MAIL GIRL | Screaming Soup!

Howdy there, Scream Freaks! Lots to catch up on since last we yapped, so let’s get to it, what do ya say?

First off, the Virtual HorrorHound Film Festival we were invited to host with Clownvis and Raggedy Dead Ann was a hoot and a half! We got to watch a butt load of flicks from some very promisin’ filmmakers we need to keep tabs on, mingle with a buncha comedians in the livestream’s chat rooms, and cheer our fellow horror hosts durin’ their segments. Raggedy reeled us in with her deceptively cutesy act, but Clownvis had us rollin’ with his oddball music video, Trafficula, y’all gotta see to disbelieve. And much to our devilish delight, the crowd had just as much fun watchin’ our short film block with us havin’ to keep the film festival’s livestream safe from a couple of malicious viruses found in a VR machine Doc Rex drug outta storage to enhance our virtual experience. Lotta fun, good times, and thanks again to master wordsmith Jessica Dwyer for makin’ this happen. In case any of you Scream Freaks missed the festival, below is our segment minus the short films fer yer enjoyment!

Now, last time we wrote y’all, we teased at an upcomin’ video interview with Alex Vincent, better known as Andy from the Chucky movies. Everyone involved thought this would be a shoe-in to happen since he’s not some pretentious A-lister flyin’ in from Beverly Hills, but lo and behold, we couldn’t twist this former child star’s arm to save our tailbone for so much as a single question. After lookin’ worried he’d be seen talkin’ to a skeleton cowboy, Alex said he wouldn’t do an interview for less than three digits and even hinted he might be a bit gun shy from some cyber bullyin’ he’s experienced lately. With no choice but to respect the fella’s wishes, the best we could do is ask our question and report it back here for you Scream Freaks.

In case you trivia nuts and jokesters didn’t know, ‘long ‘fore Alex popped back in the Chucky movies with Curse of Chucky, he actually had one last literal throwdown with his friend to the end in a little movie called My Family Treasure in 1993. A family friendly flashback flick ’bout a household’s claim to a Faberge egg from the Russian Revolution, the reason horror fans will wanna check this respectably made fluff out (other than Dee Wallace playin’ Alex’s mama) is ’cause Alex has a humorous confrontation with a store bought Chucky doll. Most the movie takes place in a livin’ room littered with toys, one of which is a Chucky doll Alex immediately picks up the moment he enters the scene. He and the chew toy lookin’ Good Guy lock eyes long ‘nough to let the inside joke set in, then he throws the little guy down to haunt the background the rest of the movie. When we asked ’bout this gag, Alex admitted this was all the director’s idea after he figured out the heroic little boy from the Child’s Play franchise was cast in his movie, and he was the one who brought the toy to set. For those of y’all interested in seein’ My Family Treasure in its entirety, it’s still up on YouTube last we checked.

We also owe a long overdue shout out to ‘nother supporter of our show. James C. Harberson III is a brilliant writer who first hit us up to review his graphic novel, Stay Alive (which is currently nominated for a Rondo Award for the Best Graphic Novels or Collections category. Check out our review in our Sequential Slime blog HERE), and is now spreadin’ the good word ’bout his new terrifyin’ anthology, A Disgusting Supermarket of Death. A mish mash of horrific characters and twisted fates, we encourage ya’ll to give yerself a good scare with these gross out pros and head over to its Amazon link HERE to snag it digitally or as a traditional paperweight. And if ya need more convincin’ to read this sucker, just see what our favorite ghost girlfriend Mandy has to say ’bout it with her in depth review HERE! And don’t forget to vote for ’em in the Rondos and throw us a vote while yer at it for favorite horror host HERE!

Finally, the biggest news to happen ’round here lately is the announcement we won a Silver Bolo Award for excellence in horror entertainment from one of our show’s biggest inspirations, Joe Bob Briggs! Yeeeeee-Haw! Kickin’ off the premier of The Last Drive-In‘s third season on Shudder with a double feature of Mother’s Day and The House By the Cemetery, we’re honored to be the first recipients of this season’s winners and happily join the exclusive ranks of those who won ‘fore us. We’ve had our eye on this sucker since Darcy the Mail Girl first made it part of the show in 2019, and persistently suggested our show for the award with the help of you Scream Freaks as a lesser known horror themed series that could use the exposure. Never missin’ an episode of Last Drive-In since its original marathon that broke the internet, it’s surreal this happened the one time we had to miss the live feed due to plans out of town. Thank Craven for social media. As if designed by fate, we just so happen to look at social media the very minute Shudder congratulated us for the award on Twitter!

Thank you Joe Bob Briggs for bein’ such an inspiration all these years. Thank you Darcy for believin’ our show is worthy of this attention. Thank you Shudder for givin’ the horror community somethin’ to rally ’round like The Last Drive-In. And most importantly, thank you Scream Freaks for all your support these many years. It’s your die hard enthusiasm for our show that fuels our creative fires to achieve milestones such as this.

What’s next on our agenda, ya ask? We just snagged a couple more sweet interviews this past weekend with Tyler Mane and Paul Taylor, better known as Michael Myers and Pinhead, so expect to see those vids drop sooner than later. And it’s that time of year ‘gain when we help our favorite horror fam, the Horror Addicts, celebrate their own annual award show recognizin’ the best in horror entertainment, the Ahhh Scares! Scheduled for 4/25/21 on their YouTube channel, we’ll be there to hand out the award for best animated horror of 2020!

Other than that, be sure to catch up on all past Screaming Soup! Seasons, check out this week’s Howl’n Hottie, read recent reviews for the newer horror films and comics we’re checkin’ out in our blogs, R-Rated Reviews and Sequential Slime, and help us get the word out about the web’s #1 animated horror host show! Please use our social buttons in the upper right corner of the site and follow our tweets, subscribe to our video channels, like our Facebook, watch and share all our vids, and keep that fan mail comin’. You can also warm up some Screaming Soup! leftovers with reruns currently playin’ on Beta Max TV, Sluggo’s The Vortexx, and Mr. Lobo‘s OSI 74!

See ya later, Scream Freaks!

SCREAMING AT HOW REDNECKS SAVED HOLLYWOOD WITH JOE BOB BRIGGS!

Howdy there, Scream Freaks! If ya haven’t been keepin’ up with our social media lately, then ya probably had no clue we hit the highways and dieways this past weekend to see one of the biggest names in horror hostin’ next to Elvira and the Mystery Science Theater 3000 gang, Joe Bob Briggs. The legendary drive-in critic made a rare trip to the Queen city of North Carolina as part of his How the Rednecks Saved Hollywood tour, and we were all too excited to see the master at work.

We didn’t know what to expect upon our arrival, but the settin’ was surprisingly casual compared to other celebrity centered shindigs we’ve attended. Set up in an event space on the fringes of Charlotte, NC, there were no masses of people throwin’ elbows to bottle neck into a gymnasium or squads of tenacious bouncers barkin’ how long you could stand anywhere. Quite the opposite. Parkin’ was a breeze, there weren’t any lines to get into the buildin’, and we happily strolled into a space that felt like a barn crossed with a basement with its doors wide open to the warm Spring evenin’ outside.

Inside, ratty posters of yesteryear’s redneck flicks were sparsely hung on the painted concrete walls above decorative spotlights, one of which beamed on a marquee proudly remindin’ us the drive-in would never die. The stage was ready as it’d ever be with a podium adorned with a movie reel. Clips of hootin’ truckers played ‘cross a projection screen with songs like “Convoy” and a redneck rendition of “Thunderstruck” playin’ over the sound system while an enthusiastic audience member failed to get a chorus goin’. A modest head count of maybe 200 fans chatted happily among themselves in anticipation despite sittin’ in the world’s most uncomfortable foldin’ chairs that have to have been donated by a local chiropractor needin’ work. Some of these fans had other reasons to jump out of their seats, however, ’cause immediately to our right, Joe Bob was already greetin’ his fans and takin’ pictures.

First steps in the door, and our minds are already blown! We’ve become so used to the talent bein’ on lockdown ’til an event was over and only accessible under the most controlled circumstances at a designated time and place (usually behind a velvet rope in beach tent), but here’s Joe Bob livin’ it up with folks without a single wrangler in sight! It was all so laid back with everyone bein’ on their best behavior and simply approachin’ him for a handshake or picture. An even bigger bonus was his latest mail girl Darcy (Diana Prince) bein’ there, who we didn’t even know was part of this tour. Seems she has roots in this neck of the woods and even has connections to the Carolina Panthers which warranted a visit from their mascot, Sir Purr, who came dressed as the werepanther from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video. Needless to say, the atmosphere got much livelier when he popped in on the scene and showered Joe Bob with some NFL themed gifts.

‘nother shockin’ bonus was Joe Bob’s surprise guest from Alaska, MonsterVision’s most popular mail girl, Rusty! Jumpin’ jack-o-lanterns! That was quite the photo opportunity for fans, ’cause Joe Bob said this was the first time two of his mail girls had ever been in the same place at the same time. It was even funnier when our favorite ghost girlfriend Mandy told us later Rusty was darin’ her to peek in the little boos room for fun.

Anyway, it came time for the show to start, Darcy and Sir Purr said “Here’s Joe Bob!” and we kicked our boots up to an impressive 2.5 hour speech on how rednecks saved Hollywood’s ass with uncensored Joe Bob commentary supported by tons of pictures, trailers, and clips. Now, we feel like it’s a losin’ battle when we want to share a single thought with folks sometimes, so it’s damn impressive to watch anyone hold a crowd’s attention for nearly three hours and still have ‘nough gas in the tank for ‘nother meet and greet afterward. Wow!

But before we tell ya ’bout meetin’ the man himself, we’ll give you Scream Freaks some of the highlights from his speech without costin’ Joe Bob any future ticket sales. In a nutshell, he starts off with a lot of historical facts regardin’ where rednecks come from, who gave them their label, and how their culture came to be mirrored in Hollywood. From there, he took us through the many phases of redneck cinema from its comedic sing-song glory days to its two-fisted, car crashin’ heyday. He shared its darker side from underage marriage themes to rapin’ killbillies, and gave insightful commentary on why they make for the perfect politically correct villain of all time. By the end, the most important things we took away it all was Li’l Abner is the first comic character to ever made into a movie, Slingblade trumps Forrest Gump, Burt Reynolds was the redneck king, and we all need to show more pride in bein’ Ernest P. Worrell fans.

After Joe Bob wrapped everythin’ up with what he considers to be the greatest redneck movie of all time, we were quick to haul ass over to his table by the door where he immediatley plopped down for ‘nother round of meet and greets. The first person we met with high-fives was Darcy the mail girl who is incredibly nice and sociable. We had been tweetin’ back and forth with her, so she knew we were comin’ out and recognized us by our Screaming Soup! logo we were proudly wearin’. ‘course we had to back up our own excitement and reintroduce ourselves as people versus the animated characters she’s become familiar with which felt strange and funny to do. We gave Darcy some Screaming Soup! magnets and tradin’ cards as a gift, and just as that conversation was warmin’ up, we suddenly found ourselves up next to speak with one of our show’s biggest inspirations.

Thinkin’ ’bout this moment for months, we really wanted to make a memorable impression on Joe Bob with a gift no one else had thought of. Earlier this year, he wrote an article for Taki’s Magazine called Gillette Can Kiss My Smooth Cheeks where he proclaimed an exaggerated love for the Gillette Fushion5 ProShield razor. Who’d think to give a horror aficionado a razor, right? Well, we shake his hand, say howdy, show off our show’s logo for validation with Darcy runnin’ over tellin’ him, “You’re gonna know who they are!” and hand him the razor with some Screaming Soup! magnets and stickers attached. “Can’t have too many of these,” he said. After havin’ him sign a Last Drive-In poster tellin’ us to keep up the great work (which is now hangin’ in the Howl-Inn Grub & Spirits), we asked for a photo, and when he stood up -tarnations! Joe Bob is HUGE! We ain’t kiddin’, Scream Freaks. We think of ourselves as average sized folks, but Joe Bob towered a whole head over us with these long Slender Man limbs. It felt so weird when he put ’em ’round our shoulders for the photo, we had to re-position for a manlier lookin’ handshake ’cause we suddenly felt like children havin’ a picture taken with a big friendly giant. Wild stuff!

With a final thank you, we happily made our exit and hit the road back to the Howl Inn Grub & Spirits, where we hope to blazen as bright of a trail in horror hostin’ as Joe Bob and keep the tradition alive and well for future generations to pick up after us.