ANDRE DUZA is a talented writer of horror and bizarro fiction, who is probably best known for his novel DEAD BITCH ARMY, which was also recently spun off into a graphic novel called HOLLOW-EYED MARY. His other books include JESUS FREAKS, NECO SEX MACHINE, and the upcoming BIG DADDY NOFACE.

I recently sat down with him to talk about horror, bizarro fiction, and just life in general. Here's the interview.

**

Okay, let's start out with your titles, like DEAD BITCH ARMY and NECRO SEX MACHINE. Where do you come up with these great titles?


I've always had a thing for titles that convey the vibe of the story in a way that they almost become characters in themselves. Like, without the title, the short story/book/movie, whatever, just wouldn't be the same.

Having said that, there's no real process that I go through. Sometimes the title leaps out of the story as I'm writing it, and sometimes the story flows from the title. Dead Bitch Army came from a slanderous term that survivors of the war used to defame Mary and deface her army's propaganda posters.

The title became sort of a polarizing thing where people automatically assumed that I was some kind of misogynistic asshole. But then, one of the themes of the book was the effect of baseless, knee-jerk assumptions toward that which we don't understand, so it kind of worked out perfectly.


What made you want to become a writer? How early did you start writing?


I was sketching and painting as far back as I can remember, so I was working the creative motor early. When I was eight, I was abducted by a child molester. I came from a religious family who liked to brush things under the rug, so there was no real outlet for the horrible shit that was swirling around my head for the few years after that. I was in and out of therapy, during which time I began acting out. Things got so bad that I attacked one of my teachers with a meat cleaver and another one with a hockey stick. One of the therapists suggested that I write my thoughts down in a journal, and that's how it all started.


What was your first professional sale?


AD: Years ago I was hired to write an urban, coming-of-age script, entitled Throwdown, for a production company here in Philly. The story, which was based on their treatment, was set against the backdrop of high-school basketball.


Do you consider yourself primarily a horror writer or a bizarro writer? Is there a distinction? What do you enjoy writing more?

AD: Labels schmabels, man. I just write what comes. Because we writers are forced into categories, I guess I would say that I consider myself a bizarro writer with a fondness for horror... or a horror writer with a fondness for the bizarre.


What authors influenced you growing up? Which writers do you enjoy most now?


I'd say that H.G. Wells, Octavia Butler, Joe R. Landsdale, Elmore Leonard, Hunter S. Thompson, and Ni Kuang were big inspirations. I loved Gary Brandner's (Text) Howling novels, and William Blatty's The Exorcist was the first book to really scare the shit out of me. But the main influences in shaping my style of writing come more from journalistic storytelling than fiction. I went through a period where I was a sucker for "strange-but-true" news stories and paranormal books presented as fact-based (ghosts, UFOs, cryptozoology, etc.). Jay Anson's The Amityville Horror was a perfect sort of bridge between reality and fiction for me. Of course, the Lutz's story turned out to be utter bullshit, but at the time I read it, I thought it was real.

When I do find time to read anymore, I've been getting into Ed Lee and Wrath James White's work. One of my current faves is a book called The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry by Legs McNeil and Jennifer Osborne.

Tell us something about each of your novels.

Okay.

Dead Bitch Army - People often refer to it as a zombie novel, but I never saw it that way. To me, it was more of an origin story of a supervillain wrapped in a twisted grindhouse fairytale. The fact that Mary is essentially a living corpse is just a result of her pure, undying rage. Although the cult that she was raised in did practice cannibalism, she's more concerned with revenge, and fulfilling her destiny than munching on human flesh. And despite her physical limitations, she's still as cunning and devious as she ever was in life.

There were actually two versions of the novel: the original version, which was not professionally edited, and the revised edition that is currently available.

Jesus Freaks - This was my zombie novel. I wanted to approach the genre from a different angle, focusing on the biblical end-times scenario as the impetus for the zombie outbreak. Once I started down that path, the "two Jesus" subplot began to materialize on its own.

Necro Sex Machine - A post-apocalyptic free-for-all. This was to Dead Bitch Army what ALIENS was to ALIEN.

Bands of organized militias battle for what's left of America after the third world war. Mary's Revenant Clan is one of the few dominant armies to rise from the ashes of the war-torn wasteland. But there is a new challenger to the throne, an army that is systematically laying waste to everything in its path. Like Mary, her soldiers are impervious to the toxic atmosphere that has forced everyone else to hide beneath gas masks and protective clothing.


This was my homage to post-apocalyptic films like THE ROAD WARRIOR and the 1984 animated FIST OF THE NORTH STAR film (in all its disjointed glory), and to the writing team of Ni Kuang and director Chang Cheh.

Hollow-Eyed Mary Graphic Novel (See Dead Bitch Army ) - Despite all the problems I went through with this, I was really proud of the finished product. Rudolf Montemayor's artwork literally jumped off of the page with the help of Juanmar's brilliant colors. As a team, I felt that they perfectly captured the novel's raw intensity. I look forward to working with those guys again in the future.


Big Daddy NoFace (upcoming) - Probably my most straightforward book to date in terms of narrative and story structure?as straightforward as my mind would allow, anyway.

A college student struggles to put her life back together after she is saved from an attempted rape by a good Samaritan who turns out to be a blind, sword-wielding assassin with ties to clandestine government experimentation.

I wrote it as I was going through the nightmare with Hollow-Eyed Mary, so some of those feelings made their way into the story. The killer is blind and has a special way of incapacitating his victims. The feelings of helplessness that I experienced during that whole debacle fed into the peculiar aspects of the story.


Did movies influence you as a writer? If so, which ones?


I was really into Sergio Leone's and Chang Cheh's films in my teens. George Romero's early films had a big impact, as did Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING and FULL METAL JACKET. And John Carpenter, during that period from '78 to '87 when he produced HALLOOWEEN, THE FOG, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, THE THING, CHRISTINE, STARMAN, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, and PRINCE OF DARKNESS, definitely left a lasting impression.

I was all about films where the music and the images worked in perfect concert to create a self-contained world that was so detailed that it was almost more real than reality. Even when the movie was bad, it was usually shamelessly so, which in some strange way added to its infectious appeal. In fact, I usually have a soundtrack from these types of films playing in the background while I write. Currently I've been working to Lalo Schifrin's awesome DIRTY HARRY score. Some of my favorites scores include John Barry's old Bond stuff, especially GOLDFINGER, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, and ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE; almost anything by Goblin and John Carpenter; Pino Donaggio's THE HOWLING and BODY DOUBLE; Brad Fiedel's TERMINATOR and FRIGHT NIGHT scores, Giorgio Moroder's CAT PEOPLE; Basil Poledouris' CONAN; Harry Manfredini's early FRIDAY THE 13th stuff (before all those fucking horns); Charles Bernstein's A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET; Ennio Morricone's THE GOOD, THE BAD, and THE UGLY; Barry DeVorzon's NIGHT OF THE CREEPS; Jonathan Elias' VAMP; Alain Goraguer's LA PLANETE SAUVAGE; Albert Band's RE-ANIMATOR; Fred Myro and Malcolm Seagrave's PHANTASM; the DeWolfe library music, which was sampled heavily for DAWN OF THE DEAD; and the old Shaw Brothers' kung fu flicks. The list goes on and on.


If you could have any superpower, what would it be?


I would be able to manipulate my hair like Medusa from Marvel's Inhumans to help me get more shit done on a daily basis... and fight crime.


Cool reference. I've always dug The Inhumans. I'm more of a fan of Black Bolt myself. Imagine being able to destroy everything just by shouting. Talk about primal scream therapy. So you have branched out into the comics medium with HOLLOW-EYED MARY. What made you want to write a graphic novel? Are comics a medium you would like to do more in? What about film?

I definitely plan to do more comics. I have a few treatments lying around: one called Infect the President and a werewolf story called UV Junkies . And I've been writing screenplays as long as I've been writing prose, so I've always had aspirations for film.


I noticed in HOLLOW-EYED MARY, one of the main characters is named Griff. I've written a few novels, and in almost every one of them there is a character named Griff. In my case, this is a homage to the great filmmaker Samuel Fuller, who had a war buddy in WWII named Griff and had a character with that name in each of his films. I've wanted to carry on the tradition. Does any of this have anything to do with why you have a character named Griff?


Nope. I wish I could say there was some great significance to the name, but basically just I came up with Griffin "Griff" Elam's name by merging two of my favorite old school lyricists: William "Rakim" Griffin and Keith "Guru" Elam.


Do you see recurring themes in your stories? If so, what are they?


I like to muck around in that part of the brain where our inner most secrets live, those nasty thoughts that you wouldn't dare tell anyone lest they think you were (fill in the blank). Aside from that, I guess there's a certain degree of cynicism and mistrust evident in my work, and a focus on how we humans treat each other, especially in the face of danger.

What is your favorite Disney movie?

TRON.

What do you see as the role of horror in culture? Do you feel that entertainment is the most important part of horror, or do you think it has a deeper meaning?


People always have been and always will be doing bad things to each other in the name of love, or revenge, or honor, or whatever. Horror offers a peek into that dark underbelly of humanity for those people who might say something like, "What could drive a person to do that to someone else?" Then, there're those, like me, who enjoy a good scare. Either way, I think a writer's foremost duty, regardless of genre, is to entertain.


Do you see writing as a cathartic process? Are there autobiographical elements evident in your work? How do you feel about that?


It started off that way for me. Over time I began to exaggerate my journal entries as a way of coping with the intense and oftentimes overwhelming thoughts and emotions that I was dealing with. Those exaggerated entries then evolved into stories.

I think most artists are born with a weird hyper-perception that forces us to first notice, and then obsess over little details and nuances in anything we experience. This happens whether we want it to or not. Those of us who learn how to translate those thoughts and ideas to some artistic medium are able to use it as an outlet, while for others it can become like a sickness. Remember the scene from SCANNERS where Dr. Ruth conducts the experiment with Cameron Vale, when he is strapped to the table and forced to listen to the thoughts of the audience sitting in the room with him? It's something like that.


Do you feel it is the writer/artist's role to dissect things like cultural taboos?


Not necessarily, but for me, coming from a place where intellect is often frowned upon as "trying to be white," I do feel a certain responsibility to help eradicate that kind of backward thinking.


Give us the lowdown on what to expect for the future from you (upcoming books, website, etc.)


I was recently offered another option for my Dead Bitch Army screenplay, and there's been some interest in my screenplay for Big Daddy NoFace. My agent is currently shopping around NoFace the novel, and I'm currently working on the next book, a ghost story tentatively titled Down to the White Meat.

I recently decided to throw my hat into the acting ring as well. I've done some movie fight choreography training in the past, and that little bit as Griff in the Dead Bitch Army trailer, but that's about it for experience. Had some headshots done and been making the rounds at auditions.

Speaking of the trailer, I wanted to take a second to mention my friend and former college roommate, Tony Kern, who co-wrote and directed it. Tony's documentary, A MONTH OF HUNGRY GHOSTS, which chronicles the seventh-lunar-month Hungry Ghost Festival in Singapore, got a theatrical release in Asia (including Singapore, where Tony lives), and was just released on DVD here in the states. It's a great film, and I urge everyone to check it out. You can view the Trailer on YouTube, and you can pick up a copy from Amazon.


Tony is also responsible for the time-lapse stuff that you see at the opening of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He's currently shooting new stuff for The Tonight Show. We've been trying for years to do a feature-length project together, and it seems like we might be finally making some headway. Stay tuned...

You can find me at the following links:

House of Duza - My official website. The site has been going through a complete renovation and is currently only partially up and running. It's been slow going so far, but it's almost done.

Bizarro Central

Myspace

Facebook


Which of the Seven Dwarves is your favorite and why?


I'm too much of a loner to constantly tag around with six happy guys.


Haha. I can totally relate to that. Imagine being around such upbeat assholes all the time. Grumpy is the only one who seems sane - no wonder he's so miserable. Well, I really want to thank you for talking with me. And I'm really looking forward to your future work.