Director Bruce G. Hallenbeck never had a choice: he had to make horror movies. Ever since he saw a werewolf movie on television called THE UNDYING MONSTER when he was three years old he was hooked. It also helped that he grew up in a little town called Kinderhook, New York, which was where Washington Irving actually wrote THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. The legend of the Headless Horseman is big in this town (a distinction it shares with Tarrytown, which is where Irving actually set the story), and there are a lot of "haunted houses" around, so Bruce's Halloween nature was nurtured at an early age.
He turned five in 1957, the year of the big Gothic horror revival; saw all the Universal monster movies by the time he was seven. He saw HORROR OF DRACULA in 1958 in a theater and remembers kids running screaming from the place. He was in Heaven. It changed his life. Of course, it helped that his grandmother, who raised him, let young Bruce indulge his creative interests. He made comic books when he was seven or eight that were based on horror movies of the day; discovered FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine when he was eight, and was fascinated by the fan section in which kids wrote in about the home movies they'd made. He thought, "if they can do it, why not me?" So he started making movies when he was twelve, with his father's camera.
The first one completed was called KIKO, SON OF KONG-it was mostly claymation. You see, he had been in denial for a few years about the Son of Kong's death in the original movie, so he brought him back in his film.. After that, he completed his first live-action movie, THE CREATION OF FRANKENSTEIN, in which he played the monster through most of it, with a Universal Frankenstein mask and his hands painted green. Numerous other films followed, including a spy movie, a science-fiction film and several vampire films - all short subjects of between three and fifteen minutes. And all were silent, shot in Regular 8mm film. When he graduated from high school he took a year off and got heavily into writing; He had numerous articles already published in journals such as THE CHRISTOPHER LEE FAN CLUB - mostly film criticism, and in high school had won a top writing prize for his short story, FEAR IS THE COLOR OF DARKNESS. When he was seventeen, he discovered the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and, inspired heavily by them, started writing his own short stories. Three of them were published when he was nineteen in a professional fantasy magazine called MOONBROTH. He was paid very little money but now he was a "professional" writer.
Of course, none of this stuff paid the bills but by this time he had a state job. Three years of civil service drove him nuts, so he got into radio, with a job as copywriter/talk show host/production director/sales/engineering at a Hudson, New York radio station called WHUC. He was in radio for about fifteen years. During that time, Bruce continued to write for magazines such as FANGORIA, CINEFANTASTIQUE, MONSTERLAND and many, many others. He also continued to make movies; his first Super 8 sound film was called LORD RUTHVEN, based on THE VAMPYRE by John Polidori. Then he did another "music video" film based on Jethro Tull's SONGS FROM THE WOOD album.
In 1979 he traveled to England for the second time in his life (the first had been in 1975, when he met Hammer music composer James Bernard and interviewed him for LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS Magazine) and went out to Pinewood Studios, where a script that he had written based on his short story FEAR IS THE COLOR OF DARKNESS was under consideration for filming by Tyburn Productions. The financing fell through for the project but he got to know more Hammer alumna, and felt yet closer to his dream of making movies.
In 1
983, he got into 16mm
production with a project called CANNIBAL CHURCH; it never got
finished, but enough was shot or an eight minute promotional reel
that was taken to MIFED by Alexander Beck. It was deemed "too
outrageous" and never got funded. Bruce rewrote the script
and it was transformed into a more Hammeresque project called
GRAVE'S END. He got his Hammer friends interested in it, and by
1985 it was announced in VARIETY as a British-American co-production
starring Caroline Munro, Ralph Bates, Michael Gothard, Bobbie
Bresee and Russell Todd, to be directed by Jimmy Sangster. And
the funding fell through. There was actually $400,000 in escrow
for the production, but the investors (who were Greek) argued
amongst themselves and pulled out.
The project was optioned by two other producers - William Paul and Brendan Faulkner - and fell through both times. Everyone loved the script, from special effects ace Ed French to Hammer alumnus Ralph Bates - but no one came through with the money. Feeling frustrated by dealing with the so-called "big boys", he decided in late 1987 to mount his own production in 16mm. He got together with a local filmmaker named Antonio Panetta, who happened to own his own Arriflex camera. Tony wanted to make art films, and Bruce wanted to make horror films, so they compromised on a remake of Carl Dreyer's VAMPYR - an art house horror film. The movie ended up being released by Panorama Entertainment in 1991 under the title of VAMPYRE. It was re-released in 1997 by E.I. INDEPENDENT CINEMA, who also released his tribute to Hammer films, FANGS.
Bruce has written many films for E.I., including MISTY MUNDAE MUMMY RAIDER, DR.JEKYLL AND MISTRESS HYDE, THE WITCHES OF SAPPHO SALON and THE SEXY ADVENTURES OF VAN HELSING. He was also Assistant Director on FLESH AND BLOOD, a Ted Newsom production for Hammer Films/Heidelberg Films that was broadcast on the BBC in 1998.
Bruce also contributed to the anthology film from Kevin Lindenmuth's Brimstone Productions, BLOOD OF THE WEREWOLF. Bruce's story, called BLOOD REUNION, concerns a horror author who returns to his hometown after many years - only to discover that a werewolf is causing a reign of terror there.
And Bruce wears other hats as well. As an actor, he stars in Joe Bagnardi's SHADOW TRACKER as Jonathan Stokes, a Vietnam vet who has become a vampire--and who is hunted by his old army buddy (Ron Rausch), who is now a vampire hunter. It's currently in release through E.I.
Bruce will also
appear as an actor in Bagnardi's upcoming anthology film EDGE
OF REALITY in a story he wrote called THE QU
ARRY,
concerning two men who track Bigfoot, and in another story in
the film called DEAD MAN as a homicidal hunter. He also hosts
and narrates the movie.
Bruce is also a paranormal investigator in real life, and has co-written the book MONSTERS OF THE NORTHWOODS, about Bigfoot sightings in New York State's Adirondack Mountains, which is currently in its third printing from North Country Books. He also wrote several of the "true ghost stories" in the Warner Books anthology DEAD ZONES.
As a film critic/journalist,
Bruce has contributed to such books as THE FEARMAKERS, THE SLEAZE
MERCHANTS and THE MODERN HORROR FILM, as well as to such publications
as CINEFANTASTIQUE, FANGORIA, LITTLE SHOPPE OF
HORRORS, FEMME FATALES and many, many others. He has recently
been contracted to write a book for McFarland Publishers called
FROM A CHUCKLE TO A SCREAM: A HISTORY OF COMEDY-HORROR FILMS.
It should be published sometime in 2008.
And then there's Bruce's personal life. He finally met the woman of his dreams a few years ago, someone who shared his interest in movies such as CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF. Her name is Rosa, and they're now a happily married couple. His marriage proposal was inserted into a tape of CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, which had Rosa hysterically giving him a "yes" to that proposal.
Now Rosa is part of the Pagan Productions team: In the upcoming Pagan Production LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT, she portrays three characters (including a demon), as well as contributing make-up effects and holding the boom. In BLOOD REUNION, she played the major role of "Granny Radford" and did the special effects make-up. In the upcoming film THD DROWNED she plays another major role, that of Colleen O' Hanlon, the heroine's best friend. She also made up several actors as undead apparitions for the film. As if that weren't enough, Rosa is a writer who is currently juggling several projects, including a children's book, a number of screenplays and a teleplay or two.
Who knows what the future holds? One thing we can guarantee: it will be frightening!