Kevin Sean Michaels
Encyclopedia
Biography and Career
Michaels is best known as Art Director for Troma EntertainmentTroma Entertainment
Troma Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz in 1974.The company produces low-budget independent movies that play on 1950s horror with elements of farce...
in 2002 and worked closely with filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman
Lloyd Kaufman
Lloyd Kaufman is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and occasional actor. With producer Michael Herz, he is the co-founder of Troma Entertainment film studio, and the director of many of their feature films, including The Toxic Avenger and Tromeo and Juliet. Kaufman also serves as...
on Troma's Poultrygeist
Poultrygeist
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is a 2006 musical-comedy horror exploitation film from Troma Entertainment, directed by Lloyd Kaufman from a screenplay by Gabriel Friedman and Daniel Bova....
: Night of the Chicken Dead and for the 2007 documentary
"Vampira: The Movie."
Movie Work
Vampira: The Movie was his first documentary in 2007. The movie profiled the first "horror host" on television, Maila NurmiMaila Nurmi
Maila Nurmi was a Finnish-American actress who created the campy 1950s characterVampira. She portrayed Vampira as TV's first horror host and in the Ed Wood cult film Plan 9 from Outer Space...
, with testimonials by Sid Haig
Sid Haig
Sid Haig is a American actor. His roles have included acting in Jack Hill's blaxploitation films of the 1970s as well as his role as Captain Spaulding in Rob Zombie's horror films House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects...
, Julie Strain
Julie Strain
Julie Strain is an American actress and model who was Penthouse Pet of the Month in June 1991 and later chosen as the magazine's Pet of the Year in 1993.-Early life:...
, Kevin Eastman
Kevin Eastman
Kevin Brooks Eastman is an American comic book artist and writer, best known as the creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eastman is also the current owner, editor and publisher of the magazine Heavy Metal.-Early life:Eastman was born on May 30, 1962 in Springvale, Maine...
, Forrest Ackerman, Debbie Rochon
Debbie Rochon
Debbie Rochon is a Canadian B-movie actress and former stage performer, best known for her work in Troma films.-Biography:...
, John Zacherle
John Zacherle
John Zacherle is an American television host, radio personality and voice actor known for his long career as a television horror host broadcasting horror movies in Philadelphia and New York City in the 1950s and 1960s. Best known for his character "Roland/Zacherley," he also did voice work for...
, Troma's Lloyd Kaufman
Lloyd Kaufman
Lloyd Kaufman is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and occasional actor. With producer Michael Herz, he is the co-founder of Troma Entertainment film studio, and the director of many of their feature films, including The Toxic Avenger and Tromeo and Juliet. Kaufman also serves as...
, Bill Moseley
Bill Moseley
William "Bill" Moseley is an American film actor and musician who has starred in a number of cult classic horror films, including House of 1000 Corpses, Repo! The Genetic Opera and The Devil's Rejects. His first big role was in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 as Chop Top...
, Cassandra Peterson
Cassandra Peterson
Cassandra Peterson is an American actress best known for her on-screen horror hostess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. She gained fame on Los Angeles television station KHJ wearing a black, gothic, cleavage-enhancing gown as host of Movie Macabre, a weekly horror movie presentation...
, Jerry Only
Jerry Only
Jerry Only is an American bassist. He is the current bassist and vocalist for the Misfits. He is credited with creating the infamous hair style known as the devilock.-Life and career:...
and horror historian David J. Skal
David J. Skal
David J. Skal is an American cultural historian known for his writings on horror films and horror literature.-Early life:...
. The score was written and performed by Ari Lehman, the first Jason Voorhies of Friday The 13th
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th occurs when the thirteenth day of a month falls on a Friday, which superstition holds to be a day of bad luck. In the Gregorian calendar, this day occurs at least once, but at most three times a year...
. Vampira: The Movie was released in September 2007 by Alpha Video
Alpha Video
Alpha Video is an entertainment company, based near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that specializes in the manufacturing and marketing of public domain movies and TV shows on DVD...
. The movie won a Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award in 2008 for Best Independent Production.
As an actor, Michaels can be seen in the independent movie In a Spiral State, directed by Ramzi Abed
Ramzi Abed
Ramzi Abed is the founder of "Bloodshot Pictures" and also the founding member of the electronic group, Elektracity.-Biography:...
and played televenglist Buddy Taylor in "Incest Death Squad 2," directed by Cory Udler.
Michaels' second documentary is The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels on Director Ted V. Mikels
Ted V. Mikels
Ted V. Mikels is an American filmmaker of independent cult films. Mikels was also known for his home life, as he once lived with a harem in a Glendale, California castle that contained secret passageways....
who produced The Astro-Zombies, The Corpse Grinders, The Doll Squad and many others. The film was released in 2010 by Alpha Video
Alpha Video
Alpha Video is an entertainment company, based near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that specializes in the manufacturing and marketing of public domain movies and TV shows on DVD...
. Michaels also served as Creative Consultant on Mikels' upcoming movie Astro-Zombies M3 Cloned, the third installment in the Astro-Zombies trilogy.
His next documentary subject is Ingrid Pitt
Ingrid Pitt
Ingrid Pitt was an actress best known for her work in horror films of the 1960s and 1970s.-Background:Pitt was born Ingoushka Petrov in Warsaw, Poland to a German father of Russian descent and a Polish Jewish mother. During World War II she and her family were imprisoned in a concentration camp...
, star of Where Eagles Dare
Where Eagles Dare
Where Eagles Dare is a 1968 World War II action-adventure spy film starring Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood and Mary Ure. It was directed by Brian G. Hutton and shot on location in Upper Austria and Bavaria....
and numerous productions by Hammer Films. Pitt recorded the narration in May 2010. The first part of the project will be released on its own and will be an animated short. Entitled, "Ingrid Pitt: Beyond The Forest," this turned out to be Pitt's last project. It is being animated by 10 year old artist Perry Chen, under the guidance of two-time Oscar nominee Bill Plympton
Bill Plympton
William "Bill" Calvin Plympton is an American animator, former cartoonist, director, screenwriter and producer best known for his 1987 Academy Award-nominated animated short Your Face. and his series of shorts Guard Dog, Guide Dog, Hot Dog and Horn Dog.- Biography :Bill Plympton was born in...
.
Michaels is one of the producers of a new project starring David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
called "Beyond The Noise: My Transcendental Meditation Journey," by young film student Dana Farley, who has severe Dyslexia
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
and Attention deficit disorder.
External links
- Vampira: The Movie Official Website
- The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels Official Website
- Who Calls the Shots interview with Kevin Sean Michaels
- Ingrid Pitt: Beyond The Forest Official Website