CULT-FILM CONFIDENTIAL Vol. 1 MASTERS OF MIDNIGHT Since donning the Phantom mantle for The New York Daily News in 1984, I’ve had the opportunity to visit with a wide array of intriguing auteurs, a trend extended when I launched my ongoing magazine THE PHANTOM OF THE MOVIES’ VIDEOSCOPE in 1993. Rather than leave them scattered across the expanse of hundreds of columns and scores of magazines, the thought occurred to gather a Butcher’s Dozen (12, with one sliced off) of our fave chinwags with cinematic midnight movers and shakers in one convenient package. Hence, this debut Phantom e-book, where we chat with such genre innovators as Alex (Dance with the Devil) de la Iglesia, Walter (The Warriors) Hill, Patty (Monster) Jenkins and L.Q. (A Boy and His Dog) Jones. While their work ranges across the genre spectrum, what all the filmmakers convened here share is a ferocity of vision and a commitment to quality. We treasure the time we were able spend with them. Hope you do as well.ABOUT THE AUTHORJoe Kane has been a film critic and journalist since 1972, when he joined the original editorial staff of the pioneering tabloid The Monster Times. As The Phantom of the Movies®, he covered the genre-movie and video beat for The New York Daily News for 25 years. In 1993 he launched the ongoing nationally distributed magazine THE PHANTOM OF THE MOVIES’ VIDEOSCOPE. He has had two extensive guides published—The Phantom’s Ultimate Video Guide (Dell, 1989) and The Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope: The Ultimate Guide to the Latest, Greatest and Weirdest Genre Videos (Random House/Three Rivers Press, 2000). His most recent book, Night of the Living Dead: Behind the Scenes of the Most Terrifying Zombie Movie Ever (Kensington), was nominated for a Black Quill Award for Best Non-Fiction, selected by PopMatters as one of the 10 Best Non-Fiction Books of 2010, and received 1st Honorable Mention for Best Non-Fiction Horror Book in the 9th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards.He has had film articles, humor and fiction published in Maxim, The Village Voice, The National Lampoon, High Times, The Washington Times, Penthouse and many other publications.