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Kenneth J. Hall at MHFF

Icon Entertainment and the Madison Horror Film Festival are proud to announce Kenneth J. Hall as an addition to this year’s festival. Kenneth will be signing autographs and doing a Q&A session at the event on Saturday October 25th.

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Mr. Hall spent his early years watching horror movies at his neighborhood theater and acting in school theater. As a teenager, he wrote and produced live shows at the local planetarium, designed animatronic characters for Sally Industries, and staged promotional events for Plitt Theaters.

He moved to Hollywood in 1982, where he first became established as a makeup effects artist, working on numerous features, including THE TERMINATOR, GREMLINS II, BATMAN RETURNS, ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES, and CONEHEADS. He was shop supervisor at Mechanical & Makeup Imageries, overseeing several productions and crews of up to 45 people. He has been responsible for the creation of many large movie creatures; among them the 16 foot star of Roger Corman’s CARNOSAUR and the giant octopus prop from Tim Burton’s ED WOOD.

During this time, Mr. Hall began writing scripts, which led to his first screenplay assignment, THE TOMB. Working as associate producer on set, he held cue cards for the legendary John Carradine, hand-doubled for Cameron Mitchell, and hung grenades on Sybil Danning. Then came EVIL SPAWN, which he also directed. Featuring a storyline described as a cross between SUNSET BOULEVARD and THE FLY, this ultra-low-budget quickie starred Bobbie Bressee and (thanks to some “generic” footage provided by the producer) John Carradine again.

These efforts caught the attention of Charles Band at Empire Pictures (later to become Full Moon Productions). There, Mr. Hall created the original PUPPET MASTER, the first of Paramount’s successful direct-to-video series, along with other scripts for I WAS A TEENAGE SEX MUTANT (aka DR. ALIEN) and TEST TUBE TEENS FROM THE YEAR 2000, which starred Morgan Fairchild.

He developed GHOST WRITER, writing and directing the PG-rated syndicated television feature for Audrey and Judy Landers. Also during this period came THE GIRL I WANT and LINNEA QUIGLEY’S HORROR WORKOUT, done under the pseudonym Hal Kennedy.

Mr. Hall returned to acting in Darin Scott and Rusty Cundieff’s comedy, FEAR OF A BLACK HAT. The same producer/director team gave him the chance to combine his effects background with his directing as the Special Makeup and Visual Effects Supervisor/Effects Second Unit Director on TALES FROM THE HOOD, a Savoy Picture executive produced by Spike Lee.

In 1995, he formed his own effects company, Total Fabrication, where he’s created characters and creatures for STAR TREK VOYAGER, BIG BAD BEETLEBORGS, POWER RANGERS, KRAA THE SEA MONSTER, and the infamous killer snowman film, JACK FROST. During that time, he wrote the original script for THE CLOWN AT MIDNIGHT, starring Christopher Plummer and Margot Kidder.

Most recently, he resumed his independent production by starting BV Entertainment. The company’s first project is a horror feature, THE HALFWAY HOUSE, starring Mary Woronov, written and directed by Mr. Hall.

Madison Horror Film Festival

Mitchell Wells

Founder and Editor in Chief of Horror Society. Self proclaimed Horror Movie Freak, Tech Geek, love indie films and all around nice kinda guy!!

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