Growing Up in the Town of the Living Dead

What happens when you grow up loving horror in the town that gave us "Night of the Living Dead?"

Filmmaker and actor Robert Oppel joins Kendall for a trip through Pittsburgh horror history, beginning with George Romero, "Dawn of the Dead" and the Monroeville Mall. Robert remembers being so obsessed with Dawn that he recorded the Goblin soundtrack from the movie onto cassette, dialogue included, then walked around the actual mall listening to it on his Walkman.

That kid eventually found his way into the movies himself.

Robert talks about landing a role in "Children of the Living Dead," getting killed and coming back as a zombie, working on a movie with Tom Savini and later telling Savini that he played Brad in the film. Savini’s response: “You tell people that?”

Robert also shares how his mother and grandmother encouraged his fascination with movies, the magic of watching actual film run through a projector and how those early experiences helped push him toward acting and directing.

The conversation also turns personal. Robert discusses making Uncle Bob, his documentary about his uncle and namesake, Robert Oppel, who famously streaked across the stage during the 1974 Academy Awards and was murdered five years later. His uncle’s story also intersects with San Francisco counterculture, John Waters, Divine and the city’s art scene.

It is a conversation about horror fandom, family, creativity and what can happen when the movies you obsess over as a kid become part of what you do with your life.

And when Kendall asks Robert to name his favorite Final Person, he goes straight back to where it all began: "Night of the Living Dead."

Thank you for listening to Horror Heals. 

Share the show with someone who loves horror and someone who needs a little healing.

If you want to support our guests, check the show notes for links to their work, conventions, and fundraising pages.

You can also listen to our sister podcast Family Twist, a show about DNA surprises, identity, and the families we find along the way.

Horror Heals is produced by Mosaic Multimedia LLC.

Is horror good for mental wellness? Of corpse it is.

Transcript

Corey 0:00

There are bad horror movies, and there are bad horror movies that you are still proud to be part of. Robert Uppel got his start in Children of the Living Dead, Pittsburgh shot zombie flip connected to Knight of the Living Dead co-writer John Russo. Robert had lines, he got killed, came back as a zombie, and Tom Savini was in that movie. For a young horror fan, this was pretty much the dream. Years later, Robert ran into Savini at a convention and proudly reminded him, hey man, I'm Brad from Children of the Living Dead. Savini's response? You tell people that. That story alone made me like this guy. But Robert's connection to horror goes way deeper. He grew up in Pittsburgh obsessed with George Romero and Dawn of the Dead. As a kid, he actually recorded the movie's Goblin soundtrack onto cassette, dialogue it all, put it in his Walkman, and wandered around Monroville Mall pretending he was in the movie. I absolutely would have been friends with this kid. Robert went on to become an actor and filmmaker himself, and one of his most personal projects tells the story of his uncle and namesake, Robert Opel, the man who famously stricked across the Academy Award stage in 1974, and whose life took a much darker turn just a few years later. This conversation gets into all of that, but it also gets at something Kendall and I talk about all the time on Horror Heels. The movies that we fall in love with when we are young and stick around for reasons that have very little to do with being scared. I couldn't be on this interview, so Kendall's flying solo for this one. Here he is with Robert Opel.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

Where are you guys based?

SPEAKER_01 1:38

We live in New Hampshire on the seacoast. Oh beautiful. Oh, that's cool. And you were now what I didn't remember is where you're coming from.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, and then I moved to New York City, lived there for 11 years. So I kind of spent my king years and to my early adulthood in New York City, and then now currently in Los Angeles.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

So we moved here from San Francisco. Our first podcast is the one that we've been doing longer, and that's called Family Twist. And it has to do with the fact that I found my biological family in 2017 after being adopted as an infant by my adoptive parents. And that's what led us to live in New England because we were living in San Francisco and had been there for nine years and loved it. We never would have left. So after feeling like an only child for 47 years, I suddenly had two living parents and six have siblings and 13 nieces and nephews, like overnight. So we found them in August. We flew out here to meet my dad and two of his other three kids to Boston in October. And on the plane ride back home, Corey looks over at me and says, Well, I guess we're moving to New England. And yeah, we kind of dropped everything. And by January, we were here. That's true. That's why we started the first podcast, which is all about DNA surprises. But then we had this crazy idea a couple of years ago. We both are such huge horror fans. And whether it's books or movies or whatever, art, we have a lot of horror art in our house. And we were just trying to find like because there are so many horror podcasts out there that are great, but we thought, what's our angle? And Corey was standing in a line at a uh a horror convention waiting to meet Sam Raimi. Corey watched this young man that was in front of him. Corey said, you could tell the young man was like in duress. It was getting to him, the crowd. And Corey said, I was about to tap him on the shoulder and say, Hey man, if you want to step aside for a couple of minutes and come back, we'll definitely save your place in line. But right before Corey tapped the guy on the shoulder, the man in front of the other man started talking about the stack of DVDs that he was holding. And Corey said he just watched the anxiety just wash away from the first guy. And he had that epiphany, right? Then he's like, that's what this is all about. You know, horror is good for our mental wellness, whether you're talking about film or even music. And so that's really what helped us launch this. We still believe it. We believe that horror is a great conduit for people. So tell me about what you've done. You're an actor, and has it been primarily horror that you've been involved in?

SPEAKER_02 4:57

That's where I came up in. I'm from Pittsburgh. And my old bits was Children of the Living Dead. I don't know if you had the pleasure of seeing that one. I put I I actually got the part nice. No, I read in a local Pittsburgh Post design, John Russo, producer of the original Knight of the Living Dead and Return of Living Dead, whatever. He did this kind of spin-off thing with Children of the Living Dead. He shot locally looking for local cast members. I was like, Wow, you know, I'm a young boy at this time. I'm just getting into acting. I would love to be a part of a project, especially a Living Dead project, because I grew up mesmerized by this song. And I called the local paper and I said, I read this article. You're looking for local, how do I get in touch with who casting or whatever? And they gave me Russo's phone. Wow. This is back in the day in I forget what year it was, 99-ish. Because I figure it was made in 2000. And yeah, I had this great conversation with them. I was like, Yeah, man, when I was a little kid, I met you the zombies you ever read in 1993. And I'm like, best three days of my life when I was a kid. And said, Yeah, well, we're casting this little Domeria and go down there and audition or whatever. It was the first time I went to an audition, and I actually got the part the same day. They're like, Yes, we want you. And I got line. I had a character, I had a name, brand, the construction worker. I had dialogue. It was incredible. I was in this looby's house of India. So we don't always start shooting whatever. And so Ramsey, the director, he goes, I really like your work. You're very focused and you're you're talented. Would you consider playing a zombie as well? Like if we kill you, would you come back as a zombie? Right. Now I got a dual role. I mean, what the hell did you turn to a zombie? The sheriff who was played by Marty Schiff from Cruites Show, he blows my head off and I come back as a zombie. And it was interesting because at this point in time, this creates VGI, they were kind of like messing with it, but it wasn't full force like it is now. And the squid was an actual old school squid where they had a metal plate on the back of my head, matched my hair, and a little tiny blood packet and a little explosive wire coming down my shirt to Jerry Gurgly, who did the effects on the film, but was phenomenal. He like hit the button, I had to react and fall down to my death. Such a great learning experience and just fun.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Now, when the film comes out, I mean this is like a kind of movie where SUV's rolling up, they open the door and you see like a whole film crew in the reflection. You know, the boom bites are like hitting people in the head. I mean how it was funny because I saw at the top of the video at a horror convention years later. I was like, hey man, I'm Brad from Children of a Loving Day. And he you tell people that you're talking or in the thing, you know. It's a fun project. That was like my start.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Got her in Pittsburgh, Freedom Black was his name, and then he told me, you know, I went to this school in New York. You're a talented kid, you know, go go to New York, go pursue this and take it seriously. And he referred me to the name of the Playhouse School of Theater and wrote a letter of recommendation for me. And I went there, graduated with a perfect attendance in 2002, and I took it so seriously. And since then, I made it up. I do punk rock and shit like that, and I got a lot of punk roles, thug roles. My manager at the time was like, We got a great audition for you. You know, you'll be like, you know, thug number one, punk number two, asshole down the street, you know. I get I'm totally not like that. I'm a humorous kind of being, but rolls with my eyes closed, so I take him and I have fun with him.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Yeah, very cool. What's do you have an upcoming project that we should talk about? We're all about that.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Two days from now, I'm gonna play the bartender in my friend Orin Side's film, so I'm excited about that. He's a very good film director. And I just starred an independent feature film called The Salacious Ballad of John Bauer. And it's kind of another dual role project where I'm like an asshole podcaster and I'm not very friendly, and I have very opinion-y remarks that I say and stuff, and then my other side is I'm taking care of my missing friend's girlfriend and her child. So it's kind of an interesting dynamic as a character, which is why I agree to play. Initially, I didn't want to play because I was like, I don't want to be an asshole podcaster guy, I want to be a lovable, likable person. But quality to it, I said, okay, I'll give this a shot. So that's gonna be streaming soon, it just got picked up by veg you actually.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

So, what was your first foray into horror when you were growing up? Like what what intrigued you, I think, about horror?

SPEAKER_02 9:55

I grew up because for the town of the Living Dead, you know, and the original My Living Dead, and then Dawn of the Dead, probably too young of an age, and I was Nesmer. I just was who made this? This is shot of my whole town, then really, this is incredible. And all about Romero. When I had the Living Dead fans for some of the best songs ever made, horror, Mount Horror, whatever. But when Dawn of the Den was interesting because it blended the Italian cinema, the Italian music score from golf, and then it got me into a whole European side of horror. And then because this one was fascinating, and and the effects, the music, the editing, the length of the film. It wasn't just some short, stupid, and it was like a saga, and we were shot in Monroeville. I was such a dork when I was a kid. I had a boom box, because this is before you could get soundtracks online, and it was so easy. And I would hit record and I would record the goblin soundtrack from the film with the dialogue. Put it in my t because selling sports lockman, and I would walk around Monroeville Mall and I would like to pretend I was in the movie. And I would probably still do that to this day, absolutely. But it was such an inspirational film, and the the social commentary, the political commentary, I mean George Romero was he was a brilliant filmmaker and a sweetheart of a man.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Yeah, beautiful. That's great.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

And meeting him at the zombie jamboree in 1993, I was a little kid, you never did Mr. Romero, I'd love to love to work with you and everything. And we took a picture together, but it was like a professional photo that he would autograph later. And he wrote, like, I take a picture together someday. He took me seriously as this little annoying, you know, fan. And that guy really inspired me to become a filmmaker, an actor, and just involved in film and Joe.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Wow, that's great. I'm glad you your parents supported you at that level, right? To even let you go to that type of event, you know. I think that's wonderful because that's what children need, right? Be encouraged, yeah. Exactly, and meet the people that they aspire to be like.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Yeah, I'm appreciated by a single mother, and and she and my grandma who lived with us as well. So I was like a mama's mama's void, but they they saw how intrigued I I was by I'm sure we have a half-brother out there somewhere that I don't know. I so maybe we we should try that other podcast at some point. Uh yeah. My mom was a Vegas teacher, she's retired now, but she raised in all the classic literature. And you know, she she would teach these novels to her students. She taught children with disabilities English and literature, and then at the time it was the they would have the film adaptation of the novel on film strip 16, 35 milligram, what have you. So we had the old projector, and I remember my mom would set up the projector on the floor, we would put pillows down and watch it on the wall, and she would load the film into the thing, the light would go on, I'd smell that kind of burning smell, and I'd watch the film reel go through, and I was mesmerized by it. I was like, wow, I read this book, I got the general idea. Now I'm gonna see the film adaptation, but it was a whole process because you put the film into the production, everything, the sound of the wow man. And I think that's another inspiration. I was like, film, I wrote so in filmmaking, and I just gotta get into this somehow.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

I think you're bringing up a very good point. It's hard to describe to people that never experience what you just described. It's so difficult to explain how meaningful those things are, you know, the physicality of watching film, not not what we see on streaming, like right there in your face.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

But when you actually see it get loaded into a machine, watch the little reels spin around into this other one, then you have to rewind it and the put it's like a process, and it's a machine, and now all of a sudden light season light comes on and the smell there had a specific smell. I remember too. And you would just see, and then the the the dust, you know, that you would see in the ray of light projecting. It was like this thing is is creating this, and now I'm sitting and enjoying a remarkable process.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

I completely agree, and I wish people who who were younger I hope they get to experience that somehow. It's so memorable. Agree. Of course, having the convenience of being able to jump on TV and pick whatever you want, that's great. Corey and I often talk about the rituals surrounding horror back when we were kids, you know. It was cool, it was fun to go to the video store and look at all the boxes and flip them over to read the synopsis and you know, because you didn't often see previews, you know, for I'm the cover. And the cover art was sometimes what drew you in. It's so different nowadays.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

And uh remember the fun cover art, like Demon Wind had like if you turn it and it would move like a decal, Frankenhooker when that came out, yes, press the button and be like, Wanna date? And you would hear it, it was like so cool. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Those are memories that are so great because I can sit with my best friend that I grew up with and we can laugh about those things still. It's it was a special time in filmmaking and just art, I think. So yeah, well talk about a little bit about the filmmaking that you've done. I mean, we've talked about your being an actor, but the other side of the the lens I always wanted to be a director more of an acting, really.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

I mean, acting I use as an escape because I didn't know who the hell I was. So I'll be like, oh, cool, topic specific, so I'm comfortable in my own. But directing, I just love to work with people. I love to bring out things in people that I think are gifts. I mimic a lot of my friends and their idiosyncrasies, and they they crack up, and and I I celebrate people for their little quirks and uniquenesses, and I think that's such a fun thing to helm in terms of a project when you're telling a story through thumb mean. So I've always wanted to make my own film, and I would write little sketches and draw. I used to play Gangsta Rab in my room, and I would do sketches and do stop motion animation with an old VHS camcorder. I was very inspired by Ralph Faxy as well. And so that kind of was like, oh, I'm making something, you know, moving and working and telling a story. And I went to New York, I started to write for a magazine called Quarterly, and I interviewed directors, actors, writers. And based on those interviews, I had phone numbers of these people because I would call them for the interview and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

One of them was Robert DeSardo. I met him out in Los Angeles when I was on foot with the New York Independent Film Festival that was affiliated with the magazine at the time. And I started talking to him and I said, Yeah, I love the interview you managed. Did the interview went really well. And then I had written a short script at the time called Never Down, just about a guy trying to reunite with his family. He he came from a prison term and just wanted to reunite with his family, and everything was just stopping him from doing that. I thought simple New York indie concept, whatever. And I spit it to him for some reason. I thought, what do you think of this idea? He's like, Yeah, I like it. I would actually like to play that. And I'm like, Oh shit. You know, we started writing it together, and I was like, Well, what? That was short, let's make this a feature film. So he was in New York. We were writing this film on napkins, like, you know, just a little spin there. And we started to helmet together into this whole script and projects. And once he came aboard, I started to uh contact other people that I had known and worked with. Uh, one of which was I went to the neighborhood playoffs with Kurt Vonnegut's daughter, Lily, actress and and very cool person. And I was like, Would you think your father would make a cameo on this film? And she said, Yeah, you know, we'll see, or whatever. And sure enough, he did. So we got Kurt Vonnegut aboard with supporting after in the film. And that was a trip because my mom had raised me on classic literature, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

You know, we sat in the script, whatever, you know, and he called in my Brooklyn apartment. I'm like, hello, this is Kurt. I'm like, Kurt Von. I'm like, oh yeah, yes, sir. How long not my writing? And I'm just like, I loved you back to school, man. You're not even like it. It's funny. We had this like really cool conversation. You know, another sweethearted man, very, really, really of mine. Very lucky to have him as a part of that project. So that became my first feature film, Never Down. Came out in 2007, distributed by Vanguard Entertainment at the time. It was recently re-released by Breaking Last Pictures with streaming on TV and everything like that. So cool. Yeah. And then that was a big deal to me. And with the success of that, I wanted to make my dream project, which was the life story of my uncle. He was the streaker of the Academy Awards in 1974, and he was murdered in 1979, the year I was born. And he's my namesake. His name was Robert Oval as well. So that story was very important for me to get out there. And we spoke of film earlier. My uncle had interviewed John Waters Devine, these people, he opened the first erotic art gallery in San Francisco, South the Market area. It's called Fayeway Studios. And you know, so he in pre-corder video, I had Ectochrome Film, I had all these old formats of film, and had got the Kodak was still in business in New York at the time, so I was able to digitize this so we could edit it in the current medium. And then that became Uncle Bob. Then my second feature is a documented film, and my neighbor at the time was Abel Ferrara. I absolutely loved him as much as I loved George Romero growing up. So he became kind of a mentor and a friend and offered to produce it. And so that film is out there now, too. That is so cool. He's a filmmaking, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Yeah, well, I love the the family connection too, that you get to honor your your uncle. Robert, I hope that we can stay in contact, and that way when new projects come up, we can talk to you about those and you know keep the conversation going. This has been super interesting.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

I got my ghoulie up here for moral support, and then I got my Sorrius post back here. I noticed you interviewed Debbie Russan, yeah. And very talented wong men. I I love her work so much.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

So we live. We've been so fortunate to have some of our favorites on, you know, it's been amazing. I think our very first episode was with Adrian King, and and for my birthday was this week, and Corey made me a piece of art where it's Adrian King's character sitting in the canoe, and it's the image of Jason coming up out of the water at the end, and now my face is on Jason. It's just it's so cute and comical. And we can't wait to share that with Adrian. I can't wait to show her. Well birthday to you, man. Thank you. Corey is so clever with gift giving, and his birthday is exactly four weeks after mine, so it's always like, oh, holy crap, he did it again. He gave me the really cool gift. I gotta come up with something halfway cool, you know. It's and so thought and fulfilling. I love it he is so creative and comes up with fun stuff. So and shout out to our friend Brad, who actually helped create the the little image of me as Jason. Oh, cool. Well, you might already know this, but lately we have asked a last question, and it's a tough one, I think. Who's your final your favorite final person in a film?

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Hands down, Ben from the original Knight of the Living Dead. Okay. And you may say he's not a final character because he does wind up dying, but he survives the evening, he survives the monster for all intents and purposes, and he's confused he's not and he's executed for it. And I think that says something about society, about interpretation. And I thought it was a very powerful character all around, and not so much the ending, his demise, but his right and the whole he's one of my all-time favorite film characters, and also Tony Todd's portrayal in the Naivi version that Savini directed, Crane Thing. Excellent, excellent character.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

I know, I enjoy that one a lot as well. We re-watched that pretty recently.

SPEAKER_02 23:35

It's a phenomenal film.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Yeah, we love them both. Well, thanks so much for joining me.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

I think what you guys are doing is excellent, and I think it's a very unique and imaginative idea for a podcast, and it's a great take on the horror genre as well. So thank you so much for having me.

Corey 23:53

Oh, yeah, no worries. I really enjoyed Robert's story about meeting George Romero as a kid and telling him he wanted to work with him someday. Romero actually took him seriously and wrote on the photo, I hope we make a picture together someday. Think about what something like that can mean to a kid. Robert talked about being raised by his mom and grandmother, but being encouraged to follow the things that fascinated him, and eventually turning that fascination with movies into acting, writing, and directing. Horror was not something he grew out of. It helped lead him somewhere. And I gotta give credit to his final person answer, Ben from the original Knight of the Living Dead. Robert knows Ben does not technically make it out alive, but his reasoning is pretty darn convincing. Ben survives the night and survives the monsters, only to be killed because someone mistakes him for something he's not. More than 50 years later, that ending still hits. Thanks to Robert O'Pell for hanging out with Kendall, and thanks to all of you for listening to Horror Heels. And remember, when somebody asks, is horror good for mental wellness? You tell them, of course it is. The Horror Heels Podcast is produced and presented by The Horror Heels Podcast is produced and presented by Mosaic Multimedia.