INTERVIEW with THOR about ROCK N' ROLL NIGHTMARE
by CROWGRRL (December 2004)

Rock & Roll Nightmare is a stellar cult classic with a timeless quality - and an epic battle of Good vs. Evil. Jon Mikl Thor wrote, produced, and starred in this fantastic 1987 release.

Forces of Evil overtake a farmhouse, destroying the family living within. Ten years later, a Heavy Metal band (and their significant others) move in to work on a new album in seclusion, and have some fun while they're there. One by one, the entourage start disappearing, leaving Thor's character John Triton as the last survivor. But he has a secret that leads to a totally unexpected surprise ending!

Crowgrrl: You wrote AND produced this masterpiece?!

Thor: Yes, I did.

C: What inspired you to come up with this epic battle of Good vs. Evil?

T: I was a fan of Steve Reeves who played Hercules and Hercules Unchained. Hercules was a demi god as was John Triton. It was a modern age classic story of a demi god coming to earth and battling evil.

C: How did you decide on John Fasano as director?

T: John and I were partners producing this movie. We worked well as a team. John directs and I star. It was great recently again working with John in Murder At The Presidio where he directs. We are hoping this formula will work well in our upcoming projects.

C: Isn't the movie also known as The Edge Of Hell?

T: It was originally called The Arc Angel then The Edge Of Hell. In parts of Europe and other countries, it kept the title Edge Of Hell. In Germany it was called The Face Of Hell. We came up with Rock N' Roll Nightmare for North America.

C: Are all the songs on the soundtrack yours?

T: Yes. We called the band "The Tritonz", which was the movie name for the band even though it was "THOR". For the soundtrack re-release it will be by THOR.

C: Were the actors who played the band members actually members of your band entity Tritonz?

T: Just for the movie band Tritonz. They did not play on the album.

C: How did you like working with the rest of the cast?

T: We all got along great together.

C: How were the FX done?

T: A lot of puppets and building creatures.

C: What were the hardest obstacles to tackle and overcome during the filming process?

T: The very cold minus 20 degrees below weather and being half nude in my Arch Angel costume. I froze my buns off.

C: What were your personal favorite scenes?

T: The shower scene was fun.

C: Any special fun anecdotes of things that happened behind the scenes during the movie's filming?

T: I promised myself not to get a hard on during the shower scene but sure enough there rose the big rod.

C: Looking back, is there anything you would have changed in the movie?

T: It was amazing that we came within budget shooting on 35mm and in getting all principle photography done in 10 days. Then actually editing the movie digitally, which no one was doing in 1986. Our company -- Thunder Films Inc. -- was written up in many trade papers such as The Hollywood Reporter at the time for being one of the first companies to edit on digital. We transferred the 35 mm to digital tape for editing. It's been such a successful movie that there wasn't more could we have done or changed.

C: There are still Rock & Roll Nightmare party weekends?

T: Yes . Around the country are these Wild RNRN Weekends that I get invited to. There was one recently in Oklahoma.

C: Is Rock n' Roll Nightmare going to be re-released on dvd?

T: Yes, there will be a Big DVD release coming up.

C: The Intercessor was originally supposed to be the sequel for RnRN before it took on a life of its own, and you're planning a different sequel for RnRN. Can you elaborate? Will you be writing it?

T: In The Intercessor, The Intercessor character appears in another adventure. It was meant to be a prelude to the upcoming All Hallowed Eve. Intercessor is a franchise on its own. More info will be announced on www.thorcentral.com

C: Anything I didn't ask that you'd like to say about RnRN?

T: Watch out for the upcoming DVD on Synapse Films. It will have an amazing Box. Intercessor might be boxed with it for a Special Edition Box set. Contact Synapse-films.com for info.

END