American film director
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David Schmoeller
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Born
| (
1947-12-08
)
December 8, 1947
(age 76)
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Occupation(s)
| Director, producer, screenwriter
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Years active
| 1976?present
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David Schmoeller
(born December 8, 1947) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is notable for directing several full-length theatrical horror films including
Tourist Trap
(1979),
The Seduction
(1982),
Crawlspace
(1986),
Catacombs
(1988),
Puppet Master
(1989), and
Netherworld
(1992). In May, 2012, Schmoeller was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Fantaspoa Film Festival in Porto Alegre, Brazil where his new feature film,
2 Little Monsters
(2012) was screened along with his other notable films.
Life and career
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Schmoeller was born in
Louisville, Kentucky
, and was raised and educated in Texas. He completed a Masters program in Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin. Fluent in Spanish, he was briefly an interpreter for ABC Sports during the
1968 Olympics
in Mexico City.
He spent six months as an intern with writer-director
Peter Hyams
on the film
Capricorn One
,
[1]
before writing and directing his first theatrical feature,
Tourist Trap
(1979).
Tourist Trap
was based on Schmoeller's University of Texas thesis film
The Spider Will Kill You
. Shot in 24 days, it features a score by
Pino Donaggio
, performances from
Chuck Connors
and
Tanya Roberts
, and contains sound effects culled from
The Time Machine
(1960) and
Gone with the Wind
(1939).
[2]
Though it was not a major hit at the time, it has since developed a cult following and been praised by renowned horror author
Stephen King
(who lauded the film as an obscure classic in his book
Danse Macabre
(1981)).
[3]
Tourist Trap
would also mark Schmoeller's first collaboration with executive producer
Charles Band
, who would produce several of Schmoeller's films, first though his own production company and later with
Empire International Pictures
and
Full Moon Features
.
For his sophomore film, Schmoeller directed
The Seduction
(1982), a thriller film starring
Morgan Fairchild
and
Andrew Stevens
. The film was not well-received and generated several
Golden Raspberry
nominations (though it won none of them).
He followed
the Seduction
with 1986's
Crawlspace
(which he wrote and directed), a horror film starring famously difficult actor
Klaus Kinski
. Kinski's on-set antics would later inspire Schmoeller's short film about the subject entitled
Please Kill Mr. Kinski
.
Next, he co-wrote and directed
Catacombs
starring
Timothy Van Patten
. The film was shot in only 20 days, and was subsequently delayed from being released for almost five years due to the financial problems of distributor
Empire International Pictures
.
[4]
When it was finally released
direct-to-video
in 1993, it was re-titled
Curse IV: The Ultimate Sacrifice
by Columbia TriStar Home Video, despite being completely unrelated to the series of films which began with
The Curse
in 1987.
[5]
With
Catacombs
completed but still not released, Schmoeller moved on to direct another horror film,
Puppet Master
, in 1989. Producer and writer
Charles Band
?previously the head of the now-failed Empire International Pictures?produced the film under the name of his new company Full Moon Productions (later renamed
Full Moon Features
). Many of the puppet characters Schmoeller created for
Puppet Master
have appeared in the
various sequels
produced by Full Moon Features, though Schmoeller himself was not involved.
In 1991, Schmoeller directed horror-themed science fiction tale
The Arrival
starring
John Saxon
. The following year, he released another horror film, the
direct-to-video
Netherworld
(again produced by Band for Full Moon Entertainment). In 1998, he directed the
sci-fi
/
adventure
film
The Secret Kingdom
. Following its release, he would not direct another feature film until 2009.
In the early 1990s, he directed several episodes for television series such as
Silk Stalkings
and
Renegade
, and also directed a TV movie called
Search for the Jewel of Polaris: Mysterious Museum
in 1999.
[6]
In recent years, Schmoeller has produced many of his own film projects including the full-length feature
Thor at the Bus Stop
(2009) as well as the notable shorts
Please Kill Mr. Kinski
(1999),
Spanking Lessons
(2007),
Wedding Day
(2008) and the short horror film
Ha, Ha Horror
(2012).
He also served as a dialogue writer for the English-dubbed version of the anime film
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
in 1984 when it was re-titled
Warriors of the Wind
by
Manson International
.
[7]
His most recent film, the full-length feature film titled
2 Little Monsters
, was released in 2012. The film is a psychological drama fictionalizing the modern life of notorious child killers
Robert Thompson
and
Jon Venables
, who in 1993 were convicted of the murder of
James Bulger
. The film's subject matter marks a departure for the director, who had previously been associated with films in the fantasy and horror genres. To get the film made, Schmoeller self-financed it for what he describes as, "a really small sum, about 30 times less than
Tourist Trap
."
[8]
The same year, Schmoeller also appeared in the 2013 documentary
Rewind This!
about the impact of VHS on the film industry and home video.
He is currently employed as a film professor at the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
.
Filmography (as director)
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Films
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Television series (as director)
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References
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External links
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International
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National
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Artists
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