Nick Benson
Special Effects artist, Nick Benson got his start on the makeup effects crew for Kevin Tenney’s NIGHT OF THE DEMONS (1988) before moving on to the the horror comedy, DEAD HEAT (1988), and doing special effects and acting as a puppeteer on director Chuck Russell’s underrated remake of THE BLOB (1988).
Since then, Nick has worked on many a horror and sci-fi film, including A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER (1988), HOWLING 4: THE ORIGINAL NIGHTMARE ((1988), SOCIETY (1989), THE ABYSS (1989), TOKYO: THE LAST WAR (1989), TREMORS (1990), BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR (1990), and TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE (1990).
You’ll also find his handiwork in the drama, GROSS ANATOMY (1989); the Kevin Costner western, DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990), and the action-fantasy film, ROAD TO HELL (2008) to name a few. Nick has also dabbled in the role of producer, starting with the made for TV movies, D.A.R.E. TO KEEP KIDS OFF DRUGS (1994) and THE DOWN BOYS: IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU (1999), and currently has a couple of horror films in pre-production as we post this little bio on the web site.
Mick Strawn
Mick Strawn designed either the effects or the sets of some of your favorite 80’s and 90’s horror and fantasy films. From the roller coaster originality of the sets in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 and 4, to the dark horror of Leatherface. From the futuristic low budget retro look of Corman’s Fantastic Four to The Adventures of Hercules, Mortal Kombat, and the town of Grovers Bend from Critters 2. Tales From the Darkside, Ouija Board, the Kindred, Blade, Night of the Scarecrow,The Hidden or Hercules the list goes on and on. He is a guide to what you can’t see out the corner of your eye, and funny as hell while telling you a story. His book, Behind the Screams, is a humorous, graphically fun tome of stories and interviews from A Nightmare on Elm Street 4! His podcast The Dream Warrior Review is funny, marginally informative and features Miq and Kurt Thomas clowning about the latest horror and Sci Fi, as well as Storytime with Miq, which is as bad as it sounds! His appearances involve clips and stories about horror filmmaking in the 80s and 90s, and are just flat out amazing, ridiculous, and fun! Other projects include work on rock videos with Tom Petty, Steve Miller, Dokken, Fast Boys and Soundgarden.
He was the Production Designer and First AD on a couple of recent films films, F13 Vengeance and Games Children Play. He balances his production time with convention appearances at Crypticon, Rad Con, FimQuest, Frankencon, Bleedingham, Scarefest, and many more! You can also hear his humorous stories on Dream Warrior Review his looney podcast. When not shooting he is busy with his grandkids and shooing freshly minted filmmakers off his lawn!
Eileen Dietz
Eileen's first big break started when she was cast for The Exorcist. She portrayed two memorable roles in the field 'The Demon who possessed Regan where she performed all the better known scene in the films; the vomiting, the levitation and the death scene, the abuse of the cross sequence and many others. She is best known for her memorable Face of Death aka Pazuzu aka Captain Howdy.
Hefil debut was the starring role of Ellie in the movie Teenage Gang Debs. The following year she portrayed Penny Wohl in the critically acclaimed independent film David Holzman's DIary. SHe notably appeared off-broadway as the Young Girl in the premier of Bruce Jay Friedman's Steambath and the Truck and Warehouse Theater, then a androgynous runaway in the premier of Joyce Carol Oates' Ontological Proof of My Existence. Her portrayal in the play led to an invitation to do a screen test for The Exorcist. Her Career took off!!!
Eugene Clark
Eugene Clark is an actor best known for his role as “Big Daddy”, the lead zombie in George A Romero's Land of the Dead. He is also known for his roles in over 15 feature films such as Trailer Park Boys – The Movie, TEKWARS, and Unnatural Causes. He has appeared in over 200 television productions, including The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
John Dugan
John Dugan is an actor best known for his role as “Grandpa Sawyer” in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Texas Chainsaw 3D. He is also known for his roles in Devil's Ink, Rock, Paper, Scissors, and many more.
FATHER VAMPIRE
Taking his moniker, "Father Vampire", in both honor and recognition of the first literal Slavic Vampire in recorded history, Brent Myers is a professionally published sexologist and amateur vampirologist whose historical research has uncovered the real Slavic Vampire of history.
Rather than the evil blood-drinking revenant of our Western fiction-fueled imaginations, yet the actual Slavic evidences reveal the Vampire as the deeply romantic, insatiably sexual, inherently other-worldly lover Slavic women have adored since Pre-Christian times, and that Slavic men and the Church deliberately demonized only 300 years ago.
As he reveals by the evidences, the fabled Vampiric "Dark Gift" is very real. And in 1995 this "physiologically impossible" preternatural capacity was scientifically documented in the laboratory for the first time... the very capacity invoking the transformative "Vampiric Awakening" enjoyed by women until demonized by Christianity.
Learn More
First presented to an academic audience at the 2014 "Seriously Staked" Vampire Symposium (Goldsmith's College, London, UK), then at the 2020 International Vampire Film & Arts Festival, and at Phoenix FearCon for years, Brent's shocking research is being added episode by episode on his FatherVampire YouTube Channel and will soon also be airing on Roku and AppleTV through the Phoenix FearCon Network.
Hexencult - Dr Paul Koudounaris
Paul Koudounaris is an American author and photographer from Los Angeles, Ca. He has a PhD in Art History, and his publications in the field of chamel house and ossuary research have made him a well-
known figure in the field of macabre art and art history. He is also a feline historian whose book A Cat's Tale, told feline history in the voice of his rescue cat, Baba the Cat.
He is a member of The Order of the Good Death, In 2006, he started extensively studying the use of human remains in religious ritual and as a decorative element in sacred spaces. He began writing about and photographing them for European newspapers, and became an important contributor to magazines which specialize in the paranormal, such as the Fortean Times, covering unusual and spiritual phenomenon surrounding sacred remains throughout the world.
UNEARTHED FILMS
Stephen Biro is the founder and president of Unearthed Films. An author, producer, director,
chef, and master of the kazoo, he will be at Winter HorrorFest to present a film screening with Q&A,
and will be available for autographs and photo ops.
Unearthed Films was founded in 2002 to distribute independent genre films from around the world in the United States and Canada. We release films in all media including theatrical, home video, television, and video-on-demand. Unearthed has established a unique label brand for fans of cutting edge independent cinema. Over the intervening years, our ever-growing catalogue of films has attracted a dedicated customer base that has made Unearthed Films the “go-to” place for discerning fans of the weird and wonderful.