S3E30: Exorcist Meets Crypt Keeper – The “Billy Friedkin Experience”

The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast

#Cinema #Tales From The Crypt #Make A Movie

39:33

"The basic premise of the event is that hunters hunt rattlesnakes from the surrounding environment all across West Texas, and bring them into the roundup for the weekend. And during the roundup, these snakes are kept in a pit and then, one by one, beheaded and skinned in front of in front of audiences." - Elizabeth MeLampy Elizabeth MeLampy is a lawyer dedicated to animal rights and protection, and her passion for this work shines through in her latest book, Forget the Camel, the Madcap World of Animal Festivals and What They Say About Being Human . To research the book, Elizabeth traveled across the country, immersing herself in a wide range of animal festivals — from the Iditarod dog sled race to the rattlesnake roundup in Sweetwater, Texas. Elizabeth examines these festivals as revealing microcosms of our broader relationship with animals. Whether it's rattlesnake hunts, frog-jumping contests, ostrich races, or groundhog celebrations, these events reflect the ways humans use animals to express cultural identity, community pride, and historical traditions. Yet beneath the pageantry and excitement lies a deeper question: Is our fascination with these spectacles worth the toll it takes on the animals involved? With compassion and insight, Elizabeth invites readers to consider whether there’s a more ethical and empathetic way to honor our stories — one that respects both animals and the traditions they inspire. Please listen, share and read, Forget the Camel. It will be released on April 8th, 2025. https://apollopublishers.com/index.php/forget-the-camel/…

about a year ago 1:00:37

MP3•Episode home

Fetch error

Hmmm there seems to be a problem fetching this series right now. Last successful fetch was on March 19, 2025 13:27 (11d ago)

What now? This series will be checked again in the next hour. If you believe it should be working, please verify the publisher's feed link below is valid and includes actual episode links. You can contact support to request the feed be immediately fetched.

The idea seemed so natural. Get WILLIAM FRIEDKIN – director of “THE EXORCIST” – to direct an episode of our little horror anthology TV show – “TALES FROM THE CRYPT“. It just so happened that RICHARD DONNER – director of another great contemporary horror classic, THE OMEN – was one of our illustrious executive producers. It made hiring Friedkin a no-brainer to us.

But then, another of our EP’s – the mercurial JOEL SILVER – told us (or, rather, screamed at us) that we were crazy.

“He’ll kill you! He’ll fuckin’ kill you!” is how Joel put it.

Now, remember: that was Joel Silver talking and Joel was notorious for being someone who “fuckin’ killed’ other people as easily as he breathed. But, Gil and I persisted.

We figured, compared to Joel, how fuckin’ crazy could Billy Friedkin be?

Have We Got STORIES!

As you’ll hear in the episode, Gil went right at that question and invited Billy to lunch where Gil read Billy the riot act right up front. He put Billy on notice that we shot every episode in five days – even Zemeckis! – so Billy wasn’t getting a sixth day no matter what, so he better toe the line right fucking now!

For a moment, Gil was convinced that Billy was going take a swing at him. But, then Billy laughed instead. He had come out of guerilla filmmaking, so this – using our wits more than our wallet – felt familiar in the best ways.

Billy had no issues whatsoever playing by Crypt rules. And his episode – “On A Dead Man’s Chest” is a classic.

Our Panel

Helping us reminisce about our collective experience working with this iconic, mercurial, driven but deeply collaborative talent will be Randall Thropp (Crypt’s wardrobe supervisor), Todd Masters (Crypt’s make up special effects guru), Sherrie Rose (one of the episode’s actors), Ed Tapia (Gil & Alan’s executive assistant) and Jason Stein (one of the Dad’s From The Crypt – who co-executive produce this podcast).

One of the joys of doing Crypt was getting to work with some iconic filmmakers. With some – like director Billy Friedkin, it was both a joy and a Master Class. Quick note – we recorded this confab a few days after Billy died August last year.

To mangle Shakespeare, we did not come to bury Billy, we came to praise the hell out of him!

161 episodes

S3E30: Exorcist Meets Crypt Keeper – The “Billy Friedkin Experience”

The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast

published about a year ago

MP3•Episode home

Fetch error

Hmmm there seems to be a problem fetching this series right now. Last successful fetch was on March 19, 2025 13:27 (11d ago)

But then, another of our EP’s – the mercurial JOEL SILVER – told us (or, rather, screamed at us) that we were crazy.

“He’ll kill you! He’ll fuckin’ kill you!” is how Joel put it.

Now, remember: that was Joel Silver talking and Joel was notorious for being someone who “fuckin’ killed’ other people as easily as he breathed. But, Gil and I persisted.

We figured, compared to Joel, how fuckin’ crazy could Billy Friedkin be?

Have We Got STORIES!

Billy had no issues whatsoever playing by Crypt rules. And his episode – “On A Dead Man’s Chest” is a classic.

Our Panel

To mangle Shakespeare, we did not come to bury Billy, we came to praise the hell out of him!

161 episodes

#Cinema #Tales From The Crypt #Make A Movie

Tất cả các tập

1
S4E9: There's Something PARANORMAL Happening Here! 1:06:14

19 days ago1:06:14

1:06:14

THE BLURB: There’s a difference between writing movies and TV shows about the PARANORMAL and living it. KYLE YATES is a PARANORMAL INVESTIGATOR whose investigations overwhelmed his own initial skepticism. Meet a man whose willingly stood toe to toe with things that go bump in the night while they’re bumping in the night! SHOW NOTES I tackled the paranormal more than a few times while I was making Tales From The Crypt and The Outer Limits and various other TV and movie projects. But I never went at it from the perspective of Paranormal Investigator Kyle Yates. Though a skeptic […]…

1
S4E8: Colman DeKay Knows EVERYBODY! 1:02:03

26 days ago1:02:03

1:02:03

So – why do I say my friend Colman DeKay knows everybody? Because, as you’ll hear, HE KNOWS EVERYBODY! And, he’s so used to knowing everybody that he doesn’t even realize that he knows everybody. As you’ll also hear, Colman doesn’t drop names. But names – ones you recognize cos lots and lots of people know who they are – they come up in conversation because Colman was having a conversation with that person just last week. You know, like he’s having a conversation with you right now. An A List Literary Salon It’s been like that since Colman was […]…

1
S4E7: Field Of Dreams 1:00:51

5 weeks ago1:00:51

1:00:51

If ever there was a metaphorical “field of dreams”, it’s Hollywood. And, in order to get anywhere near that field of dreams, you’re gonna need either an agent, a manager or a producer. Hey – what if you could get all three in one person! In this episode I chat with JEFF FIELD – the man who manages my entertainment career. As you’ll hear, “manager” describes only one of the three Hollywood jobs Jeff’s held. Before he became a manager (mostly of writers, producers and directors), he was a topflight agent at THE WILLIAM MORRIS AGENCY (which became William Morris […]…

1
S4E6: Oscars Shmoscars - It's The Hack-Cademy A-Weirds! 49:34

6 weeks ago49:34

49:34

Oscars-Schmoscars! It may be Academy Awards time in the rest of Hollywood, but here at The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast, we’re celebrating The HACK-CADEMY A-WEIRDS instead! It’s our bad-attitude approach to a business fast going down the creative toilet. As a matter of fact, GIL ADLER (producer of studio tentpole movies like SUPERMAN RETURNS, VALKYRIE and CONSTANTINE) is a VOTING MEMBER of THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS & SCIENCES. So, Gil will tell us how at least part of the Academy is thinking! But, before we get down to Oscars business, we have some catching up […]…

1
S4E5: Endings Are NEVER Pretty 1:03:21

7 weeks ago1:03:21

1:03:21

This episode is part five of the BORDELLO OF BLOOD SAGA. The story will still make sense if you haven’t heard the first four episodes, but you really do owe it to yourself to listen if you haven’t. Either way, you’ll agree: endings are NEVER pretty. Ever, ever EVER! As the production of “Bordello Of Blood” headed toward its climax, we knew we’d leave Vancouver with an unfinished movie in hand. That was ironic because our unfinished movie had finished one relationship (between Sly Stallone and Angie Everhart) and was on its way to finishing another – the decade-long creative […]…

1
S4E4 Not So Special Effects 36:05

8 weeks ago36:05

36:05

THE BLURB: What do SYLVESTER STALLONE, JOEL SILVER, DENNIS MILLER, ERIKA ELENIAK and ANGIE EVERHART have in common? They all contributed to making Bordello Of Blood a horrible, soul crushing experience. As things go from bad to worse, our local makeup special effects team wonders how to make blood, the whole cast and crew turn on Dennis Miller, Erika Eleniak decides she doesn’t want to do movies like “Bordello Of Blood” anymore, Angie complains to Joel Silver about Gil, and we hear an infamous story about SYLVESTER STALLONE, a wireless mic and a blow job from the Assassins set. Never […]…

1
S4E3: Location, Location, Location 51:54

9 weeks ago51:54

51:54

THE BLURB: Location, location, LOCATION!!! Where you shoot your movie or TV show makes a huge difference. One surefire way to turn all your craftsmanship into pure crap is to shoot your movie or TV show somewhere it has no organic reason to shoot. For “Bordello of Blood“, that location was Vancouver, BC. Show Notes Vancouver is a fantastic place to shoot a movie. It’s a fantastic place to visit and live. I can’t recommend it highly enough! But, we didn’t go to Vancouver for any of the local scenery, culture or because of its movie-making chops; we didn’t go […]…

1
S4E2: How NOT To CAST A Movie 31:29

10 weeks ago31:29

31:29

Show Notes In this episode – part two of our five part retelling of the Bordello Of Blood saga – we’ll get into how and why we cast Bordello the way that we did. Spoiler alert – it was sheer fucking stupidity. But, hey – the story of Bordello’s tortured making earned this story a “BEST FILM PODCAST OF 2022”! Here’s a basic rule of thumb for anything where you’re going to hire actors. Get the casting wrong and you’re screwed. You can’t undo bad casting – except maybe by firing the actor. But, sometimes, that choice isn’t on the […]…

1
S4E1: How NOT To Make A Movie 41:42

11 weeks ago41:42

41:42

SHOW NOTES Time flies when you’re having fun and, it turns out, especially when you do it while podcasting. As this podcast enters its fourth season – and fourth year in existence – I do it looking both backwards and forwards. The backwards part has to do with our origin story – the story we told when this podcast’s first episode dropped in March 2022. That would be the making of Bordello Of Blood. From my POV, the primo example of How NOT To Make A Movie. If you haven’t heard the origin story episodes (we repackaged them all together […]…

1
S3E55: NOT Lost In Translation 50:33

12 weeks ago50:33

50:33

When human beings began criss-crossing the globe, they took more than just strange and exotic products with them from place to place. They took stories, too. And despite sometimes vast cultural differences, very very often, those stories translated perfectly well. Different cultures might appreciate stories differently or for different reasons, but the essence of those stories translated and translates just fine. Great stories do not get lost in translation. In this episode, we’re going to talk about cinematic storytelling as an international language. Which, really, it is. Early moviemakers like Edwin Porter and D W Griffith more or less invented […]…

1
S3E54 Princes & Thieves: The Art Of Being A Hollywood Agent 46:45

13 weeks ago46:45

46:45

Making a return visit to the podcast is my very good friend – and former agent – NICK MECHANIC. If you enjoyed Nick’s first visit, you’ll love his second. And if you haven’t met Nick yet, prepare to be blown away by the INSIDE LOOK you’re about to get into the film and TV business. At the DEAL-MAKING level. Where the rubber of creativity hits the road of commerce. As Nick’s great stories reveal, it’s a world brimming with both princes and thieves. How I Met Mechanic I first met Mechanic during the down years after “Tales From The Crypt“, […]…

1
S3E53: Standing Up For Standing In 1:04:37

14 weeks ago1:04:37

1:04:37

In this episode, we’re finally standing up for standing in. Well, our guess RON OSTROW is standing up for standing in. And it’s about bloody time someone did! Ron’s been acting for more than 45 years – on BROADWAY, in TV SHOWS and in FEATURE FILMS. You’ll find him in A FEW GOOD MEN, SPORTS NIGHT, THE WEST WING and THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE. One of the appeals – to me – about the TV and movie business is how incredibly collaborative it is. It really takes a village of people to put on a show. No Small Parts When […]…

1
S3E52: Die Hard V White Christmas - Which Is The Better Christmas Movie? 15:18

15 weeks ago15:18

15:18

Way, way back in season two, we sat down with screenwriter extradordinare, our good friend STEVE DE SOUZA. Steve kinda invented the MODERN ACTION MOVIE. He wrote the scripts for 48 HOURS, COMMANDO, STREET FIGHTER and, of course, DIE HARD. Die Hard set a new gold standard for action movies. If ever a movie, its hero and the actor hired to play them achieved perfection together, Die Hard did it That was almost in spite of itself. Bruce Willis Like Bogie getting Rick in CASABLANCA, BRUCE WILLIS getting cast as John McClane was a happy accident. Die Hard was […]…

1
S3E51: Rules In A Knife Fight 58:29

16 weeks ago58:29

58:29

Earlier this season, we had the absolute pleasure of chatting with SEAN CASSIDY, the son of actor TED CASSIDY and keeper of his dad’s flame. Sean does the horror convention circuit as SON OF LURCH. He really and truly does his dad proud! Ted Cassidy did something only a handful of actors can ever hope to achieve. Not only did Ted appear in iconic movies and TV shows (“BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID” and “THE ADDAMS FAMILY”), he got to speak iconic lines in both! Going in reverse order, Ted made his name playing the Addams Family butler LURCH. […]…

1
S3E50: Encore - Was Bill Gaines Actually God? 1:05:45

17 weeks ago1:05:45