Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "nivek ogre"

'The Devil's Carnival' troupe travels to Sacramento

2012-05-05T04:07:04Z

The Colonial Theatre has been home to many fun and interactive events put on by the Sacramento Horror Film Festival including shadowcast performances, film festivals and even concerts.

On Friday, May 11, the Sacramento Horror Film Festival will sponsor, “The Devil’s Carnival,” a traveling musical horror film that will be playing at the Colonial Theatre.

“The Devil’s Carnival” is the next project from the minds of Darren Lynn Bousman, director of several of the “Saw” films and “Repo! The Genetic Opera,” and Terrance Zdunich, co-writer of “Repo! The Genetic Opera.”

“The Devil’s Carnival,” which began its tour of the U.S. on April 5, tells the tale of three types of people as they tour a carnival run by the devil himself.

The flick is sure to appeal to a niche audience of horror film and macabre musical fans. In addition to subject matter that should tease any horror fanatic’s senses, it features musicians such as Nivek Ogre of Skinny Puppy, Emilie Autumn of the group Emilie Autumn, and even “Clown” Shawn Crahan of Slipknot.

Fans of Zdunich and Bousman’s past rock opera, “Repo! The Genetic Opera,” will also be pleased to know that many of the film’s actors will be returning to play new characters. Paul Sorvino, Bill Moseley, Jessica Lowndes and Zdunich himself all have starring roles in “The Devil’s Carnival.”

“The Devil’s Carnival” may be a new release, but it has already acquired a cult following. The film’s Facebook page shows that devoted attendees show up dressed as their favorite characters and have even made the effort to see the movie more than once at different locations.

In addition to watching a unique and devilishly fun flick, locals who attend the show can expect the film’s creators and stars to hang around afterwards to sign autographs and answer questions.

A full touring schedule for “The Devil’s Carnival” can be found on the movie’s website.

Skinny Puppy "Hands Over" another great album

2011-10-11T04:19:57Z

Industrial powerhouse Skinny Puppy’s vocalist Nivek Ogre was in Sacramento at the Colonial Theater on Saturday to support a local performance of “Repo! The Genetic Opera,” a film in which he played a major role. Ogre also discussed Skinny Puppy’s fourteenth album entitled “hanDover,” which is set to be released at the end of this month.

Cevin Key, Nivek Ogre, Ken “Hiwatt” Marshall, and Mark Walk have all teamed up once more to bring electronic music fans another album that crosses the borders of experimental territory and moves into the surreal.

As a whole, the record conveys a sense of sadness, melancholy, and hopelessness. Tracks such as “Ovirt,” “AshAs” and “Cullorblind” set a slower pace for “hanDover,” and hearken back to the sounds of “The Greater Wrong of the Right,” released in 2004.

“It’s written from the perspective of someone who doesn’t have apathy necessarily, but is resigned to what’s happening,” explained Ogre. “It’s a bit hopeless. And it’s a bit how we feel as a band really. It’s a bit jittery and unsure of what’s next.”

“Brownstone” is an interesting tune that marks a departure from Ogre’s signature discordantly dark and synthetic vocal style. The stream of consciousness raving is not only spoken in a higher pitched tone, but carries the same sense of pleasant incoherence that is reminiscent of some of the chants on the OhGr record “Devils in My Details.”

“It was a one-take rant,” Ogre said. “There was no editing on the vocals. And really even that many vocal effects on it. It was all a weird voice that I got in to. And then a stream of consciousness rant, which I was very happy with.”

According to Ogre, “Brownstone” the song marked the conceptualization of Mr. Brownstone, the character of his creation. While "Brownstone" as a song is still as mysterious as Mr. Brownstone the character, Ogre did offer some interesting insight as to his inspirations behind the track.

“I used to love a song off the Velvet Underground album ‘White Light White Heat’ called ‘The Gift.’ Basically it’s the story of a boyfriend sending himself to his girl in a package. And when he arrives at the end, she’s so excited that she punches it open with a big pair of scissors and it goes right through the box, right through his head and into his brain. And the last thing is little blobs of blood floating out of the box. So it was very much in that spirit.”

Another song of note is the deliciously angry and pulsing “Village.” Its catchy chorus and raging energy set it apart from “hanDover’s” calm and collected tracks and give it the feel of a musical tantrum.

“I think in a lot of ways there’s a sense of impotency in the anger because no matter how much anger one puts in, it’s only negating what’s going to happen further in a lot of ways,” Ogre elaborated. “It’s allowing the negation to continue. ‘Village’ is a bit scornful and a bit condescending in the sense of, ‘Ha ha ha. You asked for it. You got it.’”

Like most other Skinny Puppy records, the lyrics require careful attention to decipher. They often seem to not make any sense, but at the same time, they make perfect sense within the context of the song.

“I went back into more stream of consciousness lyric writing,” Ogre said. “What I used to do as a child was sit down and just write a page of words and then pick out phrases and put those together. So I kind of went back to that for this record. Which again kind of gave me the jittery feeling, so I didn’t know if what I was writing made any sense at all ultimately. But it did. To me anyway.”

Skinny Puppy is set to tour in the spring of 2012. According to Ogre, the band will be going “farther than we’ve ever gone before,” which means Sacramento could be on the roster, although he did not give any solid details on cities the band would visit.

Buckets of blood at the Halloween Sacramento Sweets 'Repo' shadowcast

2011-10-10T03:40:10Z

Halloween arrived early this year.

Saturday night at the Colonial Theatre, people showed up dressed in the their best Halloween finery for the Sacramento Sweets shadowcast production of “Repo! The Genetic Opera.” They were in for an evening of blood, gore and theater, not to mention special guest appearances by Nivek Ogre, who plays Pavi Largo in the film, as well as Joseph Bishara, who worked on the film’s score and is also well known for being the evil lipstick demon in the recent horror flick “Insidious.”

The evening kicked off with a concert by a female-fronted industrial band i:Scintilla, who performed at the Colonial last June for the Sacramento Horror Film Fest’s first concert series.

After a chaotic blowing out of the stage power in the middle of their first song, order was restored and “Repo” fans were able to enjoy an energetic hybrid rock/industrial set. i:Scintilla played songs such as “Ammunition” and “Swimmers Can Drown,” which the group recently released a music video for.

Before the headlining act, there was a special screening of a short film directed by Staci Layne Wilson, “The Key to Annabel Lee.” The narrator in Wilson’s interpretation of Poe’s classic poem is played by Ogre, one of the special guests in attendance.

The Sacramento Sweets have been reenacting the cult classic film “Repo” for two years now, but the theater troupe manage to keep their performance fresh and fun by adding some Halloween twists. It was probably the group’s most humorous (but bloody!) show to date.

A number of silly scenes were spliced into the Sweets’ rendition. Dr. Frank-N-Furter of “Rocky Horror Picture Show” fame was loudly applauded as he emerged onstage to sing his trademark song, “Sweet Transvestite from Transsexual Transylvania.”

At another point, Amber Sweet and her cronies burst into Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” dance after a scene where Amber literally loses her face.

Another scene in “Repo” that is supposed to be a serious ballad about money and death was made into a silly dance number when the actor pulled out a golden ticket and proceeded singing the famous “Golden Ticket” tune from “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.”

Some famous horror icons also made cameos throughout the evening. Michael Myers, Freddy Kruger and even the Lipstick Demon of “Insidious” all showed up at one point or another to steal the scene.

Special guest Bishara said the Halloween aspects of the show were “a nice touch.” “It’s pretty nice to see Michael Myers running around the ‘Repo’ stage,” he said.

While the show definitely had a more humorous edge, it did not forget that the film is grounded in the horror genre.

The Colonial was splattered in fake blood by the night’s end. It was a night of killer squibs. People in the first few “splash zone” rows were given ponchos, and people sitting in the back of the theater were still hit by stray blood droplets. Even the light fixtures on the ceiling got sprayed.

Fans were welcome to stick around after the show to get autographs from Ogre and Bishara. Both were happy to answer questions, take photos and socialize.

“Interacting with all the people is the best part about these events,” Ogre said. “I’ve found that all these people are wonderful people. The horror community in general is very soft-spoken and a very unique group of people. I always embrace outsiders and we’re all outsiders, broken toys.”

Ogre, who came to see the Sacramento Sweets perform last year, liked the show just as much the second time around.

“I had a little more of an expectation of what was going to happen, but there were still enough unique experiences within the production that made it wonderful,” Ogre said. “It’s a very complex stage show, and it’s a lot of fun. It both pays tribute to, makes fun of, gets you to laugh along with it, as well as laugh at it, but at the same time you don’t laugh at yourself.”

Bishara also seemed to enjoy himself.

“I had a blast,” he said. “There were a lot of unexpected things like cutting in the deleted scenes and breaking into ‘Rocky Horror.’ It was a good show.”

The Sacramento Sweets troupe will continue to perform “Repo” shadowcasts, but they also have other tricks and treats in store for fans of film and theater. Sac Horror Film Fest founder and producer Tim Meunier said the team is in the creative process of putting together a production of “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.” Posters plastered all over the Colonial indicate that a “Rocky Horror” shadowcast is also in the works.

Sacramento's Amber's Sweets cast celebrates its one year anniversary

2010-12-14T08:03:01Z

Saturday night the Amber’s Sweets “Repo! The Genetic Opera” shadowcast celebrated its one-year anniversary with a bang by performing in front of a very enthusiastic crowd and several special guests from the film.

In attendance Saturday was Nivek Ogre, who plays the role of Pavi Largo, a character known in the film for wearing other people’s faces on his own as well as his panty-snatching antics. Ogre is also known among “Repo!” fans for his work with the industrial band Skinny Puppy and for his solo project, OhGr.

Actor Bill Moseley (“House of 1000 Corpses,” “The Devil’s Rejects” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre II”) also made an appearance. In the film, Moseley plays Pavi Largo’s homicidal brother, Luigi, and the two form sort of an Abbot and Costello pairing while they fight over which of them will inherit their father’s company.

“Repo!’s” co-creator, Darren Smith, and wife Nancy Long attended the show for the third time. Smith not only came out to meet and greet his fans, but he also came to support his wife, who performed in an a capella trio called “The Cans” along with two other famous people from the “Repo!” world – Corrie Shenigo and Alisa Burket. Shenigo is known for singing the original demo from one of the songs from “Repo!” called “Infected,” while Burket plays an evil henchwoman in the movie.

“It’s really cool to know that we have such an awesome cast and that all the famous people wanna come see us,” said Kirsten Wilkins, who plays Single Mom.

As always, the line to get into the Colonial Theater stretched around the corner, and the parking lot was full.

Vendors inside the theater offered fans everything from nearly impossible-to-find horror DVDs to excellent-quality Amber’s Sweets swag. There were even blue glowsticks available for purchase so that Z-addicted audience members could satisfy their craving for some late-night Zydrate like their favorite characters in the movie.

The Cans were first to take the stage. The trio sang a song called “One Meatball” in the spirit of the Andrews Sisters. This was followed by a rendition of “Thankless Job,” a song in “Repo!” where The Repoman inserts his hand inside the torso of a corpse and makes him talk like a puppet. Smith joined his wife on stage and provided the backing vocals for the “puppet.”

The audience roared its approval when the lights turned off and the previews started. At an Amber Sweets “Repo!” show, even the previews are “Repo!” and horror-movie-themed. The crowd favorite (as always) was probably the metal-singing hard-rock animated snack bar characters. With an evil Nacho on drums, a multi-pierced Dot candy lead singer and a hardcore pretzel playing the guitar, the wholesome and “normal” snack foods got kicked off the screen. Meanwhile the audience got an earful of hilarious death-metal with lyrics such as “Don’t talk. Watch!” and “Your money is now our money!”

Geeks and movie buffs alike cheered while a very creative plot explanation inspired by the beginning credits of “Star Wars” introduced “Repo!” and the show finally started.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that each time the Sweets perform, the show gets better.

“Every show we have special guests, and we do better each time,” said director Ashley Porciuncula.

Since the last show featured a gunshot to the head that sprayed about 15 feet into the air, it would seem hard to believe that the special effects could get any more impressive. However, for every knife slash there was blood that sprayed, and for every organ repossession, there were “souvenirs” tossed into the audience.

The cast members pay attention to detail, especially when it comes to being responsible for their own roles. All the characters have costumes and accessories that match those of their on-screen counterparts. Each of their gestures is timed to match what’s happening on the screen, and if it can’t be reproduced exactly, then the cast comes up with a creative way to portray it. For instance, this time around, for a scene where Rotti Largo rides around in a car with Shilo, Justin Boeser (who plays Rotti) rolled around stage on a little scooter to humorously simulate the motion of a car.

“I think one of my favorite parts was probably Rotti strolling around on his little scooter,” Ogre said. “I like the little things – I like the jazz hands, I like the little parts that they put in that are kind of, not making fun of it, but taking the laugh along with it. I liked the way that they incorporated a lot of the visuals up on the wall. It kind of brings everybody into the scene.”

Another fun aspect to Saturday’s show was the Christmas decorations incorporated ever so cleverly into the scenes and the set. In Shilo’s room, a stocking hung on the wall, and nearly every character wore a Santa hat at some point during the show.

Because it’s part of the experience of attending a shadowcast, the audience might mock and jeer at the characters on stage as well as at the movie, but the actors certainly take their roles seriously.

“We don’t make fun of the production,” explained Elisabeth Evans, who played Amber Sweet. “We don’t mock it. We try to pay homage to it and make it the best that it can be. We want to give it credit and do it as real as possible. We maybe add a little humor here and there, but nothing that would demoralize it or degrade it in any way.”

“We kind of take things to a new level,” elaborated Catt Miller, who plays Shilo Wallace. “I don’t think we’re technically considered a shadowcast anymore. We’re more of a live performance cast.”

Immediately following the show was a very brief question-and-answer session with Smith, Ogre and Moseley. Ogre and Moseley discussed their plans for future projects (more movies for Moseley and new OhGr and Skinny Puppy records for Ogre), and Smith delighted fans by claiming that a special director’s cut of “Repo!” with all the deleted scenes included was in the works.

Following the Q and A, tables were set up where fans were able to get autographs and take photos with all the special guests.

Now that the Sweets have proved they’re here to stay, the next thing on their plate is an understudy performance.

“After this show, we are going to be doing an understudy show, which means the understudies of all the main characters will play the main roles for that show,” clarified Dani Fontana, who plays Graverobber. “So next show you probably won’t see me as Graverobber. So basically, we’ll be like extras or whatever.”

It’s obvious that the Amber’s Sweets “Repo!” cast is not an ordinary shadowcast, especially since so many people involved with the real movie have come out to show their support.

“I thought the whole show was fantastic,” Moseley said. “I’ve seen maybe 10 or 12 different shadowcasts, and this was by far, like head and shoulders above anything I’ve seen. This was amazing.”

Even though the Sweets cast members have had the opportunity to mingle with so many of their personal heroes, it still never gets old for them to know that they’ve brought new life to the film.

“The most memorable moment (for me) was when Darren Smith told me that my performance in ‘Legal Assassin’ was the best he had seen,” said Tim Meunier, who is the show’s producer and also plays Nathan Wallace/The Repoman on stage. “I wear that compliment on my heart and soul."

For more information on the Amber’s Sweets cast, including information on future performances, check out amberssweets.com. For footage of complete interviews with all cast members and special guests, visit http://www.youtube.com/user/FarTooFrailChez?feature=mhum.

All photos courtesy of David Alvarez