Tim Lucas | |
|---|---|
| Born | Timothy Ray Lucas (1956-05-30)May 30, 1956 (age 68) Cincinnati,Ohio, U.S.[1] |
| Occupation | Film critic,biographer,novelist,screenwriter,blogger,publisher,editor |
| Notable works | Video Watchdog Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark Throat Sprockets The Book of Renfield |
| Spouse | |
| Parents | Marion Frank Lucas (father) Juanita Grace Wilson (mother) |
Timothy Ray Lucas (born May 30, 1956) is an Americanfilm critic,biographer,novelist,screenwriter andblogger, best known forpublishing andediting the video review magazineVideo Watchdog.
Lucas, born inCincinnati,Ohio, was the only child of Marion Frank Lucas, a typesetter and musician, and the former Juanita Grace Wilson; his father died six months prior to his birth, on November 14, 1955, of a congenital heart ailment at age 33. Tim Lucas subsequently spent most of his childhood in the homes of various relatives and caregivers, seeing his widowed mother only on weekends, when she took him to drive-in theaters.[2][3] After publishing single issues of twofanzines, he became a film critic and cartoonist forNorwood High School's newspaperThe Mirror.[4] He began writing professionally in 1972 when he became a regular reviewer and correspondent for the influential fantasy film magazineCinefantastique.[5] He wrote for the magazine for 11 years.[6]
Though Lucas did not graduate high school,[4] he succeeded in placing an essay aboutAnthony Burgess in the Autumn 1981 issuePurdue University's literary quarterlyModern Fiction Studies. His article,The Old Shelley Game: Prometheus and Predestination in Burgess's Works, was subsequently anthologized inModern Critical Views: Anthony Burgess (1987,ISBN 0-87754-676-2), a collection "of the best criticism available upon the novels of Anthony Burgess" in the words of its editor,Harold Bloom.
In 1984, Lucas began reviewingBetamax andVHS releases for the Chicago-based magazineVideo Times. The editors then hired him to edit and co-author a series of twelve paperback video guides published in the summer and winter of 1985 bySignet Books. Of these, he wrote the introductions to all twelve and the entirety of four:Movie Classics,Horror,Science Fiction & Fantasy andMystery & Suspense. The books were formally credited to "The Editors ofVideo Times" with Lucas receiving credit only on the copyright pages.[citation needed]
In October 1985,Video Times published the first installment of a new Lucas column, "Video Watchdog", in which he investigated the changes made to various films (usually horror, cult and fantasy) when they appeared on video. With the dissolution ofVideo Times in 1986, the column resurfaced as a shot-on-video featurette, hosted and narrated by Lucas, in Pacific Arts Corporation's one-shot video-magazine-on-video experimentOverview, produced byMichael Nesmith.Video Watchdog was subsequently reborn in the pages of theFangoria spin-offGorezone, where it regularly appeared from 1988 for a few years.[7] These early columns were later collected with other material inThe Video Watchdog Book (1992,ISBN 0-9633756-0-1).
With his wife, Donna Lucas, Lucas launchedVideo Watchdog as a separate magazine in June 1990.[7]Video Watchdog added full color covers with #13 (September/October 1992), increased its frequency from bimonthly to monthly with #55 (January 2000), and changed to a full interior color format with its 100th issue (October 2003). Its contributors includeKim Newman,Ramsey Campbell,David J. Schow andDouglas E. Winter.
The magazine's 20th Anniversary issue was published in June 2010. DirectorQuentin Tarantino praisedVideo Watchdog in the pages of the Italian newspaperIl Fatto Quotidiano as "l'unica rivista di cinema autorevole al mondo" ("the only reliable film magazine in the world").[8] In October 2016, Lucas saidVideo Watchdog would cease publication with its 184th issue.[9][10]
Lucas's critical biographyMario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark (ISBN 0-9633756-1-X), a vast work thirty-two years in preparation, with an introduction byMartin Scorsese, was published in August 2007 by Video Watchdog. This 1,128-page work[11] received words of praise from such filmmakers asGuillermo del Toro[12] andJoe Dante.[13] In the Italian newspaperIl Fatto Quotidiano in 2010,Quentin Tarantino called it "the best book on films ever written."[8]
Lucas'Videodrome, a study of the 1983David Cronenberg film, inaugurated theStudies in the Horror Film line fromCentipede Press in September 2008. The book contains Lucas' previously unpublished production history, written in 1983, and new chapters of essay, criticism, and personal memoir.[14]
Lucas'Spirits of the Dead (Histoires Extraordinaires), is a 232-page monograph about the 1968 anthology film based on threeEdgar Allan Poe tales, directed byRoger Vadim,Louis Malle, andFederico Fellini. It was published in the UK byPS Publishing's imprint Electric Dreamhouse.[15]
Beginning in October 2005, Lucas addedVideo WatchBlog, an essay blog that touches on film, music and literary as well as personal subjects;[7] and, since at least 2006, "NoZone", a DVD column for the British monthly film magazineSight and Sound.[16] It ran for 112 issues, ending its run with the newly reformatted September 2012 issue.[citation needed] He also makes frequent contributions of liner notes, audio commentaries and archival materials to DVD and Blu-ray releases.
On January 1, 2012, Lucas launched the blogPause. Rewind. Obsess., a screening diary.[17] It ran a year and 226 columns.[18] In 2013 Lucas debuted the column "Tales from the Attic" as a regular feature in the magazineGorezone, beginning with issue number 28.[citation needed]
Other film-related books featuring his work areThe Book of Lists: Horror (edited by Amy Wallace, Del Howison and Scott Bradley),Nebula Awards Showcase 2009 (edited by Ellen Datlow),If Looks Could Kill (edited by Marketa Uhlirova),The Famous Monsters Chronicles (edited byDennis Daniel),Horror: Another 100 Best Books (edited by Stephen Jones andKim Newman),The BFI Companion to Horror (edited by Kim Newman),The Shape of Rage: The Films ofDavid Cronenberg (edited by Piers Handling),The Eyeball Companion (edited by Stephen Thrower),The Hong Kong Filmography by John Charles (with a foreword by Lucas),José Mojica Marins: 50 anos de carreira (edited by Eugenio Puppo) andObsession: The Films ofJess Franco. He is also the subject of a chapter-long interview inXerox Ferox: The Wild World of the Horror Film Fanzine by John Szpunar.
From 1988 to 1992, Lucas contributed comics stories toStephen R. Bissette's horror anthologyTaboo, including three that formed the genesis of Lucas' first novel,Throat Sprockets. Two of them, "Throat Sprockets" and "Transylvania mon amour", were illustrated by Mike Hoffman, while "The Disaster Area" was drawn byDavid Lloyd. Lucas' otherTaboo stories were "Sweet Nothings" (illustrated by Simonida Perica-Uth) and "Blue Angel" (illustrated by Stephen Blue). In 2013, he penned an introduction to the first issue ofFlesh and Blood, a horror graphic-novel serial co-written byRobert Tinnell andTodd Livingston and illustrated byNeil D. Vokes.
In 2006, Lucas became a published poet when he placed several poems in issues 13 and 14 of the Manchester, England-based journalThe Ugly Tree. In 2013, his first published short story, "Banishton", appeared in the first issue of the British literary magazineThe Imperial Youth Review."[19]
Lucas' 1994 novelThroat Sprockets (ISBN 0-385-31290-3), the fulfillment of an uncompletedgraphic novel serialized inTaboo, is about a man whose life is altered by a chance encounter with an erotic and disturbing film of mysterious origin. It was singled out as the year's best first novel inTerri Windling andEllen Datlow'sTheYear's Best Fantasy and Horror, and was chosen by novelistTananarive Due for inclusion inHorror: Another 100 Best Books (2005,ISBN 0-7867-1577-4). In October 2006,Rue Morgue magazine includedThroat Sprockets on a list of 50 essential alternative horror novels.[20]
Lucas wrote the 2005 novelThe Book of Renfield: A Gospel of Dracula (ISBN 0-7432-4354-4), a complement toBram Stoker'sDracula that focuses on the character ofRenfield and how the circumstances of his tragic past predisposed him to become the ideal pawn for the Lord of the Undead.
In 2020 Lucas announced that two previously unpublished novels,The Only Criminal andThe Art World, would be published byRiverdale Avenue Books, and that the new novellaThe Secret Life of Love Songs would be published byPS Publishing. The latter work will include a soundtrack CD of five original song co-written by Lucas andDorothy Moskowitz.[21] He earlier had co-written her song "Merry Christmas Anyhow", released under the credit Dorothy Moskowitz Falarski in December 2019.[22]
One of Lucas' film scripts,The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes (co-written with Charlie Largent, with additional work by Michael Almereyda and James Robison), a comedy about the filming ofRoger Corman's 1967 filmThe Trip,[23] was optioned by Elizabeth Stanley Pictures, Metaluna Productions and SpectreVision,[24] with directorJoe Dante becoming involved.[25] In October 2016, the script was the subject of a live table reading at the Vista Theater in Los Angeles, promoted as "The Best Film Never Made." The performance starredBill Hader as Corman,Roger Corman himself as Roger Today,Ethan Embry asJack Nicholson, andClaudia O'Doherty as Corman's longtime assistantFrances Doel.[25]
In November 2010, Lucas made his directorial debut at The Factory Digital Filmmaking School of theDouglas Education Center, with a promotional trailer and dialogue scene for a proposed feature film adaptation of his novelThroat Sprockets, executive produced byRobert Tinnell. The self-contained three-minute short,[26] adapted from the novel's "Transylvania mon amour" chapter, features Christopher Scott Grimaldi as Ad Man (unnamed in the novel) and Brandy Loveless asNancy Reagan.[citation needed] The short premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, Quebec on July 18, 2011, as a lead-in to the documentaryJean Rollin - Le Reveur Égare.[26]
In 2010, The Factory Digital Filmmaking School said directorIrene Miracle would direct a short film,The Baggage Claim, based on a screenplay by Lucas.[27]
Since 2000, Lucas has recorded numerous feature-length audio commentaries for DVD and Blu-ray releases. In addition to providing commentaries for most Mario Bava releases, he has recorded commentaries on a range of other subjects, includingGeorges Franju (Eyes Without a Face - BFI UK release only), Jean-Luc Godard (Alphaville - Kino Lorber release only),Roger Corman (Pit and the Pendulum - Arrow Films & Video UK release only),Jess Franco (Redemption'sThe Awful Dr. Orlof),Robert Fuest (Dr. Phibes Rises Again - Arrow Films & Video UK release only),Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds - Arrow Films & Video release only) andAlain Robbe-Grillet (each of the five main features in BFI's 2014 box set, and Kino Lorber'sLast Year at Marienbad).[28]
Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark was named Best Book of 2007 by theRondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards[29] and won an Independent Publisher Book Award Bronze Medal in the Performing Arts category.[30] TheAcademy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films recognizedMario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark with a Special AchievementSaturn Award,[31] and had actorJohn Saxon present it to Lucas and his wife Donna.[32] In 2008, the book received theInternational Horror Guild Award for Non-Fiction.[33]
Lucas bookVideodrome was nominated for Best Book in the 2008 Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards.[34]
Kino Lorber's home-video release ofAlfred Hitchcock's movieLifeboat, which includes commentary by Lucas and by film professorDrew Casper, won the 2018 Saturn Award for Best DVD/BD Classic Film Release.[35]
Video Watchdog won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award as Best Magazine every year from 2003 through 2007, the first five years the award was presented.[36][37][38][39][40]
The spinoffVideo WatchBlog received the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Website/Blog in 2007[40] and Best Blog in 2008.[34]
Lucas' column "Tales from the Attic" in the magazineGorezone was nominated for Best Column in the 2014 Rondo Awards.[41]
Additionally, Lucas won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Writer / Writer of the Year from 2007-2009,[40][42][34][43] then again in 2012 and 2013.[44][45]
In 2013, he was nominated for Best Reviewer, Best Interviewer, Best Article, and Best Blog ("Classic Movie Monsters" and "Pause. Rewind. Obsess").[45] Lucas won for Best Interview for his "Top 50 Best Sequels" interview withQuentin Tarantino inVideo Watchdog #172. That same year, Lucas was nominated for Writer of the Year, Reviewer of the Year, and Best Commentary (The Awful Dr. Orlof) and other categories.[41] He won Best Commentary in 2018 (Kino'sThe Night Stalker/Strangler).[46]
Tim Lucas and his wife and business partner, Donna Lucas, were among the first class inducted into the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards' Monster Kid Hall of Fame in May 2011, along with historian Tom Weaver, fantasy artistWilliam Stout, poster collector and historianRon Borst, directorGeorge A. Romero; and the lateVerne Langdon, from theDon Post mask studios.[47]
In 2005, film criticDave Kehr said, "Tim pretty much invented video reviewing as a genre distinct from movie reviewing".[48]
the new documentary about director Jean Rollin, Le rêveur égaré (The Lost Dreamer). The screening includes a three-minute promo reel of Throat Sprockets, directed by the formidable Tim Lucas!
Tim & Donna at the Saturn Awards in Los Angeles, 2008 – introduced by actor John Saxon and including the acceptance of the Award for Special Achievement!
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