Since it is All Hallow’s Eve, We Are Indie Horror brings you a special Blood Bank on the eve before our sacred holiday. Although not originally, Halloween has a lot of relation with people’s nightmares. Halloween is the night when people can dress up however they want and a lot of the time it turns out to be scary. People put their nightmares on display on this sacred evening.
Nightmares is a unique style of a show. They will take audience submitted nightmares and bring them to life with their amazing special effects team. Following the dream re-enactment, they breakdown the nightmare with a team of psychological, medical, and dream experts to treat the causes behind the nightmares themselves. Sometimes, the nightmares go beyond sub-conscious and move into paranormal. That is when the ghost hunters come in and find out if a spirit is truly haunting the dream. They promise to bring NEW ORIGINAL HORROR with every episode. Sounds right up our alley!
The series creator Jin Kelley comes out of Detroit City and grew up in a martial arts background. Although his family comes from farmers and auto-workers, Jin had his eyes set on the lights and glamour of Hollywood. In 2001, Jin made the move to further his film career and picked up jobs with in stunts. Throughout his stunt person career, he crafted his writing, directing, and producing ability while meeting incredible talent throughout the town.
Since it is Halloween and that day is a high holiday in our world, we decided this BLOOD BANK should be something special! We Are Indie Horror reached out to series creator Jin Kelley and asked a few questions. The answers were the best response back to any question we have ever received. After the quick new teaser below, you will learn how Jin Kelley met and convinced all of the incredible talent such as the legendary Doug Bradley,Kane Hodder, Doug Jones and many many more to dive into his Nightmares
For a more in depth look into the series Nightmares click HERE for the first write-up on the project.
Currently in the final leg of their Kickstarter campaign, they need our help. Give their Facebook a like as well to keep up to date on all the information. Show your appreciation by sharing this article all across the web or donating as a great Halloween present to the team behind Nightmares. Now over to Jin for an impressive look into the cast of Nightmares
Jin Kelley on Nightmares
Introduction
I had the concept down on paper and flushed out and registered with the Writer’s Guild. But I just couldn’t find an organic starting point. Every idea I came up with just didn’t feel right. So I waited. I waited for about 2 years until it hit me while I was watching Syfy’s Face Off. The most important element for my show was going to be the monsters so i needed the right team to build them. I could’ve gone with SFX houses that have tons of awards but I didn’t know who they were. The artists that I got involved I was able to see their personality to some degree which was important to me. The first artist I contacted was season 2 winner Rayce Bird. Rayce is a really cool guy and very genuine. We emailed back and forth a bit and he came on board. He then helped me to find the rest of the FX artists that would be a good fit.
After the artists, I think the first thing I wanted was the Art of Clive Barker. I originally was thinking something along the lines of Wes Craven or John Carpenter, or Clive Barker presents Nightmares but I knew that would be an uphill battle and I was in a bit of a rush. So instead I thought about and having an actual artistic element to the Nightmares series and Clive was the only one that was known for his artwork. He paints… A LOT. I called Century Guild which showcases his art and started talking to Thomas Negovan about using the artwork and he liked the idea and they agreed. One master of horror… Check.
The Who’s Who of Horror
Kevin Grevioux (Writer, Underworld – Kevin was the first person I approached for the series and really the only one I wanted as a main host. We had a few friends in common including one of my really good friends Jeff Krelitz over at Heavy Metal. I loved Underworld and Kevin’s other work but then I found out that on top of being a comic book geek (Sorry Kev) he’s basically a genius. Nightmares is a horror show by nature but I wanted someone who could speak from a place of understanding when it came to the science behind it. It doesn’t hurt that his voice makes grown men cry like babies and impregnates every woman within earshot when he speaks. (Which, by the way, is one of the scariest phone calls to get at night) I approached Kevin on Facebook (of all places) but he was pretty receptive to everything. Definitely a cool guy. After a few phone calls he wanted to do it.
Lance Henriksen (Actor, The Terminator, Aliens – How Lance came on board was pretty funny. I was giving Rashaad Santiago (Make Up Artist) a ride to the airport around last Halloween (I think) and while we we’re driving we were talking about the series. (Which, by the way, I took out a lawn scarecrow and nearly killed us in the process) Rashaad is an awesome individual with a great attitude. He had several friends that worked with Lance and suggested I get him. I remember I told Rashaad that there was no way. He’s too big. Rashaad said that I might be surprised, and I should try. So I did. I reached out to Jane at HTM (I tend to reach out to management over agents because they are just easier to deal with). She really liked the idea and pushed it to Lance and he got excited about it. I’ll never forget that call I got as I was driving. It was a Private number which I never answer but for some reason did and on the other end was Lance. I nearly crashed (again). And he said he loved the idea and wanted to do it. This was the “Holy Crap, I might actually get this done” moment. Lance is an icon, and he liked my project. That was a good day.
Lisa Wilcox (Actress, A Nigthmare on Elm Street 4 and 5 – Lisa was pretty straight up. I wanted Lisa because of her portrayal of her character Alice in Nightmare on Elm Street. The character for me was what I wanted to accomplish with Nightmares. To empower people to eventually face their demons and come out on top. I contacted her agent and they came on board after hearing the idea. Lisa has been amazing to work with.
Chloe Dykstra (Actress, Drag Me To Hell – I’ve been a fan of Chloe ever since we worked on Dark Knight Legacy together. I needed someone that was a pulse of all things cool and being that I was familiar with her I reached out to her reps and they were happy to attach her to the project.
Kane Hodder (Actor, Friday the 13th Series, Hatchet– Kane was a hail Mary while I had contacted his management before, that project didn’t work out. On top of that, we were scheduled to shoot two days after I talked to his reps (due to unavoidable circumstances another talent was unable to make the shoot date unexpectedly.) I didn’t go after Kane because he’s incredibly busy and constantly working. As luck would have it, not only did he happen to be free that day, but he liked the concept so much that he officially came on board faster than anybody. I will always be grateful to Kane for helping me when he did. He’s an awesome human being despite how many people he’s killed.
Doug Jones (Actor, Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy – I had the best monster creators and horror icons that I could find that I wanted to work with, then I realized I needed a creature suit actor. I reached out to Omnipop and was expecting a very hard no, but as it turns out to be they really liked the project as well. Doug is seriously one of the most kind, genuine, positive people I ever had the pleasure of working with.
Douglas Tait (Actor, Teen Wolf, Philip Friedman (Actor, Insidious, Nicholas King (Actor/Stunts, Sinister – This is probably the funniest, unprofessional, long shot that I have ever pulled off. Due to a horrible miscalculation I realized that I had three bits that nobody was attached to say. I needed talent that was in the same thread as what I was doing, but I needed them to agree to it with one day left before the shoot. As it happens, Monsterpalooza in Burbank was underway. I had a number of friends with booths there. I went by myself, set on finding the right talent to do this shoot the next day. The first one was Nicholas, as the monster from Sinister, and immediately after was Philip (whose booth was right next to Nick’s) that was the hardest, fastest pitch I have ever thrown. After thinking about it for a minute, they weren’t doing anything, the complimented the project, and I really wanted them so they did me a huge favor the day before the shoot. Being that it was a weekend, technically they couldn’t even talk to their agents or managers about it unless they had their cell numbers. Imagine being the most desperate you could possibly be with all of your money committed whether you shoot or not, and needing to talk to people that are dealing with fans at a convention. I still have no idea how I pulled that off. Douglas Tait was a little bit different. I happened to talk to him and he needed to see everything on paper which I didn’t have so I needed to go home to send them the requested materials, which I didn’t have time for, but his hesitancy was more than understandable. No one knows who I am, and I’m at a convention blending in with six billion fans. About two hours later at Monsterpalooza, I was talking to J Anthony Kosar who (won season 4 of Face Off) at his booth, and he was also attached to the show very early on. We’ve become friends along with his amazing dad who travels with him. At that moment, as if the Hollywood Gods threw me a bone (which only seemed to happen with this project) Douglas Tait walked by and had worked with Kosar before and was very familiar with his high quality work. He stopped by me and pointed at me, looked at Kosar and said “Kosar, is he legit?” to which Mr. Kosar replied “Very legit.” Douglas then patted me on the shoulder and said “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Kane Hodder – Clive Barker – Jason Goes to HellRaiser
This is probably my favorite component of the series based on sheer awesomeness. In this show, if modern medicine can’t explain an obvious source of the nightmare that’s terrorizing victims, we go one step further and do a paranormal investigation where the nightmare occurred. As it so happens, Kane Hodder heads up the Hollywood Ghost Hunters (a very well respected investigations team) comprised of pros from the horror genre. As fate would have it, when we looked at the artwork for the initial shoot at Clive’s house, the employees told me that none of them had nightmares before they started working at Clive’s place. I then decided that I needed to get Kane up there to investigate and he jumped at the chance to do a never before attempted paranormal investigation at the master of horror’s house. For some reason, we were the only ones allowed to film there, and things did in fat get crazy. Clive and his team at Seraphim Films have been amazing and incredibly accommodating. If you want to know what happened, you’ll have to get the perk on Kickstarter. Happy Halloween everybody!
