Entertainment Earth

12/20/2015

Horror Crush: Charlie Spradling

It's been a while since I did a horror crush, but I recently been revisiting Full Moon's Puppet Master franchise (well the first three, anyways) on blu-ray. And, thus, now feels like the time to show love for the beautiful Charlie Spradling, star of many Full Moon features and their behind the scenes/ merch stuff, as well.

Charlie Spradling, born Charlie Lynn Spradling, is from Fort Worth, Texas. She was born on Sept. 27, 1968. She began her acting career in 1988, with various roles here and there, including a small role as a co-ed in the classic remake The Blob. But, it's her role Twice Dead, which came out the same year, that is her first role we will actually talk a little about. Twice Dead is a pretty entertaining movie, and it's made more fun thanks to the gore and the pretty ladies in it. Aside from having our lovely Ms. Spradling it also featured the gorgeous Jill (Night of the Creeps) Whitlow. Both ladies looked pretty fucking hot here! This movie also marks Spradling's first nude in a horror flick! Yay!
After a couple of TV appearances, Spradling returned to the horror genre with her first of a string of involvements with 90s popular indie horror company, Charles Band's Full Moon. That movie ended up being one of their most successful and popular titles, the erotic horror flick: Meridian. When I first saw it, I loved that movie. But, as you can see from my review, my opinion changed when I was older. However the double combo of nudity from Sherilyn (Twin Peaks) Fenn and Spradling definitely make it worth your time.
Afterwards, SHE appeared in two works from master auteur David Lynch. They were an episode of his classic genre series Twin Peaks and Wild at Heart. I saw the later movie at a young age and really couldn't get into or even finish IT. However, her brief but memorable role had my teen self standing in attention! The image of her in tight pants and Nicholas Cage grabbing her awesome butt became engraved in my brain forever!
 
Her next horror flick, Mirror Mirror, which I never saw. But, apparently she plays some sort of goth chick. Which is just hot as fuck in my book. And, apparently she is also in a shower scene. So, perhaps I need to change this and actually see it. Any of you seen this movie? Any thoughts on it?
For her next flick she returned to Full Moon. It was Puppet Master II, a movie that is arguably her most popular role. It certainly was the one that solidified her involvement with Band's much beloved horror studio. Puppet Master II is flawed, but I think it is better than the first film. Mostly thanks to a pretty good story, excellent FX, and solid acting. Spradling is quite good as one of the researchers investigating the hotel where the Puppet Master himself, Andre Toulon blew his brains out. Spradling also shows her perky boobs, much to delight of every horny and straight male (and undoubtedly some female ones) horror fan.
The VHS of this flick and just about every Full Moon video ever, came with bonus behind the scenes (I should note that the blu-ray release does, too), trailers, merch commercials, etc. It was the precursor to what LD, DVD, and blu-ray would go on to perfect. And, they always had Spradling. Seriously, if you want to sell your horror movie merch, you need to hire someone like her! This was what cemented her as one of my favorite babes in horror. I was pretty much in love!
She did a couple of non-horror movies before returning to appear in yet another Full Moon flick: Bad Channels. I never saw that one, cause despite her being in it, I always thought it looked bad. But, maybe I am wrong? Let me know if you think I should watch that one!

Her final horror movie was another erotic horror flick, To Sleep with a Vampire. Man, I used to love this movie as a kid! I am not sure what I would think about it nowadays. But, whatever the case maybe, it was successful and had a following, back then. In it, she plays a stripper who falls for a vampire. Spradling as a stripper and some vampire? That's pretty much is all you needed to tell teen Master Gio. She got naked, of course, and it might be the definitive movie for fans of her birthday suit. Well, it's either this one or the aforementioned Meridian, but since she has the lead in this one and plays a freaking stripper, I'll go with this one!
 
 
Spradling had a couple of more roles, all in non-horror movies. She eventually left acting in 2002. She would go on to launch Pasadena magazine and be the founder of Innovation Summit Pasadena. But, many horror fans will remember her as their late 80s/ early 90s horror crush. I know she was one of mine!

2 comments:

Patrick said...

Nice tribute article to Charlie. Shame her career never developed better then it did.

Giovanni Deldio said...

Thank you, and I fully agree. I miss seeing her in movie. Wish she had done more.