{"id":35170,"date":"2013-01-29T18:19:41","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T18:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=35170"},"modified":"2013-01-30T09:42:34","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T09:42:34","slug":"celebrating-nightbeast-jj-abrams-first-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/blog\/celebrating-nightbeast-jj-abrams-first-film\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Wars fans have Nightbeast to thank for JJ Abrams"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
The titular Nightbeast in Don Dohler’s 1982 demented sci-fi horror<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It was 1982, the year after Return Of The Jedi<\/em>, that Steven Spielberg called up two young Super 8 enthusiasts to restore his own battered collection of film reels, setting off the chain of events that eventually led to JJ Abrams<\/a>‘ big hearted 2011 blockbuster Super 8<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The director’s film career – one that would eventually take him to Lost<\/em>, Alias<\/em>, Star Trek<\/em><\/a> and now Star Wars<\/em><\/a> – did begin in 1982, but it owes far more to a less widely known filmmaker, the incomparably demented Don Dohler, than the Hollywood titan behind ET<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Dohler’s career took in underground comix publishing – where he launched a magazine for would-be filmmakers called Cinemagic<\/em> – and then horror. His directoral debut, 1978’s The Alien Factor<\/em>, was a cheapjack sci-fi\/horror film that made up for its pitiable budget and suburban locations with manic energy and oodles of imagination. Followed by 1980’s Fiend,<\/em> Dohler’s status as a sort of backyard schlock auteur was well and truly cemented.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Don Dohler with some of his creations, including the star of Nightbeast<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speaking to The Washington Post<\/em><\/a> in 2011, Abrams recalled corresponding with Dohler through Cinemagic. “He wrote me back and I told him I was into music and doing these sound effects and scores for these movies I was doing. He literally out of the blue asked me if I’d be interested in doing music for his movie, having never heard any music that I had done. It was classic.”<\/p>\n

This collaboration lead to Abrams’ earliest ever film credit on Nightbeast<\/em>, which picked up the alien-runs-amock themes of The Alien Factor<\/em>, instead depicting a solitary, reptilian fiend painting smalltown America blood red. There’s a rubbish sex scene, game special effects, a cameo from the future director of Shark Night 3D<\/em> and Final Destination 2<\/em>, David R Ellis, and it made its way onto the Director of Public Prosecutions Section 3 list of troublesome tapes alongside the likes of The Hills Have Eyes<\/em>, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre<\/em> and Night Of The Living Dead<\/em>.<\/p>\n

To say Nightbeast<\/em> is cult is definitely an understatement; in fact, this movie is so positively underground that it’s fossilised.<\/p>\n

\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_xb4-JuVsOQ<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

“You know,” Abrams continued, “it was such a crazy thrill to be asked to be involved in one of his movies. I would watch a scene that Don Dohler sent me and I would time it with a watch and write down where things would happen. And then I’d go upstairs, and I would use whatever instrument I could use. I had a little porta-studio, a four-track thing or a reel-to-reel tape deck. It was just the most preposterous set-up and I would send him back music, some of which he used in the movie.<\/p>\n

“It was just a very exciting thing, to be involved in a movie on any level. And then to get a credit on a movie was literally the thing that all my life I had said, if I get my name on a movie, a credit on a film, I could die happy. That was all I needed.”<\/p>\n

Sadly, Dohler died in September 2006, and while he probably got to see Abrams on the rise with Lost<\/em>, Alias<\/em> and Mission: Impossible III<\/em>, we can’t help but feel Cloverfield<\/em>, Super 8<\/em> and Fringe<\/em> would have made him proud beyond belief.<\/p>\n

And Star Trek<\/em> and Star Wars<\/em> would have just blown his mind.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cZSrdCrJvlw<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

Nightbeast<\/em> is available to stream in its entirity on Troma’s YouTube channel<\/a>. You can buy Star Wars: The Complete Saga<\/em> on Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk for £57.99<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Star Wars: Episode 7 owes a debt to Don Dohler’s cult horror movie Nightbeast<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":35171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[1,2615],"tags":[419],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/nightbeast2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}