we’re going to shoot within the
next few months. It’s a full production even for a little two minute
segment for the show, it’s an all day shoot. The stuff in the studio is
much more simple to shoot because it’s just me on set but the Scream Babe
stuff are really inticate shoots.” On the show’s second episode, the Ghoul On The Street feature had Heidi at the casting call for THE NEXT ELVIRA, where hundreds of ladies strived at becoming the next Mistress Of The Dark. The conclusion of the segment was a very funny moment where Heidi catches Melissa herself trying to audition and getting red faced. Melissa insists that she didn’t truly audition, but it’s necessary to make fun of yourself once in a while, especially when handling so many tasks. “I was in the room when Heidi was interviewing her which was cool meeting Cassandra Peterson because she is really funny,” recalls Melissa. “You have to make fun of yourself. If you can’t laugh at yourself, then you’re doing something wrong.” As to the ultimate goal of THE SCREAM, Melissa puts it plain and simple: “Ultimately, we’re producing it for TV. We’ve had some offers from foreign markets to put it on TV. I’d love it to be on cable because it needs boobs, blood, and all the gore so I don’t really want it to be on regular TV where I can’t do that. I’ve spoken to The Horror Channel and a lot of those places are not hanging around, which sucks. There’s definitely a place for it on cable and I would love it to be like USA Up All Night. THE SCREAM is campy, it’s tongue in cheek, it’s fun. We don’t take it too seriously but we take the genre seriously and I get guests that I want to interview. I get people on the show that I am interested in. I review movies that I actually like. We’re just having a fun time with it and we love the project. We love doing the show and I think that comes across. We’re just having fun.”
With four episodes completed and eight more in production, what will we expect in those episodes? Melissa drops a few hints but remains oddly vague. “I might have Elvira on the show,” she says. “We live in this really cool place, Hollywood. We’ve had some very interesting people that have been contacting us. For some reason, getting tortured by a blonde with big boobs would be more appealing than it sounds. We have some interesting guests and you’ll have to stay tuned.” For more information on THE SCREAM SHOW, click on the banner below:
All stills courtesy of Melissa Bacelar. Used with
permission
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