Saturday night at Popcorn Frights Film Festival was all about the guest of honor, Robert Kurtzman. The special effects whiz, writer, and director was at Savor Cinema in Fort Lauderdale to discuss two of his movies, From Dusk Till Dawn and Wishmaster.
A little after 6pm, Kurtzman introduced a rarity, the original two minute sizzle reel he directed for From Dusk Till Dawn. “I wrote this in 1988,” Kurtzman told viewers, “In 1991 I was working on Army of Darkness. We had a week to build the set pieces for it. Then we spent a weekend shooting it. We shot it on 35 mm and edited it on VHS in the Army of Darkness editing room.”
The two minute short is soundtracked by the loud rock and roll of AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells”. The song is why the sizzle reel is so rarely seen for a movie as popular as From Dusk Till Dawn. It’s also why the crowd was told not to record the short with their phones: Kurtzman had received one cease and desist from the Australian rock band and didn’t want to risk another. The crowd gave loud applause for the money shot in the trailer when a vampire bat comes flying at a sharp-dressed Joe Pilato.
The lights came back on after the short, revealing Kurtzman posing with the jackhammer weapon he designed that George Clooney used to slay the vampires before speaking about the wildly successful feature film version of From Dusk Till Dawn. “This is not a movie with a three act structure. It was not politically correct even at the time. So many people turned it down. But it’s a love letter to practical effects.”
Later in the night Kurtzman, accompanied by his wife and creative partner, Marcy King, told FANGORIA just how onerous a process it was to go from an idea in his head to a major motion picture. “I had a 24 page treatment for it when I hired Quentin Tarantino to write the script. His sample to get the job was Reservoir Dogs. My producer partner, John Esposito and I, got the money together to pay Quentin the $1500, and he hand wrote the 88 page script which he later hired someone to type out on a word processor.”
Kurtzman was eager to direct it. “I came up with the idea because I wanted to showcase some cool special effects. But after eight years nothing happened. Robert Rodriguez wanted to get involved. Letting him take over was a smart move in part because it got me my first directing job, The Demolitionist.”
The Demolitionist in turn got Kurtzman the director gig for the night’s final film, Wishmaster. “That was an assignment I got in part because I was recommended by Sam Raimi who really liked The Demolitionist.”
The 1997 film about an evil genie wreaking havoc on 1990’s America was introduced not just by Kurtzman but also by the movie’s monster himself, Andrew Divoff. About whom Kurtzman said, “The best part of making this film is our thirty-year friendship.”
Kurtzman continued, “We shot this on film and cut it on film. We were lucky enough to get Wes Craven involved which helped us get a bigger budget.”
The never ending struggle to make his own movies continues between makeup effects department heading for films like Fuck My Son! and Marshmallow. His wife and he just finished a new script for a confidential project about which they have high hopes. “Effects is my bread and butter, but writing and directing is so satisfying.”
![TMNT, GODZILLA, STAR TREK And More Get The Horror Treatment [Exclusive]](https://www.fangoria.com/wp-content/webp-express/webp-images/doc-root/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/TMNT-23-IDW-GOES-DARK-Variant-by-Damien-Worm-Cropped-300x169.jpg.webp)
