Favorite Films: Dying Remains’ Frontman Treasures ‘The Thing,’ ‘Suspiria,’ ‘City of the Living Dead,’ ‘Wounded Fawn’
Two months in, we’re still savoring the delicious drivel dealt by death-metal band Dying Remains via Merciless Suffering following its mid-September release. We’re also grateful to have recently connected with the Maggot Stomp band and chatted up vocalist/guitarist/bassist Damon MacDonald about its debut LP.
While we had MacDonald on the horn – or the Zoom, or the whatchamacallit – we picked his brain about movies, as we were armed with the knowledge ahead of time that he’s a fan of horror movies. Here are his choice picks:
1. The Thing (1982)
“The first movie that comes to mind is John Carpenter’s The Thing,” MacDonald said. “That was one of the first couple of horror movies I saw when I was young. I think I was 7, and my old man showed it to me, and I was like, ‘This is so cool.’ [My love of horror movies] started there.”
When asked whether he believes in the notion publicly proffered by notably untrustworthy director John Carpenter that there’s a way to determine whether the two guys at the end, MacReady (Kurt Russell) and Childs (Keith David), had become The Thing, he replied:
“There was a game that came out tied to The Thing on PS2 and Xbox in 2002 – and it’s been stated that it’s canon – and Carpenter made a jab by having MacReady alive at the end of the game. But it’s still just one of those things that are open to interpretation. You’re never going to figure it out. [There’s also the theory that] the whiskey [the characters drink at the end of the movie] was actually gasoline, but it’s like I don’t know if I buy it.”
When asked to identify his favorite scene in the film, MacDonald said: “The defibrillator scene when [a] stomach opens up and rips [the] hands off [another character is] so sick. It’s gnarlier than the [first] Alien scene with the [chest burst].”
2. City of the Living Dead (1980)
“[Later in life, my] taste in movies slipped into Italian-style [horror movies]. City of the Living Dead is probably one of my favorite zombie movies,” MacDonald said. “There’s something about the way that Italian horror movies are shot that is just so sick.
“[City of the Living Dead is] one of [director Lucio Fulci’s] best movies and is sorta part of a trilogy along with The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery [both from 1981],” MacDonald continued. “[There’s a] medium is doing a seance, and then this preacher hangs himself, and the city’s cursed, and that brings about the end of the world. It’s pretty sick. The song ‘Regurgitated Guts’ by Death is [inspired by] that movie.
“The gnarliest scene in that movie is still like when the priest is looking at a female character and her guts start coming out of her mouth,” he said. “Such good prosthetic work.”
3. Suspiria (1977)
“Suspiria [is another great Italian horror movie],” MacDonald added. “The color palettes [that director Dario Argento used,] and the way they move throughout the story, are so good.”
4. A Wounded Fawn (2022)
“I just watched this movie; it’s a Shutter exclusive. It’s pretty cool,” MacDonald said. “It was all shot on film and has super-crazy colors. The story is very interesting, [although] it’s kind of hard to remember. I watched it at 3 in the morning. I was half-asleep, but I was drawn in enough to remember that I liked it.”
Learn more about Dying Remains on their Bandcamp page and grab a copy of Merciless Suffering on that site or on Maggot Stomp’s distro page.
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