Cyst:

George Hardy as Dr. Guy – The Dentist of Horror

Born in Alexander City on October 16, 1954, George Hardy initially studied at Auburn University and took acting classes to pursue his dream of becoming a stage actor. Soon, however, he gave up his dream and took a very different path: he went to the UAB School of Dentistry in Birmingham, Alabama, became a dentist and opened a practice in Salt Lake City. It was there, at the urging of his patients, that he found himself in 1990 casting for Claudio Fragasso‘s film “Troll 2,” now hailed as a trash masterpiece, which unexpectedly landed him one of the lead roles, that of Michael Waits. As part of an illustrious ensemble of Z-actors and amateurs, realized with a budget of an incredible 65,000 US dollars, he was to star in a film that was unparalleled and did not feature a single eponymous troll. Disillusionment quickly set in, because after ” Troll 2” was shot and released on video, no one could quite believe how incredibly bad the result was. However, everyone involved soon abandoned their plans to retreat from civilization in shame and burn all copies of the film, because like many other really, really bad movies, “Troll 2” advanced to cult status among trash fans. Over the years, Hardy quite enjoyed showing up at “Troll 2” parties, talking to his fans and celebrating the glory of the bad together with them. It was a whopping 17 years before his next role, but thanks to “Troll 2,” the door to trash wonderland was as wide open for Hardy as the mouths of his patients.

In 2007, George Hardy faced man-eating energy drink consumers in Adam Deyoe‘s “Street Team Massacre” in the role of Edwin R. Gophercum. Four years later, Kevin Hamadi (“ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction” 2007) hired him for his stoner comedy “Junk.” In 2013, Todd Sheet‘s “House of Forbidden Secrets” and Jason LaRay Keener‘s “The Unreinable Compulsion” followed, a horror film and a thriller. In many ways, things continued creepy in 2014 with “Chosen” and “Thr33 Days Dead.” Next, Hardy was able to enjoy a role in “Ghost Shark 2.” The joy didn’t last too long, however, as his scenes as Jarvis Steele in Johnny Hall’s 2015 sequel to “Ghost Shark” (2013) were all deleted from the final version. Of course, this did nothing to harm his storybook career, and just a year later he was in front of the camera in Tyler Russell’s debut feature “Here Comes Rusty.” In “Texas Cotton,” which was initially released as a short film and later as a full-length feature, they once again combined their creative forces, and Hardy appeared in front of the camera for the first time with Jason Douglas and Gene Jones. Soon they were to meet again, but first a visit to Baden-Baden was on the agenda, because in “Under ConTroll – Possessed by a Monster” (2019 /2020), Hardy once again had to defend himself as Michael Waits against malicious mythical creatures. Among others, Katy Karrenbauer (Walter from “Hinter Gittern – Der Frauenknast” 1997 – 2010), actress and reality star Désirée Nick (“Ich bin ein Star, holt mich hier raus” 2004) and actress and producer Eva Habermann benefited from his experience in defeating furry fiends.

Eva Habermann as Patricia

Born on January 16, 1976, Eva Felicitas Habermann began her film and TV career at the age of 17 as Melanie in the ZDF series “Immenhof” (1994 – 1995). She presented the children’s program “Pumuckl TV” and “Ferienfieber” and was “the youngest presenter of the ARD” at the age of 18. She became known to a wide audience of science fiction fans through her role of Zev Bellringer in the international series “Lexx – The Dark Zone“. Next to Chad Everett and Morgan Fairman she played in 1996 in “Star Command“, also a Sci- Fi Movie. This was followed by productions such as “Rosa Roth” (alongside Iris Berben) and various Rosamunde Pilcher adaptations such as “Zwei Schwestern” (1997), through which Habermann advanced to become the German “Romance Queen”. Eva Habermann was able to showcase her comedic talent in “Feuer, Eis & Dosenbier” (2002) together with Rick Kavanian and Axel Stein. Between 1999 and 2002, she became a member of the hit series “Die Strandclique” as Viola Kimmling. Due to her variety of roles, Eva Habermann managed the balancing act between TV and cinema and between all genres. In 2005, for example, she was seen alongside Birgit Stauber and Susann Uplegger in the TV series “Wilde Engel” as well as in the action movie “Der Clown“. Between 2000 and 2006, she was a recurring guest on the “Traumschiff” and two years later she was back on the big screen as Nina Schneider in the crime comedy “Ossi’s Eleven” directed by Oliver Mielke.

Between June and September 2010, Eva Habermann embodied Kitty LaBelle at the Bad Segeberg Karl May Plays, while at the same time playing the role of Erin O’Toole in “Unsere kleine Farm in Irland.” After the low-budget flick “Bauernfrühstück,” she went on to star in another Pilcher adaptation, “Englischer Wein,” in 2011, and Habermann continued her role of Maike Gerber in “Küstenwache.” With appearances in series such as “Alarm für Cobra 11,” “SOKO München,” “Deichbullen” as well as the “Rosenheim Cops,” she primarily served the crime genre, but was also seen in the fantasy hit “Mara und der Feuerbringer” in 2015. Eva Habermann‘s latest projects are the horror productions and genre comedies “Sky Sharks” (2020), “Under ConTroll – Possessed by a Monster” (2019/ 2020) as well as Tyler Russell‘s cyst horror spectacle “Cyst“, she also acts as producer behind the camera for these projects.

Gene Jones as Mr. Sherman – A familiar face

There are many actors who make you think “I know that face from somewhere”, but for the life of you, you can’t think of where. One of these familiar faces is certainly Gene Jones, whose acting career began in 1990 with the TV documentary series “The Civil War“, but stagnated after a role in Roy Campanella‘s TV movie “Brother Future” (1991). Thirteen years passed before Gene Jones appeared again in Roy Campanella‘s 2004 short film “Brother Future” (according to IMDb: Seth Grossman‘s “Shock Act“), followed by an  appearance on “Chapelle’s Show” and a (speaking) role in the video game “Red Dead Revolver” the same year. After another short film role in 2005, it was the brothers Joel and Ethan Coen in 2007 who allowed Gene Jones to shine with his talent in their thriller “No Country for Old Men“. His small, but exquisite coin toss scene with Javier Bardem is not only one of the film’s most atmospheric highlights, it also ultimately drew further role offers, although Jones again had to be patient for three years. He landed his next role in Andrew Fitzgerald‘s “Working It Out” (2010). Two years later he even appeared in front of the camera with Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton in “The Odd Life of Timothy Green“. After two more short films in 2012, he starred in an episode of “House of Cards” in 2013, landed a role in “Oz the Great and Powerful” by “The Evil Dead” director Sam Raimi, and enjoyed a Fangoria Chainsaw Award for “Best Supporting Actor“ for his appearance in “The Sacrament.”

Although he only starred in the 2014 Christmas comedy “A Merry Friggin’ Christmas“, his leading role in 2015’s “Dementia” was immediately followed by an engagement in “The Hateful Eight” the eighth feature film by cult director Quentin Tarantino. In the role of Sweet Dave, he was seen here alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell and Jennifer Jason Leigh, among others. Apart from the werewolf horror film “The Beast Within,” Jones also appeared in the TV series “Vinyl” and “Inside Amy Schumer” in 2016 and starred in Wayne Roberts’ drama “Katie Says Goodbye” In 2017, he continued with films including “Bug” and “The Strange Ones” Just a year later, he, George Hardy, Jason Douglas and director Tyler Russell met for the first time in the feature film “Texas Cotton” a collaboration that was repeated in Tyler Russell‘s horror film “Cyst” in 2020.

Greg Sestero as Bill

Greg Sestero is best known for the world-famous cult hit “The Room” by Tommy Wiseau. He later wrote the New York Times bestseller “The Disaster Artist” based on this incredibly chaotic shoot, which served as the template for the Oscar-nominated film of the same name. Greg Sestero also wrote and produced “Best F(r)iends Volume 1” and “Volume 2” (Lionsgate) and most recently starred in the popular Netflix gothic drama miniseries “The Haunting of Bly Manor.” His directorial/horror genre debut, “Miracle Valley,” is set to hit theaters in 2022. It will be the first-ever film set in Frank Lloyd Wright‘s world-famous masterpiece, Falling Water.

Jason Douglas als Al

Born in Arkansas on February 14, 1973, Jason Douglas began his career as an actor and voice actor in 1983 when he lent his voice to King Hamm in the TV anime “Seisenshi Dunbine.” He quickly established himself as a sought-after anime voice, and speaking roles followed in “Warriors of the Zodiac” (1986 – 1987), “Dirty Pair Flash” (1995), and “Streetfighter II” (1995 – 1998), where he voiced the karate fighter Ken. During this time, Douglas did not take on a single film or TV role, but he continued his voice-over career with anime hits such as “Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040” (1998 – 1999) and “D.N. Angel” (2003).

He took on one of his first feature film roles in 2005 as a killer in the comic adaptation “Sin City“, but soon turned back to anime. Two minor series appearances in “Thief” and “Prison Break” followed. In 2006 and 2007, he appeared in front of the camera alongside Sandra Bullock in “Premonition.” That same year, he added supporting roles in “The Bracelet of Bordeaux,” “No Country For Old Men” and – unmentioned – Robert Rodriguez‘s “Planet Terror.” Dozens of speaking roles later, he voiced Beerus in “Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods” (2013) and also appeared in two episodes of the remake of “Dallas” (2013).

He also took on a small role in the hit series “Breaking Bad” (2011 – 2013) and from then on was seen more and more frequently on TV screens. His longest series engagements included the role of Tobin in AMC‘s hit zombie series “The Walking Dead” and Satan in “Preacher.” In 2018, director Tyler Russell brought him on board for his second feature film, “Texas Cotton,” where he starred alongside George Hardy and Gene Jones. Two years later, the horror film “Cyst,” also by Russell, marked Douglas’ last feature film role to date.

Splatter comedy

Over the decades, hardly any other film genre has diversified as broadly as the horror genre. Whether psychopathic killers like Jason Voorhees in “Friday the 13th,” zombies à la “Dawn of the Dead,” deadly toys like “Chucky” or classic movie monsters like Frankenstein’s monster and the Wolf Man, there is hardly a variety of horror that has not been brought to the screen. While some genre representatives use more subtle elements and play with human fears of the hidden, the unknown and the ghostly, such as “The Others” (2001), others rely on the most realistic – but sometimes also exaggerated – depiction of real violence and cruelty, such as “Hostel” (2006) or “Maniac” (1980), and allow the viewer a direct glimpse into the abysses of the soul.

No less explicit, but often delivered with a wink and a good dose of humor, is the subgenre of splatter parodies. If you find all the classic style elements here, they are often reversed, such as in “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil“, or further exaggerated and overplayed as a persiflage or homage to a particular genre.

An example of this is 2020’s “Cyst,” which not only pays homage to the monster horror and science fiction films of the 1950s and 1960s, but also takes up the motif of the mad scientist and presses directly on the viewer’s vomit center with as much slime and pus as possible. “Cyst” finds cinematic models in works such as John Carpenter’s “The Thing“, but also in the works of Stuart Alan Gordon, who died in 2020 and directed the short stories of the legendary H.P. Lovecraft in films such as “Re-Animator” (1985), “From Beyond” (1985) and “Dagon” (2001).

Like its predecessors, “Cyst” also deliberately, and not only for budget reasons, largely does without CGI. The use of physical effects on the monster and its slimy, pus-filled aftermath gives the film a tangible and truthful element. The snot that splatters on the wall was not digitally added to the picture here later in post-production, but is “real.” The goo on the actors’ faces, which is omnipresent in the second half of the film, is of course just as real. The disgust of the actors is thus not likely to be just an act in all scenes. The disgust of the actors is thus probably not only played in all scenes. The gagging in the throat of the audience will certainly follow this in a humorous way…

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