DEAD MAN CINEMA
hosted by Dead Wood and Stinko Stinkowitz
 

DEAD MAN CINEMA is the creation of Raul Cruz, who wasted his childhood sitting in front of the tv watching Chicago UHF stations. 

The show that made the most impact on him was THE SON OF SVENGOOLIE.  It was through that show that Raul was exposed to the many monster movies he would love his entire life, Frankenstein and Dracula and Godzilla, etc. Eventually he even discovered Elvira and learned that the horror host wasn't just native to Chicago. Though  SON OF SVENGOOLIE would be cancelled he would make a comeback in the nineties and a new horror host show would also make an impact on him, GRAVEYARD THEATRE. The fire had been lit in his eyes and Raul decided that if any of his pipe dreams could become a reality it would be becoming a horror host.

It was a long road of experimentation. The first thing he did resembling any concept of a horror host show was a gag video he made while on vacation in Mexico. A sock puppet by the name of Stinko Stinkowitz screened a condensed version of KING KONG VS GODZILLA and interviewed Godzilla himself on his show, resulting in the two getting into a fight over Stinko's constant derogatory comments about Godzilla movies. Though no one ever saw this video Raul did reshoot the Godzilla interview for a video contest at a Godzilla convention.

A few years later Raul attended a personal appearance made by none other than Svengoolie at a collectable's store on Halloween. Raul appeared in a skull make up and black hood. Little did he know that he had stumbled upon the look he would need for his horror show. About a year later, Raul began trading videos of Mexican horror movies with friends from the US and Canada. Not wanting to just send them the movies Raul decided to "spice things up" by donning a variation of his skull make up and black hood and called himself Dead Wood and shot segments introducing the movies. Not exactly the EUREKA moment but the idea was born.  

As the years went by, Raul learned of many hosts who had managed to get on television through the wonders of public access cable. Realizing that he could also get his show to air he began doing demos for his show which he titled DEAD MAN CINEMA and was hosted by Dead Wood. Remembering that the idea started with a gag video of a sock puppet he also brought in Stinko Stinkowitz to be Dead Wood's sidekick on the show.

An interesting character dynamic immediately emerged as Dead Wood was the "gushing horror movie fan" and Stinko the constant angry critic who derided the films to be shown. Outside of these two characters there was no other regular character nor was there any set to speak of.   It was mainly Dead Wood's face and partial upper torso with a blank wall for a background and Stinko who lives in a box. The first three demo tapes they aired SANTO VERSUS THE ZOMBIES, GIGANTIS THE FIRE MONSTER and DRACULA VERSUS FRANKENSTEIN aka ASSIGNMENT TERROR. However the local access stations in his area never seemed to have anyone in the office to pick up the phone so Dead Wood's show remained locked in his video cabinet.   It wasn't until Brunswick, Ohio host the Mortician offered to air the shows that Dead Wood finally managed to get on tv.

With his three debut tapes finally on the air after about a year of collecting dust, Dead Wood set about to tape more episodes, sixteen in all. Dead Wood had no set of any kind and yet that didn't stop him from doing his show. Apart from Stinko the only other character who stopped by regularly was Santo, the famous masked wrestler from Mexico.  Amongst the shenanigans Dead Wood and Stinko partook in were shilling the Banana Oil Beauty cream [inspired by a banal line dubbed into the Japanese film GIGANTIS THE FIRE MONSTER] and interviewing Godzilla [the re-used Godzilla convention video] as well as ending most of their shows with a segment called FUN WITH AUDIO where clips from that night's movie are repeated but with new dubbed in vocals.  

Dead Wood also began tracking down footage of other horror hosts, becoming enthralled with characters like Zacherle, Jeepers Creepers, The Bowman Body and Crematia Mortem all of whom seemed to have been cut from the same mold as Svengoolie. Inspired to have his show live up to these great standards Dead Wood dipped into his wallet and bought himself an interior castle set, and the gods of good fortune and unwanted junk honored him when a neighbor tossed out an unused fish tank with the accessories which included a castle for the fish to swim in. Dead Wood now had his exterior set as well.

Work on a second season of DEAD MAN CINEMA began now more closely resembling a traditional horror host show. The dastardly duo were now also joined by Dead Wood's cousin Skullie who just sits on the table next to Dead Wood and who apparently only Dead Wood can hear. Regular characters from the first season, Santo and Godzilla returned for occasional apearances, usually with Godzilla attacking the castle, plus new semi regulars also made their appearances; Siskull and Eeaaghbert host AT THE FRIGHTFUL FEATURE films, where they critique the night's movie, and Mugar the Conqueror of the Universe is an outer space gorilla looking to take over the Earth.

The second season also saw Dead Wood getting out and about, attending various screenings from local "shlock" video director David "the Rock" Nelson and meeting legendary Ohio horror host Son of Ghoul. Dead Wood has also partaken in scientific endeavors like trying to revive a brain with less than the hoped for results. The gang at DEAD MAN CINEMA are currently taking some downtime as season two wrapped a few months ago but Dead Wood is currently writing material for season three if the budget permits.

© 2008, Horse Archer Productions, LLC  All Rights Reserved.