’Interesting take on vampires’: Pawleys Isle horror icon’s new work is dark, interactive
Bill Oberst Jr. has used all kinds of makeup and props to transform into various characters over the course of more than a quarter century in acting.
That’s what makes it so hard to believe that the Georgetown native’s newest on-stage prop trumps them all.
“You stay masked up until you start action. There’s a point when you roll action that you have to take off your mask. We have to interact and there’s some risk and error that you can’t take away,” said Oberst, a Pawleys Island resident who has been acting for some 25 years, mostly in horror films. “You can mitigate it as much as possible and the crews that I’ve worked with have been really good about that.”
Despite starring in films with zombies, ghouls, goblins and demons, it’s safe to say coronavirus has made for the most bizarre year of his career. Still, Oberst — who also participates in live theater, though COVID-19 has made that all but impossible — has finished up a streaming series, four movies, a new podcast and more in a 2020 that has presented unprecedented challenges.
‘Age of the Living Dead’
Oberst will once again be starring in the series “Age of the Living Dead,” whose second season is slated to begin airing Nov. 15, according to IMDb, an online multimedia database. Oberst said he believes the second season will stream on Amazon Prime like the first one, though distribution plans have not been announced.
In the series, the United States has been quarantined from the rest of the world as it houses vampires on one coast and humans on the other. The sides are enemies but must rely on each other to survive.
That’s where Oberst plays a crucial role as Rafael, a vampire elder and the head of the species’ council who makes major decisions on relations with humans and world leaders.
“The peace is very fragile. Each side of course is wanting to destroy the other,” Oberst said of the vampire-human dilemma.
Oberst compares the relationship between the vampires and humans as a cold war-like scenario. The sides meet in no-man’s land, the real estate between both coasts, to attempt to coexist despite the turmoil.
Oberst said his character plays a bigger role in Season 2 of a series he says portrays vampires in a different manner than most films and programs.
“There were two things I really liked. It was a very high-quality, high-production series,” Oberst said. “The second thing I like about it is it’s an interesting take on vampires. They’re very skilled. They speak confidently, but slowly. When they move, they move quickly. But they don’t always move, so they’re very different than humans and I think that makes them scarier and creepier.”
Overall, Oberst believes the season ups the ante and notes that it includes a climatic ending.
“It’s a good season. It ups the stakes for both the vampires and the human side,” Oberst said. “I was delighted. It was great. There were some great scenes. The Season 2 ender is especially nice.”
‘Gothic Goodnight’
Oberst generally isn’t a fan of podcasts.
“I have resisted doing a podcast because I hate hearing people just talk and talk and talk,” he said.
However, the actor has found a way to do one that isn’t exactly traditional. It’s called “Gothic Goodnight” and its creation largely is thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.
“The original idea was that everybody was so stressed when the world shut down that I wanted people to have a place in their mind where they could go to relax,” Oberst said.
In the podcast, Oberst, the orator, plays the bookkeeper of an ancient Gothic library that’s been around for “who knows how long,” as he describes it. Oberst said idea of the podcast is to reach folks who are lying in bed attempting to sleep while giving them some vivid pictures to calm their thoughts.
“Each week we describe a different part of the library so you can lie there hopefully in the dark and actually see the big east window and the moon rising and the gargoyles and the stone floor and the dusty books — the smell of them,” he said.
Oberst said the podcast is available on all platforms that carry such media. He invites those who listen to leave feedback in order to preserve the historic and challenging times the pandemic has brought upon all.
“I’m asking people to leave messages to the future to compile that episode because I want it to be kind of a time capsule of what we’ve been through,” Oberst said.
Oberst has also started an Amazon store that has apparel and other horror collectibles for sale.
Filming firsts
With a packed resume, Oberst doesn’t often come upon roles that are completely unlike ones he’s played before.
However, the past year has provided him some new opportunities.
For one, Oberst got the chance to work with singer and horror film-making icon Rob Zombie. Though a small role, Oberst appeared in Zombie’s “3 From Hell,” a 2019 sequel to cult favorites “House of 1,000 Corpses” and “The Devil’s Rejects.” Playing Tony Commando, Oberst is murdered by the villains early on in the movie along with Nebraskas, played by actress Lucinda Jenney.
“I joked with her that I was happy that it was her that had the bloodier death,” Oberst said of Jenney, the real-life wife of Bill Moseley, who has starred as Otis Driftwood, one of the main characters in the film series. “The blood cannon that they use for those things can shoot you right in your face and it can get in your eyes. It’s really irritating. So I’m always happy when I don’t have to be shot in the face.
“I’m delighted,” he quipped. “I’ll take shots to the body, I’ll do falls, I’ll let Bigfoot rip off my arm — anything but having blood in your face.”
Oberst has another filming first that is completed — but has no release date yet — called “Parish,” an exorcism movie.
“It’s a straight exorcism movie, not a gory horror,” said Oberst, who also has a long resume in theater, such as touring as Ray Bradbury in recent years. “It’s well done.”
Also coming are “Painkiller,” essentially a sequel to “Stressed to Kill” that he says is similar to a “Charles Bronson revenge picture” that focuses on an overdose death that no one wants to confront, including the government, “Butcher’s Bluff,” a horror film that features kids winding up in dangerous woods, and “Bits,” in which a haunted video game comes to life when someone finds the rare item in an old video store.
Oberst, who has an Emmy to his credit for interactive short film “Take This Lollipop,” which won in the category of “New Approaches - Daytime Entertainment” in 2012,” admits most of his films aren’t award-winning pieces. Nonetheless, he loves the purpose they serve.
“The movies that I do, you’re not going to win an Academy Award. You’re not going to be playing at prestigious theaters where people will come to see you in tuxedos,” said Oberst, who also has appearance on TV shows “Criminal Minds” and “Scream Queens” to his credit. “The people who watch these movies are very, very loyal.”
He also acknowledges that some know his face but not much else about his long career in films and theater. But, he says, the ones who do are some of the most enthusiastic fans around.
“I went to a horror convention in Texas just before COVID came called ‘Cult Classic’ and oh, man, these people come up and they know your character and they know the lines and they just want to hug you and the movies mean so much to them because it’s an escape from daily life,” Oberst said. “It’s really fun to produce entertainment that’s for normal people, people who work hard and just want a little break from life.”
IMDb, owned by Amazon, recently put out a list of “Iconic Horror Movie Actors” and Oberst made the 25-actor cut, putting him alongside many of the most popular gor people in history.
“Happy to be there,” Oberst said, humbly noting that it’s just one of many lists out there. “I’m on the other side of Lon Chaney (original ‘The Phantom of the Opera’). He’s No. 1 and I’m No. 25 so we bookend it. Anytime I can be bunched in with Lon Chaney it’s a good day.”
