RIP DON DOHLER

Over at the Classic Horror Film Board, it has been reported that longtime independent genre filmmaker and CINEMAGIC magazine founder Don Dohler died this past Saturday at the age of 60. The Baltimore native had been battling lung and brain cancer since September. Dohler originally began self-publishing CINEMAGIC, devoted to special FX techniques for Super-8 and 16mm filmmakers, in 1972; the mag was bought by The STARLOG Group (now STARLOG Entertainment, publishers of FANGORIA) in 1979 and ran under those auspices for 37 issues through 1987.

Dohler’s debut movie was 1978’s THE ALIEN FACTOR, followed by the monster flicks FIEND (1980), NIGHTBEAST (1982) and THE GALAXY INVADER (1985), and the home-invasion horror opus BLOOD MASSACRE (1991). He dropped out of filmmaking for nearly a decade before making ALIEN FACTOR 2: ALIEN RAMPAGE in 1999; on that shoot, he struck up a friendship with actor Joe Ripple, and the two formed Timewarp Films in 2000. The resulting series of features, directed by Ripple with Dohler serving as producer/cinematographer/editor and the two usually collaborating on the screenplays, included HARVESTERS (2001), STAKES (2002) and VAMPIRE SISTERS (2004). Earlier this year, Dohler premiered the slasher movie DEAD HUNT in Baltimore, and at the time of his death, he was in postproduction on the creature feature CRAWLER. Check out the Timewarp Films website for more on Dohler and his career and info on the DVD availability of his movies.