It began with a fascination with a certain kind of movie, like John Carpenter’s “The Thing” or the seminal religious horror “The Exorcist.”
It was molded through varying career paths – journeys that included makeup, stop-motion, puppetry, comic books and network production.
It formed through the coalition of these factors, these four creatives who continued to draw on that childhood gem of weird, grotesque horror that was shaped by handmade practical effects and props.
It is Gorgazma. And it is here to breathe new life into horror, to create a rogue’s gallery of villainous icons for the next generation akin to the Freddy Kruegers or the Pinheads of their own era.
“The beautiful thing is the magic of those ’80s movies where they were able to create such iconic characters and worlds is where this all started,” explains Austin Reading, a co-founder of the Valley-based media company. “That stuff was all formative for us. The spirit of those, there was always a sense of cool and fun in horror in that seven-year window, and just like the music of the time, it got cheesed out.”
Reading and fellow co-founders Heather Mages, Mark Villalobos and Nathan Cabrera aim to continue that spirit and sense with Gorgazma as a brand, a home for the next set of creepy characters to be forever seen on shirts, as tattoos and in our memories.
Two years in, the company has done well to get its name out there. After debuting with their inaugural short film “Pizza Panic Party” at the 2024 Monsterpalooza convention in Pasadena, the quad introduced themselves to the audience of Comic Con. After months of dedicating promotion of “Pizza Panic Party” on the convention circuit, the company landed an associated merchandise deal with Spencer’s.
This year, the team returned to Monsterpalooza, and in collaboration with Burbank animation studio Titmouse, hosted a 90-minute horror short showcase. At present, Gorgazma has several new projects in the pipeline for its ever-growing fanbase to enjoy.
“We were utilizing that for the first year,” Villalobos says of the company’s marketing zeal. “We were like, ‘OK, we’re not going to f—— make any money. Nobody knows who the f— we are. Let’s just promote, promote, promote.’ And so that’s what we did.”
Bringing familiar faces together
None of the founders are blood relatives, but you could say they were relatives in blood.
Villalobos is the mutual link for everyone else. Having started off in special effects makeup, he landed with the Chiodo Brothers known for the campy cult classic “Killer Klowns From Outer Space.” Villalobos’ makeup and stop-motion credits include “Army of Darkness,” the third and fourth “Critters” sequels and “Tales From The Hood.”
Mages also comes from the makeup side of production, having clocked credits in “The Social Network,” “Black Panther” and the 2019 “Hellboy.” She also won a Primetime Emmy for her work on “Mad TV” in 2009, on her sixth nomination for work on the series.
“Mark and I have known each other for a really long time,” Mages recalls. “We worked together on and off throughout that time period.”
Cabrera worked his way up the ladder at Image Comics and made a name for himself as a branding specialist. Outside of media, he was involved in revamps of The Formosa and Tail o’ the Pup in West Hollywood and the Nuart Theatre in Sawtelle. He came to know Villalobos through a variety of graphic design work.
“The joke is I’ve been making shirts for Mark for 20-plus years,” Cabrera quips.
Reading brings in the production and marketing background, having worked on a variety of creative campaigns for musical artists like U2 and Metallica and helped launch the former Fearnet TV network. He came to know Villalobos after hiring his effects company to work on the 2008 Scream Awards.
In coming together, all four knew they wanted to create a space for horror content that was original, iconic and accessible. Generational factors helped to set the stage: most people are accustomed to consuming bite-sized chunks of media on their phones; millennials who grew up in the early days of internet videos and alternative programming blocks like Adult Swim have become dominant in the workforce; and event-driven media releases are quickly becoming the norm.
“Mark and Heather really understand horror. They’ve lived it. It’s their lifestyle,” Reading says. “We’ve grabbed onto the part of horror that’s fun and exciting. There are certain characters that are making money for decades after their inception and we really think we can come up with a character or world that will stand the test of time. It’s our goal to make something that is a legacy.”
Channeling energy and passion
Another mutual appreciation served as an influence on Gorgazma: Fangoria Magazine, the publication that fed the developing fandom for the horror subculture.
“We missed the old days of Fangoria,” Villalobos says. “That was when I was a kid. That was the magazine, if you took it to school, you got it taken away from you.”
In the early discussions, Villalobos says he envisioned Gorgazma as a new magazine – “Fangoria meets The Onion,” he describes. It then occurred to him that social media apps like Instagram were essentially what magazines used to be, with the additions of video.
“We decided we were going to make shorts because, with our special effects background and branding background, we could probably make these things really awesome,” Villalobos adds.
The creatives brainstormed and sketched ideas, from which the debut “Pizza Panic Party” – a 10-minute short about an ‘80s slumber party in which a mysterious pizza turns one of the girls into a brain monster who attacks her friends – emerged.
“We came up with a bunch of horror movie titles and were kind of just doing one-liners on what each film would be about,” Mages says, “and we were like, ‘We should make these.’”
The team built the hype by producing “trading cards” of the short’s monster and leaving them around conventions for fans to discover. Eventually they blind-bagged future cards, with the promise of a perk such as a holographic finish or an autograph.
“People covet trading cards, and if you’re giving them something cool, they’re going to keep it and they’ll show a friend,” Cabrera says. “They’re doing free advertising for us.”
The Spencer’s deal added to the allure – a stack of pizza boxes, which contained as a surprise a themed shirt and other swag. Carefully placed QR codes served as a way for customers to figure out what the boxes were about before they made their purchase.
Ahead of Halloween season, the Gorgazma team has been hosting weekly screenings at the Nuart, combining one or two shorts ahead of a classic like “Child’s Play” complete with appearances by actors, directors and effects artists.
Although formally headquartered in Westlake Village, the Gorgazma operation covers a wide footprint. They utilize a Rosemead studio where they create and assemble all of their practical effects and props. They also use studios in East Los Angeles and Glendale. At the time of this interview, the team was moving into a centralized business office at Titmouse’s headquarters in Burbank.
Titmouse founders Chris Prynoski – who cut his teeth animating MTV’s “Daria” and “Beavis and Butt-Head” – and his wife Shannon are investors in Gorgazma. His relationship with Reading dates back to those MTV days.
“We’ve been having a lot of fun working on shit,” Prynoski says. “Those guys are so willing to get their hands dirty to do everything, which is awesome.”
And “everything” is part of the business plan: horror shorts with collectible merchandise, with goals of developing printed media, games and full-length features. All with the bloody bladed “G” of Gorgazma’s logo – Cabrera’s own design, of course – stamped onto it.
“We want to be a lifestyle brand as much as we want to be a content author. Horror fans will go to everything. It’s like heavy metal bands. These older bands will still pack stadiums,” Reading says. “You won’t get that with comedy or drama. You get that with sports, you get that with rock n roll bands, and you get that with horror. It’s pretty select company. There’s a real commitment to the fandom.”
