Today is the fifteenth anniversary of the release/1st screening of my film, The Ominous Bride Occurrence. I bring this up for a few reasons. One -- the obvious -- it's a horror spoof whose anniversary is today, and today is Halloween. Duh.
There are many pleasant memories associated with this little film. It started life as a request from some film industry friends who missed the annual Halloween shows of the then recently departed Oingo Boingo. They were going to throw a bash and wanted me to stage some sort of Mystic Knights style cabaret show for said party. I countered that a short film would be just as fun and still in the same spirit.
The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo gave birth to The Merry Kiss of the Ominous Bride. (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge -- do you get it?) The Blair Witch Project was the phenomenon of the time and seemed an easy target. Throw in that, equal parts H.P. Lovecraft, the Black Dahlia and a Neo-Druid cult and suddenly we had pretty much improvised The Ominous Bride Occurrence.
Pleasant memory number two; the party and screening itself. Besides the film itself, a band was put together for which I was somehow enticed to be singer and general master of ceremonies. Amongst other things we did an absolutely dreadful punk version of The Monster Mash. My kids would love to see it, but fortunately my wife taped over that video years ago with a Magic Bullet infomercial or some such engrossing subject. Just as well.
But the party and screening were a blast. The film was well received by a standing room only crowd that included guitarist/arranger Steve Bartok of Oingo Boingo himself, as well as world class filmmaker Jerzy Skolomowski (I count The Shout, Moonlighting and Deep End amongst my personal all-time favorite films.)
Reason number three why I feel it is important to post the film today on it's anniversary is bittersweet. Much of the film was shot one night in and around the campus of where I worked, the then Four Media Company, which eventually became Todd-AO Burbank. Todd-AO no longer exist as of this last summer, but it is often on my mind. Many Todd-AO employees pop up along the way. My favorite moment in the film occurs at around the 3:22 mark. ADR mixer extraordinaire, Dean St. John stands at his mixing console talking about the legend of the Ominous Bride as well as Jack the Ripper. Pay close attention to the images on the screen behind him and you will realize that our tongue was planted firmly in our cheek.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention my beautiful co-star in the film. Natalie Recalde was my girlfriend of the time. Fifteen years later she is my wife and the mother of my children. I am the luckiest man on the planet. Reason enough for me to post the film all over again.
Enjoy.
