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Gregory Lamberson is the director of the legendary cult classic 1988's "Slime City Massacre". Gregory has since directed fellow horror films "Undying Love" aka "New York Vampire", and "Naked Fear", as well as horror short "Johnny Gruesome". He returns more than 20 years later for a sequel to "Slime City" with 2010's "Slime City Massacre"

Thank you for showing an interest in my work.

I’m a horror guy, plain and simple.  I’ve been working on horror films since 1984, and I’ve been writing horror novels since 2003.  In film, I’m probably best known for SLIME CITY, which I directed way back in 1986, and its sequel, SLIME CITY MASSACRE, which is making the film festival and horror convention rounds right now, but I also made two other low budgeters, the vampire flick UNDYING LOVE and a little psycho thriller called NAKED FEAR.  All of my early films are available on a 2-disc DVD called GREG LAMBERSON’S SLIME CITY GRINDHOUSE COLLECTION, available from POP Cinema.  The folks at Pop have been great about keeping these films available since 1998, when they released UNDYING LOVE on VHS as NEW YORK VAMPIRE.

As far as my novels go, things are going very well in that department.  JOHNNY GRUESOME was published by two publishers: a small press outfit called Bad Moon Books and my regular publisher, Medallion Press.  My friends Giasone and Marcy Italiano created a rock CD called GRUESOME based on the novel that kicks ass.  I very much enjoy tackling multi-media, and an online comic based on JOHNNY won the New York City Horror Film Festival’s Best Comic Book Award.

PERSONAL DEMONS is the first volume in an ongoing series called “The Jake Helman Files.”  The second volume, DESPERATE SOULS, will be out in October; the third, COSMIC FORCES, in 2011, and I’m writing the fourth, TORTURED SPIRITS, right now for 2012.  My werewolf novel THE FRENZY WAY just came out, and now I’m writing a sequel, also for 2012, called THE FRENZY WAR.

Like you, I’m sure, I’ve loved horror since I was a kid.  All I’ve ever wanted to do is create my own stories, whether in film or in print.  Before I made SLIME CITY, I worked as the production manager on I WAS A TEENAGE ZOMBIE.  After SLIME, I worked as the assistant director on PLUTONIUM BABY – possibly the worst film ever made – and Frank Henenlotter’s BRAIN DAMAGE.  I was also the assistant director and associate producer on WEST NEW YORK, a crime drama starring many of THE SOPRANOS, which was directed by Phil Gallo, who edited both NAKED FEAR and SLIME CITY MASSACRE for me.

To do what I’m doing now, only take it to a higher level.  I’d love to make films more often, with higher budgets, but as long as I can continue working with good people, the budgets don’t really matter to me.  I’m very pleased with the reaction to my novels, and hope to expand my readership with each one.

I don’t have any idols; one thing about getting to know people in this business is you realize that EVERYONE is just a regular human being, with the same positives and negatives as everyone else.  I have a million influences, because I grew up watching every show and movie I could on TV.  As far as influences, I love Romero and Cronenberg, and there are elements of Peter Straub’s novels sprinkled throughout my works in both mediums.  Stylistically, I think William F. Nolan and David Morrell have had a big impact on me, but who really knows?  Part of the creative process is absorbing everything around you.

I never intended to make a sequel to SLIME CITY, even though I left the door open for one with the ending.  That film ended leaving viewers with the idea that the cop character played by Dick Biel would be the next person possessed by Zachary Devon.  But I really had no interest in developing the story further; I have too many stories I want to tell.  I “retired” from filmmaking around 2000 to concentrate on writing novels, but the idea that I could make a better film than the ones I’ve already made never really left me.  2008 was SLIME CITY’s 20th anniversary, and I did a bunch of screenings with the cast members at cons and festivals, and the ideas for a really wild sequel took root.  It’s so hard to finance a low budget horror films these days and get it released, and I felt the first film’s popularity made doing a sequel the most logical choice.  Dick Biel does have a cameo, BTW!

Similarities: Zachary Devon’s home brewed elixir and Himalayan yogurt
Play the same role in this story, and Mary (Huner) Bogle returns as one of her characters.  Robert Sabin, who starred as Alex in the first film, this time portrays Zachary Devon, the character who possessed Alex the first time around, in a series of flashbacks.  A lot of the actors who appeared in my first 3 films return as new characters. There’s also a LOT of slime!

Differences: possibly too many to mention.  The first film was set primarily in an apartment building.  This one is set in a post holocaust NYC.  Four people get possessed this time: Debbie Rochon, Lee Perkins, Kealan Patrick Burke, and Jennifer Bihl.  SO there’s a futuristic, SF angle involved.  The first film follows a fairly conventional story structure, but this one is all over the map, and viewers will not be able to guess where the story is heading.

The best part was working with the cast and crew – wonderful, creative people.  Everybody did their best to make this film something special; it really was a unique, collaborative experience.  The hardest part was producing and directing at the same time; there were just so many different details and challenges to deal with than in my past films.  The hardest part was dealing with an injury that occurred on set.  That’s never happened to me before, and I was worried sick about it.  Thank God everything turned out OK.

I had an enormous cast: the flashback actors, the leads, the mercenaries, the residents of “Slime City” – and they were all wonderful.  Besides those I’ve already mentioned, Brooke Lewis was a real pro and brought a vulnerability to her part that exceeded what I wrote.

Every day I would come home from the set, and there would be 100 new pictures up on Facebook.  In every one of me, I have a grim look on my face because I had so much to worry about.  Finally I saw one of me smiling, and the comment below said, “He DOES know how to smile!”  I just didn’t have the opportunity to enjoy it the way I wanted to.  But it was very satisfying and rewarding.  The day after Debbie delivered her big monologue, I drove home alone with tears in my eyes.  I just had the sense that we were doing good work.

At the end of the first week of shooting, we shot the first scenes featuring all for leads – Debbie, Lee, Kealan and Jen – and watching them create their characters and play off each other, while my amazing DP, Chris Santucci, helped me figure out the coverage, was the most exciting day I’ve ever had as a filmmaker.  Working with talent like that just elevates everything.  And post production was just as marvelous – Phil Gallo editing, MARS composing the score, and RJ Sevin and Arick Szymecki doing the digital effects.

We shot the original SLIME CITY in my hot Brooklyn apartment in the summer of 1986.  Every time we were ready to shoot, we had to kill the AC and the refrigerator for the sound, and we still had trouble because of a Mr. Softee truck that haunted the whole shoot – we’d hear it coming from blocks away.  23 years later, we shot SCM in abandoned buildings in Buffalo that didn’t have AC or a refrigerator – or electricity, or running water – but some sound takes were still ruined by Mr. Softee!  One day I sent John Renna to deal with the problem.  John was the production manager and plays a very Charles Dickensian character, “The Mayor of Slime City.”  He’s this huge guy, way over six feet tall, and his costume included a top hat and a tux with the sleeves torn off, and he wore mutton chops and covered himself in grime.  He walked across the field in costume – and in character, I guess – and the kids around the ice cream truck ran away in terror!  Mr. Softee was very cooperative, though.

I think we’ve covered them all!  I have three films and three novels that are available right now, a film on the circuit that will be out on DVD in the next six months or so, and  four novels on the way.  I also wrote a filmmaking book, CHEAP SCARES: LOW BUDGET HORROR FILMMAKERS SHARE THEIR SECRETS.

The original TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, the original DAWN OF THE DEAD, the original PSYCHO, the original THE OMEN… I’m a big fan of originals.  But I do love some remakes, like THE THING and THE OMEGA MAN.  I’m really a big fan of films from the 70s, whether they’re genre related or not.  DELIVERANCE and THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR are two films I can watch over and over.