While horror history is often concentrated around the coasts — the New York and Los Angeles-based productions that charted new ground for independent cinema — regional horror is important, too. Austin, for example, has Scary Movie, a John Hawkes-led movie that received a local citation on its release. And according to horror scholar Sean Abley (Queer Horror: A Film Guide), few regional films are as enduring as 555, the one-and-done slasher from filmmaker Wally Koz.
When two murdered lovers are found along the Chicago coastline, nobody expects it to be the first of many — that is, until a pair of bumbling Chicago police officers learn that this is no isolated incident. The twist? As the title 555 suggests, these murders are done in clusters of five: five couples over five nights, every five years. And now it’s up to the cops – and one extremely eager reporter – to save the day. Once dismissed as regional shot-on-video exploitation, 555 is now part of the Sterling Memorial Library VHS collection at Yale University.
In this brief excerpt from the podcast, Abley discusses the personal connection he had with the film back in the late 1980s:
"I moved to Chicago in 1988 and 555 had been shot the year before in Chicago and was being roll out right as I landed in the city [...] Also, coincidentally, the woman that I moved to Chicago with — platonically, I was gay then too — randomly started dating the guy who did the practical effects of that movie, Jeffrey Lyle Siegel."
The 555 episode of the Certified Forgotten podcast is now available to stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or the podcast platform of your choice.
