Last night the new film Alleluia! The Devil’s Carnival premiered to a packed house of fans, filmmakers, and Hollywood notables that included Lucifer, Jesus Christ and God himself. The sequel to the cult hit film, The Devil’s Carnival, is a horror, rock, musical that tells the story of Corporate mogul-type God (Paul Sorvino) pitted against the Dust-Bowl carnies in Hell below, led by Lucifer himself. The screening was held at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, Ca and kicked off a road tour that will see the film through multiple states.
Chantal Claret and Jimmy Urine walk the red carpet.
Alleluia! The Devil’s Carnival is coming to the world by way of a traveling road show, where its filmmakers are touring the movie like a rock concert (or in their case, a roving sideshow!), creating one-night-only event screenings across North America.
Many of the stars were on hand to welcome the fans and share in the joy that is the Devil’s Carnival.
Lyndon Smith who portrays Cora in the film.
Actor Kristina Klebe who plays Geraldine/His Lady of Virtue.
Ted Neely, the original Jesus from Jesus Christ Superstar plays The Publicist in the film.
Carla Harvey as Click, Heidi Shepard as Lock.
Mark Senter as The Scorpion and Emily Autumn as the Painted Doll.
Director Darren Lynn Bousman.
We ran into Writer, Co-Composer of Alleluia!, Terrance Zduich, on the red carpet and asked him what was going through his maniacal mind moments before the premiere. “Oh man to be honest It’s a lot of nerves.” Zdunich admitted. “This has been four years for me from starting to write it to where it is now.” The writer/composer for the wonderful REPO The Genetic Rock Opera and Devil’s Carnival: Episode One humbly mused, “Look, I am just honored. I have now gotten to write, star, and perform in three rock operas. I mean, who the fuck gets to do that.”
We asked Zdunich what keeps bringing him back to hell. He laughed and quipped “I think hell keeps bringing me back.” Thinking again he added, “I think it’s that it’s the ultimate bad guy, you know? As a kid I loved the bad guys in movies and really who is the ultimate bad guy? The Devil.” Yet somehow in making Satan the protagonist in a film we, as viewers are guided to feel sympathy for him. “Yeah, I think even more so in this one.” Terrance added. “I mean he’s still a bad ass, he’s Lucifer and he’s still more into chaos than order. There’s one scene in the film where he has a moment with The Ticket Keeper, who has been sort of his right hand man, where they realize that they might both be trying to raise hell but they are friends. They are used to this sort of dysfunctional way of doing things but at the end of the day they like each other.”
When asked about his influences, Terrance said, “I love Tom Waits. He’s always able to walk that line of irony and true sentiment. I suppose that by putting on pounds of prosthetics, singing, and having a buddy moment I am doing that.”
We will have a review of the film up this Friday. The film will be touring all over the United States beginning August 26th and tickets are available via the movie website HERE.
