Trailers From Hell features various film “gurus” – mostly cult and horror film directors who get to comment on the trailers of schlocky, funny, campy, scary, or just plain weird film trailers from days of the grindhouse era and beyond. Film producer Elizabeth Stanley started Trailers From Hell with Joe Dante (director), web guy Jonas Hudson and graphic artist Charlie Largent. The series was born out of their mutual love of classic films of all types, but particularly horror and exploitation films.

Elizabeth Stanley was the executive for the Directors Guild-Producer Training Plan from 1987 to 1997, and then served seven years as Assistant Executive Director/Director of Organizing for the Directors Guild of America. She left the DGA in late 2004 to establish Elizabeth Stanley Pictures, her independent production company, and Next Stop Management, her literary management shingle. Elizabeth stopped by Pretty/Scary to share her love of exploitation and horror films, as well as some news about her recent producing projects (like the horror web series The Dark Path Chronicles, directed by Mary Lambert, for Fearnet)...

Elizabeth’s deep-seated love for horror films is what prompted her to start Trailers From Hell with boyfriend Joe Dante and her other cohorts. They started Trailers From hell “because we saw there was an opportunity in the digital arena to share with existing and emerging audiences for classic and genre film,” explains Stanley, about sharing “Joe's extensive collection of trailers that he had amassed during his career, and in so doing, to hopefully renew interest in these titles. We then came up with the idea of having working filmmakers talk about those trailers and movies that had influenced or inspired them. And we felt this particular type of content was particularly well-suited to mobile and internet distribution because each Trailers From Hell episode is short (usually around 3 minutes long) and can be watched on the go, or while you're standing in line or waiting for something or someone.”

 

Trailers from Hell features three female film director gurus: Allison Anders (Border Radio, Gas, Food, Lodging), Katt Shea (Stripped to Kill, Poison Ivy) and Mary Lambert (Pet Semetary I & II).

“The fans have been wonderful and the Classic Horror Board recently gave Trailers From Hell a Rondo for Best Website,” she continues. “We've made over 200 episodes, so we plan to continue releasing 3 episodes per week, and we've just made a deal with Content Film to distribute them internationally in various media.

 

After years of working at the DGA, it was creativity, pure and simple, that prompted Stanley to leave her steady job and shoot out into private practice in the world of film producing.

“At the DGA, I oversaw the Guild's work with independent filmmakers, and during the 7 years that I did this, I talked to both emerging and established directors about their work and learned what made them tick, what kinds of pictures influenced them, what they wanted to do next.  And little by little, filmmakers would ask me to read scripts, give them feedback.  I found I really enjoyed the collaborative process.  So, when my son was in his last year of college, and we knew what kind of college loans he/we would have to pay back, I decided to leave the DGA (even though' I had the very best job there) and start Elizabeth Stanley Pictures and Next Stop Management.”

 

It’s not easy to make such huge changes in career after so many years at one place. “The biggest challenge was probably adjusting to the move from an environment where there was a great infrastructure to one in which I was pretty much working on my own.” Admits Stanley.

At Elizabeth Stanley Pictures, Stanley wants to “make pictures that connect with audiences and at the same time say something interesting about the human condition.”

She has some really neat films on her slate, including a Roger Corman biopic called The Man With Kaleidoscope Eyes, with Tim Robbins potentially playing Roger himself. “Tim is very interested in playing Roger Corman, and we're in the process of raising the rest of the film.  We call it a psychedelic dramedy, and I think it will be funny and insightful as Corman's journey in making the cult film The Trip is really a metaphor for what our country was going through in the late 60s/early 70s.”
 
The comedy Expecting Someone Taller written by Marge Piane, “is based on a wonderful and very funny fantasy novel by a British writer named Tom Holt. It's very much in the vein of the Monty Python films.”
 

Along with her recent vampire web series for Fearnet called The Dark Path Chronicles, which is directed by horror veteran director Mary Lambert, Stanley’s taste in producing seems extremely drawn to the genre of horror and sci-fi.

“I grew up in the late 50s, early 60s, watching sci-fi and fantasy and horror films on TV and in the theatres at the weekend matinees,” says Stanley, “I sometimes sum up my life this way:  first I was a Celtic Folklore major, then I was a revolutionary, now I work in the film business.  The common denominator seems to be problems with reality.”

The Dark Path is Stanley’s first real horror production, and she immediately brought Mary Lambert into the project.

“Producer Mark Lieber asked me if I knew any ‘name’ horror directors who were interested in doing short-form content/webisode for FEARnet. Mary Lambert and I had been looking for a project on which we could work together and it turned out that the idea of The Dark Path Chronicles had been brewing in her mind for some time.  So, I introduced Mary and Mark, and then we met with Diane Robina and Jim Burns and Elizabeth Allan of FEARnet and they really responded to Mary's pitch and off we went.  We anticipate that it will be shown on FEARnet sometime in late October, early November.”

As someone who worked at the Director’s Guild, Stanley has had her fair share of working with all kinds of directors. “Mary is very smart, very creative, and very collaborative.  I really don't think of her as a ‘female director’ but I do think the fact that she is female informs her work and world view.”
 

And now for the fun steamy gossip section: Stanley is dating genre director Joe Dante, and Trailers From Hell is just one of the projects they’re pursuing together.

”One of the reasons that Joe and I connected was our love of similar types of films and also the similarity in our world views.  Joe and I are pursuing several projects together but we each have our own projects.  I'm really fortunate as Joe is really supportive, very smart and very funny.”
 

Sometimes it feels like there's a "boy's club" out there, especially in the world of horror and genre movies. How can women get over that and make the movies that they want to anyway? 

“There's no easy answer to this question.  We all know the deck is stacked against us.  So, you have to say, ok, so what?! And just move forward, build relationships, find mentors, continue learning as much as you can, and perhaps most importantly, keep your sense of insanity intact.”