This past weekend I went to Atlanta's favorite sailor moon shitfest: DRAGON CON. I'm not going to go into how utterly disturbing it was to see a girl dressed as the TOMB RAIDER chick... of her own volition mind you, or how weird it was to recieve a compliment on my Faith No More T-shirt from a guy dressed like the main character from Final Fantasy VII (but I appriciated it none the less). DRAGON CON was a weird place, and if you like comics, XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS, and BABYLON 5 more than a good blow job... then it's the place for you-you twisted fuck. Anyway, at the con I was fortunate enough to hear everybodies favorite TWISTER SISTER: Dee Snider talk about his new movie: STRANGELAND.

Whoa DAMN! this flick looks twisted. In case you haven't been keeping up with Doc Oct's rumors.... I'll fill you in on the plot. A psycho-sadist running loose on the internet is luring young girls into his home though chat rooms. Using the alias Captain Howdy, he convinces them to come to his home by inviting them to a party... of doom! Once there he ties them up and plays loud music to disorient them before he proceeds to a:> sow their mouth shut(!) then b:> perform ritualistic body mutalation toture ceremonies on them (!!!). When Captain Howdy abducts the teenaged daughter of Detective Mike Gage, the shit hits the fan and Gage goes out to find The Captain and royally fuck him up.

Written, co-produced by, and starring Dee Snider; this film looks to be a welcomed change from the recent rash of DAWSON'S CREEK horror movies ("Disturbing Behavior", "I Know What You Did Last Summer"). Dee said he was looking to pull away from the standard "chase" slasher movie. He was looking for something a little more realism. Captain Howdy doesn't have any supernatural powers, he's just a freak, like any other, who takes his internet dealings a little too far. Other stars include Kevin Gage (G.I. Jane, Double Tap) and Robert Englund (If you don't know what he's been in... I'm not going to tell you).

Now the question in your head is: "Why did Dee make this movie? How did he go from Twisted Sister, to making fucked up toture flicks?" (The transition seems natural doesn't it?) Well, it all started with the birth of his first child Jessie in 1983. Seeing as how he now had a child, different aspects of society were beginning to effect his life; more specifically violent crime. He saw on the news one night that a criminal had been let off on a technicality after perpetrating a crime towards a young child. This really got to him (as it would any concerned parent) and his response: "If that'd happen to my son... I'd killed that son of a bitch!" That's when the light came on in his head. Instead of just kicking the cat and taking a shit he transfered this energy into a creative outlet. This anger towards the released criminal yielded two new Twisted Sister songs (one of which being the name of his character: Captain Howdy) and created a need in Dee's mind to expand his writing beyond music. In the years that followed Dee wrote several Twister Sister videos (to include the 80's anthem "We're not going to take it"). But things really took off in 1990 after he saw Child's Play. He thought, "Who the fuck is going to run from a doll... it's a fucking doll!" He decided there were no good horror flicks around anymore... so he wrote one himself.

His first try was a screenplay called "HELL TOWN" which he showed his good buddy, Tom Savini. Savini looked it over and told him out right: "It sucked." But what can you do, it was his first try. As time progressed Dee worked on his script writing savy and turned out something brand new. With the internet on the rise Dee decided to go with a character that lures people in through chat rooms. In 1992 this sounded a little far fetched seeing as how chat rooms weren't very common at that time. But now everybody knows what a chat room is. In fact people are even becoming more aware of the dangers of the chat room (with the help of special episodes of: "Smart Guy"). And internet crime is becoming more common. But know this: Dee was the first to come up this twisted fantasy, they stole his idea. As a means of research Dee went into a chat room himself as "Captain Howdy" and tried to lure a young woman into his "den of sin". He got to the point where he was giving out directions to his house and said, "fuck this... it's gone too far." Realizing he had a great idea, Dee knocked out STRANGELAND in no time and shipped it to his ironclad critic of choice filth, Tom Savini. A few days past with no word and Dee got a message on his answering machine from Savini which said, "Creepy man, real creepy." Dee knew he had a winner.

Dee's dream story isn't over just yet. Sure he had a killer script, but he had to shop it around and get a studio to pick it up. With demands like a starring role and a co-producer it wasn't easy. It took him 4 years to get STRANGELAND picked up by Raukous Pictures and filmed. Unfortunately for Dee, the shit sandwich wasn't over yet. In fact a new problem was just beginning.

Once filming started he ran into problems with those ball busting limp dick freeloaders: CONSERVATIVES! For starters Dee has been in poor favor with conservatives ever since he told Al Gore, his wife, Tipper, had a dirty mind. When he first hit the streets in Colorado Springs with this project they said "Oh Satan's back, now he's making a movie." But they decided to film this fucker anyway. For those of you who don't know, Colorado Springs is about as Liberal as Newt Gingrich's Ass. Yep, they're a tight-ass bunch out there and aren't too fond of good natured citizens like Dee. The local college who had initially allowed credit for interns on this project, pulled all credit and affiliation with the film. Did the interns care... well, yes, they weren't getting credit, but they stayed on for free because the film kicked so much ass. The college wasn't the only one that pulled shit on Dee. The assist casting director read the script on the first day, and was so offended she quit right away and went to the Colorado Film Commission and tried to have STRANGELAND canned... but to no avail. As if conservatives and assholes weren't enough, gues who came next: The Christian Colalition. These people picketed the shooting site and sent people undercover to the set to fuck shit up. Sound far fetched? Don't believe me? This shit came straight from Dee himself. Problems with conservatives continued even after the shooting wrapped. On the first cut STRANGELAND was given a NC-17. When Dee heard that he was stoked... but he didn't realize with that rating he'd get no distribution. So they cut the shit up. He said there wasn't a lot lost in the cut, so don't worry. This will also makesway for what Snider is calling the Dee-rectors cut (that's lame? fuck off). He cut this himself ladies and gentlemen to ensure no creativity was lost; That's right, this cut is pure Dee. And he's planning on taking his Dee-rectors cut (your just jealous becuase a Harold-rectors cut sounds ridiculous) to Colorado Springs to open it STRANGELAND. There and only there will you be able to see the NC-17 version in theatres. All of this just to be an asshole... I love this guy!

What?!? The Dee-rector's cut is only going to hit one theatre. That's right folks you'll have to wait for video and DVD for this one. Shit, you'll be lucky to see the R-rated version in most towns. STRANGELAND is being distributed in three runs. 400 prints are going out on October 2nd to big cities (LA, New York, etc..). The next two subsequent weeks 800 more are hitting theatres. He said we'll be lucky if it hits anywhere far from a major city. He went further to say we'll be lucky if it comes to the South at all. The distributors told him there wasn't much of a market for horror flicks in the South... just rednecks and cousin-lovin'. Oddly enough he was telling us this at DRAGON CON: a convention of several thousand horror loving morons. Go figure.

But enough about conservatives... what about the music?! Dee Snider, mad man of TWISTED SISTER is putting out a movie... what the fuck does the music sound like. Metal Baby, Metal! The soundtrack is made up of a great selection new hardcore bands and old metal favorites to include: Soulfly, Snot, dayinthelife, Bile, Crisis, Megadeath, Pantera, Anthyrax as well as a New Twisted Sister song and a Dee original. Dee wrote a song for the intro called "In Conclusion" that was inspired by TOOL(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and Twisted Sister joined back up and threw a track on it as well. But Dee wanted more than just great music in the movie... so he's decided to go a step further and bring the music to you. There is a STRANGELAND tour which will be kicking off on Sept 19th in San Francisco. At the shows there will be a showing of STRANGELAND as well as appearances by Soulfly, SNOT, and dayinthelife.

If everything goes according to plan (which it is) Dee Snider's STRANGELAND will be a massive success and will change the way you look horror movies. The return on the movie so far is so excellent they're already in the works for a STRANGELAND 2. I'm not sure what to thiink about that having not seen the first one, but desipite all the hype it looks pretty bad ass!

But don't take my word for it...
check out the official site:

DeeSnidersSTRANGELAND.com.
It's very educational.